Amazon launches surprise new Kindle but the price will shock you

Amazon has surprised reading fans today by adding two Kindle e-readers to its line up, although upon closer inspection they aren't quite as new as you might expect. The firm announced a version of its colour screen Kindle Colorsoft with less storage, and a Colorsoft Kids that comes with Amazon's children's reading subscription and a protective case.

The Colorsoft Signature Edition was Amazon's first ever colour Kindle, launching back in October of last year to middling reviews because of display issues and a high price of £269.99.

Today's new Colorsoft halves the original's 32GB storage to 16GB, but still costs a hefty £239.99, £80 more than the Kindle Paperwhite and £145 more than the base Kindle. It's only £30 less than the Colorsoft Signature Edition, but also lacks that model's auto-adjusting front light and wireless charging, similar to the differences between the Kindle Paperwhite and Paperwhite Signature Edition.

"The new 16 GB model of Kindle Colorsoft has everything customers love about Kindle in colour -a high contrast Colorsoft display, fast page turns, an adjustable warm light, weeks of battery life, and access to the incredible Kindle bookstore," Amazon said in a press release.

"Readers can browse covers in colour in their Kindle Library, experience graphic novels coming to life in colour, see book photos and images in colour, or add highlights in yellow, orange, blue, and pink which can be filtered through later. Plus, for customers who prefer to read on pages with a dark background, the new Page Colour feature will invert the black text and white backgrounds of the pages inside books."

Although you can make highlights, the Colorsoft is not compatible with any pen or stylus - that's reserved for Amazon's very pricey Kindle Scribe range.

If you'd rather pick up a Kindle Colorsoft for your child, you can now choose the Kindle Colorsoft Kids, a version of the new 16GB Colorsoft that comes with a year's subscription to Amazon Kids+, the Kindle subscription reading service that only allows suitable content for children. Parents and guardians can manage content on the Kindle via a Parent Dashboard online to review reading activity and set a device's bedtime so your little ones can't read too long into the night.

The Colorsoft Kids comes with a choice of two protective cover cases and has software features such as Vocabulary Builder and Word Wise to help kids learn and read.

Both the new Kindle Colorsoft and Kindle Colorsoft Kids are available to buy from Amazon now.