Amazon Announces Kindle Colorsoft

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by Guido

Has anyone been able to find any info on the RAM, CPU, or actual battery capacity of the new devices? I'm trying to add all of that info to this Kindle comparison table but it looks like Amazon isn't disclosing any of that info themselves this time around. They're not even mentioning the E Ink display types either.

My guess is that they didn't do major changes to the electronic guts on the basic and Scribe, based on that only two FCC filings were made.The Paperwhite changed a lot due to the screen size change, which means the two FCC filings PW6 + PW6SE, and the Colorsoft is just a swap of the eink panel so it doesn't need a separate filing. My thought is that the change to the new screen panels on everything (Carta 1300? + Amazon layer tweaks + custom LEDs) didn't change enough or didn't change specific components (radios + charging) that would need all new filings.

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

It sounds like Sirtel won't be getting any more Kindles:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/...ysical-buttons



Can't say I'm surprised, although I would still really love a Voyage 2 with the squeeze type page turn buttons.

This is bad news indeed!

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It turns out that Amazon will also use the Kaleido 3 overlay for color. So it's just as bad.

I saw that. They imply a lot of technical wizardry in the device. It will be interesting to see a side by side comparison with the Kobo (as you posted earlier).

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

There are always a few companies that will cater to a niche market, but Amazon sure isn't going to be one of them.

As much as I'd like to try a Kobo reader, I simply don't have the patience right now to strip the DRM off all my unread Kindle eBooks, convert them to epub, and then copy them to said Kobo reader. Maybe, if I end up hating the Colorsoft, I'll do that next time around.

If you buy one of the Onyx Boox readers. you can install the Kindle app on them and read your books that way. All the Onyx devices run Android 12 with full Google Play support.

So, if you want to move from Kindle to something else to get page turn buttons, I think the Go Color 7 is your path of least resistance.

[apastuszak]

I wish the Scribe was all white. Just having the bezel white feels off to me.

The metallic jade with the white bezels looks kind of nice. But I think a jade bezel would have looked nicer.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Might want to start now anyway. Amazon only continues to make removing DRM more and more difficult.

+1.

Kindle Classic is no longer supported on Mac (just in last few weeks), and the Kindle for PC app hangs by a thread, as the latest update is hardened. That usually leaves AZW3 download for USB transfer or transfer directly from a Kindle as the only option, and too bad if you want a backup for a print replica title.

Perhaps the Colorsoft opens a new path to getting KFX with color images (I prefer it to AZW3 for comics because KFX Output can generate fixed layout ePub, PDF and CBZ directly from it). (I will check when I get mine.)

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by JoeC

I saw that. They imply a lot of technical wizardry in the device. It will be interesting to see a side by side comparison with the Kobo (as you posted earlier).

Yes, I certainly hope that the wizardry amounts to something, given the price markup for color vs Kobo. I do think it's possible to improve the appearance algorithmically and they've certainly had time to experiment and do comparisons, given their late entry.

I will be able to compare with Clara Colour and InkPad Color 3. The PocketBook has Saturation and Gamma adjustments for images (in addition to brightness, contrast) so comparison may be complicated (but will just start with default). Kobo only has something called Reduce rainbow effect, no idea what that is supposed to do (might well be something else in Developer settings but I have not enabled that).

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

I wish the Scribe was all white. Just having the bezel white feels off to me.

The metallic jade with the white bezels looks kind of nice. But I think a jade bezel would have looked nicer.

Personally from the posted images and videos, I would have preferred a slightly grey bezel to match the screen background. The white bezel makes it very noticeable that the white on the screen isn't.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Guido

You're right, the 2022 Scribe didn't actually have a generation number either, going by this list:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...nt-only&nodl=0

Ugh.

It is and remains Kindle Scribe (1st generation) (you can check updates page and it has always been called that there) The only change is the bezel, and possibly switching to less costly internal components with the same specs (it has been 2 years). They are not claiming any performance improvements, better contrast, etc.

I assume the mysterious bezel 'gap' has been eliminated (a no brainer) but have not seen any confirmation of that.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JoeC

I saw that. They imply a lot of technical wizardry in the device. It will be interesting to see a side by side comparison with the Kobo (as you posted earlier).

I'm not sure about that "technical wizardry". I mean gallium nitride LEDs have been around since the early 90s when they were the basis for the first usable blue LEDs. Currently most of your blue and green LEDs are indium or aluminun gallium nitride based while phosphide based LEDs are still the majority of red and infra-red LEDs though gallium nitride based LEDs are making inroad in that area. Perhaps Amazon is using europium:gallium nitride LEDs or a similar technology which allow for color tuning though the best colour tuning still involves 4 LEDs in the same package (white, blue, green & red).

Not to mention some of the phrasing still struck me as being very iffy. "Nitride LEDs to assign pixel level colors"? "we use these coatings to focus the light through individual pixels instead of mixing colors together" and "it's focusing the light through individual pixels of color instead of just a spray that mixes color together".

There was part of the specifications I found on multiple sites that stated the front light used 12 white LEDs, 13 amber LEDs which is more than the Paperwhite (9 white, 10 amber LEDs) and a custom designed lightguide.

Yes, in theory you could use a microLED array to have the LED colour matched for every pixel on the display. The 84.6 µm pixels are well within the sizing of a microLED which can go as low as 7 µm but you would run into the issue that you would have to align that display over each pixel and those microLEDs are opaque so no light would be coming back through the LED itself. This would seem to lead to the need for 2 LEDs per pixel (1 red, green or blue and 1 white) with the color LEDs matching the color of the CFA below it and the white LEDS blasting through the gaps in the CFA. Please note that this array would consume quite a bit more power than a simple light guide with LEDs on the edge(s).

MicroLED technology has been used for flexible & transparent displays but since we are looking at the back of the MicroLED array if Amazon used it, the 45-60% transmission of light would greatly reduce the brightness of the display.

If you look at the Samsung TV in this video, it's easy to see how much light is absorbed by the transparent display.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Kobo only has something called Reduce rainbow effect, no idea what that is supposed to do.

I believe somebody said that it essentially reduces BW content to 150 PPI, which makes the screen-door effect of the Kaleido filter less obvious, at the expense of... reading BW content at 150 PPI. I have no confirmation of this, however.

[easterncoyote]

The Amazon Canada site isn’t showing the colour kindle among the new offerings. I wonder if it won’t be available in Canada?

[Frogm4n]

That's an interesting find. It's not just a product page, but it's not even in the Kindle line up marketing photos, etc. It's not an international thing, as I see it on Amazon UK. I wonder if there're licensing or exclusivity issues in CA for their tweaks to the display, or maybe patents.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I believe somebody said that it essentially reduces BW content to 150 PPI, which makes the screen-door effect of the Kaleido filter less obvious, at the expense of... reading BW content at 150 PPI. I have no confirmation of this, however.

As near as I can tell, it does not reduce the B&W content to 150 PPI. What is does seem to do is to soften lines in images. So a text line would see little effect while a graphic with multiple thin lines close to each would be softened. And as far as I tell when I was testing this, it only applies to kepub files with epub files not showing any effect from this setting. The first two images are from an epub file, the next two are from a kepub. I selected that test image since it was about the worst (a 692 x1000 original image with an svg wrapper to take it to close to full screen) case I found in all the images I played with.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

That's an interesting find. It's not just a product page, but it's not even in the Kindle line up marketing photos, etc. It's not an international thing, as I see it on Amazon UK. I wonder if there're licensing or exclusivity issues in CA for their tweaks to the display, or maybe patents.

I tend more to the belief that Amazon Canada's staff are still suffering from Thanksgiving (Monday, Oct. 14, 2024) so will give them a couple of days to catch up with the rest of the world.