The first color Kindle Scribe is scheduled to launch on December 10.

Amazon has finally set a release date for its newest Kindle lineup—including the first-ever Scribe color e-reader. The company says the new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and refreshed Kindle Scribe will hit shelves on December 10, keeping the same prices announced in September.

The Colorsoft starts at $629.99, while the upgraded Scribe with front light costs $499.99. And unlike most major hardware launches, Amazon isn't taking pre-orders this time.

1. Amazon stops providing Appstore for Android devices

New features, new experiences

From smoother writing surfaces to smarter reading tools, the latest Scribes offer upgrades you'll notice immediately.

Amazon's new Kindle Scribe lineup may look familiar at first glance, but the company has redesigned almost everything on the device to feel more like a real laptop. The new models are noticeably thinner, lighter, and sharper thanks to redesigned displays, faster chips, and a backlighting system that puts the LEDs right next to the screen. The 11-inch screen now feels closer to real paper, with a textured glass surface that adds just enough friction so your writing doesn't feel like it's sliding across ice.

The Colorsoft version uses a softer e-ink color system instead of the bright, punchy look commonly found on other tablets.

In addition to the hardware upgrades, Amazon clearly wants these Scribes to function as productivity hubs. The new AI-powered laptop can search your doodles and generate simple summaries, and you can now import documents directly from Google Drive or OneDrive and export marked-up PDFs with ease.

When the last Kindle Scribe launched last year, reviewers loved it for what it was—a big, beautiful e-reader with a paper-like screen and one of the best styluses they'd ever used. But it also had some obvious pain points that Amazon is now working to address. The first model felt a little heavy and slippery to hold for long periods of time, the magnetic pen didn't stay in place, and the note-taking features, while promising, weren't robust enough to justify the high price. Even the AI ​​tools felt more like fun experiments than everyday assistants.

Hands-on reviews of the new model from tech sites like Mashable and CNET largely reflect that optimism, praising the improvements made to the next-generation Kindle (but still questioning whether the price is a bit steep).

If Amazon can nail down durability, ergonomics, and genuinely useful software improvements, this Scribe could finally live up to the potential reviewers saw from the start.

And don't forget—even if you don't own a Kindle, you can still take advantage of the Kindle mobile app.

Micah Soto

Update 08 December 2025