The BEST Kindle for Reading, Notes, Manga, and More
I’ve been getting back into reading lately… everything from Dune to Three Body Problem to Project Hail Mary and A Court of Thorns and Roses… that last one doesn’t quite fit the theme… I read it for the plot. So I’ve been researching Kindles and other e-readers to figure out which one I should invest in.
Today we are comparing FOUR different Amazon Kindle models. Amazon’s Kindle lineup has gotten kinda confusing lately. We’ve got black and white e-readers, color e-readers, giant notebook-style Kindles, Signature Editions, regular editions… and they all look almost the same at first glance.
So if you’ve been wondering: “which one is best for me? Is the color version worth it? Do I need a signature edition? Should I pay more for a Scribe?” well, this video is for you.
What’s up S’mores, I’m Shannon Morse! Welcome to my YouTube Channel!
I’ve been testing four Kindles side-by-side, and by the end of this video, you should have a very good idea of which Kindle fits your reading style, your budget, and your needs.
I did request these from Amazon, so thank you to Amazon for providing some e-readers for my testing and review.
Alright, so here’s the lineup we’re comparing today. First up is the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (12th Gen) in Metallic Raspberry with 32 gigs of storage.
Then we have TWO versions of the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft: the Signature Edition in Metallic Black with 32 gigs and the regular Colorsoft with 16 gigs in a matte black.
And finally, the giant tablet-looking beast over here: this is the Amazon Kindle Scribe with the Premium Pen in Metallic Jade with 64 gigs of storage.
Storage options vary for all of ‘em, so I’d recommend checking the purchase pages to choose which one fits for your own library of content. There are also a variety of color options too, and the pricing varies by a couple hundred bucks depending on which one you choose.
On the high end, the Scribe starts at $399.99, the ColorSofts sit in the middle at $249 and $279 respectively, then the 12th Gen Kindle Signature edition is $200. Of course, Amazon runs their own sales and promos all the time, so check the links below for current pricing.
The Paperwhite and Colorsofts are all current / newest gen. The Scribe is one gen behind the newest one, which now comes in color - I also got hands on with that edition at a press event last fall.
So let’s break these down by categories because that’s the easiest way to compare them.
DESIGN AND BUILD
Starting with the Paperwhite Signature Edition and the two Colorsoft models - these all feel very similar in the hand.
They’ve got that soft-touch backing that’s super comfortable to hold for long reading sessions, they’re lightweight, and they all use a 7-inch glare-free display. That glare-free coating is one of my favorite things about Kindles in general because I can sit outside in bright sunlight and still read comfortably without dealing with reflections.
The Metallic Raspberry color on the Paperwhite Signature is SO cute. I love seeing companies making tech products in colors other than corporate gray and black.
Of course, if you want a signature edition, which sadly doesn’t have fun colors, you can stick ‘em in a colorful case, and there are tons to choose from on Amazons marketplace.
The Colorsoft Signature and regular Colorsoft both look almost identical physically. If you put them side-by-side, most people probably wouldn’t even know which is which. The easiest way to tell is the regular one is matte black, the signature edition is shinier black.
Now the Scribe is a completely different category. This thing is HUGE compared to the others with a 10.2-inch anti glare display, and it feels more like a digital notebook than an e-reader. If the Paperwhite is your cozy book, the Scribe is basically your college notebook, planner, sketchbook, and Kindle all smashed together into one device. And I actually really like the Metallic Jade color. It feels premium, and while slim, doesn’t feel like it’s going to break on me.
DISPLAY DIFFERENCES
The displays are different. The Paperwhite Signature Edition uses a traditional black-and-white Kindle display, and it still looks fantastic for reading. Text is incredibly sharp, contrast looks excellent, page turns are fast, and if all you do is read novels, this thing is great for that. In fact, I usually go for the traditional black and white models for my own casual reading.
But then we get to the Colorsoft models. And yes… color on a Kindle is VERY cool. Seeing book covers in color makes the whole experience feel more modern and alive. Comics, manga, cookbooks, travel books, and graphic novels especially benefit from this.
And the multi-color highlighting feature is surprisingly fun to use. If you’re annotating books or organizing research notes, being able to color-code highlights can be quite useful.
Also of note: The Signature versions can autoadjust brightness based on the surrounding lighting. But ALL options can do scheduled adjustments to white balance based on time or sun rise and sunset.
Between the two COLORSOFT kindles… i noticed a slightly warmer display on the Signature edition vs the regular edition, but they had equal brightness.
The drawback though is that the color display does look slightly darker and a little grainier compared to the Paperwhite. For modes in black and white, these first three hit 300 ppi, but color hits 150 ppi, so it drops to half of the maximum density. You’re trading some of that ultra-crisp black-and-white contrast in exchange for color support.
There is a very obvious difference in the clarity and sharpness of text on the black and white Kindle vs the two Colorsoft versions. And the Signature Edition ColorSoft does look a little bit sharper than the regular ColorSoft in person, even though they’re listed as the same pixels per inch.
So if your primary use case is reading novels? The Paperwhite still technically looks cleaner. But if you read visually rich content, the Colorsoft is gonna be WAY more fun, with the Signature edition giving you a slightly better viewing experience.
Then there’s the Scribe. The Scribe has this massive 10.2-inch 300 PPI display that feels premium for reading PDFs, textbooks, or taking notes. It’s front-lit, glare-free, and feels incredibly close to writing on paper. Not exactly paper-paper… but close enough. Palm rejection works great while writing on it, and the stylus is responsive.
Compared to the smaller models, the Scribe’s sharpness is in line with the ColorSofts, and I thought the b&w kindle still had the sharpest screen of them all. The Scribe also has more blue light, but you can adjust the warmth easily.
PERFORMANCE AND FEATURES
Now for performance and features! The Signature Editions - both the Paperwhite and the Colorsoft - include: wireless charging, auto-adjusting front lights, and more storage. The regular Colorsoft skips those extras.
So with the regular model, you’re manually adjusting brightness yourself and charging with USB-C only. Some people won’t care at all. The battery lasts long enough that I don’t need wireless charging. Sure, more storage is great, but your e-books are stored in the kindle cloud til you wanna download them. Auto adjusting is really cool, though, and is the main feature I miss on the regular editions.
I do genuinely love the auto-adjusting front light on the Signature models because it subtly changes throughout the day and makes reading feel more natural.
All three smaller Kindles are also IPX8 waterproof rated, which is AWESOME if you read by the pool, in the bath, at the beach, or if you’re just a drink gremlin. The Scribe is not IP certified.
The Scribe does have tons of productivity tools built in. This thing is designed for both reading AND writing. You can handwrite notes directly into books, use built-in notebook templates, create journals, brainstorm ideas, and convert handwritten notes into text.
That handwriting-to-text conversion works way better than I expected, and while there are some AI tools built in, you don’t have to use them if you don’t want to.
The Premium Pen feels really nice. The first thing I noticed out of the box is it’s not slippery. It has a nice soft touch that is grippy and won’t slip out of your hand as you write. It has an eraser shortcut and customizable button shortcuts that make it feel much more like a real writing tool instead of just a cheap stylus thrown into the box.
DARK MODE IS SUPPORTED NOW ON COLORSOFT TOO - you can customize WHERE this works, and not everything has to use the same system theme. At the bottom of the quick menu, there’s a section that says Page Color and this can be customized.
On the Kindle b&w, you can use dark mode too but there is not Page Color action.
For performance, both the ColorSoft kindles flip between pages and refresh pages and download content at almost the exact same speed. The Black and White Kindle is faster at page flips than both of them. And, no surprise, the black and white kindle is also faster at refreshing those pages than the Scribe.
There’s nothing fantastic or surprising about how the navigation works on these devices. If you’ve used a recent Kindle, they all work about the same. Home and Library at the bottom, you can customize what books you see via filters and sorting options, and the quick settings at the top offer the expected tools.
Something cool that I just figured out because I’m a lefty so I tried it, you can flip the Scribe over so the handheld bezel is on the right side, which pts the stylus on the left side and makes it much easier to hold and use with your dominant hand.
BATTERY LIFE
One thing Kindles continue to absolutely dominate at is battery life.
All of these last WAY longer than tablets because e-ink displays sip power instead of chugging it like an iPad running a bunch of apps.
The Scribe and the Kindle Paperwhite Signature black and white model can do up to 12 weeks of battery life, while the ColorSoft models can get 8 weeks of usage before a charge is needed. The Scribe uses more battery when you’re writing or taking notes and syncing.
The battery life will vary depending on brightness and usage.
So who are these actually FOR? The Paperwhite Signature Edition is probably the best all-around Kindle for most people. If you mainly read novels, want a premium experience, and don’t care about color, this is probably the sweet spot. The battery life is excellent, the screen looks fantastic, and it’s lightweight enough to toss into a purse or backpack without thinking about it.
The Colorsoft Signature Edition is for readers who LOVE visual content like manga, travel books, books with pictures. If you wanna see the covers in their full colorful glory, then the ColorSoft versions are best.
And then there’s the Scribe. The Scribe is for students, researchers, writers, planners, journal people, business users, or anyone who constantly writes notes by hand.
This is NOT the Kindle I’d recommend for casually reading in bed one-handed for three hours. It’s big. But for productivity? It’s useful. I could absolutely see myself using this while outlining YouTube videos, organizing research for cybersecurity stories, or annotating scripts. However, I think the Scribe is a niche tool, similar to tablets. There is a place for this tool, but most people would likely not need it.
ALTERNATIVES TO KINDLES
I love having an e-reader for portable book reading. It’s convenient and distraction free. But Kindles aren’t the only ones on the market. You might want an alternative e-reader IF you want something open source or more customizable. There are open source e-readers like the Kobo e-readers (which support sideloading via Calibre) and specialized software like KOReader, a customizable, open-source reader interface that can be installed on existing e-ink devices. For maximum freedom, DIY projects like The Open Book (Raspberry Pi Pico-based) or Readest offer truly open, DRM-free reading experiences.
Given the recent news of Amazon EOLing older Kindles (like they won’t allow you to download new books to them), you may want to consider looking into Jailbreaking your old kindle. Obviously do this at your own risk, I don’t accept responsibility if you brick your device.
Amazon also KOed the Download and Transfer via USB option for kindles, as well, which is restricting the way you can access your e-books.
So what about e-book access? If a book gets banned, it usually remains in your Kindle library if you already purchased it. You won’t be able to find it in the Amazon Kindle Store, but it is still in your library to read. Amazon DOES have the technical ability to remove content, and they did this way back in 2009 when they deleted copies of 1984. Amazon does have the power to remove a book from your library too. So having downloadable and local backups of my e-books on a local computer is a big deal. You can use tools like Calibre to remove restrictions, too.
So this is my advocacy for physical books:
Digital books can be altered, removed from marketplaces, removed from libraries. Physical books are yours forever. If a book gets banned, the digital version may no longer exist on Kindle. If you’ve already bought a physical book, the only way someone can take that from you is by coming into your house and physical taking the book.
I tend to buy physical “keepers” that I plan to read more than once, classics, and banned books. I buy e-books for one-and-done reads.
So here’s my overall takeaway after testing all four. If you want the best overall Kindle for reading novels: go with the Paperwhite Signature Edition. If you want color and premium features: go with the Colorsoft Signature Edition. If you want color while saving money: the regular Colorsoft is probably the value pick.
And if you want a Kindle that doubles as a digital notebook the Scribe is absolutely the one to get.
Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem has gotten really good lately, especially now that color e-ink is finally becoming practical enough for everyday use.
Amazon Kindle 12th Gen Signature Edition ($199.99): https://amzn.to/3PzR8UE
Amazon Kindle ColorSoft Signature Edition ($279.99): https://amzn.to/3PlI45J
Amazon Kindle ColorSoft Regular ($249.99): https://amzn.to/42w869i
Amazon Kindle Scribe ($399.99): https://amzn.to/4ucvlkY
*prices listed for lowest available storage, regular price - click for current sales!
Alternatives and other reference links:
https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book
https://www.theverge.com/news/612898/amazon-removing-kindle-book-download-transfer-usb
https://www.npr.org/2009/07/24/106989048/amazons-1984-deletion-from-kindle-examined
