Not very remarkable, still note-worthy | App Tech

Stylus assist and note-taking have been a very long time approaching Amazon’s common Kindle e-reader line-up. They’re lastly right here on the Kindle Scribe, together with the biggest e-ink show within the sequence but. The Kindle Scribe guarantees to be a superb e-book reader but in addition a helpful digital notepad and sketchpad. Does it dwell as much as its potential? I spent one month studying books, sketching, jotting down ideas, and fixing math issues, to reply that query. So let’s see the decision in Android Authority‘s Amazon Kindle Scribe assessment.

• Amazon Kindle Scribe (16GB, with Primary Pen): $339.99 / €329.99 / £369.99
• Amazon Kindle Scribe (16GB, with Premium Pen): $369.99 / €359.99 / £399.99
• Amazon Kindle Scribe (32GB, with Premium Pen): $389.99 / €379.99 / £419.99
• Amazon Kindle Scribe (64GB, with Premium Pen): $419.99 / €409.99 / £449.99

The brand new Amazon Kindle Scribe touts the largest show of any Kindle but. At 10.2 inches with a 1,860 x 2,480 decision (300ppi), the e-ink panel isn’t solely giant sufficient to accommodate books, comics, magazines, and PDFs, however it additionally serves as a superb canvas for your whole sketching and note-taking wants. It’s flanked on one aspect with a bigger bezel for higher ergonomics, and you may rotate the show for right- and left-handed use.

The ability button and USB-C port sit on the aspect, a seemingly awkward place at first, however one which is smart as you utilize the Kindle Scribe for longer durations of time. Having the USB-C cable come out of the aspect means you possibly can nonetheless relaxation the reader in your lap and skim or write whereas it’s charging, with out twisting or bending the cable. It nonetheless seems funky, although.

Amazon is providing two stylus choices with the Kindle Scribe; each of them connect magnetically to the aspect, include three further nubs within the field, and don’t require any pairing or charging. They let you take standalone notes, annotate straight on prime of PDFs, and take handwritten sticky notes in common e-books. The Primary Pen does one factor solely: write. The Premium Pen introduces a pressure-based eraser on the other finish and a customizable button on the aspect.

That is the highest-end Kindle e-reader obtainable at the moment and the worth displays it. It’s $90 dearer than the earlier flagship Oasis (2019) and $200 greater than the Kindle Paperwhite (2021). You should purchase it straight from Amazon, clearly, but in addition from Greatest Purchase within the US. The one shade obtainable is tungsten black.

The star of the present with the Kindle Scribe is its 10.2-inch e-ink glare-free show. It’s simple to learn outside in direct daylight, and the 35 LED lights make it suited to indoor use too. Just like the Oasis (2019) and Paperwhite (2021), the Scribe can adapt its show’s brightness routinely and schedule its heat modifications to comply with the native dawn and sundown. It switches from a cooler tone in the course of the day to a hotter shade at evening.

The show’s largest asset, although, is its bodily dimension. It has the approximate dimensions of an A5 sheet of paper, making it perfect for note-taking and sketching with out being too unwieldy. Comedian books, magazines, and PDFs are simpler to parse on it than on any 6- or 7-inch Kindle.

In my month testing the Kindle Scribe, that is the function I appreciated essentially the most. I had beforehand tried and didn’t learn comedian books, paperwork, and examine books on different Kindle fashions. The shows had been too small, textual content was painful to parse, and zooming in/out each two seconds was a irritating expertise. The Scribe is the primary time I used to be capable of truly learn these books on a Kindle.

Writing on the Amazon Kindle Scribe is a pleasing expertise, just like the Huawei MatePad Paper. It’s as shut as a digital show and stylus can get to the acquainted pen-and-paper really feel. Latency is unnoticeable; you instantly see each stroke.

The Premium Pen is price the additional $30 if just for the eraser performance. It’s tremendous intuitive to flip it round to delete errors or bits you not want. The additional aspect button could be programmed to behave as a highlighter, pen, eraser, or so as to add a sticky word in books. I like to recommend you set it as much as spotlight in the event you plan on finding out or studying essential documentation on the Scribe; it’s as in the event you had a secret Sharpie in your hand.

Like each different e-reader, the Kindle Scribe boasts wonderful battery life. I solely wanted to prime it up after three weeks of very lively use (studying 4 full books, and taking many notes and sketches).

Amazon can be smart sufficient to not show lock display advertisements on the Scribe. On the value, it will’ve been very sleazy to see random books on the inactive show. Nonetheless, I’d love if we might disable all of the random suggestions from the primary dwelling display too.

For a first-generation Kindle with stylus assist, the Scribe provides absolutely the naked minimal of note-taking and sketching options. First, the pen doesn’t assist variable tilt and stress sensitivities. The stroke is similar, regardless of the way you maintain it. Amazon has solely carried out pen, highlighter, and eraser capabilities, every in 5 totally different stroke widths. You don’t get any extra instruments or brush varieties, however these are supposedly coming in a future replace.

There are additionally zero gestures or sensible functionalities related to the pen. In contrast to extra superior note-taking experiences just like the iPad and Apple Pencil or reMarkable 2, you possibly can’t choose elements of your sketches to maneuver or resize them. You may’t insert traces between textual content or areas between characters, copy and paste bits round, or draw sensible shapes. In the event you’re like me and you may’t draw a straight line to avoid wasting your life, the Scribe gained’t straighten it for you. Neglect about rectangles or circles too. Handwriting recognition and OCR are nowhere to be discovered both.

General, this looks like digital note-taking 1.0, circa 2010. It’s precisely the identical workflow as working with an actual paper — zero sensible advances for our fashionable digital age. Each time I picked up the pen to take notes, resolve a math downside, or sketch one thing, I knew I used to be going to make use of the undo button or eraser far more than I meant. A easy factor like transferring an merchandise down one line in an inventory requires erasing the complete line and writing it once more. Suffice it to say, that is far, very removed from what you are able to do with a contemporary pill or a digital notepad just like the reMarkable or Supernote.

Export choices are fairly restricted too. Principally, you possibly can e mail something as a PDF. Standalone notes additionally sync throughout your Kindle account and could be accessed in view-only mode through the Android and iOS apps — no modifying. PDF annotations and handwritten sticky notes don’t sync to different gadgets but. All of this hinders the usefulness of the complete note-taking expertise.

However worse than which are all of the complicated limitations round e-book codecs and what you possibly can or can’t do. See in the event you can comply with the logic:

• You may’t straight obtain PDFs or EPUBs straight from the Scribe’s built-in browser. Solely AZW, PRC, MOBI, or TXT extensions are supported. Different file varieties must be loaded utilizing Ship to Kindle. There’s nothing new right here in comparison with different Kindles, however it’s an arbitrary limitation that makes much less and fewer sense on a tool that thrives on e-book studying and annotation.
• You may solely scribble and straight annotate PDF paperwork. Every other format doesn’t enable this, however makes use of sticky notes as a substitute. Nonetheless, you possibly can’t annotate PDFs loaded through USB-C or despatched to your Kindle earlier than 11/11/2022. One other arbitrary limitation.
• Sticky notes with typed or handwritten notes could be added to most Kindle Retailer or imported e-books in any format besides PDF. Nonetheless, Kindle Retailer mangas, comics, graphic novels, magazines, and newspapers don’t enable that for some motive. Additionally, see if you’ll find the sticky word icon within the above-right picture. It’s quasi-invisible.
• Since Amazon is phasing out MOBI assist, you possibly can’t add handwritten sticky notes or direct annotations to these.

In a number of phrases: it’s a complicated mess. Throughout my first week with the Scribe, I had no thought annotations, and sticky notes had been attainable as a result of I used to be studying an previous e-book within the MOBI format. It was solely after I began studying different content material that I spotted I might generally connect a sticky word and generally straight write on the web page. I needed to dig on-line to seek out the excellence. Amazon must make clear this on the gadget, not on a assist web page nobody will discover, and it ought to take away a few of these haphazard restrictions. A extra constant expertise can go a good distance.

The shortage of water resistance is one other very disappointing alternative for the Kindle Scribe. In the event you thought we’d moved in the direction of IP ranking by default on all however essentially the most fundamental Kindle reader, you’d be improper. This $300+ mannequin can’t deal with water.

Throughout my first week with the Scribe, I didn’t find out about this downgrade; I simply wrongly assumed it was water resistant. So I positioned it on the sink’s edge whereas washing my fingers and propped it up within the kitchen whereas cooking a number of occasions. Nothing broke, however I’m glad I didn’t resolve to take it into the bathtub or out within the wet Parisian climate. Now that I’m conscious of the limitation, I’ll child it once I’m utilizing it. It’s price protecting this in thoughts in the event you’re in search of a pool-side or outdoor-friendly e-reader — you could be higher off with one thing else.

Different downsides of the Kindle Scribe embrace its bigger and heavier dimension, which might be annoying for longer studying periods, and its fairly fundamental interface that requires a number of faucets to modify between books, notes, and the browser. There aren’t any page-turning buttons both, a beloved function for any Kindle Oasis consumer.

The Kindle Scribe represents a giant leap in Amazon’s e-reader line-up. For the primary time, we will learn paperwork, PDFs, and comics on a bigger, extra comfy show, whereas additionally having the choice to annotate and sketch. Save for the dearth of water resistance, the {hardware} is phenomenal too.

The software program expertise, nevertheless, is mediocre. Even when Amazon rushed the Scribe out to fulfill the 2022 vacation season, it nonetheless had years to develop a extra strong note-taking expertise. The restricted pens and brushes, the absence of digital stylus gestures or options, and the dearth of handwriting recognition are objectively inexcusable these days. Particularly when different e-ink tablets supply them. Then there are the arbitrary and convoluted restrictions across the totally different e-book and doc codecs. Amazon is promising software program updates with new options, although, and can doubtless drop the Scribe’s value many occasions over the course of the following months. These will surely make it extra interesting.

Because it stands, the Scribe is a little bit of a novel beast within the e-reader market. It’s an e-book reader at the start, with some fundamental note-taking options in tow. If that is all you want, and also you’re comfortable sticking to Amazon’s software program expertise, then by all means, go for it.

However if you’d like a greater stylus expertise and you already know you’ll be jotting down notes and annotating paperwork greater than studying books, you need to have a look at the reMarkable 2 ($299) or Supernote (s$343). If you would like a extra open ecosystem with entry to extra Android apps, you’re higher off with the Onyx Boox Word Air 2 Plus ($499.99) or the very high-end Onyx Boox Tab Extremely ($599) — or probably the Huawei MatePad Paper (€499 at Huawei) in the event you don’t thoughts side-loading APKs.

Nonetheless, Amazon will in all probability promote an order of magnitude extra Kindle Scribe items than any of those different corporations, and is extra more likely to hold the Scribe up to date for a number of years with new options. You get to resolve what issues extra to you.

It’s humorous how an objectively irritating gadget may also be one I’m delighted to make use of day by day. Throughout my month with the Kindle Scribe, I discovered myself consistently wishing it might do extra, as a result of what it does now, it does so nicely, and I simply love utilizing it.

My aunt, a retired math instructor, and I’ve been difficult one another with high-school-level math issues and random enigmas and riddles for a number of weeks. It’s a nerdy means of staying in contact whereas dwelling in several nations. Every time there’s a brand new downside, I simply seize the Scribe and begin fixing away. It helps that I can erase and re-write a number of occasions and ship her a clear copy, giving her the phantasm that I solved it multi function go. Shhhhh, don’t inform her.

I additionally instinctively grabbed the Kindle Scribe when my husband and I had been debating find out how to set up the 13 Nanoleaf Canvas panels we bought on the wall. After dozens of sketches over a number of days, we settled on one design and put in it. It solely took a number of weeks, however I don’t give it some thought anymore — that is my private notepad now.

The Scribe gained me over with these quite simple use instances. Positive, it’s very fundamental digital note-taking, however it works for my present use case. Any further options Amazon provides would be the cherry on prime of that cake for me. E-book annotation, although, is a mediocre expertise. The black-and-white show makes annotations barely distinguishable on prime of PDFs, and the sticky-note icon is so tiny it’s unimaginable to identify. I’ve began highlighting textual content and including a sticky word, simply to make it extra apparent.

Though I’ve completed 4 books on the Scribe to this point, I nonetheless desire the Kindle Paperwhite for normal e-books. I solely learn one phrase at a time, so a much bigger show is pointless; the small Paperwhite can be nicer to carry for lengthy durations of time.

The show does matter, although, once I’m opening paperwork, PDFs, or comics. The expertise is leaps and bounds forward of the smaller Kindle fashions. This does make me need a coloured e-ink Kindle, although. We’re nonetheless removed from that, however I actually wish to see examine books and comedian books in shade.