New Delhi, Oct. 17 -- Amazon's first wave of colour Kindles sparked an obvious question when they arrived last year: what do we give up for colour on an e-reader? We now have a clearer answer from Amazon itself. Recent FAQ updates on the colour Kindle listings state that the monochrome Kindle Paperwhite delivers a "slightly crisper" black and white reading experience. In short, colour is excellent for the right content, but if text clarity is your priority, the classic black and white Kindles still win.

Why the difference? Colour e-paper adds a filter layer over the grayscale panel to render hues. In this generation that layer is E Ink's Kaleido 3, which supports up to 4,096 colours. The extra layer alters brightness and surface texture ...