If you’ve used any kind of Kindle in the past, you’ll be right at home on the Colorsoft. The interface features two main tabs: Home and Library. The Home tab has a row of your most recent reads at the top of the page; the rest is a selection of books from the Kindle store. The Library tab displays the books you own. A search bar stretches across the top of every page, no matter what tab you’re on. Next to the search bar is a cart icon that leads you directly to the Kindle store. A three-dot menu sits next to the cart. Clicking this gives you options to add to Your Lists, access your Goodreads account, or your Kindle Kids account, use the web browser, set up Household Sharing, go to the Settings menu, or create a Collection of books.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
The Quick Settings menu, easily accessible with a swipe from the top, allows you to access airplane mode and Bluetooth settings, sync your device, adjust screen brightness, and select your color mode. Standard mode balances the color and is ideal for everyday reading, while the Vivid mode enhances color in less saturated images. I used the Standard mode and found it worked well in all circumstances.
While reading a book, you can access the reading settings by tapping the top of the screen. Here you’ll see the title of the book at the top of the page, along with the icon to adjust the font and layout. You can pick from three preset layout themes (Compact, Standard, and Large) or adjust everything to your own liking. You get nine different fonts to choose from, along with 14 sizes and five levels of boldness. You can also adjust the margins and line spacing, but there are only three different options available for each. Both the Boox Go Color 7 and the Kobo Clara Colour offer more customization options than the Kindle. I appreciate the ability to customize the appearance of my page, and I find the Kindle’s options to be lacking.
Adding books to your Colorsoft is easy, and you can do it in several ways. You can buy titles from Amazon, and they will be sent immediately to your Kindle. You can also email your own books directly to your Colorsoft through Amazon’s Send-to-Kindle service, as long as they are free of digital rights management (DRM) software. Finally, you can sign out library books via the Libby app, as long as your local library has partnered with OverDrive. All of your books are synced to the cloud and across your devices through Amazon’s Whispersync service, and you get unlimited free cloud storage for the books and audiobooks you purchase through Amazon.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
You’ll never see ads on the Colorsoft cover or home screen, which is good. Instead, you’ll see the cover of your latest book or Amazon’s colorful built-in wallpapers, depending on your settings.
Although the Kobo Clara Colour has similar software, albeit with more reading customizations, Boox products take a different approach. They run on the Android operating system and have access to the Google Play Store, which means that you can download third-party reading apps, such as the Kindle app, and read all of your books on one ereader. This makes them much more versatile, especially if you enjoy reading from various sources.
