Amazon upgrades Kindle Colorsoft already – new model addresses customer complaints

Amazon's full-colour e-reader fixes a problem that was plaguing its display

Kindle Colorsoft review
(Image credit: Future)
Quick Summary

It's reported that Amazon has fixed the yellow colour banding on the Kindle Colorsoft.

The yellow banding on the bottom of the screen was reported by some users of the device soon after launch.

If you’re keeping track of your Kindle news, you’ll know that the launch of the new Colorsoft wasn’t as smooth as Amazon might have wanted. Soon after the brand's first full-colour e-reader was released, reports of yellow banding on the screen started to surface online. Thankfully, that problem has been fixed.

The yellow banding towards the bottom of the screen was reported by users of the new device and even elicited a response from Amazon, with a notification on Amazon.com that mentions this phenomenon.

It’s now reported by goodereader.com that the problem has been fixed and that the new batch of Kindle Colorsoft devices don’t show this problem any more. That’s going to apply if you buy your device from Amazon itself, but stock from other retailers might still exhibit the issue.

It’s worth considering however, that not all Colorsoft devices have the yellow banding. The Colorsoft devices that I’ve seen have had a clear display, and in our review we didn’t find discolouration to be a problem, so it might be that the model you’ve bought is absolutely fine.

Where next for Amazon Kindle?

Late in 2024, Amazon refreshed all of its Kindle models, releasing the fantastic new Paperwhite, while also stepping into new territory with the Colorsoft, its first colour e-reader.

The Paperwhite is Amazon’s biggest seller and most popular Kindle, now with faster page turns and a larger display, making it a great device for reading. The Colorsoft is much the same, but that colour display opens up a range of new opportunities for Kindle as a platform.

However, Amazon didn’t change the store, or the user interface, with the launch of the new devices, saying that it didn’t want to alter too much and upset the many fans of its devices. And in our opinion, the weakest part of the Kindle ecosystem is the user interface and the Kindle Store experience.

I’m sure that there will be more changes to Colorsoft to speed up its use, but I suspect that the big breakthrough in colour will come with a colour Scribe. The larger format device lends itself to colour – especially for comics and graphic novels – in a way that the smaller devices don’t.

What I personally want to see, as a Kindle user, is a return of the Kindle Oasis, principally for its page turn buttons. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be something that’s going to happen.

Chris Hall

Chris has been writing about consumer tech for over 15 years. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket-lint, he's covered just about every product launched, witnessed the birth of Android, the evolution of 5G, and the drive towards electric cars. You name it and Chris has written about it, driven it or reviewed it. Now working as a freelance technology expert, Chris' experience sees him covering all aspects of smartphones, smart homes and anything else connected. Chris has been published in titles as diverse as Computer Active and Autocar, and regularly appears on BBC News, BBC Radio, Sky, Monocle and Times Radio. He was once even on The Apprentice... but we don't talk about that.