Kaleido 4 Makes Color E-Readers Better. Should You Buy Now or Wait?

E Ink has announced Kaleido 4, a better color screen for e-readers, but unless you are in no hurry, the color e-reader to buy is still one you can get today.

The new screen promises brighter, richer color, but so far it is in just one device, sold only in China.

Meanwhile Amazon's new Kindle Colorsoft ships on 28 October, and Black Friday is only weeks away.

Here is what Kaleido 4 actually changes, how color E Ink works, and who should wait.

What Kaleido 4 Changes

E Ink announced Kaleido 4 on 15 October. Compared with the previous generation, the company claims:

• 50 percent more contrast, so black text should look darker and crisper.
• 15 percent brighter whites, which matters because color E Ink screens look greyer than black-and-white ones.
• About twice the color range, so colors should look less washed out.
• Smoother movement, with video at up to 18 frames per second - fine for short animations, but still choppier than a film.

All of these are E Ink's own numbers, measured against its last screen. As Android Authority points out, the "40K" color figure has no unit, so it does not mean 40,000 colors.

How Color E Ink Works

Most color e-readers use Kaleido, which is a normal black-and-white E Ink screen with a very fine color filter on top, like tinted glass. There is a rival design called Gallery, which uses real colored ink instead:

Kaleido 4 is still a filter screen. It aims to close some of the gap with Gallery while keeping the fast page turns that make it good for reading.

Color E-Readers You Can Buy Today

Amazon says the new Colorsoft has a completely redesigned display with higher contrast, but it has not said which E Ink screen it uses. The Signature Edition also works with the new Kindle Click and Page-Turn Cover.

Should You Buy Now or Wait?

• Buy now if you read comics, cookbooks or children's books. Today's color screens already do these well, and a Kaleido 4 e-reader from Kobo, Kindle or Boox has not even been announced.
• Buy black-and-white if you mostly read novels. A plain E Ink screen is sharper, brighter and cheaper, and color adds nothing to a page of text.
• Wait if color quality is the whole point. If you want art and photos to look their best, give it a year - e-reader makers usually take a year or two to switch to a new screen.
• Wait if you want a note-taking tablet. Hanvon's first Kaleido 4 notebook shows where these are heading, and Western versions should follow.

Not ready to buy at all? You can turn a tablet you already own into an e-reader, and there are plenty of free ebooks you can download legally to try it with.

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