Amazon's New Kindle Colorsoft Starts at $290 — Color Reading Comes at a Premium

Amazon's color e-reader is back, thinner and lighter than before — and more expensive than ever. The refreshed Kindle Colorsoft, part of the Kindle lineup Amazon announced on October 1, 2026, starts at $289.99, with the Signature Edition at $319.99. After spending weeks testing the Signature Edition, TechCrunch reviewer Aisha Malik's verdict is measured: it is a genuinely good color e-reader, but the price is the biggest thing standing in its way.

The new Colorsoft went on sale on October 28, 2026, alongside a redesigned basic Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite. It is only the second color Kindle Amazon has made — the first arrived in 2024 — and the 2026 model is best understood as a refinement rather than a reinvention.

What you get for $290

Both Colorsoft models share a 7-inch color E Ink display that renders black-and-white text at 300 pixels per inch and color content at 150 ppi. The standard model comes with 16GB of storage, while the Signature Edition doubles that to 32GB and adds an aluminum back, an auto-adjusting front light, and a choice of graphite or a maroon-like Fig finish.

Compared with the 2024 original, the new Colorsoft is lighter and thinner, with an edge-to-edge display. The core reading experience, though, is largely unchanged — something the review is blunt about. If you already own the first-generation Colorsoft, there is little reason to upgrade.

Amazon rates battery life at up to eight weeks on a single charge, against up to 12 weeks for the Paperwhite. The device is waterproof, and the screen's color temperature can be adjusted toward a warmer, more yellow tone for night reading.

Small changes that matter

One of the most welcome tweaks is also one of the smallest: Amazon moved the power button. On the previous generation it sat on the bottom of the device, next to the charging port, where it was easy to press by accident. On the new model it is on the top-right edge, where it is far less likely to get in the way.

The review also notes two things that long-time e-reader users will appreciate. The screen needs to refresh less often than the larger Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, and there was no noticeable ghosting — the faint trace of a previous page lingering on the screen that is common on some e-readers. The aluminum back of the Signature Edition, meanwhile, gives the device a premium feel that held up well in testing, even without a case.

The Signature Edition also supports a magnetic cover with built-in page-turn buttons that connects through pogo pins on the back of the device. The Page-Turn Cover costs $79.99, which would bring a fully kitted-out Signature Edition to just under $400 before tax.

Who should buy it — and who should not

Color is the whole point of this device, and it changes what the Kindle is good for. Comics, graphic novels and cookbooks look far better in color, and readers who like highlighting passages in different colors will get real use out of it. The colors themselves are still relatively muted — nothing like the saturated display on an iPad — but they add a welcome splash that black-and-white Kindles simply cannot offer.

The price, however, is hard to ignore. At $289.99, the Colorsoft costs nearly as much as a budget tablet, and the Signature Edition at $319.99 sits close to iPad mini territory without approaching its capabilities. For most readers, the review concludes, the basic Kindle — from $149.99 with lock-screen ads — or the Paperwhite, from $199.99, remain the smarter buy.

The Colorsoft makes sense for one group: readers who know they want color and are willing to pay for it. For everyone else, it is a nice upgrade that is far from a must-have.

Sources

TechCrunch — "Amazon's new Kindle Colorsoft is a premium e-reader with a premium price" (November 13, 2026)
TechRepublic — "Amazon's New Kindle Lineup Compared: Kindle vs Paperwhite vs Colorsoft"
Amazon — 2026 Kindle lineup announcement (October 1, 2026)