Amazon announced three new versions of the Kindle Scribe today including the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft featuring a larger version of the customized E Ink screen technology that Amazon uses in its color e-reader. The new Scribes feature a major redesign that does away with the asymmetrical chin on one side making the devices look sleeker and more like a tablet.
The new Kindle Scribes now feature larger 11-inch, glare-free E Ink screens – up from 10.2-inches previously – but Amazon has managed to make the new versions lighter than the first two. They now weigh just 400 grams compared to 433 grams for last year’s version, and at 5.4mm thick they’re thinner than the iPhone Air.
Amazon says the new Kindle Scribes use an improved front light system with tiny LEDs that help reduce the size of the screen bezels while making the lighting more uniform. An improved texture on the glass adds more friction to better simulate the feeling of a pen on paper while Amazon has reduced gaps between that glass and the E Ink panel beneath so pen strokes feel like they’re connected directly to the tip of your stylus.
A new quad-core processor and additional memory improve the performance of the new Kindle Scribes which now offer a writing experience and page turns that feel 40 percent faster than previous versions.
Amazon has also improved the software experience on all three models. There’s a new home screen that adds a Quick Notes section for jotting down random thoughts, while recently accessed notebooks and documents are now more easily accessible. You’ll also be able to export your notes as editable text to OneNote so you can continue editing them on your laptop, and the Scribes will be able to access documents stored on Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.
New AI-powered features include expanded search capabilities across notebooks and simple AI-generated summaries. As Alexa Plus expands to more users, Amazon is planning to introduce a new feature next year letting you send your notes to the smart assistant and have conversations about them.
There will be new AI-assisted reading tools, too, including a feature called Story So Far that generates a spoiler-free recap of a book up to the point you’ve read, and Ask this Book that provides answers to questions based on a highlighted passage of text.
All three of the new Kindle Scribe models come with steeper price tags. Last year’s Kindle Scribe started at $399.99, but the cheapest of the new additions is the Scribe without a front light that now starts at $429.99. If you plan to write or read at night, you’ll want the standard Kindle Scribe which starts at $499.99, and if you want a splash of color, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft starts at $629.99. That’s more expensive than the Remarkable Paper Pro which uses a more advanced color screen, but the color Scribe does provide full access to Amazon’s expansive online bookstore.
The Scribe was first introduced to Amazon’s Kindle lineup in 2022 with a 10.2-inch E Ink screen, a stylus, and new software features that made it both a big screen e-reader and a note-taking device. But for some users, its inability to directly annotate ebooks made it a frustrating solution when compared to other digital notepads. Two years later, Amazon released a new version of the Scribe. It was the same size as the original but featured a refreshed design and improved software that added functionality like converting handwritten notes to editable text, AI-generated document summaries, and the ability to add notes to ebook files that remained visible on the page.
