For many years, I have been a big fan of Amazon Kindle e-readers. I’ve had every version of the Paperwhite and a few even older ones, and I’ve never been disappointed.
The advantage of these e-readers is that they allow you to read almost anything you want in excellent conditions, even at night thanks to the backlighting and above all, you have access to almost everything. from the Amazon book catalog, including in the form of a subscription which allows you to download quite a few books unlimitedly.
And a few weeks ago, Amazon announced various new versions of its e-readers, including the Kindle Colorsoft Edition Signature.
This is the first Kindle in color and I thought it would be cool to try. As I just received it, I was able to do my first tests (and even shot a video for them). Patreons which arrives very quickly).
First of all in terms of specifications, it is a version with 32 GB of memory, and a 7″ screen with a resolution of 300 ppi in black and white and 150 ppi in color (which is sufficient in my opinion) with of course integrated lighting and IPX8 waterproofing which allows it to last for 60 minutes at a depth of up to 2 meters Practical for reading in the bath, in the swimming pool or in the shower (which reads under the shower). shower ???).
In terms of the battery, I don’t yet have enough experience to give you my feelings but we are looking at an autonomy of 8 weeks. This Kindle comes with a USB-C cable for charging but can also be charged wirelessly if you purchase the special charger sold separately.
I’m not going to give you a very long test because there isn’t really any incredible revolution with this Kindle. Roughly speaking, it’s the same as the previous one, for almost the same weight. It’s just a few millimeters wider, which will allow Amazon to sell new cases. In terms of screen quality, it’s a bit brighter if you push it all the way up, but the difference is minimal.
Then there is the speed of scrolling the pages, scrolling in the pages of the store or zooming on the images… It is a little faster for everything that involves image enlargement / display of images and scrolling in lists but when it comes to page scrolling, the difference here is also minimal.
However, I still appreciate this speed gain. Now let’s talk about color. We’re not going to lie, it’s obviously for comics that it can be cool, more than for highlighting and taking notes.
So the colors are not dull as I have seen on other competitive e-readers, but they are still quite pastel. We are not looking for bright colors like what we can have on a smartphone or tablet. But that’s normal, it’s electronic paper, and it must consume as little as possible. Respect for the colors of the works still remains objectively very good.
Now is color useful?
So if you only read novels, it’s useless, because apart from the cover, the rest of the pages will be in black and white. If you read comics / manga / illustrated books on the other hand, it gets interesting. But not in all cases. Let me explain.
Illustrated books, OK, the diagrams are in color, it’s cool, we’re happy.
Most mangas are still in black and white so I think you were already reading them before color. But sometimes there are some in color and that’s really nice. For manga, always, the speed of image display and the fluidity of the zoom also make the experience pleasant.
Now for the classic Franco-Belgian comics we will say (Tintin, Spirou, Asterix…), I am mixed. The color is OK but we are not in a pocket format like with a manga.
So the texts are unreadable unless you zoom in. And frankly, as much on a tablet, we tap twice on the box that interests us, and it puts it large and well centered, as on the Kindle, there is none of that. So you’ll have to play with the zoom to read big comics, which can quickly be a headache.
Amazon has not yet developed a tool capable of breaking down our good old comics into boxes capable of being properly rearranged “responsively” on their e-readers. Maybe it will come one day.
That’s it for my hot feedback. It’s a really cool e-reader, I really like its new responsiveness, its loading speed, but the color for the moment, even if it’s very nice, doesn’t add much unless you’re reading comics at pocket format (like mangas or comics with few boxes per page like Léopold).
So, it’s up to you to see if for 300 euros, it corresponds to your uses.
All the specs of this color Kindle e-reader are here.
