E-readers have been part of my life for 15 years. So I was understandably intrigued when my colleague purchased a ReMarkable tablet and showed me the note-taking capabilities this tablet offered. But, just as I was about to checkout, Amazon unveiled the Kindle Scribe, the first Kindle to support handwriting and offer a 10.2-inch screen.
For the past 10 days, I’ve been able to test out the Kindle Scribe, and while it’s still not perfect, it has, for me, made paper notes obsolete.
The tablet embeds, as standard, a stylus and 16 GB of storage and costs 369 euros. When you buy it in the 32 or 64 GB version (419 or 449 euros), Amazon provides a “premium stylus”.
Amazon Kindle Scribe – Best Prices:
Amazon369.99
Features
- Screen : Paperwhite 10.2 inch, 300 ppi, 16 level grayscale
- Storage : 16, 32 or 64 GB
- Front lighting: 35 LEDs
- Autonomy: read up to 12 weeks, write up to 3 weeks
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
- Formats supported: Kindle, TXT, PDF, DOCX, DOC, HTML, EPUB, RTF, JPEG, GIF PNG, BMP, Audible
- Drums : 577mAh
- Dimensions: 196 x 230 x 5.8mm
- Weight : 433g
Still a good Kindle for reading
The Kindle Scribe is Amazon’s largest e-reader. It represents the culmination of 15 years of development of the Kindle range. It allows, like all devices before it, to read digital books purchased on the platform, or to access the Kindle subscription which allows you to easily browse more than a million titles.
The Kindle Scribe also supports Audible, provided you’re connected to a Bluetooth headset. Autonomy will obviously be more limited with this use than with simple reading, but it is nice to be able to take advantage of Amazon’s audiobook service.
Image: Matthew Miller/ZDNET.
The screen without reflections, the good luminosity and the management of the different white temperatures allow the screen to offer impeccable comfort of use. I only regret that there are no physical buttons to easily turn the pages. Yet it is an essential feature to have, especially when handling a tablet of this size. The left side edge is a little wide, but it makes it easy to hold the tablet with one hand and write with the other.
It’s worth noting that the Scribe doesn’t have a waterproof certification, unlike other Kindle devices.
A real replacement for your notebooks
I’ll admit it: I have drawers full of notebooks filled with my doodles and sketches. As each notebook fills up, I put them away in one of my drawers and end up throwing them away. My longing for something that didn’t waste paper and also kept and shared my notes was fulfilled by Amazon’s Kindle Scribe.
There are plenty of ways to transfer content to the Kindle Scribe, create notes, or share content with others. One of the key features is the ability to quickly and easily erase my handwritten notes by touching them with the eraser part of the “premium” stylus. It’s an optional accessory for the Scribe, but I highly recommend purchasing it if you want the full note-taking experience.
If you order the Kindle Scribe without a case, you’ll find that the pen attaches magnetically, and quite securely, to the side with the narrow edge. I hung the stylus in this position 90% of the time without issue. The Scribe is also quite thin (5.8 mm) and benefits from a good grip.
Image: Matthew Miller/ZDNET.
I also love that I can highlight text, take notes, and even sign documents. Amazon specifies that it will soon be possible to send documents to the Scribe directly from Microsoft Word. For now, you can simply view your notebooks created with the Scribe on other tablets, smartphones, and computers through the Amazon Kindle app. However, they cannot be modified.
Although I have other tablets, I have never taken the fold or found the right occasion to use the stylus provided. The Scribe makes this use much more natural and easy.
Should you buy the case?
The folio case that Amazon makes available for the Scribe protects the front and back of the tablet, while putting it to sleep when the cover is closed. If you are not comfortable with the idea of attaching your stylus magnetically, the case comes with a loop to secure it and I have to say, this definitely reduces the risk of losing the accessory.
Overall, I would recommend the case if you want to protect the Scribe’s screen and have a safer place for your stylus. Otherwise, I would wait for other third-party cases to appear on the market so that you can find the shoe that suits you.
Image: Matthew Miller/ZDNET.
What the Kindle Scribe Still Misses
The Amazon Kindle Scribe makes it easy to replace pen and paper, but Amazon could go one step further. Some of the suggestions below may come to fruition with software updates to the existing Kindle Scribe, while others will require a new version, but here are the improvements I’d like to see on this tablet.
- Quickly switch between reading books and taking notes: it’s quick and easy to add notes to the books you read, but sometimes a thought just pops into my head that I want to jot down in one of my notebooks. Currently, switching between the two modes requires exiting the Reading app and opening the Notebooks section to jot anything down. With a simple shortcut, it would be more convenient to switch between the two modes.
- Finer file management: unfortunately, you can’t currently reorganize notes on the Scribe, which is useful if you accumulate documents over time. It would also be nice to be able to cut and paste, insert pages, and share chunks of your notes with other people.
- Export notes to other formats: now you can quickly and easily send your handwritten notes as a PDF in an email. I would like to have the option of sending them as a text file, a OneNote file or a Word document so that I can better use my notes.
- Handwriting to text: The ReMarkable 2 supports converting your handwriting to text, making notes easily searchable. This function is not available on the Scribe.
- Import content into notes: it would be nice to be able to import other text, images and content into a note. For the moment, the notes only allow scribbling with the stylus.
- Shapes : Although graph paper is one of the note templates offered, it is still difficult to draw straight lines with the stylus. Being able to insert basic geometric shapes would be interesting for quickly creating sketches.
- Colored pens: Even though color ink is not displayed on the screen, it would be nice to have access to different highlight colors so that when the notes are exported, the receiver can better visualize your data.
Conclusion
When I considered buying the ReMarkable 2, I wasn’t looking for a tablet for media consumption, I just wanted a good tablet that could replicate note taking on paper.
With the Amazon Kindle Scribe, I get the best features of the ReMarkable 2 while taking advantage of Amazon’s ecosystem of digital services. It’s a very successful first product from Amazon which is also more practical than the note-taking function on some smartphones.
In its current form, the Scribe fulfills my need for a digital notebook, but hopefully future iterations will bring some of the improvements listed above.
Alternatives
Source: ZDNet.com