3 Kindle updates coming in 2026 I can’t wait to try

• Kindle Scribe Without Front Light
• Software updates
• Changes to how you can download DRM-free books

To kick off CES 2026, Amazon announced several Fire TV updates, including its biggest Fire TV user interface redesign yet, a revamped Fire TV mobile app, and an all-new Fire TV lineup called the Ember Artline — all slated to arrive early this year. As exciting as those reveals are, they also got me thinking about Amazon’s other central product line: its Kindle series, and what’s on its roadmap for 2026.

Amazon hasn’t announced anything new for its Kindle lineup so far this year, and historically, CES hasn’t been a big stage for Kindle news. The company typically uses the show to spotlight Fire TV, Alexa, and smart home products instead. Still, there are a few Kindle updates we already know are coming, based on announcements from last year. With that in mind, here are the three Kindle updates I can’t wait for in 2026.

Kindle Scribe Without Front Light

The cheapest new Kindle Scribe has not yet been released

At its fall hardware event last year, Amazon unveiled a brand-new Kindle Scribe (2025) lineup comprising three models: the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, Kindle Scribe, and Kindle Scribe Without Front Light. Compared to the 2024 Kindle Scribe, the biggest change is the redesigned display, which is larger and has slimmer bezels. And, of course, there’s the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft — the first Scribe to feature a color E Ink screen.

Amazon launched both the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and the standard Kindle Scribe late last year, but the Kindle Scribe Without Front Light hasn’t released yet and is slated to arrive sometime this year. Amazon hasn’t shared an exact launch date, but given that it was announced back in September, I’d be surprised if it didn’t land in the first half of the year.

The key difference between it and the regular Kindle Scribe is right in the name: it skips the auto-adjusting front light that adapts screen brightness to your surroundings. That said, based on my experience using the base Kindle — which also lacks this feature — it’s really not a big deal, especially if saving some money is your goal.

And that’s where this model gets interesting. The Kindle Scribe Without Front Light is priced at $430. That’s $70 less than the $500 Kindle Scribe with a front light and a full $200 cheaper than the $630 Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. If you want Amazon’s latest E Ink notebook with the updated design, larger display, and cloud integrations like Google Drive and OneDrive — and don’t care about a color screen — it seems to me like the Kindle Scribe Without Front Light will make a lot of sense. But it’ll be even more tempting once Amazon inevitably knocks the price down during its first sale after its launch.

Software updates

Enhancements to the Kindle Scribe and new AI features are coming

Beyond the launch of the Kindle Scribe Without Front Light later this year, Amazon also has a couple of software updates on the way that were announced last year. The first is for the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, which will get a system-wide dark mode. The second update is aimed at first and second-generation Kindle Scribes, bringing over the new Kindle Scribe home screen, Google Drive and OneDrive integration, and several new AI features.

In other words, if you’re using a 2024 or even a 2022 Kindle Scribe, some of the software features introduced with the 2025 Scribe model should make their way to your device sometime this year.

Amazon is also rolling out this year what it’s calling “new AI-powered reading features” across its entire Kindle lineup. One of them, Story So Far, is designed to help you quickly catch up on where you left off in a book, without any spoilers about what’s ahead. Another, called Ask This Book, lets you highlight a passage and get spoiler-free answers to questions about things like a character’s motivation or why a particular scene matters.

According to Amazon, both the Kindle Scribe updates and these new AI-powered reading features for all Kindle e-readers are expected to arrive early this year. If you use the Kindle app on iOS, Story So Far and Ask This Book should already be available.

Changes to how you can download DRM-free books

Managing DRM-free Kindle books will become simpler in 2026

Finally, in December 2025, Amazon made a somewhat surprising announcement about changes to how you can download DRM-free e-books you’ve purchased. Starting January 20, 2026, any DRM-free titles in your library will be available for download in EPUB or PDF formats. This will make it much easier to move books to other devices or manage them in e-book library software on a PC, such as Calibre.

As Amazon puts it, the goal is to “make it easier for readers to enjoy content they have purchased from the Kindle Store across a wider range of devices and applications,” by allowing titles published without Digital Rights Management (DRM) to be downloaded in EPUB or PDF.

If you’ve bought DRM-free e-books, you’ll be able to download them from the Manage Your Content and Devices page on Amazon’s site. This won’t apply to most Kindle books, since DRM still protects the vast majority of major titles. Still, if you’ve purchased books from independent authors who choose to go DRM-free, this update should make managing your library a lot easier.

Considering that Amazon kicked off 2025 by clamping down on e-book downloads by getting rid of the “Download & Transfer via USB” option, it’s refreshing to see the company start 2026 by making things a bit easier again — even if it only applies to DRM-free titles.