6 reasons I’ll never go back to grayscale e-readers

Color displays have finally made their way to the mainstream e-readers. So, if you’ve gotten burnt out on the black-and-white displays of your favorite digital books, you now have color options from the likes of the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft, Boox Go Color series, and the Kobo Libra Colour, among others.

As with any e-reader, color e-readers provide a lightweight design coupled with excellent battery life and readability in various lighting situations. While color e-ink technology is new and still not perfect, there are a few reasons why I prefer using color e-readers now over their black-and-white counterparts.

1 A pop of color for better immersion

Read your favorite comics in full color panels

If you enjoy reading comics on your e-reader, then I highly recommend trying out a color e-reader. Color e-readers allow you to read your favorite comics in their fully colored panels, providing for a more immersive experience thanks to the added pop of color. I reviewed the Boox Go Color 7 in 2024, and one of the things I enjoyed most about using it was to re-read my favorite comics.

The color screen isn’t perfect — definitely not as bright as an iPad — but it provided a great reading experience that was easy on my eyes. Even with the less bright screen when compared to a tablet, I prefer reading comics on a color e-reader over a heavier tablet.

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2 Fantastic battery life

While color impacts battery life more, color e-readers still boast excellent battery life

E-readers generally boast incredible battery lives when compared with their tablet counterparts. This remains the same with color e-readers, even though color e-readers are a bit more battery intensive than black-and-white e-readers. While testing the Boox Go Color 7, I was able to read for hours on end with little drop in battery life. My colleague, Charlotte Maracina, also noticed in her review of the Kobo Libra Colour that battery life on the device was superb, and could even last up to a month depending on use.

Backlight is one of the major causes of battery life decline in most tablets and e-readers. While backlighting is also necessary on a color e-reader, most have larger batteries than their non-color alternatives. When all is said and done, you get the best of both worlds.

3 Better PDF viewing

Color is easier on the eyes for PDF’s with several visual elements

If you read PDFs with a lot of visual graphs — be it bar graphs, charts, or tables — having a color e-reader makes the viewing experience significantly easier than black-and-white. Color coding will appear natural with a color e-reader, and diagrams will appear as they would on paper, which helps you differentiate between visual elements in a document.

Of course, if you are looking for an e-reader that’s specifically great for PDFs, I’d recommend getting one with markup features, such as the Kobo Libra Colour, or the Onyx Boox Tab if you are looking for something that runs Android. For annotating on PDFs, I prefer something at least seven inches or larger, which makes the Boox Tab Mini perfect for me — but, it’s up to you what screen size you feel comfortable annotating on.

Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C Pro

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4 Less eye strain

E-readers don’t use LED lights like tablets

Unlike tablets and phones which use bright LEDs for backlighting, which can cause eye strain. Color e-readers, on the other hand, can be used with natural light and don’t require backlighting to display the image at all.

Some e-readers do have built-in backlights, but you don’t have to use them and can adjust the brightness with ease. With a color e-reader, a stronger backlight will help color appear more vibrant, but you can achieve the same effect by using the device in a room that’s already bright.

5 Take your comics on the go

Travel lighter but with more

One of the biggest advantages of having an e-reader is the device’s lightness and thinness. If you travel alot and enjoy reading graphic novels, magazines, or comic books, then a color e-reader is indispensable. Small enough to fit easily into any bag, a color e-reader provides you with a lightweight alternative to a bulky tablet when it comes to your favorite color content. You can carry up to thousands of different e-books on most color e-readers, which means you can bring anything you want to read on your next trip with you without the distraction and weight of a tablet.

A color e-reader is a great way to expand your library and contain it at all on one device. With a color e-reader, you can leave your tablet behind when you want to get the most out of colored content, be it web pages, newspapers, magazines, or comics.

6 Distraction free-reading, no matter what content

Store your reading log on your e-reader

The greatest benefit to a color e-reader, in my opinion, is the ability to store all of your reading materials (yes, even webpages) in a colored format that retains the distraction-free nature of an e-reader.

Instead of using a bright tablet that also receives phone calls, texts, and notifications from a wide range of apps, you can use a color e-reader that provides for less eyestrain, and doesn’t have the same easily distracting functionality of a smartphone or tablet.