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I love Kindles. Among e-readers, Kindles are still the best option for most readers. (I love Kobos, don’t get me wrong.) But among the Kindle lineup, there was one dud: The Kind Author. I tested the last two generations of Writer, and it was a decent enough e-reader, and the only Kindle with writing capabilities. However, it has been a bit lacking; it’s the biggest, the slowest, and the most expensive – by far.
Announced in September 2025, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft didn’t hit the market until Dec. 2025. Now that I’ve had the chance to try the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, I’m pleasantly surprised, and can confidently say that this is the first Kindle Scribe I should buy. It’s fast, bright, and a lot of fun to write, read, and doodling.
There’s one problem: It’s still too expensive.
Kindle Scribe Colorsoft price and specs
The Kindle Scribe home page has received a much-needed overhaul.
Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable
The 2025 Kindle Scribe received a significant redesign from the previous two generations of scribes. They removed the outer sidebar for a more minimal, streamlined look.
Here are the full specs for the 2025 Kindle Scribe Colorsoft:
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11-inch diagonal display, up to 100 nits brightness, 300 ppi black and white, and 150 ppi color resolution
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USB-C charging port for up to eight weeks of battery life and two weeks of writing battery life.
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32GB or 64GB storage options are available
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Premium pen included
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Includes Google Drive and Microsoft One integration
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Comes in fig (purple) or graphite (dark black)
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It is waterproof
Classic Kindle speed and redesigned home screen
User interface improvements give Kindle Scribe Colorsoft a boost.
Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable
Historically, I’ve found Writer to be slower than other brands, but with this latest iteration, it’s caught up. Scribe Colorsoft is a fast e-reader with writing capabilities. It moves quickly between pages and doesn’t lag when switching between books. It tends to slow down when writing and using notebooks; however, it is much faster than the previous models, and I did not notice the difference.
Kindles are generally easy-to-use devices; However, Amazon has made significant improvements to the interface in the new Author. Scribe Colorsoft has a redesigned home screen that puts notebooks front and center. This makes it very easy to switch between notebooks if you need to jump between journal and planner.
Also, I like that you can add documents or books to your notes section. For students, this makes switching between your reading and notebooks really easy, so you don’t have to go back and forth between sections of your library and notebooks.
It also just looks better. The device now has a front light, giving it a much lighter, brighter display. This means that the screen has a true white background rather than the muted gray that previous generations had.
Collects notes easily
You can annotate, write notes on the page, or write notes in the margins.
Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable
Another way Writer nails the user interface is the way it collects notes. Examining the Kindle Scribe came at the right time as I was taking a class and needed to read some required material. Using the Writer’s book, I outlined, made notes on the page, and made notes in the margins.
Go back and find all your notes in the book in one place.
Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable
Kindle collects all these notes in one place, allowing you to see your comments and annotated section. From there, you can tap to go back to the page where your notes are, which is very useful when I’m in a class discussion and want to go back to read a quote or remind myself of a thought I had about it.
Has Kindle solved the ghost?
Kindle Scribe ghost is worse after shutdown.
Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable
The author has had one problem to work with in every generation so far: the ghost. This is the case where traces of previous screens remain, creating shadows on images. Ghosting is a common problem that any e-reader is prone to, but especially those with writing skills.
Ghosting on Kindle Scribes was pretty bad in our previous reviews, so we didn’t expect this Kindle to be nearly ghost-free. If you use the device as an e-reader, there is no ghost trace.
However, when you write, a little ghost appears. This usually happens after deleting the Author. Some writing or drawing appears even after it has been erased. Anyway, this ghost is minor, as I found that as soon as I refresh the page, those marks disappear.
Feeling like Lady Whistledown when I write
My handwriting has never looked better.
Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable
Whenever I need to write digitally, I try to make a signature with my finger on the screen, it looks… bad. Fortunately, with the Kindle, my handwriting looks better than ever. To write, there is an included stylus, a premium Amazon pen that automatically connects to the device.
There are five styles of pens in the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft but my favorite is the fountain pen.
Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable
When writing with a premium pen, you have multiple writing styles available, including pen, fountain pen, marker, pencil, and, for illustrators or highlighters, a shader. Each pen style has an adjustable width and color, too, making it something you can imagine.
I’m not an artist, so I can only judge it by its writing, and in that respect, it makes my handwriting look neat and pretty. I really like the fountain pen, which makes me feel like Lady Whistledown writing with her quill.
Where is the improvement? Color correction
While color e-readers are growing in popularity, some features are still slow to develop. The standard color resolution for all color e-readers, including the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, is up to 150 ppi, half of the standard black and white resolution. The result is muted colors and some pixels.
To its credit, Kindle Scribe Colorsoft works well within the constraints of its low resolution. It uses colors that skew towards the pastel range, which looks better than other shades. This is very well portrayed in the lock screen ads, which I thought were fun and cute, surprising as I’ve never been impressed by Amazon lock screen images before.
It is still very expensive
Generally, I find Kindles to be good value e-readers, but the Scribe and Colorsoft e-readers are more expensive. Unfortunately, this is the case with the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, which starts at $629.99. This makes it about the same price as the Remarkable Paper Pro, although the remarkable e-ink tablet has better color resolution and worse black and white clarity at 229 ppi for both.
It’s definitely an investment, and if you’re just using it as an e-reader, it’s worth a lot more. However, if you want an e-reader that is also a very good e-ink tablet, it is worth the market price, although we still think the market price is too high.
Should you buy Kindle Scribe Colorsoft?
Amazon finally made Kindle Script worth buying.
Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable
If you can’t stomach the price, I think the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is the first scribe to buy. Its redesigned design has made it a small tablet with a wide screen that is comfortable to hold. The additional headlight looks amazing and the background is really white. Amazon has accelerated the development of the Kindle Scribe, resulting in a faster e-reader with less ghosting.
For those who have been cut off, I say hold on. It’s not for sale yet, but if it happens on the next Big Day, it will be a much better value than it is now.
