You might not think the best Amazon Kindles have any flaws whatsoever, and admittedly they're fantastic devices for reading on the go, but some of the best ereaders have something Kindles don't: color screens.
That's right, color screens are in vogue in ereaders right now, and it's something we've seen on lots of Kindle wishlists before – but could the feature be coming to Amazon's devices? Some people think so, thanks to a new color ereader panel that's been announced.
E Ink, the company which makes screens for many ereaders, has announced a new type of E Ink panel (via Business Wire) which has both black-and-white and color modes. The latter uses cyan, magenta, yellow and white ink, which is similar to the CMYK color model used in lots of publishing except with white instead of black.
This isn't E Ink's first color screen, but it's apparently much more responsive to touch than the previous versions, offers a higher resolution, and updates much quicker too. It also supports pen input, which will be useful for ereaders that come with styli for sketching.
So why are we tying this new E Ink screen to Amazon's Kindles? Well, Kindles do use displays from E Ink, so the collaboration wouldn't be out of the question – but there are some reasons that readers might get really excited for a new color Kindle.
Analysis: why some might love a color Kindle
Despite Kindles' popularity as ereaders, they have plenty more functions than just for enjoying novels. They're great for reading business documents, and also support audiobooks, magazines and comic books.
Those three forms of media are all supported by services Amazon itself offers: Audible, Kindle Unlimited and Comixology respectively, and people who are strongly into the Amazon ecosystem (or like those forms of media) likely already have subscriptions to those services.
However, when you read a magazine or comic book on a Kindle, you've got an obvious issue: they're in black-and-white, and this can be a big problem. You'll often miss out on an artist's work or the nuanced layout and color planning of a magazine page, and sometimes it's just impossible to work out what's going on, especially in graphic novels.
So while Kindles support these publications, they're not the best device for enjoying them, and you'd be better placed buying a color ereader or simply a tablet for your consumption.
But if Amazon launched a color Kindle – like many people are asking for – the device would be the ultimate all-in-one reading device, so you could easily switch between books, the latest column or a particular comic book, and get the optimal experience for each.
Given that Amazon's ereader rivals have slowly started using color E Ink panels, it seems likely that the company will follow suit at some point too – let's just hope it comes in at a reasonable price tag.
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