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Last updated on 1. September 2025 at 22:10. All statements without guarantee.
Tolino Vision Color: At a Glance
With the Vision Color, Tolino is bringing an eReader to market that not only draws attention with a color display but also introduces a new software foundation. Visually, the Vision Color sticks to Tolino’s familiar design, but a lot is new under the hood. The switch to a MediaTek processor delivers improved performance, which especially benefits the rendering of color content. The system builds on the software foundation of Kobo devices, which not only boosts responsiveness but also enables a much more modern user interface. The 6-inch screen with Kaleido 3 technology can’t match the brightness and saturation of a tablet, but it still offers a noticeable improvement over previous E Ink color models—particularly thanks to higher color accuracy and a finer subpixel structure.
Display quality: strengths and weaknesses
As with all devices using E Ink Kaleido 3, the display is relatively dim with the front light turned off, which is due to the semi-transparent RGB color layer. With the light on, however, the Vision Color scores with good brightness and even illumination. The color temperature is flexibly adjustable, making the device suitable for nighttime reading. With color content such as comics, magazines, or PDFs, the display shows its full potential—not least because the color rendering is subtle yet pleasant. Book covers and menus also benefit from the color display, which gives the interface a visual lift. Only those hoping for the vivid saturation of an LCD will be disappointed.
User experience: promising software, but not without flaws
The Vision Color uses the Kobo interface for the first time, resulting in a clean, smoothly operated system. The library can be filtered and sorted in many ways, with color book covers in particular enhancing the experience. That said, some teething problems remain: opening eBooks with LCP encryption takes longer than usual, and minor formatting issues can occasionally detract from the reading experience. The notes feature also falls short—the highlighting isn’t very precise, there’s no export, and color categories can’t be filtered efficiently. On the plus side, Tolino has already released several bug-fix updates, which points to active support.
Audio, web and formats: plenty of potential, not fully realized
In addition to Bluetooth audio and a built-in audiobook player, the Vision Color also offers basic PDF and comic support. But this is where Tolino still has ground to make up on the software side: features like landscape mode, margin cropping, or smart viewing options are missing, which makes handling large-format documents or CBR/CBZ files more difficult. The store integration also doesn’t feel fully adapted yet—purchasing audiobooks from the Thalia store, for instance, isn’t possible directly. On the plus side, the Skoobe subscription is better integrated. Dropping Android as the underlying platform may be a downside for power users, but thanks to the Kobo partnership it should yield a more stable, E Ink–optimized system in the long run.
Conclusion: colorful progress with room for improvement
With the Vision Color, Tolino is taking a big step toward the future of color eReaders. Anyone who reads comics, magazines, or color content in general gets a well-built device with convincing Kaleido 3 rendering and a promising software foundation. The design is functional, although the casing feels less premium than on its predecessors. In daily reading, the Vision Color stands out for its strong customization options and pleasantly minimalist system. There’s still room for improvement, especially in format support, the notes feature, and software stability. For pure black-and-white readers, the Shine 5 remains the better choice—everyone else gets an intriguing device that makes getting into color on eReaders an enjoyable experience.
Tolino Vision Color: Technical Specifications
| General | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Tolino |
| Market launch | 2024 |
| Device type | E-Reader |
| Device category | Upper mid-range |
| Price (USD / EUR) | 199 |
| Available colors | black |
| Size & Weight | |
| Size (L × B × T) | 161 x 144.6 x 8.3 mm |
| Weight (g) | 200 |
| Display | |
| Technology | E-Ink Kaleido 3 |
| Flexible Display Technology | No |
| Size (inch) | 7 |
| Resolution (px) | 1680×1264 |
| Pixel density (ppi) | 300 / 150 |
| Colors | Yes |
| Color depth | 4096 colors |
| Touchscreen | Yes, capacitive |
| Built-in light | Yes, dual-tone frontlight |
| Flush display | No |
| Connections | |
| USB | USB-C |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | Yes |
| Cellular connectivity | No |
| GPS | No |
| Hardware Specs | |
| CPU Cores | Unknown |
| CPU Type | |
| RAM (GB) | |
| Internal Storage (GB) | 32 |
| Internal Storage up to (GB) | |
| Storage Expansion | No |
| Speakers | No |
| Microphone | No |
| Battery (mAh) | |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Features | |
| Text-to-speech | No |
| Page turn buttons | Yes |
| Water protection | IPX8 |
| Accelerometer | Yes |
| E-book store | Yes |
| Supported file types | EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT, CBR, CBZ, JPEG,PNG |
All information provided without guarantee.
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