Amazon’s latest 32GB Kindle Scribe Colorsoft improves upon the previous models and sells for $629.99. A 128GB Apple M4 iPad Air lists for $749 after a recent $150 price hike due to component shortages. However, Amazon often sells the iPad Air for considerably less — around the $650 mark at times, and much closer to the Scribe Colorsoft’s price point. It’s easy to see why people compare the two.

On the surface, the iPad Air is the obvious choice: it’s a fully fledged tablet with a great screen and an App Store full of apps. But I still think the Scribe Colorsoft is a better buy for some people. It might even be the best option for you, too.

The price math

What the gap actually looks like

If we consider the M4 iPad Air at the discounted price it can often be bought for, the gap between it and the Scribe Colorsoft is minimal. Sure, you’ll need to buy an Apple Pencil for your iPad Air, and the Scribe Colorsoft comes with a stylus in the box. But the iPad Air also offers much more storage, so there are wins on both sides.

Apple is famous for offering some of the industry’s best displays. The iPad Air isn’t its premium tablet, but its display is still big, bright, and colorful. It’s also backed up by the super-fast M4 chip, capable of heavy-duty video editing and AI workloads.

With just a glance at a specs sheet, it’s no contest. The iPad Air is the no-brainer of the two. But the Scribe Colorsoft also has some very good reasons for a price that, on the face of it, seems too high. $629.99 is a lot of money for what some will consider to be a Kindle with stylus support. But that does the Scribe Colorsoft a disservice.

The display trade-off

E-ink versus Liquid Retina

For starters, the Scribe Colorsoft uses a custom oxide thin-film transistor backplane paired with a color filter layer. This approach gives the device its distinctive paper-like reading and note-taking experience while adding color support. That paper-like display is key not only to an excellent reading experience, but also to making note-taking feel as close to using a real pad of paper as possible.

If you’ve ever used a stylus to write or draw on a glass-screened tablet, you’ll know that it feels anything but paper-like. For regular note-takers, Amazon’s e-ink display technology is a key differentiator that tablets just can’t match.

However, while Amazon’s Colorsoft e-ink technology boasts an input latency of just 12 milliseconds, the iPad Air and Apple Pencil combination still beats it. Latency is so low that it is imperceptible, aiding art creation — something the Scribe Colorsoft simply isn’t built for.

Apple’s Liquid Retina display also has an incredibly high resolution, making it impossible to discern one pixel from another. By contrast, the Scribe Colorsoft’s 300 pixels per inch (PPI) mono pixel density plummets to just 150 PPI when displaying color. The iPad Air’s 264 PPI applies regardless of what’s on-screen.

Ultimately, the M4 iPad Air’s display is clearly better for most tasks and use cases. But the Scribe Colorsoft is the big winner for a very specific kind of person.

The single-purpose case

When doing less is more

The crux of the matter is that the iPad Air can do everything that the Scribe Colorsoft can do, and more besides. But it doesn’t do all of them as successfully as Amazon’s device.

The Amazon Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is built for note-taking. That’s why it comes with a stylus, and it’s built to take notes with aplomb. Its e-ink display is vital here.

We’ve already discussed how the Scribe Colorsoft feels to write on. But the lack of a backlight (it’s front-lit instead) means the Scribe Colorsoft is easier to look at for longer periods without straining your eyes. It also allows the Scribe Colorsoft to run for longer on a charge — nobody wants their digital note-taking device to run out of juice mid-meeting, right?

It’s also important to remember that the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is just that: a Kindle. That makes it an amazing way to read ebooks. Sure, there’s a Kindle app for the iPad, but it just isn’t the same. Reading on an iPad with that display blasting your eyes is fine at first, but it’s no way to read a book. The Kindle devices’ e-ink displays are tailor-made for this kind of thing, and it shows.

Finally, sometimes a device’s limited functionality is kind of the point. A Scribe Colorsoft doesn’t tempt you to read your email or check your socials. It doesn’t have all of the iPad’s apps and games just waiting to distract you. And that alone can make the Scribe Colorsoft the better option for some people.

The final decision

Keep the task in mind

On paper, and at list price, Amazon’s Kindle Scribe Colorsoft isn’t overpriced at all — Apple’s $749 iPad Air sticker price makes the Colorsoft look a bit of a bargain. But buyers don’t need to pay the sticker price, and the iPad Air is often found for considerably less. Plus, Apple’s tablet has a fancier display, more storage, and more features.

But comparing the Scribe Colorsoft and iPad Air makes an oft-incorrect assumption: that people want to buy a touchscreen computer. The Scribe Colorsoft is for people who have already decided that isn’t what they want. They want a device that’s built to be the best digital note-taking device possible, with the bonus of being a great way to read books as well.

For those people, the Amazon Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is an easy sell, even with the $630 retail price.

Brand

Amazon

Screen

11-inch color e-ink

Storage

32GB

Connectivity

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

The Amazon Kindle Scribe Colorsoft brings a splash of color to this e-ink-based note-taking device. It has a large 11-inch display and comes with a stylus in the box so you can get started jotting down meeting notes and more right away.