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Black Friday bargains and buyer beware: Kindle Colorsoft, PS5 price cuts, and a Lego Game Boy that may not be what you expect illustration
Consumer Tech·3 min read

Black Friday bargains and buyer beware: Kindle Colorsoft, PS5 price cuts, and a Lego Game Boy that may not be what you expect

By Riley Hart

Holiday price tags are doing the heavy lifting this week: Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft has dropped to $170, Sony’s PS5 line is $100 off across retailers, and a popular LEGO Game Boy Kickstarter has raised eyebrows after the creator revealed magnetic buttons instead of physical switches.

If you’re in the market for an e-reader, a console, or a novelty build, Black Friday deals make it easy to pull the trigger. But every discount has trade-offs - and not all of them are visible on the product page. The Kindle Colorsoft’s $170 sale (from an advertised $250) suddenly makes color e-ink worth considering for comic book readers; Sony’s $100-off PS5 price cuts push premium hardware into new budgets; and the BrickBoy LEGO Game Boy campaign demonstrates how crowdfunding can mask engineering compromises, with reports that the maker used magnets in prototypes.

Kindle Colorsoft: color e-ink that finally feels affordable

Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft launched earlier in 2025 with a headline: a color e-ink display that can make graphic novels and comics readable without a tablet’s glare. Engadget called the device “the missing link in Amazon's ereader lineup,” and at $170 in current Black Friday pricing it becomes a pragmatic buy rather than a luxury impulse.

The model’s strengths are concrete: pinch-to-zoom for panel detail, fast page turns and load times in tests, an auto-adjusting front light, and battery life measured in weeks. Engadget’s review referenced roughly eight weeks of “regular use” per charge, which keeps the device closer to classic e-readers than to an always-on tablet.

PS5 sales: the slim consoles and the Pro’s real-world gains

The math changes at $170. Its MSRP sat near $250 at the time of the sale, with an original launch price reportedly as high as $280. When the color screen is a meaningful feature - you read manga, indie comics, or colorized non-fiction - that price cut moves the Colorsoft from a curious niche to a recommended buy. If your reading is mostly novels and you want the most battery-per-dollar, the Paperwhite at $125 or the base Kindle at $80 remain better values.

Sony’s holiday promotions have shaved $100 off all three PlayStation 5 SKUs, and that matters for shoppers who’ve been waiting for a price floor. The slim Digital Edition is retailing for roughly $399, the slim disc-capable model about $449, and the PS5 Pro is available near $649.

Crowdfunding caution: BrickBoy’s magnetic buttons are a reminder to read the fine print

Those numbers are straightforward, but the performance story is nuanced. The PS5 Pro ships with twice the storage of the standard model (2TB), a GPU Sony bills as roughly 62 percent faster, Wi‑Fi 7, and AI-driven upscaling. Yet reviewers found the Pro’s visual advantages most noticeable from about 10 feet or closer on a large TV - and that only some titles include explicit “PS5 Pro Enhanced” improvements.

If you want the most consistent upgrade for new games and plan to play on a 65-inch TV from the couch, the Pro’s $649 price looks defensible. If you mostly stream or play older PS5 titles, the $399-$449 options remove a major barrier to entry and pair well with discounted accessories such as controllers and the PlayStation Portal handheld.

Not every deal is a sale. The BrickBoy Kickstarter - a kit that turns LEGO bricks into a functioning Game Boy - has been popular with backers but also surprisingly opaque about how the buttons work. Reports revealed the company is using rare-earth magnets and a magnetometer to detect presses instead of physical switches, and some early prototypes struggle with responsiveness.

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