Kindle Colorsoft owners complain of a yellow bar on the e-reader’s screen

Picture of the Kindle Colorsoft with a color book cover for Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano displayed. — Image: David Pierce / The Verge

People have started receiving their orders of Amazon’s first color e-reader, the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, and many say they’re disappointed to find a yellow, discolored strip at the bottom of the display. Complaints about the $279.99 e-reader’s display have spread online and dragged down its Amazon star rating, and some report customer service reps say a fix is on the way.

A Reddit user posted a thread with images (see below), saying it’s most obvious when the Kindle “is supposed to be evenly lit and colored like a piece of paper.” Many others with the same issue say they’ve exchanged their Colorsoft for a new one or simply returned it. Another said they only noticed it while using the device’s edge lighting.

Whether the issue is related to a hardware or software flaw isn’t known, but one person who replied to the above thread posted a screenshot in which a customer service agent appeared to confirm that Amazon is working on a fix for it. Multiple people said in another thread that the issue didn’t appear until after an initial software update.

Amazon spokesperson Jill Tornifoglio confirmed the company is aware of complaints in a statement emailed to The Verge:

We’re aware of a small number of reports from customers who see a yellow band along the bottom of the display. We take the quality of our products seriously and are looking into it. If customers notice this on their device, they can reach out to our customer service team.

It’s not immediately clear how widespread the issue is. On Amazon’s website, where the Kindle Colorsoft is sitting at a 2.6-star average rating as of this writing, a large portion of both good and bad reviews point out the discoloration. Of those, some say the yellow bar is hardly noticeable, while others say it’s too distracting to keep.

Our own review unit of the new e-reader falls in the former category — The Verge’s Andrew Liszewski, who is testing the device now, said the discoloration is more obvious in pictures than in real life, and he wouldn’t have noticed if not for others’ complaints. You can see for yourself in the images below (though as some have noted in the comments section since this story was published, it’s difficult to see even in these pictures).