Amazon's new Kindle Colorsoft e-reader slammed over screen discoloration issues

Unsightly yellow bar results in a 2.6-star rating on Amazon

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Facepalm: Amazon's first-ever color e-reader, the $280 Kindle Colorsoft recently went on sale, and a lot of people aren't happy with it. Many users are reporting a discolored, yellow strip appearing at the bottom of the device, prompting a wave of negative reviews.

Amazon introduced the Kindle Colorsoft last month. Featuring a 7-inch display (300 PPI black and white, 150 PPI color), Amazon said the device features an oxide backplane with custom waveforms to boost performance and contrast, while nitride LEDs and custom algorithms help enhance color and improve brightness without washing out fine details.

A less welcome element in the Kindle Colorsoft that's being discovered by several buyers is the weird yellow tinge that appears at the bottom of the screen. There are also reports of discoloration along the vertical edge.

As highlighted by The Verge, one Redditor said it's easy to notice the yellow hue when the page is supposed to be evenly lit and colored like a piece of paper. Another said they only noticed it when using the Colorsoft's edge lighting.

Colorsoft has yellow tinge to bottom of display
byu/TheVloginator inkindle

There are numerous 1-star reviews of the Kindle Colorsoft on its Amazon page, almost all of which mention the yellow banding. There are also complaints about dead pixels and the general blurriness of some text. Of the 447 global reviews, the majority, 32%, have given a single star, with the next most-common rating being 2 stars. It means the e-reader currently has a customer rating of just 2.6 out of 5.

A lot of angry buyers are exchanging their Kindle Colorsoft units or just returning them for a refund. While we still don't know if this is a software or hardware problem, a screenshot on Reddit shows an Amazon customer service agent confirming that the company is aware of the issue and is working on a fix. Interestingly, several users in another thread reported that the problem did not appear until after an initial software update.

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Amazon spokesperson Jill Tornifoglio told The Verge that customers who notice the yellow banding on their device can reach out to Amazon's customer service team.

It's unclear how widespread the issue is, but it's certainly affecting more than a handful of Colorsoft units. Some say that the yellow tinge is very difficult to spot – The Verge said the discoloration is more obvious in pictures than in real life – but it's not something you'd expect to find in a new device, especially one that costs $280.