Amazon's new color Kindle has a problem: too much color

Low-power electronic paper displays offer a fantastic way to consume all kinds of written and printed media, and the tech just keeps getting better. While Amazon’s one the highest profile players in the space thanks to its long-running Kindle series of e-readers, the company has been a little on the slow side to embrace some of those advancements — and maybe most noticeably, the availability of color screens. That finally changed just a few weeks back with the launch of the first color Kindle, the Kindle Colorsoft. But now we’re already hearing about problems with this new hardware, as owners find color popping up where it’s not expected.

Adding a color-screen Kindle to the existing lineup sure sounded like a slam-dunk for Amazon: The purists can keep on using the monochrome tablets they’ve enjoyed all along, and this new color option should help the company avoid losing more users to competitors who have been doing color for years. At least, the idea may have been fine, but Amazon’s execution is increasingly looking like a comedy of errors.

The primary problem we’re hearing about is the sort of issue user TheVloginator posted about on Reddit, where the Kindle Colorsoft appears to have a bit of a yellowish tint across the bottom portion of the tablet’s screen (via Digital Trends). While a color panel is understandably going to appear a bit different from a monochrome panel (the user also mentions a visible “crosshatching” effect), we’d still expect colors to only be appearing where intended.

Screen problems of this type have a bad habit of being hardware-related, but in this case, anyway, Amazon appears to think that software might be to blame. At least, the company’s talking about a software update designed to address the appearance of that yellowing. Ahead of its arrival, though, Good e-Reader reports that Amazon’s delaying deliveries, pushing back Colorsoft shipments in an effort that’s presumably intended to coordinate with availability of that update.

None of this is great — especially the apparent lack of clear communication to shoppers — but if a fix is really coming, it should be hopefully be here soon. TechCrunch shares a statement from Amazon:

We’re aware of a small number of reports from customers who see a yellow band along the bottom of the display. We take the quality of our products seriously and are looking into it. If customers notice this on their device, they can reach out to our customer service team.

As if all of this weren’t an ignoble enough debut for Amazon’s first color Kindle, Digital Trends also points out that the Colorsoft has whiffed it when it comes to a pretty much bog-standard on any device these days: dark mode. The company has even gone so far as to put up a disclaimer on the product page, offering some tips on a work-around.

Are you still interested in a Kindle Colorsoft after all this? Will you be sticking with B&W, or try out a color e-reader that doesn’t come from Amazon? Let us know in the comments.