Kindle Scribe (2024) assessment: nothing to put in writing dwelling about

My highschool English trainer drilled into my head that there was a correct option to learn a e-book: “For those who’ve learn a e-book with out taking notes, you’ve not learn it in any respect.” She had some extent — taking notes helps me have interaction with the fabric in a a lot deeper approach than simply studying.

These days, I’m incapable of studying something with out writing down my ideas, and my Notes app is a cluttered catastrophe because of this. But it surely’s distracting to drag up a separate app each time I wish to jot down a word and laborious to search out these notes later. The Kindle Scribe guarantees to repair that with its note-taking capabilities, making it simple to scribble within the margins like I do on paper.

The unique Kindle Scribe, from 2022, missed the mark for me. Right here, lastly, was a Kindle you could possibly take notes with, but you couldn’t write straight on e book pages. As an alternative, you could possibly solely annotate disappearing sticky notes — and solely on some Kindle titles. I rapidly gave up on the Scribe, and for the previous yr or so I’ve primarily used the Kobo Elipsa 2E as a substitute.

Since then, the Kindle Scribe has come a good distance. Now with the second-generation e-reader, you’ll be able to lastly jot notes straight onto a wider vary of Kindle e book pages, convert handwriting to textual content, and even summarize notes in its built-in notebooks.

However the Scribe has extra and higher competitors than ever. And with a value bump, it must nail these new options to make it value $399.99. That’s very true given the unique Kindle Scribe continues to be accessible for $60 much less, and you’ll obtain all of those options onto it through Amazon’s newest software program replace.

The newest Kindle Scribe is sort of an identical to its predecessor save for a couple of beauty variations. It now arrives in a fantastic new Metallic Jade colorway, and it has even, paper-like white trim as a substitute of the uneven black bezels on the unique mannequin. 

In any other case, the Scribe continues to be very a lot a bigger model of the Kindle Paperwhite at coronary heart, and it shares lots of the identical strengths and weaknesses as its smaller sibling. It’s nonetheless exceptionally simple to purchase and browse Kindle books and extra sophisticated to learn exterior of the Amazon ecosystem. It isn’t waterproof or as snappy because the Paperwhite, but it surely’s quick sufficient with an adjustable heat mild and the identical, crisp 300ppi show decision. That’s sharper than the $399.99 Kobo Elipsa 2E, and on par with the $379.99 Onyx Boox Go 10.3, which lacks a lightweight altogether. 

Granted, it’s not simple lugging round a ten.2-inch e-reader, particularly one created from slippery aluminum, and you’ll’t maintain it comfortably with one hand. However on the flip aspect, the additional display actual property makes it simpler to learn and take notes. The pill weighs barely lower than a pound, which helps with portability.

However the Kindle Scribe’s key promoting level is which you could take notes on it, and in that respect, I’ve blended emotions. The overall handwriting expertise is superb. As earlier than, there’s no lag, and it actually does really feel as in the event you’re straight writing on paper. It comes bundled with Amazon’s Premium Pen, a small inexperienced stylus that comes with a brand new rubber soft-tipped eraser that jogs my memory of an precise pencil. I beloved utilizing it, particularly because it doesn’t require charging and comes with a customizable shortcut button identical to its predecessor. (The Premium Pen is now commonplace, as a substitute of being a $30 improve choice, which partially accounts for the value improve from the unique Scribe.)

Whereas I loved writing with the pen, the Scribe’s new note-taking capabilities nonetheless fall wanting the competitors. With the brand new Energetic Canvas instrument, the corporate lastly addresses one among my chief complaints with the Scribe: now you can write notes that stay seen straight on e book pages, reasonably than on sticky notes that disappear into an icon within the margins (Amazon nonetheless gives the sticky notes function in the event you desire these). The software program function provides a resizable textual content field round your handwritten word, then reflows the remainder of the web page round it. It additionally works properly on different reflowable paperwork, together with PDFs and Phrase information. Amazon can even be releasing an expandable margins function in early 2025, too, permitting you to scribble notes in a aspect panel you’ll be able to then cover, although that’s not but accessible to check. 

However Amazon nonetheless doesn’t actually perceive how folks naturally take notes on books or what would make these notes helpful. Whereas the previous sticky notes and highlighted passages sync with Kindle cell apps, you’ll be able to’t view the Energetic Canvas notes in your Kindle cell or browser app, or export them to a different app — they’re solely seen on the Scribe. You may’t add them to your on-device pocket book, both. Plus, typically the textual content field dimension messes up the web page formatting, creating additional areas between sentences. Whilst you can resize, there’s a lag that’ll sluggish you down. Just a few occasions, my notes disappeared altogether, so I needed to hold adjusting the scale till it reappeared.

What’s extra irritating, you’ll be able to’t circle a phrase or phrase and jot down a word proper subsequent to it. When you write a word, the web page robotically realigns, so quite a lot of occasions the Scribe would add my word to the unsuitable a part of a line or passage. Amazon doesn’t allow you to transfer the textual content containers round, and you’ll’t even draw an arrow from a line to your word, so you’ll be able to’t manually anchor it to the proper piece of textual content both. All in all, it’s a irritating, sophisticated expertise, particularly when rivals from Kobo and Onyx allow you to seamlessly annotate pages with easy-to-find notes simply as you’d writing on a bodily e-book. 

Marking up PDFs is much more intuitive and freed from Energetic Canvas’ limitations, so you’ll be able to take notes naturally. You may as well mark up text-searchable PDFs and export them with out shedding the flexibility to go looking throughout the textual content. Sadly, you’ll be able to’t search throughout the markups. You can also’t mark up sideloaded PDFs; it’s a must to use Amazon’s Ship to Kindle function. That mentioned, Amazon says your paperwork are encrypted, each whereas being despatched, within the cloud, and whereas on the machine. 

Amazon additionally made some enhancements to its built-in notebooks, providing a wider number of templates than when the primary Scribe launched. There’s 18 preloaded templates starting from lined to dotted paper you need to use as weekly planners, checklists, and extra, all of which I discovered useful. You may as well obtain extra templates from Amazon, or add PDF information and deal with them as templates.

The Scribe additionally will get two new AI options for its built-in notebooks that may summarize your notes and refine your handwriting. Nevertheless, you’ll want an web connection to make use of them and you’ll’t tie notes you made within the built-in pocket book to notes inside ebooks or PDFs by any means. The AI abstract function continues to be useful, given it does a very good job of offering a broad overview of your notes. In the meantime, the “refine your handwriting” function for essentially the most half precisely transformed my handwriting into typed textual content, albeit slowly and onto a separate web page you’ll be able to solely add both to the entrance or again of your pocket book. You may’t convert Energetic Canvas notes into typed textual content, although, which might have been a helpful addition.

Even with these additions, the Scribe’s built-in pocket book capabilities nonetheless aren’t as wealthy as its rivals. Related tablets from Onyx can even summarize notes and convert handwriting to textual content, whereas additionally letting you insert hyperlinks to notes, information, web sites, and attachments, report your voice, and hop right into a split-screen function. The latter enables you to take notes utilizing all of the superior built-in pocket book instruments, whereas concurrently navigating apps downloaded from the Google Play Retailer like Kindle and Kobo but in addition the likes of The New York Instances. The Kobo Elipsa 2E’s note-taking instruments aren’t as superior because the Boox and it may’t summarize notes just like the Scribe, but it surely at the least enables you to rapidly convert handwriting into typed textual content within the authentic pocket book doc.

The Kindle Scribe is a greater e-reader for taking notes in comparison with when it made its debut two years in the past. With the ability to write straight on e book pages is a welcome enchancment, and changing handwriting to typed textual content is a useful addition. However although it’s beginning to fall extra in keeping with rivals from the likes of Kobo and Onyx, the Scribe’s nonetheless not the most suitable choice for critical note-taking. It’s nonetheless too laborious to annotate ebooks, and the brand new options simply aren’t as helpful in comparison with the competitors.

Even in the event you’re simply in search of a big Kindle with fundamental note-taking capabilities, the brand new Scribe is a troublesome promote when the unique mannequin continues to be accessible for $60 much less and likewise gives Energetic Canvas and the generative AI options while you obtain the newest software program replace (or look ahead to the over-the-air replace in 2025). I’d advocate skipping the brand new Scribe and sticking with the last-gen mannequin. Each are good e-readers for studying Kindle ebooks and informal note-taking, however they’re almost indistinguishable.

Pictures by Sheena Vasani / The Verge