When Amazon announced three new Kindle Scribes, including a flagship color model, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, at its fall product launch event in late September, it said the two models with front lights would ship later this year in time for the holiday season. Good to its word, Amazon says the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and Kindle Scribe with Front Light ($500) are available today. The entry-level Kindle Scribe without Front Light ($430) is still listed as "coming soon" and is slated to arrive in early 2026.
I just received review samples of the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and the new monochrome Kindle Scribe with Front Light, and I'll be testing them in the coming days.
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As I've said previously, they aren't cheap. The Kindle Scribe with Front Light starts at $500 with 32GB of storage (the 2024 Kindle Scribe has a front light and starts at $400). To get color, you'll have to shell out $630 for the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (bumping the storage from 32GB to 64GB costs an extra $50). Not coincidentally, that's almost exactly what reMarkable's color Paper Pro E Ink tablet costs.
Watch this: Hands On With Amazon's $630 Kindle Scribe Colorsoft 03:35
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.
Additionally, the new Scribes are slightly slimmer, measuring only 5.4mm thick, and lighter, weighing 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 Amazon says it made the upgraded battery-free Premium Pen 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. David Carnoy/CNET
Amazon had an issue with faint yellow tinging on the bottom and sides of the smaller Kindle Colorsoft display when it launched its color E Ink model last year (the issue was more apparent with the front light on). It paused shipping the Kindle Colorsoft for some weeks while it came up with a fix and replaced the units of users who reported the problem; Amazon said the issue affected a "small number" of Kindle Colorsofts.
Amazon appears to have fixed the Kindle Colorsoft's yellow-banding issue -- or at least made it barely noticeable. Some E Ink e-reader aficionados have suggested that the way the Colorsoft's display was designed made it susceptible to the issue, while the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft's new more advanced display design should eliminate the problem.
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