Why settle? The Kindle Colorsoft is so cheap for Prime Day that it no longer makes sense to choose the Kindle Paperwhite

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft with Prime Day Logo
(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

I've covered the ereader space for decades and watched as the industry struggled to make usable color E Ink displays. The early displays were slow, with low contrast and faded colors, and were roundly rejected by those who happily scooped up and held onto monochrome ereaders like the iconic Kindle Paperwhite.

One ereader changed all that, and now the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft, which we called "the fastest, smoothest e-reader we've ever used," is on sale for Prime Day for $159 in the US and £154.99 in the UK for the 16GB model.

Browse all early Prime Day deals at Amazon

Here's what makes these Prime Day prices more remarkable: the Colorsoft is, in the US, just $35 more than the Kindle Paperwhite, and about £20 more than it is in the UK. So basically, the cost of two or three Matchas to switch up from black and white to thousands of colors? Feels like a no-brainer.

Today's best Kindle Colorsoft deals

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft: was $249.99 now $159.99 at Amazon

The Kindle Colorsoft is down to its lowest price as part of Amazon Prime Day. As Amazon's first and only colored Kindle, it's a must-have for people who love reading travel guides, graphic novels, and other genres with a lot of images and photographs. It's USB-C and wireless charging compatible, lasting up to 8 weeks on a full battery.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft: was £239.99 now £154.99 at Amazon

The Kindle Colorsoft just fell to its lowest-ever price as part of this year's Amazon Prime Day sale. As Amazon's first colored Kindle, it's a must-have if you love reading travel guides, graphic novels, and other genres with a lot of images and photographs — or just want to view your entire ebook library in its full colour glory. The ereader is also USB-C and wireless charging compatible, lasts up to eight weeks on a full battery, and has enough storage for thousands of books.

What's exciting about the Colorsoft is not just that it finally brings color to a reflective screen, but that it does it so well. I remember seeing the 7-inch, waterproof ereader for the first time in 2025. Initially, it looked and felt much like the Kindle Paperwhite I was familiar with, but the new color screen was a revelation. It's sharp, bright, crisp, and the colors pop across a range of content styles. Graphic novels are especially well-suited to the screen technology. You can tap or swipe through various full-screen panels, or view the full page of panels as you might on a physical graphic novel.

Books and, especially, magazines like National Geographic look good, too.

Best of all, there are no real trade-offs here. You get 16GB, which is more than enough space for thousands of tomes. As a reflective display, battery life is still strong, at 28 hours (according to our tests), which means multiple days or even weeks of multi-hour reading sessions. And like the monochrome Kindles, it has side illuminators that bathe the screen in light.

Plus, it's just as durable and waterproof as monocrhome Kindles.

Of course, even though it's color, you can still read your black and white text book and novels on the device. I suggest you get the latter from your local library by using an app like Libby.

My point is that there's very little reason to just buy a Paperwhite when, for just a little more money, you can have the best of both worlds: all the features of a Paperwhite and that really cool full-color reading experience. If you're a fan of graphic novels, there's no way you can pass this Prime Day deal by.

More early Prime Day deals in the US

More early Prime Day deals in the UK

Lance Ulanoff
Editor At Large

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.


Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC. 

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.