In mid-October, Amazon announced four new Kindles, including the company's first Colorsoft e-reader with a color display; come November, the devices should be in people's hands, but suddenly there are problems.

Earlier today, owners of the new Colorsoft reported seeing a strange yellow band on the display. An Amazon spokesperson told The Verge that the company is aware of the yellow issue and is investigating.

The Good e-Reader folks report that Amazon will “cancel” color software shipments until at least after November 26. They report that it could be delayed until November 18 in the US and November 26 in the UK.

Presumably, Amazon is warehousing pre-ordered Kindle Colorsoft e-readers because of the yellow stripe on the display. Perhaps Amazon is working on a software update, or the Good e-Reader claims Amazon has told customers.

We take this report with a grain of salt because Amazon has not provided any sources or quotes from anyone they have contacted regarding the order or display issue. It is unclear where this information comes from.

Tom's Guide has contacted Amazon to confirm that shipments have been suspended and to comment on the yellow stripe claim. If we hear back from Amazon, we will update this article.

Here is what we know about the color soft display According to customer complaints, some people see a yellow bar at the bottom of the display and Amazon is aware of it. Presumably, turning off the e-reader, letting it sit for a few minutes, and then restarting the Kindle may resolve the yellow bar issue.

In our review, we did not notice any yellowing with the Colorsoft we used. We did find the newest Kindle, which was so good that it quickly made our best e-reader list.

One other concern is that the Kindle Colorsoft does not have a dark mode, which Amazon admits on the Colorsoft store page. It states, “Dark mode is not currently available on this device. Customers can use the Page Color feature, which reverses the color of the book's pages to black and the book's text to white, as well as the Dark Mode, to enable a similar reading experience among millions of books."

The Kindle Colorsoft store page also states that the Kindle Colorsoft ”does not have a dark mode.

Not the same.

If your order is cancelled or postponed to a date after November, please contact us to share your experience.

Amazon responded to Tom's Guide and acknowledged the yellow band issue.

“A few customers have reported a yellow band along the bottom of the display,” a spokesperson said. 'We take the quality of our products very seriously. Customers who notice this issue can contact our customer service team for a replacement or refund. We are making appropriate adjustments to ensure that new devices will not have this issue in the future.”

An Amazon spokesperson did not confirm that shipments have been stopped or that the Kindle Colorsoft is just sitting in a warehouse. However, they said that “adjustments” are being made to remove the yellow band and that availability dates may shift as new and replacement devices become available. It was not stated what those adjustments would be.

It is unclear whether this is a software or hardware issue, but given that Amazon is offering replacements, we prefer to assume it is a hardware issue.