Amazon Kindle Scribe ColorSoft
ZDNET Highlights
- The Kindle Scribe ColorSoft is available now starting at $629.
- It offers a great writing experience with a colorful display, integration with Google Drive, and a balance of features and minimalism.
- It’s expensive, and best suited for consumers who already use Amazon’s e-book ecosystem.
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Amazon is new kindle scribe colorsoft It’s its first Color Scribe device, boasting a sleek form factor, a great writing experience with an improved pen, and an exceptionally vibrant color display – one of the brightest digital paper tablets I’ve used.
In the increasingly competitive digital paper tablet market, Amazon’s Kindle lineup offers a better user experience, access to its extensive digital library, and now, some new integrations that position it as a capable productivity tablet in either 32GB or 64GB configurations.
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Last year’s Kindle Scribe was a nice device, but Colorsoft’s 2025 Scribe has a more ambitious perspective, including Google Drive and OneDrive integration, the ability to search and summarize your own notes with AI, and notebooks for organizing your own documents.
On top of all that, the ultrathin, 400-gram (0.88 lb) form factor is sleek and modern, with nitride LEDs, narrow bezels, and textured-molded glass for a matte display that’s very satisfying to write on.
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The entire display stack was redesigned, and it shows. It stands out from other colored paper tablets by using nitride LEDs for high contrast while choosing a consistent color palette. The pen glides perfectly on the textured glass surface, and the kit of brushes offers a distinct writing experience without an abundance of options.
However, I am going to say this: the Kindle Scribe takes some aesthetic and functional inspiration from the ColorSoft Remarkable Paper Pro, which is the most premium paper tablet on the market right now. From the UI to Scribe’s new balanced business focus, Amazon likely saw an opportunity here to merge the Kindle’s existing utility with a premium product that consumers associate with creativity and efficiency.
It also takes inspiration from the Remarkable’s price point – over $200 more expensive last year’s kindle scribe Quite expensive at $629. Some will certainly consider it too expensive for a Kindle, but Amazon has its sights set on premium consumers, especially with its more office-ready features.
Integration with Google Drive and OneDrive offers one-tap file sharing of your notes or drawings, either as PDF or converted to text. Converting handwritten notes to text couldn’t be easier.
Furthermore, while the reMarkable Paper Pro exists with pure minimalism in mind, Amazon’s tablet is still a Kindle: connected to the vast library of digital books many consumers have spent years curating. It’s less concerned with deep ideas and out-of-the-box creative workflows, and more about providing an enjoyable experience within Amazon’s ecosystem.
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Practical features, like taking your own notes, are also easy to navigate. The AI-powered search worked reliably in my testing, even with very sloppy handwriting. The “Ask Notebook” feature takes things a step further, enabling users to ask the AI questions and chat about their notes in natural language.
I got some interesting results from this feature in particular. It works well at extracting specific words, numbers, or, if you’re referencing a picture, details. But note that AI cannot yet detect handwritten text in foreign languages. I wrote some notes in Russian, and confidently claimed that it was, quote, “an unknown or possibly made-up language.”
In practice, all these features make for a great experience without the elaborate set of customizations and apps found on Android tablets like the MacBook Note Max. Instead, it’s perfect for e-book readers who want access to efficient note-taking and annotating features, but don’t need to delve into more complex, free-form creative work.
The physical appearance also feels more modern than last year’s device. It has thin, uniform bezels around the edges and looks more like an iPad than a digital paper tablet. In fact, you might mistake it for the “Kindle” logo on the back.
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The brightness of the display also pushes it into tablet mode – with a maximum brightness of 100 nits, it’s one of the brightest digital paper tablets on the market, enabling use outdoors in broad daylight. The display is crisp and clear thanks to Digital Ink’s oxide technology, which enables fast refresh rates with minimal ghosting and high contrast.
The colors also look very nice. Amazon has created a harmonious palette that doesn’t attempt to maximize saturation but has a soothing visual theme. The pen has 10 colors and five different highlighter colors, all of which are different and do not blend into each other. Obviously, the colors pop up a bit more when increasing the brightness, but they are still distinct when the front light is at 0.
Talking about the pen, there have been some big improvements here. First off, there’s a strong magnet on the right side of the tablet that locks the pen in place, which I’m glad to see after the weak magnet strip on last year’s device.
The second is the “eraser” on the back of the pen which is the closest thing to a real pencil eraser I’ve ever used. You can adjust the size of the eraser in the toolbar, choosing a finer line or a thicker eraser for detailed coverage.
Finally, there’s a button on the top end of the pen, right where your index finger would be, that can be customized with a few different actions. It comes by default as a highlighter, which allows you to quickly highlight or color text without changing the brush size in the toolbar.
It takes a bit of learning with being aware of the button’s presence, as I kept pointing my finger at it when I didn’t intend to, highlighting the entire page, but you quickly get the hang of it.
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Lastly let’s mention the battery. Amazon advertises weeks of battery life on a single charge, and although I’ve had the Kindle Scribe for less than a week at the time of writing this review, I haven’t charged it yet, and it’s currently at 55%. The obvious factors (primarily turning up the brightness) will drain the battery faster, but it’s definitely a battery-efficient device that slows down when not in use.
ZDNET’s shopping advice
Amazon’s Kindle Scribe ColorSoft – its first color Scribe tablet – available now starting at $629. If you’re a Kindle user and want to incorporate notetaking and annotations, the 11-inch display can easily be sold as one of the most premium Kindles ever. The colors are distinct, the pen-to-paper experience is beautiful, and its feature set is focused.
If you’re looking for a pro-grade digital paper tablet more suitable for artists, you’ll have much better luck with something like the Boox Note Max. If you’re looking for a premium tablet with advanced customizability for the writing experience, consider the Remarkable Paper Pro.
