This e-reader was my best tech upgrade of the year

• What I use the Kindle Scribe for
• Does it compare to the feeling of writing on paper?

Salt and pepper, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese — all famous pairs that make the world as we know it go round. But the duo that trumps the lot is pen and paper. From a grocery list all the way to a 3,800-year-old complaint about copper quality, people have been using some kind of writing tool to transcribe their thoughts for millennia.

While my contribution is a mere blink in the grand scheme of writing history, I’ve spent a couple of decades dedicated to pen and paper. In college, I’d refuse to write a rough draft on my MacBook — the only acceptable form of ‘rough’ was dumped on paper with the ghosts of my mistakes scratched out or interjecting ideas scribbled in the margins. Even several years into my career, various notebooks, agendas, and stationery pads took up constant real estate on my desk. That is, until I reluctantly got my hands on a first-generation Kindle Scribe.

When the Kindle Scribe first launched back in 2022, I remember scoffing. Pen and paper weren’t broken, and what could ever replace the feeling of rolling ink onto your notebook in the shape of your thoughts? After a day, I was still skeptical. After a week, my workflow would never be the same without it. My Kindle Scribe was the biggest tech upgrade I didn’t even know I made in 2025.

What I use the Kindle Scribe for

A notebook replacement

I recently wrote about using my beloved Kindle Scribe for only four things, but ‘only’ encompasses the entire analog part of my workflow. As an editor who lives by a to-do list organized by her weekly planner, the Kindle Scribe replaces two paper pads in that regard alone. But what about those composition books filled with article ideas, grocery lists, or random thoughts that come to mind?

There’s a digital notebook labeled for that on my Scribe, too. When I’d have to sift through my mini library for a little margin note I’d written during a meeting two weeks before, the search felt futile sometimes (especially if I was in a hurry to speak in a meeting). Now, all I have to do is click into the notebook I responsibly labeled to help me stay organized. Better yet, on the new Kindle Scribes, you can find the note with only a vague idea and let AI do the rest.

Yes, I mentioned AI. Don’t click away just yet — I know AI fatigue is real. However, I must throw Amazon a bone here. The AI implemented into the Scribe is actually very useful for dredging up notes and summarizing past thoughts. Luckily, the company doesn’t shove it in your face either, as it seems to have read the Kindle room and decided the distraction-free e-reader crowd wouldn’t take so kindly to it.

Once my Kindle Scribe’s digital contents were organized, I suddenly noticed that my physical world became organized as well. The haphazard pile of papers and notebooks became a stack. When that stack began collecting dust, it got stowed away in a drawer. Now, I have more space on my desk for things that I want to look at all day, like pictures of my dog on an E Ink picture frame.

I’m also the type who gets a little stir-crazy in her apartment during the work week, so I get out to haunt the local coffee shops pretty frequently. I can’t tell you the panic that sometimes caught me when I realized I’d forgotten very important work notes on my desk before a meeting. Yes, one can forget the Scribe just as easily, but hope isn’t all lost in this case — I can pull up the Kindle app on my MacBook Pro and access my notes from there in the nick of time. Is the macOS Kindle app stuck in 2015? Yes. Does it matter when the big boss is asking for some statistics? Not in the slightest.

Side note: Amazon, if you’re reading this, I’m begging you to update that interface. AO3 is still beating you, and the darn site has been in beta for decades.

Does it compare to the feeling of writing on paper?

Yes, but with a catch

A screen is not a piece of paper — no matter how hard technology giants like Amazon or Apple try to replicate it. Like I said, the pen and paper duo is far from broken, and there will always be a special place in my day for a lovely leather-bound journal or gifted stationery. Writing on paper is timeless and feels as natural as putting your shoes on before you walk out the door.

Amazon has put in the work to get that feeling as close as possible to paper, and I’ll admit it has gotten pretty darn close (especially on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, where the lag is virtually nonexistent). But it isn’t the same, and the moment you accept that and stop wishing for it is when you’ll unlock the Scribe’s actual promise. It’s a digital tool (not an artisan journal), that serves a specific function: digitizing and consolidating your notes into one sleek tablet.

It’s buttery smooth and offers an array of different writing utensils. Oh, the fountain pen’s effects are accurate without having to suffer through spilled ink trials? I’m not the one you should be complaining to (as someone who’s spilled many a cartridge all over her favorite sweaters).

When I’m doing any work-related writing, it gets siloed into my technology — whether that’s on my Scribe, iPhone, or MacBook. It makes much more sense to break out the paper, say, to write a thank-you letter to my grandmother. It’s personal, peaceful, and much more prone to eliciting a smile from its recipient.

But the Scribe isn’t for everyone. Entry-level Scribes begin around the $400 mark for new models, and the most expensive Kindle Scribe Colorsoft weighs in at a jaw-dropping $630. If you’re someone who has a workflow down in their laptop or exclusively writes one-word notes on sticky notes just to plaster them all over the wall, I’d say steer clear of the Scribe and opt for a Kindle or Kindle Paperwhite instead — it’s a much better device for portable reading. However, if pen and paper have historically been your jam, you’d be shocked how fast a Kindle Scribe may just earn its place in your workflow.