NEW YOK, Oct 16: Amazon announced the launch of a new Kindle e-reader on Wednesday, marking a significant milestone with the introduction of its first-ever color display. Since the original Kindle was introduced in 2007, all previous models featured black-and-white screens. The new device, dubbed the Kindle Colorsoft, boasts a display engineered to maintain vibrant colors without appearing washed out or pixelated, even when images are zoomed in.

Priced at $279, the Kindle Colorsoft offers "weeks of battery life," according to the company. Preorders are currently available, and the device is scheduled to ship on October 30.

In addition to the new Kindle, Amazon also unveiled several other updated models. The refreshed Kindle Scribe, priced at $399, features enhanced note-taking capabilities, while the updated Kindle Paperwhite will retail for $159. The 12th generation Kindle is available for $109. At a press event held in New York on Tuesday, Panos Panay, Amazon's devices chief, described the updates as the "largest single refresh that the Kindle lineup has ever had."

The Kindle Scribe, which was first introduced in 2022, includes a pen for note-taking, allowing users to create to-do lists and write directly on the pages of their e-books. The new note-taking feature, called Active Canvas, enables users to take notes directly on an e-book’s pages, with text automatically shifting to accommodate the annotations. Additionally, users can write in the margins of the book and choose to hide their notes for future reference.

Another innovative feature of the Kindle Scribe leverages generative artificial intelligence to summarize pages of notes into concise lists. This capability utilizes Bedrock, a software tool that provides access to large language models from Amazon and other companies, including Anthropic and Stability AI. The Kindle Scribe is also available for preorder now, with shipments beginning on December 4.

The updated Kindle Paperwhite offers improved speed and a larger 7-inch display, an increase from the previous 6.8-inch model. The 12th generation Kindle is touted as Amazon's most "compact" e-reader to date, featuring a brighter display. Both the updated Kindle Paperwhite and the new Kindle model are available starting Wednesday.