Color Me Surprised

What's cool about the Kindle Colorsoft

Kindle Colorsoft, left, and Kindle Paperwhite 12

To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:

Update on New Kindles

My Kindle Colorsoft was waiting for me here in Sanibel when we arrived three days ago. During the trip I enjoyed reading on a new Kindle Paperwhite 12. Both were announced at an Amazon media briefing a month ago today in New York City.

To be honest, I was underwhelmed by the Colorsoft at the briefing. The color seemed vague to me, even though I was impressed at the engineering and design work that went into creating a color Kindle after all these years.

I didn’t have time to curl up and read with a Colorsoft until this week.

And guess what? I really like it!

Compared with the Paperwhite, the Colorsoft seems more alive. It doesn’t take much color to create that effect, in my experience.

I enjoy seeing the covers of the Kindle books in my library in color on the home screen. When color shows up elsewhere, as it does in chapter numbers of the excellent new novel I’m reading by Sally Rooney, it’s a nice surprise. Like a subtle spice taste in a casserole.

What’s even more satisfying is the ability to create highlights in color.

I constantly highlight passages in books I read on my Kindles. In the old days, a highlight appeared as a gray background to the highlighted text.

Now, after dragging my stylus across text, I can choose among four colors—blue, pink, yellow, and orange. Those colors, especially the blue and the pink, really pop when the highlight appears on the page.

They also make possible a category system for highlights. The one I’m trying at the moment is as follows:

• Blue—great writing

• Pink—an insight worth remembering about life

• Yellow—information about a character

• Orange—example of the book’s theme

Once I’ve highlighted an entire book, I will be able to search by color to see just the information I’m looking for. Cool!

A surprising disappointment is how poor a job Colorsoft does on a graphic novel. To test this, I bought Here by Richard McGuire, which has been made into an intriguing new movie starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.

The color did not pop off the Kindle screen, and the dialog balloons were too small to read. When I opened the book on my iPad, it was perfect.

I don’t read that many graphic novels, so this isn’t a big disappointment.

Whether the Colorsoft is worth $120 more than the new Paperwhite 12 is, of course, a subjective matter. Since I am a voracious Kindle reader and have a podcast all about the Kindle, it’s an easy decision for me.

Your results may vary.