The Amazon Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is having an | Tech News

I’ve cherished e-readers and E Ink gadgets ever since I received my first Kindle as a current manner back in 2012. I used that Kindle Keyboard to death, earlier than transferring on to a newer Paperwhite. I’ve reviewed a number of generations of Kindle since, in addition to taking over Kobo as my fundamental personal e-reader platform of alternative when not reviewing them professionally.

E-readers are most profitable of their simplicity: all the pieces fades away and you’ll learn with out distraction. Even although it’s a digital gadget, a Kindle is a respite from the incessant 24/7 ping of your smartphone. The best Kindles get out of my manner and let me plough by way of books.

This is all to say I used to be very excited to review the Amazon Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, an 11-inch pill Kindle that merges the high-end Scribe and Colorsoft traces into a new model. I’ve beforehand used the Scribe line, which provides a giant show and pen for notice taking, in addition to the latest Colorsoft, which is a Paperwhite with a color screen, a Kindle first in 2024.

Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks with the gadget, it seems like a number of bridges too far for many potential consumers.

First, the Scribe Colorsoft is the costliest Kindle ever, costing from an eye-watering £569.99 for 32GB storage (64GB is £629.99). That places it out of attain for all however probably the most devoted E Ink followers.

It’s additionally a onerous sell for common pill consumers when an iPad prices £329. Amazon is asking you to spend more than £200 further on a pill that does much less.

But more pressingly, the Scribe line has morphed absolutely to be primarily a notice taking gadget, a giant digital pocket book to store personal {and professional} scribblings on, with AI instruments and cloud storage integration. This is a response to the increase in E Ink notetaking tablets from corporations comparable to reMarkable and Boox, however on a Kindle, it serves to fully reverse the best half of an e-reader, which is for it to be distraction-free.

Yes, you’ll be able to learn your Kindle books on the Scribe Colorsoft. But the massive screen is the least comfy to take action on in comparison with the opposite present Kindles, all of that are cheaper and far more transportable. Get a ebook up on right here and there’s a lot textual content it feels such as you’re holding and studying the Declaration of Independence. Enlarge the font dimension and it seems comical – it’s lose lose.

As a piece of {hardware}, the Scribe Colorsoft is wonderful. The design is now symmetrical, in contrast to older Scribes’ uneven borders, and the steel unibody body feels each bit as premium as you’ll hope contemplating the price. The ‘Kindle’ branding on the entrance is refined, however not so on the back. Thankfully, the phrase ‘Amazon’ isn’t emblazoned wherever, plus there are mercifully no lockscreen advertisements, in contrast to on some variations of cheaper Kindle fashions.

The pill comes with Amazon’s Premium Pen included with some spare nibs, which it’s important to exchange from time to time as they naturally put on down. The pen can be utilized as a stylus for tapping in regards to the software program, or as an precise pen for scrawling on e-books or writing notes. The former is useful when you take pleasure in writing within the margins of precise books, however the expertise isn’t seamless enough.

Where rival Kobo enables you to write wherever on any e-book web page on its competing pen-ready e-readers, Amazon doesn’t. Instead, you’ll be able to faucet to come out a window that covers up textual content to put in writing within the margin. Or, you’ll be able to write instantly on the web page, however whenever you faucet the tick icon to save lots of the notice, it turns into a textual content box and the paragraphs of texts shift to suit round it.

Perhaps this may appeal to the notetaker in you, particularly when you like issues in neat packing containers. But I would favor it if Amazon provided the option to attract instantly onto ebook pages like, , a ebook. The box technique feels too clunky, and discouraged me from writing notes in books.

Maybe that’s as a result of Amazon doesn’t need to sell the Scribe Colorsoft as a Kindle within the first place, regardless of the title. In all of the advertising and marketing press photos, there are no pictures of the Kindle getting used as an e-reader with a novel like with the Kindle Paperwhite. Instead, we’re met with photos of pie charts, annotated PDFs, notebooks with sketches {and professional} to-do lists.

This is an E Ink productiveness pill. When considered by way of this lens, it’s fairly a good one, with the added bonus of it syncing your Kindle library. It additionally has wonderful battery life – after two weeks of fixed use I nonetheless had 50 p.c left.

But in comparison with the equally priced reMarkable Paper Pro, writing on the Scribe Colorsoft is not as satisfying. The resistance between the pen and screen feels much less like paper, and although writing on the Kindle is more nice than utilizing an Apple Pencil on a shiny glass iPad screen, I desire the texture of the reMarkable tablets, that are absolutely the Scribe’s fundamental competing gadgets.

The benefit of color makes more sense on a screen this dimension than on the smaller Colorsoft Kindles, particularly for comedian books and graphic novels. In reality, these after a Kindle for studying that literature will adore it, if they will afford the punishing initial price. Just keep in mind that E Ink colors are naturally more washed out, so this is not a screen as vibrant as an OLED or LCD.

I personally didn’t get a lot further utility out of having a color screen when utilizing the Scribe Colorsoft as my work pocket book, apart from with the ability to color code with highlighters.

More helpful is the entrance mild, which makes notice taking within the pitch darkness doable, if that’s your factor. The latest reMarkable Paper Pure is cheaper at £359, however the lack of any form of screen mild could possibly be a dealbreaker for some.

Amazon has additionally stuffed this Kindle’s software program with AI. That’s onerous to keep away from in 2026, and also you would possibly discover some of the instruments helpful, comparable to with the ability to summarise total notebooks into shorter bullet level lists. I additionally discovered the handwriting recognition for changing to textual content correct, and with the ability to hyperlink to Google Drive or Microsoft’s OneDrive or OneNote is fairly helpful for personal or skilled work, whether or not utilizing the Kindle as a doc viewer or annotating PDFs and Word information.

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft holds an odd place within the Kindle line up. It’s the costliest Kindle ever made, however is the Kindle I like to recommend the least to avid ebook readers. Its price is down to the present price of giant color E Ink panels, and possibly as a result of of its area of interest place within the market.

If you want the thought of an E Ink pill and also you need to buy from a acquainted model, you’ll benefit from the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. It’ll imply you’ll be able to ditch your notebooks – and your paperbacks – and carry round one modern gadget to do all of your studying and writing on. For graphic novel followers, it’s a great choose.

But it’s far too costly, and the massive screen means it’s not as transportable as far cheaper Kindles, and when you really need a digital pocket book pill, the reMarkable Paper Pure will serve your wants for more than £200 much less. The last-gen Kindle Scribe is additionally virtually similar for options with a monochrome screen for £379.99.