Dubbed the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, the device looks a lot like its Paperwhite, except instead of black and white, it’s colour. The Colorsoft costs $279.99 and is available for preorder today, with shipments starting 30 October.

Amazon said the Colorsoft required a lot more than just swapping in a new display and the technology was not ready before.

The Colorsoft is based on E Ink’s Kaleido technology but uses an entirely new display stack for Kindles, all the way back to a newly designed oxide backplane that makes it easier for E Ink panel’s tiny bits of ink to move around quickly.

The E Ink world has been working on similar tech for a while, and Amazon thinks it’s the key to making colour work well. The Colorsoft has new LED pixels and a new way of shining light through them individually to enhance colours. It’s also brighter to help the whole thing feel more vivid. S

ome of this tech also helped the new Paperwhite turn pages faster and easier, but it was designed to make Colorsoft work.

Amazon said that the display tech allowed It to introduce colour without adding page-turn latency, lowering the device’s resolution, or hurting the display's contrast.

It still has a high resolution, long battery life, fast page turns, and good fluidity; it is just in colour.