When Amazon announced three new Kindle Scribes, including a flagship color model, the Kindle Scribe ColorsoftAt its fall product launch event in late September, it said both models with front headlights would ship later this year, in time for the holiday season. True to its word, Amazon claims that the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and Kindle Scribe with front lighting ($500) are available today. Entry level Kindle Scribe without front light ($430) is still listed as “coming soon” and is expected to arrive in early 2026.
I just received review samples of the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and the new Kindle Scribe Monochrome with Front Light, and will be testing them in the coming days.
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As I said before, they are not cheap. The Kindle Scribe with front lighting starts at $500 with 32 GB of storage (the Kindle Scribe 2024 has front lighting and starts at $400). To get color, you’ll need to shell out $630 for the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (upgrading the storage from 32GB to 64GB costs $50 more). It’s no coincidence, it’s almost exactly what reMarkable Paper Pro E Ink Color Tablet costs.
Watch this: Hands-on with Amazon’s $630 Kindle Scribe Colorsoft
The new Scribes have a few key improvements that may allow you to forgive the price increases. For starters, they feature a larger 11-inch screen (up from 10.2 inches) while being housed in a similar chassis to the previous model. The size gains come from smaller bezels and the screens feature newly redesigned “display stacks”, including a new mini-LED lighting system.
Additionally, the new Scribes are slightly thinner, measuring just 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 claims delivers a 40% performance improvement. Note that none of the new Scribes are waterproof like the Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Colorsoft.
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Amazon says it has made the improved Battery-Free Premium Pen a bit shorter and thicker, improving its ergonomics. Its magnet also seems stronger because you can now grip the tablet by the stylus when it’s stuck to the edge of the Scribe.
Amazon had an issue with a slight yellow tint on the bottom and sides of the smaller one Kindle ColorSoft when it launched its color E Ink model last year (the problem was most obvious with the front light on). It suspended delivery of the Colorsoft Kindle for a few weeks while it found a fix and replaced units for users who reported the problem; Amazon said the issue affected a “small number” of Colorsoft Kindles.
Amazon appears to have fixed the Kindle Colorsoft’s yellow banding problem – or at least made it barely noticeable. Some E Ink e-reader aficionados have suggested that the way the Colorsoft’s screen was designed made it vulnerable to the problem, while the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft’s new, more advanced display design should eliminate the problem.
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Needless to say, the first thing I checked after unboxing my Kindle Scribe Colorsoft was the presence of a yellow tint. I didn’t notice any, even with the color style set to “vivid” and the front lighting fully on, as you can see in the image at the top. I tend to keep the heat setting of the light at a cooler temperature of 7 or 8, which is towards the whiter/bluer end of the color temperature spectrum.
I’ll have a full review in the coming days, but in the meantime you can check out my first hands-on take on the three new Kindle Scribe models.
Amazon describes Scribe upgrades this way:
- A new front lighting system with miniaturized LEDs that fit closely to the screen to create a narrower bezel and even illumination.
- A new textured molded glass to improve friction when the pen slides across the screen.
- A redesigned display stack to reduce parallax to virtually nothing, making it appear as if you’re writing directly on the page.
- A new MediaTek quad-core chip, more memory, and new custom Oxide display technology to make everything look more vivid.
