I Go Hands-On With the New Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. Is It Worth $630?

Amazon released its second-generation Kindle Scribe less than a year ago, so it was a bit surprising to see it announce three new Scribes, including a flagship color model, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, at its fall product launch event. Unlike some of Amazon's device updates, which are quite iterative and only feature small improvements, these Scribes are truly new products. None of them are available for preorder yet, but Amazon says the Kindle Scribe with Front Light and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft will ship later this year in time for the holiday season. The entry-level Kindle Scribe without Front Light will arrive in early 2026. They aren't cheap. The new entry-level Kindle Scribe carries a list price of $430, while the step-up Kindle Scribe with Front Light costs $500 (the 2024 Kindle Scribe has a front light and lists for $400). To get color, you'll have to shell out $630 for the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. Not coincidently, that's exactly what ReMarkable's color Paper Pro E-Ink tablet costs. Read more: 47 Early October Prime Day Deals You Can Shop Before the Sale Four key upgrades The new Scribes have a few key upgrades that may allow you to pardon the price bumps. For starters, they have a larger 11-inch screen (compared to 10.2 inches) while being housed in a chassis similar to the previous model. The size gains come from smaller bezels, and the screens have newly redesigned "display stacks," including a new mini-LED lighting system. Also, the new Scribes are a little slimmer, at only 5.4mm thick and lighter at 400 grams (compared to 430 grams for the previous model). They're powered by a new custom MediaTek processor that Amazon says delivers a 40% performance boost. (Note that none of the new Scribes are waterproof like the Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Colorsoft.) Enlarge Image The Kindle Scribe without Front Light (left) looks fine in well-lit environments like this. The Scribe with Front Light (right) is probably the right option for most people. It does have its light on in the photo, and the screen does look slightly different with the light on, even in well-lit environments. David Carnoy/CNET The other change is to the battery-free Premium Pen. Based on customer feedback, Amazon says it made it a little shorter and thicker, improving its ergonomics. Its magnet also seems stronger because you can now pick the tablet up by the pen when it's stuck to the edge of the Scribe. Amazon describes the Scribe upgrades this way: A new front light system with miniaturized LEDs that fit tightly against the display to create a narrower bezel and uniform lighting. A new texture-molded glass to improve the friction when the pen glides across the screen. A rearchitected display stack to shrink the parallax to virtually nothing, so it feels like writing directly on the page. A new MediaTek quad-core chip, more memory and new custom Oxide display technology to make everything feel snappier. Enlarge Image The new Premium Pen has a strong magnet. David Carnoy/CNET Yes, the new Scribes seem zippier Amazon only allowed limited access to the new Scribes at the event, but I did get a sense of the performance boost while using the stylus. One of the goals for these types of E Ink tablets is to make it feel like you're writing on paper, which includes an ever-so-slightly textured surface and virtually no lag with pen strokes. Doodling with the pen felt even smoother and more lifelike than what I experienced with the second-gen Kindle Scribe. I also thought the contrast was slightly better with these new models, all of which have 300 ppi (pixels-per-inch) E Ink displays, though that number drops to 150 ppi for color (that's a bit disappointing). I would need to do a side-by-side comparison with the previous Scribe to confirm all that, as well as how much faster page turns are while reading. Enlarge Image Some art on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. David Carnoy/CNET The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft uses the same E Ink color display technology, but the colors seem to pop slightly more. This is likely due to the redesign of the display stack, but could also be an optical illusion thanks to the larger screen. Amazon initially had a problem with some yellow tinging at the bottom of the display with some Colorsoft units when that device first launched, and had to pause shipping for a few weeks. Presumably, it will avoid those issues with the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (I didn't see any yellow tinging). One of the bigger benefits of moving to the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft from the monochrome Scribe is what it does for annotating text and documents. You can create notes and highlights in different colors, which helps distinguish them from each other. Enlarge Image A little color helps with annotating documents and books. David Carnoy/CNET New Kindle features coming As part of the launch, Amazon highlighted some new AI-based features for the Scribe that should also be available in early 2026 for earlier Kindles, including the original and second-generation Scribes and maybe even the Kindle Paperwhite and entry-level Kindle (they'll also be rolled out to the Kindle iOS and Android apps). These include Story So Far, which gives you a quick AI-generated recap of what happened in the story the last time you opened it. Ask This Book lets readers highlight any passage of text while reading a book and get spoiler-free answers to questions about things like a character's motive or the significance of a scene. Read more: Amazon's genius new feature may be the best use of AI I've seen Enlarge Image The new Quick Notes on the the new Home screen. David Carnoy/CNET Amazon is also making it easier to import your files from various sources, including Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Here is a list of new features coming soon, according to Amazon. All-new Home: Quick Notes has been added so you can easily jot something down whenever inspiration strikes. You can also open recently opened and added books, documents and notebooks. Access all your documents: Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive support allows you to import documents for markup and export annotated PDFs. AI-powered search: Search your notes naturally across your notebooks, and you'll get simple AI summaries. You can also dig deeper with follow-up questions. Send to Alexa Plus: Early next year, you'll be able to send your notes and documents from Kindle Scribe to Alexa Plus and have a conversation about them. Share notebooks with OneNote: Export your notes as converted text or as an embedded image to OneNote so you can keep them all in one place and keep editing from your laptop. Color pens and highlights (for Kindle Colorsoft devices): Write, draw and annotate in one of 10 pen colors or highlight in one of five highlighter colors. Shading: Artists and creators can create smooth gradients and subtle tones with a new shader tool. Workspace: Organize your documents, notebooks, books and more in the same folder. Enlarge Image The Kindle Scribe with Front Light. David Carnoy/CNET Final initial impressions of the new Kindle Scribes When Amazon launched the original Scribe three years ago in late 2022, fans of ReMarkable's E Ink tablets faulted it for not having robust enough note-taking and document markup capabilities. That first Scribe seemed to find more of an audience with sight-challenged Kindle users who wanted a jumbo e-reader akin to the Kindle DX, which was discontinued in 2012. Since then, Amazon has focused on improving the Scribe's productivity and note-taking features as it courts younger customers, whether college students or professionals looking for a digital notebook that also functions as a great e-reader. Having two monochrome Scribe models may cause some buying anxiety, but I suspect more people will opt for the Scribe with Front Light because it seems a little crazy not to get a light if you're spending this much on a tablet-style e-reader (or any e-reader, for that matter). The prices seem high, but there's a cohort of passionate E Ink digital notebook users who should find these new Kindle Scribes appealing. For those immersed in the Amazon ebook ecosystem, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft seems to be a compelling alternative to the ReMarkable's slightly larger 11.8-inch Paper Pro (only 5.1mm thick), which doesn't have as good a lighting scheme but has a higher pixel density (229 ppi) for color content. That said, its pixel density for black and white content is only 229 ppi compared to 300 ppi for the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, so text doesn't appear as sharp. I'll have a full review of all the new Kindle Scribes as soon as I get review samples.