Clarity To Kindle Lineup

Right after taking a wait-and-see approach to the Kindle Colorosoft – colorful yet discolored – Jason Snell at Six Colors published his review of Amazon’s new eBook devices. It’s timely, confirming, and helpful. Now I’m leaning away from waiting for the Colorsoft issues to be fixed and towards preferring the cheaper and crisper Paperwhite Signature Edition. That said, it sure is hard to say no to a color Kindle. But I have an idea that helps.

Snell’s opinion on eReaders is very valuable to me because:

1. He’s an avid, if not voracious, reader

2. He has much experience with several eReaders from various companies

3. He has been an Apple user for decades yet prefers eReaders over tablets (iPad)

He plainly states practical reasons both for and against the benefits of color in any eReader. His view helps me back away from emotionally lunging for the colorful book covers on the Kindle Colorsoft. Instead, Snell’s review helps me more rationally embrace the high-standard of crystal clear text.

Note, text comes in only two colors on the Kindle: black and white (dark mode). I’d say 95% of the eReading experience is with the text on the page. The other 5% is the home screen and store.

But those colors! I mean the Kindle Colorsoft’s rainbow of color across book covers on the home screen and store, not to mention categorizing highlights by color and possibly getting into manga on an eReader.

Maybe someday a future generation of Amazon’s Kindle will avoid the trade-offs Snell talks about. Meanwhile, my idea to help me say no to the Colorsoft’s kaleidoscope and yes to the Paperwhite’s monochrome is simply this: browse the Kindle store on my phone.

On the phone, I get exceedingly more vibrant colored book covers than on the Colorsoft thanks to OLED technology. Talk about color! And there’s a new advantage to Kindle on my new Moto Razr phone. Now that I’m using an Android smartphone once again, I can finally see the prices of Kindle books in the Kindle app on the Kindle store (and in the Amazon app) and buy them directly! This was always blocked/omitted on the iPhone and was always a thorn in the side. But no more!

The one big thing Snell doesn’t talk about is the speed boost on the new Kindles compared to the last-gen ones. I’ve seen elsewhere that’s a big, almost game-changing, upgrade. He only mentions it’s always faster to swipe and refresh comics on a tablet versus any eReader. 

Nevertheless, thank you, Jason Snell, for your review. It clarified to me the most important point of reading on an eReader: the clarity of chroma-less, crisp, crystal-clear text. Bonus: saving money on the eReader itself leaves cash for the eReader accessories (cover, charging stand).

Paperwhite means Textblack. It reads best.