Review: Kindle Colorsoft Kids

The age-old question (if “age-old” can be used for technology developed in the past 20 years) persisted as I tested the newest designed-for-kids Kindle: Should you give kids a screen when you could give them something else?

If you are going to give your kids a screen, a reflective e-paper screen that's easier on the eyes than an emissive screen is one of the best ways to go. While a Kindle can't fully replace the experience of turning a page on a physical book, I loved reading from a young age and would have loved to be able to bring every book I wanted anywhere I went. That's something I can do now with my son. While he's a little too young (only 3!) to be in charge of his own Kindle, I was happy to find I could pull up classic picture books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? to read with him on the go.

While you could always do this with the Kindle Kids and Paperwhite Kids, the Kindle Colorsoft Kids ($270) levels up the experience with a colorful E Ink screen. It's a new version of the Colorsoft that's designed with kids in mind, with two pretty cover options to boot. Now my son and I can see that the brown bear is brown, rather than me just telling him that. It's a fun on-the-go option for picture books, and even more ideal for older kiddos who love comic books and graphic novels.

Picture This

Photograph: Nena Farrell

The Colorsoft Kids is the same size as both the Colorsoft Signature Edition that came out last year and the Paperwhite Kids, with a 7-inch display. That screen is an inch larger than the cheaper base Kindle Kids, but it doesn't have the auto-adjusting front light you'll find on the Signature Edition Colorsoft. The Colorsoft Kids (and cheaper baseline Kindle Colorsoft) also doesn't have Qi-certified wireless charging like the Signature Edition, either, and has a smaller storage of 16 GB. That should still be plenty for several colorful books, though you could run out of storage faster if you download too many large comic and illustrated files. But it's pretty easy to unload and re-download books to adjust your storage.

Like the Colorsoft Signature Edition, the Kindle Colorsoft Kids has 300 pixels per inch (PPI) for black-and-white content, and 150 PPI for color. The colors aren't super saturated compared to a real-life kids' book, but it still makes for a nice visual experience, especially for more colorful stories. It's a similar color experience you'll get on devices like the ReMarkable Paper Pro and Kobo Libra Colour.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

You can go into the settings and switch the colors from Standard to Vivid, which promises to add more color to less-saturated images. I didn't see much of a difference switching between these two modes, and you do have to exit kids mode to change this setting, which was a little annoying when trying to see if it improved a book for my son or not. Amazon says switching to Vivid mode doesn't tax the battery on the Colorsoft.

While the Colorsoft can try to make images more vivid, it can't add color where there isn't color already. The Harry Potter series, for example, will have colorful covers when used on a Colorsoft (Kids or not!), but the little illustrations at the top of each chapter remain black-and-white. I've been apprehensive about switching to a color Kindle as an adult who mainly reads books with no preexisting illustrations to enjoy. While the thought of colorful covers brings me joy, it's certainly not a necessary upgrade for most readers. But for kids, there are tons of books with color and illustrations. The color pages make it something that would even appeal to my younger son as he works on letter recognition in a way a regular Kindle wouldn't for years.

The color screen does take something away: Dark Mode. You can't turn it on for the entire Kindle anymore when it comes to the Colorsoft collection. You can change the page settings and turn the page color to black for a similar experience while you read, but the menus and main Kindle pages will all remain in light mode.

Kids Mode

Photograph: Nena Farrell

One of the biggest appeals to buying one of the Kids-branded Kindles is the free access to Amazon Kids+ content, which usually costs $6 a month. While the other Kids models get six months of free access, the Colorsoft Kids gets a full year of free access. There's also “kids mode,” but you can activate that on other Kindle models without needing a specific Kids Kindle.

When you set up kids mode, you'll be prompted to put in your child's name and their birthday, which allows Amazon to recommend books appropriate for their age. You can make multiple kid profiles, but you'll need a PIN or passcode to switch off kids mode and return to regular Kindle mode. I set up my son's profile with his nickname and his birthday, and since he's only 3 years old, his recommendations in the “Books You Might Like” section were colorful picture books like Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? and First 100 Animals. I was able to download both immediately with the Kids+ subscription.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

You buy books on a Kindle, but the Kids interface has a Store option that allows your kid to browse books and request them, which will then alert the parent account about the desired book. It replaces the store feature in regular mode that allows you to purchase a book directly. It's a nice way to still give kids an option to look for a new book and choose it themselves, without giving them free-for-all access to your credit card on file. (But if you were going to give your kids free rein on spending, books are a great place for it.)

An Ideal Pair

Photograph: Nena Farrell

While you can access kids mode on any Kindle, a Colorsoft certainly feels like a great fit for kids of all ages. Colorful covers and pages are a great way to entice kids to read, and it's certainly much more fun to look at a library of books on a Colorsoft model than it is on a black-and-white-only e-reader. The full year of Kids+ content is a great bonus, too.

While upgrading to a color Kindle is a fun option, most of my adult books won't be able to take advantage. Kids have more illustrated book options to actually take advantage of the color feature, and it's a nice choice for developing readers who might lean on art more to understand a book.

You'll pay quite a bit more for this Kindle than the other Kids options, but it's an e-reader that can grow with your kid and take them through all kinds of phases of reading. Plus, it's a Kindle you can borrow from them to get a little color for your books, even if it's just the covers.