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The Kindle brand has been going through a rough patch lately. Its Colorsoft e-reader was plagued with hardware issues affecting screen quality. Also, its parent brand, Amazon, is removing the ability to download and back up purchased e-books from its website. Despite this, a Kindle e-reader is still one of the best e-reader purchases for the casual user. Which Kindle should you get? Of all the Kindles you can currently buy, which reigns supreme?
Kindle Scribe
Before I get into the Scribe, let me say that it’s a fine device, but it’s specialized and expensive, making it the lowest-ranked Kindle for the averageuser. At its most affordable, the Kindle Scribe is $400 for the model with 16GB of internal storage, and it rises to $420 and $450 for the 32GB and 64GB models, respectively. That’s too much money for the casual user.
The Kindle Scribe isn’t made for the casual user. The Scribe is a handwriting-first E Ink device. It’s the only Kindle device with stylus input. If document or book annotation is important, the Scribe is your only option while staying within the Amazon ecosystem. The Scribe also has the largest screen on a Kindle device, so it will be superior to other Kindles when it comes to viewing comics or PDFs.
The current Scribe (this is its second incarnation) is better than its predecessor, allowing you to annotate in books and incorporating OCR and AI tools to power up its note-taking capabilities. However, the competition in the A5-sized e-reader space has become fierce in the past year, meaning it’s impossible to recommend the Scribe without a few caveats. Thus, it’s at the bottom of the list.
Kindle Scribe (2024)
The Kindle Scribe (2024) is a step up from the original Scribe, with an improved pen and notebook experience. With additional features like note margins, annotations, and AI notebook tools, it’s a decent e-reader option, but a bit pricey for what you get.
Kindle Colorsoft
Amazon made big waves last year when it announced its first color e-reader. However, the hype train came to a halt when a significant hardware issue came to light after launch. It affected enough devices that Amazon recalled and stopped selling the Colorsoft for a month. Things seem to be settled, but the new Colorsoft isn’t exactly on stable ground.
The Kindle Colorsoft may be the e-reader you’re looking for, but again, with some caveats. The first is that this device uses a Kaleido 3 screen, so the colors are the same as most other color devices, albeit they’re a bit more saturated on the Colorsoft at the cost of HDR. The other big caveat is that all Kaleido 3 E Ink devices come with the same limitations, the most important of which are reduced resolution for color (typically 150ppi vs. 300ppi for black and white) and lower contrast due to the color filter array.
If you have $280 to burn and want to see what the color hype is about, it’s not a bad e-reader, but that price is a big ask for the casual reader. Likewise, if you want to read comics and manga in color, this is an okay device, but it’s not hard to find a comparable e-reader for a lower price from a different OEM.
Kindle Colorsoft
The Colorsoft is Amazon’s first foray into color E Ink devices. You can finally highlight your favorite books in multiple colors which should be great for students and will add new depth for fans of Kindle’s social highlighting features.
Kindle Basic
The OG Kindle comes out on top of more niche devices like the Scribe and the Colorsoft because of its broader appeal. While you can do more with a Scribe and see more colors with a Colorsoft, most people don’t need stylus input or color pictures when reading. And at $110, it’s more affordable.