For those seeking a tablet specifically to mark up, highlight, and annotate e-books and documents, with occasional note-taking, Amazon's new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft may justify its significant cost. For most other users, however, the price of this 11-inch, $630+ e-ink tablet with a writable color display is difficult to recommend. That said, if you were already considering the 11-inch, $549.99 Kindle Scribe—which has a paper-like display but lacks color—spending the extra to upgrade to the Colorsoft, starting at $629.99, could make sense. At these prices, both the Scribe and Scribe Colorsoft are largely unnecessary luxuries for the average person, especially when compared to more affordable options like the traditional Kindle ($110) or the Kindle Paperwhite ($160).

Announced in December, the Fig color variant started shipping on January 28, 2026, and is priced at $679.99 for the 64GB model. With these upgraded devices, Amazon is clearly aiming to establish a niche in the tablet market, competing more directly with e-ink tablets like reMarkable than with other Kindles. Yet, high-end e-ink readers with stylus support are unlikely to attract a massive audience. In contrast, an iPad's broad capabilities—including video streaming, drawing, writing, productivity tools, and access to thousands of native apps and games—make its cost justifiable to nearly anyone. The Scribe Colorsoft, however, is tailored for a very specific user: the dedicated e-book reader or professional who regularly works with documents. This device could be an excellent fit for students, researchers, or anyone who frequently needs to annotate files. Individuals keen on maintaining to-do lists or personal journals might also find it appealing, though they would need to use it daily to warrant the investment.

The device is straightforward to use, featuring a Home screen layout similar to other Kindles for quick access to your notes, library, and even book suggestions you can write in, such as Sudoku or crossword puzzle books and drawing guides. Your Library titles and book recommendations appear in color, making it easier to quickly scan and find a book. Regarding specifications, Amazon states this 2025 model is 40% faster for page turns and writing. In practice, the tablet feels responsive, with snappy page turns and smooth writing. Despite its larger screen, it remains thin and light at 5.4mm (0.21 inches) thick and 400g (0.88 pounds), so it won't weigh down your bag like an iPad or other tablets would (the 8.3-inch iPad mini is slightly lighter). Carrying the Kindle Scribe in a purse or tote is easy, provided your bag can accommodate an 11-inch screen. Compared to the original Colorsoft, the Scribe Colorsoft's bezel is uniformly sized around the screen, which is a welcome improvement. The device features a glare-free, oxide-based e-ink display with a textured surface that closely mimics the feel of writing on paper, easing the transition to digital note-taking for those accustomed to writing by hand. This design also benefits battery life, allowing up to 8 weeks between charges. Helpfully, the display automatically adjusts its brightness to ambient lighting, and you can opt for a warmer screen tone for nighttime reading. However, as a touchscreen, it is less responsive than the LCD or OLED screens found on iPads. Gestures like pinching to resize text exhibit a slight lag.

As with any Kindle, you can read e-books and PDFs on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. You can also import Word documents and other files directly from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive to your device, or use the Send to Kindle option. Supported file types include PDF, DOC/DOCX, TXT, RTF, HTM, HTML, PNG, GIF, JPG/JPEG, BMP, and EPUB. Additionally, Notebooks created on the device can be exported to Microsoft OneNote. The included pen comes with some trade-offs. Unlike the Apple Pencil, the Kindle's Premium Pen does not require charging, which is a definite advantage. It is designed to simulate the feel of writing on paper and glides smoothly across the screen. However, its rounded shape, lacking a flat side for charging, doesn't offer the same grip or feel as the Apple Pencil, potentially causing it to slip in your hand. Amazon's design also necessitates occasional replacement of the pen tips, as they can wear down with use. While not overly expensive—a 10-pack costs around $17—it is an additional maintenance task. The pen offers 10 different ink colors and five highlight colors, allowing for fairly colorful notes and annotations.

When writing, you can select from a pen, fountain pen, marker, or pencil, each with adjustable stroke widths to suit your preference. You can set a favorite pen tool as a shortcut, activated by pressing and holding the button on the pen's side (by default, this is set to highlight). If you tend to grip the pen tightly and accidentally trigger this button, you can disable the feature. The writing experience itself feels natural. While the e-ink display results in somewhat muted colors—which may not appeal to everyone—it serves its purpose well. An e-ink tablet isn't ideal for creating digital art, despite its pens and new shader tool, but it excels at writing, note-taking, and highlighting. From the Kindle's Home screen, you can start writing immediately using the Quick Notes feature or opt for a more organized approach by creating a Notebook from the Workspace tab.

The Notebook feature offers a wide variety of templates, allowing you to choose from blank, narrow-ruled, medium-ruled, or wide-ruled documents, along with numerous other options. Templates are available for meeting notes, storyboards, habit trackers, monthly planners, music sheets, graph paper, checklists, daily planners, dotted sheets, and much more. New templates with this device include Meeting Notes, Cornell Notes, Legal Pad, and College Rule options.

A particularly enjoyable feature is the ability to erase by flipping the pen over to use the soft-tipped eraser, much like a No. 2 pencil. For more precise erasing, a toolbar tool with adjustable widths is also available. Due to the e-ink screen, you may occasionally see a faint ghost image of your drawing or writing after erasing, though this fades shortly afterward. However, this minor artifact might bother more particular users.

A Lasso tool lets you circle items to move, copy, paste, or resize them, though casual note-takers may not use it frequently. There are also handy features for those who annotate extensively. For example, when writing in a Word document or book, the Active Canvas feature creates space for your notes. As you write directly over the text, sentences will move and wrap around your note. Even if you adjust the font size of the material you're reading, the note remains anchored to its original reference point. This approach keeps things more organized compared to writing directly in e-books, though preferences may vary.

In documents with expandable margins, you can tap the expandable margin icon at the top of the left or right margin to place your notes in the margin instead of on the page itself.

**A Kindle with AI (Of Course)**

The new Kindle also incorporates several AI tools and features. The device can neaten your scribbles and automatically straighten your highlighting and underlining. During testing, the highlighting function caused the review unit to freeze a couple of times, but it recovered after pressing the side button to return to the Home screen. A new AI feature, accessible via a sparkle icon in the top left corner of the screen, allows you to summarize text and refine your handwriting. Interestingly, the handwriting refinement does not convert your writing to a typed font but lets you choose from a small selection of handwritten fonts—Cadia, Florio, Sunroom, and Notewright—via a Customize button.

The AI tool wasn't flawless. It could decipher some very messy handwriting but struggled when additional scribbles were present on the page alongside the text. Still, it's a useful option for those who prefer the feel of handwriting but have grown less adept at it after years of typing. The AI search feature can also scan your notebooks to find notes or identify connections between them. To search, you can either tap the on-screen keyboard or switch to handwriting your query, which is then converted to text. You can interact with the search results—the AI-powered insights—through the Ask Notebooks AI feature, which allows you to query your notes directly.

Soon, Amazon will introduce additional AI features, including an "Ask this Book" function that lets you highlight a passage and receive spoiler-free answers to questions about character motives, scene significance, or other plot details. Another feature, "Story So Far," will help you catch up on a book after a break, again without revealing spoilers.

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is available in Graphite (Black) with either 32GB or 64GB of storage, priced at $629.99 and $679.99, respectively. The Fig version is offered only with 64GB of storage for $679.99. Cases for the Scribe Colorsoft are sold separately for $139.99.