Amazon hosted a hardware event in New York City this morning where they announced several new electronic gadgets, including three new variations of the Kindle Scribe with crazy high prices.
There’s a new version with a color E Ink screen called the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, and there are two new black and white versions of the Kindle Scribe, one with a frontlight and one without a frontlight. All have 11-inch E Ink screens now, up from 10.2-inches on previous models. They’re still 300 ppi like before, with 150 ppi for color content on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.
The new Kindle Scribes have a sleeker, more tablet-like design with smaller borders, and the weight is down to 400 grams from 433 grams, despite being larger, so they’re a bit lighter as well.
Amazon claims the new Kindle Scribe is 40% faster, and the writing latency is under 12 milliseconds. They say they redesigned the LED frontlight system, while reducing the gap between the screen and front layer. They also say they improved the texture on the screen to make it feel more paper-like.
There are several new software features too, some you wouldn’t expect, including integration with Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, and there’s a new home screen layout with a Quick Notes box to write notes in. There are some new AI features as well for searching notebooks and providing overviews of notebooks. You can also get spoiler-free recaps of books up to the point where you’ve read.
New Kindle Scribe Prices
This is where things get crazy. Amazon is raising the price of the Kindle Scribe significantly. The old Kindle Scribe starts at $399, and it’s currently on sale for $299, but the new Kindle Scribe starts at $429, and that’s for the model without a frontlight. The frontlit version starts at $499, and the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is $629.
Oddly, they aren’t available to pre-order yet, but you can sign up to get notified when they become available. The links to the product pages are below. Amazon says the new BW Kindle Scribe and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft will be available in the US “later this year”, and the Kindle Scribe without a frontlight will become available early next year. They also said that all three products will be available in the UK and Germany early next year.
Kindle Scribe – $429.99 16GB
Kindle Scribe with Frontlight – $499.99 32GB – $549.99 64GB
Kindle Scribe Colorsoft – $629.99 32GB – $679.99 64GB
I hope the new AI features and the ability to import Google Docs comes as an update to older Scribes sometime next year. I’m happy with the writing ability of my Scribe 2. The new hardware features sound nice, but the price, yikes. I bought my Scribe 2 during a severe sale this past January. If a Scribe 3 ever has a similar sale, I’ll consider it.
Well Nathan! 🙂 Just for you …2 black and white versions., and a color variant. Just makes sense as all they had to do is a a color film layer for one model. If Kobo is smart they will do something similar. Black and white is not dead yet.
Don’t quite get the one lacking a frontlight…but I guess it’s a step up story that makes sense. Crazy prices.
Yeah, I’m glad to see they aren’t giving up on black and white E Ink. When they started the presentation by saying that over 60% of Kindle device sales are to new customers I was a bit worried things wouldn’t go that way, but it’s good to see they aren’t going the Kobo route. Good thing too, because they aren’t going to be selling a lot of color units at that price.
No doubt about that price Barrier. A qualitative bar seems have been raised. It will be hard for companies to put outdated tech out there.
11 inch screen, sorta IPad symmetrical look. Honestly, I’m impressed…even though I am drawing away from Amazon over content incompatibilities. I also have a bunch of e pubs.
I was interested in the color Kindle Scribe until I saw the price and mentally choked.
I wonder how many people will spring for something more than the entry-level iPad. I’m not knocking eReaders, mind you. I’m just saying that it’s hard to rationalize purchasing something that expensive.
In principle, the only one that might interest me (and not very much) is the Colorsoft, perhaps if I could take advantage of a special offer. But I think that this time around, these devices are not for me.
If they accept trade-ins for the 20% discount, which they probably will, that could get the price of the Colorsoft version down to $504, which is pretty reasonable considering Onyx’s Note Air Color sells for $529.
Otro dispositivo a color con Kaleido3? Paso…
According to Amazon’s website the old model is 5.8 mm thin, not 8.4. So the difference is actually just 0.4 mm.
The whole thing is just ridiculous. 100 % price of Remarkable but with 10 % of functionality. I honestly don’t see who this is for.
Also the model without front light… Remarkable has one because it’s an old model. Why make this in 2025?
And last but not least… For years all I hear everywhere is people complaining about Scribe being too big and they make it even bigger and don’t introduce smaller version?
This whole upgrade sucks.
You’re right, I was looking at the thickness of the stylus that they list in the specs for the Scribe for some reason. I can’t believe they’re bragging about it being 0.3mm thinner like it’s some major achievement; it’s among their top 3 marketing points for crying out loud. 😀
Right? Like anyone’s actually gonna notice that in real use 😃😃😃
As a Kindle Scribe (1st gen) user, I’m very interested in this selling point. I literally take mine everywhere I go (avid writer/voracious reader) and, while 0.3mm doesn’t seem like anything worth mentioning, it may be noticable (and appreciated) by someone like me. Would I love to see a smaller version, sure (was actually thinking about this yesterday), but if all I get is 0.3mm, it may be worth it. I’ll be getting one when they’re released so, time will tell.
They’ve pushed tiny incremental improvements as ground breaking innovation before. On the last generation of Kindles they kept harping on about how much brighter the new LEDs were. 25% brighter or something was the pitch.
The price is pretty much what I expected (I am actually surprised that people thought it would me cheaper), but it‘s getting too big.
At this point, what I really want is a 8 or 9 inch colour Oasis.
I would really like 9 for an e reader. A lot of information on each page without being too hard to handle for long periods.
However, 11 seems to be fantastic as a note device. Don’t be surprised if the prolific Onyx puts out something similar.
I probably won’t get it, but, I expect high quantity. A premium reader …super premium price. Definitely a trade-in, sale type of thing.
I’m for 8-9″ new Kobo Sage … in BW.
9″ would be an interesting size for an e-reader that had note-taking capability like Sage does. The 8″ screen is OK for that, but still feels a bit cramped, even for the casual notes I use it for.
As for color, I like actual color. Vibrant color. True color. I’m not a huge fan of the muted e-ink colors. I suppose it’s better than nothing if you must have color, and could help where color might be most useful, like non-fiction diagrams and charts, or photos. When I have an ebook with color content, I first read on my Kobo, then I pop it onto my iPad for enjoyment of the color. Works for me.
I admit, I’ve been interested in trying a Kindle Scribe for fun, but mostly I read, and the larger size feels like it would be a bit TOO large to be comfortable holding for long reading sessions. At the current price for the latest BW model, pretty much a HARD nope. I can think of lots of other things I’d rather spend $500 on.
I wonder if the cheapest Scribe will end up having the best pure contrast, as removing the front lights might reduce the layers on top of the e-ink display.
I wonder if the color ones will have the yellow bottom again. Is it the same screen tech from the colorsoft? Only larger of course.
It is starting to look like Amazon is trying to shove the Scribe down our throats. I could care less about note taking. What I would like to see is a ColorSoft screen in the 7 inch Kindle that my old eyes can comfortably see.
They released the 7” Colorsoft last year.
The color screen isn’t clear enough for my low vision.
That’s literally the latest colour eink technology. It can’t be any clearer because of the limitations of colour eink.
You want clearer? Buy a device with BW eink screen.
I find it odd how expensive the one without a frontlight is.. and I find already my scribe 1 more than big enough, I wouldn’t want anything bigger. I really love my scribe so I’ll stick to what I have. It does have the gap but the screen I got really lucky with mine
Also I don’t think these new ones are coming to Canada for a long time
Lou Sevens here- as someone who has used a Kindle since 2011 with perhaps 1,376 books (I like the $2 sales ) , I feel insulted and violated by Amazon for how much they are charging for this.
Who cares if it is thinner if you use a case or folder anyway?
Also, do I really need color? I have done without it for 14 years. When I have a book with pictures, I simply use my computer or IPAD.
The paper surface might interest me, but I am doing fine with the current Scribe.
If it started at perhaps $400 I would be interested, but $630 is starting to be low-end Ipad range.
A low-range iPad costs less than €400, so the price is actually getting into the mid-range iPad Air territory.
I really hope they fixed the weak contrast issues on the scribes, especially at that price
Premium pricing is Amazon‘s strategy with color. Price it high so they can then give you a steep discount to make you feel like you made a fantastic deal (especially when giving up your old Kindle for an extra 20%). That is how they keep you locked in too, making you constantly renew your devices so you won’t be giving up on the platform, and not even feel like you’re making a mistake by buying their super-locked in book licenses.
Yikes! Those prices are outrageous even for a slightly larger device. I’m sure they’re trying to compete with Remarkable & other similar brands but like others said, what’s with the one without front light & being that expensive? It is surprising about the Google drive & Microsoft OneDrive accessibility but with them “tightening their software belts” as of late I can’t help but wonder how these will be monitored or restricted.
I currently have a Scribe 2 in my mix & although I don’t use it too often I have enjoyed using it for what it is, for the most part. If I ever decided to upgrade to something else it will definitely not be another Amazon product. Even with a trade-in & discount, it wouldn’t be worth it to me & I would most likely go with Remarkable or something else if I were in the market for one.
I will be curious to see how their sales for this will be, I’m sure lower than excepted due to a lot of various reasons.
I do like that they went with that color body on the scribe colorsoft but it would have been nice to see another color option in addition to the 2 they already have listed. I also find it great & refreshing they are coming out with 2 different BW options, they are keeping this (BW) alive! As much as many of us hate how big of a company they are & how they’re really trying to corner the market even more, they do seem to set a lot of standards in the industry. So I’ll be looking forward to what other companies respond with… Looking at you Kobo (to name one).
Data encryption and search for handwriting, finally! Hoping they come to existing Scribes also!
I am guessing that it will be incredibly difficult, if not impossible to add custom fonts on these locked down Kindles.
As great as these look(they really look like a substantial upgrade)….I am going to pass.
You have always been able to add custom fonts. Just go to the font folder and read the text file that gives you the information on what type of files to copy over. I have custom fonts on all my kindles. Basically just transfer the appropriate font file to the font folder of the device. That is it.
Mine actually is not accessible after latest update.
What isn’t accessible? Custom fonts are working on the my 12th gen Paperwhite with 5.18.5.0.1, and the fonts folder is still accessible.
On my Scribe, I can’t access the drive. It just shows as “Internal Storage. Inside that I have 3 folders notebooks, audible an system. My guess is this will be the new format.
Will probably need to deregister and wipe out entire library and start fresh.
All books and my custom fonts are on it but I can’t add or remove via computer or Calibre