Amazon announced Colorsoft, the first Kindle device with a color display, for $279

Amazon On Wednesday, Kindle announced a new Kindle e-reader that, for the first time ever, has a color screen.

The retail giant introduced the Kindle in 2007, and since then each device has had a black-and-white screen. The new Kindle has a screen designed to ensure colors don’t appear washed out or pixelated, even when users zoom in on images.

The $279 device, which Amazon calls the Kindle Colorsoft, has a battery life of up to weeks, the company said. It can be pre-ordered now and will ship on October 30th.

Amazon also unveiled the updated $399 Kindle Scribe with new note-taking features, the updated $159 Kindle Paperwhite and the 12th generation Kindle, which costs $109. At a press event in New York on Tuesday, Amazon’s head of devices, Panos Panai, described the updates as “the single largest update the Kindle lineup has ever received.”

The Kindle Scribe device, which Amazon introduced in 2022, comes with a stylus that allows users to take notes, create to-do lists, and write directly on the pages of the book they are reading. With the new note-taking feature, called Active Canvas, users can take notes directly on the eBook pages and the text will automatically morph to flow around it. They will also be able to take notes in the margins of the book and hide them for later.

Kindle Scribe includes another new feature that uses generative AI to summarize pages of notes into a shortlist. Amazon said the feature uses Bedrock, a software tool that gives users access to large language models from Amazon and other companies like Anthropic and Stability AI. The device is available for pre-order now and will ship on December 4.

The new Kindle Paperwhite is faster than previous models, and also features a larger 7-inch screen, compared to 6.8 inches on the previous version. Amazon says the 12th generation Kindle is the most “compact” e-reader ever, with a brighter screen. Both devices are available starting Wednesday.