In mid-October, Amazon introduced four new Kindles, including the company's first-ever e-reader with a color display on Colorsoft. As we go into November, devices are supposed to be getting into people's hands, but suddenly, they are encountering problems.
Earlier today, it was reported that new Colorsoft owners are reporting a strange yellow strip on the display. An Amazon spokesperson told The Verge that it was aware of the yellow issue and is looking into it.
The folks over at Good e-Reader are reporting that Amazon is "canceling" shipments of the Colorsoft, at least until after November 26. According to their report, the delay could be through November 18 in the United States and November 26 in the UK.
Supposedly, Amazon is holding any pre-ordered Kindle Colorsoft e-readers in warehouses due to the yellow stripe on the display. Purportedly, Amazon is working on a software update, or that is, Good e-Reader is claiming Amazon has told customers.
We are taking this report with a grain of salt, as they did not provide any sources or quotes from anyone who has dealt with Amazon reaching out to them about their orders or the display issues. It's unclear where the information is coming from.
Tom's Guide has contacted Amazon to confirm that shipments are being paused and to comment on the yellow stripe claims. We will update this story if Amazon responds.
Here is what we do know regarding the Colorsoft display. According to customer complaints, some people see a yellow bar on the bottom of their display, which Amazon is aware of. Supposedly, turning off the e-reader and leaving it off for a few minutes before restarting the Kindle might resolve the yellow bar issue.
In our review, we did not notice a yellowing on the Colorsoft that we used. We found the newest Kindle, which was so good that it immediately made our best e-readers list.
Otherwise, one annoyance is that the Kindle Colorsoft does not have Dark Mode, which Amazon acknowledges on the Colorsoft store page. "Dark Mode is currently not available on this device. Customers can enable a similar reading experience within millions of books using the Page Color feature, which, like Dark Mode, inverts the book page color to black and the book text color to white."
It's not quite the same.
If your order has been canceled or pushed out to a future November date, please contact us and share your experience.
Amazon responds
Amazon responded to Tom's Guide and acknowledged the yellow band issue.
“A small number of customers have reported a yellow band along the bottom of the display," a spokesperson said. "We take the quality of our products seriously—customers who notice this can reach out to our customer service team for a replacement or refund, and we’re making the appropriate adjustments to ensure that new devices will not experience this issue moving forward."
Amazon spokespeople did not confirm that shipping has been halted or that Kindle Colorsofts are just sitting around in warehouses. However, it was said that availability dates may shift as new and replacement devices are made available as the "adjustments" are made to remove the yellow band. What those adjustments are was not stated.
It is unclear if this is a software or hardware issue, though since Amazon is offering replacements, we're inclined to think it's a hardware issue.
