When Amazon introduced the Kindle Scribe, its new large-format 10.2-inch E Ink e-reader, lots of people have been excited. The Scribe wasn’t the primary stylus-equipped touchscreen E Ink digital notepad, but it surely was the primary time Amazon was bringing precision pen enter to its Kindle line. 

To be clear, the Scribe shouldn’t be low-cost: It prices greater than an entry-level iPad, beginning at $340 with an ordinary “pen” or $370 with a premium pen and 32GB of storage.

However after utilizing the Scribe for per week, I can say it is principally a superb tablet-style e-reader, although there is definitely some room for enchancment with software program and have updates.

8.3

Amazon Kindle Scribe

$340 at Amazon

$340 at Finest Purchase

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Like

• Textual content and pictures seem sharp on massive 10.2-inch, 300 ppi show
• Writing feels clean and pure
• Adjustable heat gentle with 35 LEDs
• Can mark up PDFs, different docs
• Straightforward to ship paperwork to machine
• Weeks of battery life

Do not Like

• Fairly weighty and expensive
• Wants a canopy with a built-in stand
• PDF looking may very well be higher
• Cannot mark up Kindle e-books (or DRM-free ePub ebooks)
• Be aware-taking may very well be extra sturdy

The very first thing you will discover concerning the Kindle Scribe is that it is massive — loads larger than the Kindle Paperwhite. It sort of appears and appears like a jumbo Kindle Oasis minus the bodily page-turn buttons and waterproofing (each the Paperwhite and Oasis are waterproof, with an IPX8 ranking).

Learn extra: Finest E-Readers of 2022

Just like the Oasis, it has a flush-front design and, in accordance with Amazon, is manufactured from recycled aluminum and is at present the one front-lit 10.2-inch e-reader with a high-resolution 300 pixels-per-inch E ink show. A mere 5.8mm thick (0.22 inch), it weighs in at 433 grams (0.95 pound). For comparability, the Kindle Paperwhite weighs in at 205 grams and the brand new upgraded baseline Kindle (2022) is 158 grams.

The iPad (2022) weighs a contact over a pound (477 grams), and just like the iPad, you may actually maintain the Scribe in your hand, whether or not it is your left or proper hand (the display screen flips in accordance with whether or not you like a left- or right-hand orientation). Nonetheless, you are most likely not going to wish to do this for lengthy durations. You may both wish to set it down on a desk and prop it up at an angle with some object or, ideally, purchase a folio cowl that converts right into a stand.

If you happen to purchase certainly one of Amazon’s covers, which the Scribe adheres to magnetically, it will value you an additional $60 for a cloth cowl or $80 for a leather-based model (you may also purchase a Scribe and case along with one of many Scribe Necessities bundles that begin at $410 and embody a premium pen and energy adapter). Different third-party circumstances can be found for much less (all of them are inclined to have some form of loop to retailer the pen). However Amazon’s circumstances are engaging, slim and will let you prop up the machine at a few angles. It is also price noting that the pen adheres magnetically to the aspect of the Scribe, even when you have a canopy on it (the aspect of the Scribe stays uncovered with Amazon circumstances). 

Each the usual stylus and premium pens do not require energy or Bluetooth connectivity and use electro-magnetic resonance know-how, so you will by no means want to fret about charging them. The premium pen has an eraser (you flip the pen over and press the erase button on high of the stylus in opposition to the display screen identical to you’d an actual pencil eraser) and a programmable button for $30 extra.

The evaluation pattern I obtained included the premium pen, which labored fairly easily for taking handwritten notes and drawing on the display screen. There’s just about no lag and it felt pure — just about like writing on a chunk of paper with much less friction. There are 5 pen thicknesses to select from in addition to 5 thicknesses for the highlighter. Some further pen types could be good, and I did should be somewhat cautious with how I held the pen as a result of I by accident hit the programmable button on a couple of events as I used to be writing or doodling (I write left-handed).

However for those who’re in any respect within the premium pen, it is best to purchase it with the Scribe as a result of it is $60 ($30 extra) for those who purchase it individually. The pen ideas are replaceable, Amazon says. 

Giant, crisp show with uniform lighting

Except for the 300 ppi show, which reveals texts and pictures with good sharpness, the Kindle Scribe’s front-light scheme consists of 35 LEDs. That compares with 25 LEDs for the Kindle Oasis, 17 LEDs for the Kindle Paperwhite and 4 LEDs for the 2022 entry-level Kindle. You’ll be able to regulate the colour temperature from a hotter sepia tone to a cooler extra bluish one. I usually saved it towards the hotter aspect, which supplies it a extra paperlike look, and like with different Kindles, for evening studying, there is a darkish mode that turns the display screen black (or truly, very darkish grey) with letters and pictures showing in white or shades of grey.

The lighting has glorious uniformity to it and the touchscreen is sort of responsive with the general efficiency for an E Ink e-reader being top-notch regardless of the inherent laggy nature of E Ink. The Scribe runs on the identical Mediatek system on a chip that runs the Paperwhite. It is able to operating as much as 2GHz however solely does so for sure purposes that require increased efficiency, in accordance with Amazon. As for storage, the bottom mannequin has 16GB, however 32GB and 64GB configurations can be found for more cash. The Scribe is Wi-Fi-only Kindle, with no mobile choice. 

The facility (and limits) of note-taking on the Scribe

Whereas the 9.7-inch Kindle DX was discontinued round 10 years in the past, the Scribe is its religious successor and an important alternative for sight-challenged people in search of a big Kindle that has the power to show extra traces of textual content at bigger font sizes. 

Previously, that was the largest enchantment of bigger format e-readers (and that their screens would not get washed out in direct daylight, making them nice for studying outside). However in recent times we have seen extra of those stylus-equipped touchscreen e-readers discovering a market with college students and people in search of a devoted E Ink machine that gives note-taking and annotation capabilities with out the distractions present in a feature-packed iPad or Android pill (and that features Amazon’s personal Hearth tablets) which supply every thing from net looking to video watching to gaming. The Kindle Scribe, like different Kindles, has a rudimentary net browser, but it surely appears primarily designed to will let you allow a Wi-Fi connection in public locations like espresso retailers and resorts the place some net authentication is important.

Fellow CNET author Sarah Lord has used extra tablet-style e-readers, however I’ve examined the Kobo Elipsa, which is arguably the Scribe’s most direct competitor and has been available on the market for some time. It sells for $360 in a bundle that features a cowl and Kobo stylus. It has a entrance gentle, however the massive distinction is that its show is 227 ppi in comparison with 300 ppi for the Scribe’s show. It is a noticeable distinction.

With the Elipsa, you may mark up Kobo ebooks. Nonetheless, the one present shortcoming of the Scribe is that you just can not mark up Kindle ebooks and even DRM-free ePub ebooks (non-copy-protected ePub information). With e-books, it’s a must to use Amazon’s Sticky-note function, which is on the market with different Kindles. You faucet and maintain on a phrase, then slide the pen throughout no matter phrases or sentences you wish to choose. Elevate the pen and you’ve got the choice to create a handwritten or textual content observe, spotlight the phrase or sentence or share it.

Personally, I am not somebody who likes to mark up books and take notes within the margin, so I do not thoughts the sticky-note performance, however plenty of as we speak’s college students do mark up their bodily college books (my youngsters actually do) and it might be good to have the power to make notes within the margins and circle sentences and whatnot.

Because it stands, you may import quite a lot of file codecs and doc sorts to mark up for those who so select. You’ll be able to import and write straight on-page in PDF paperwork (so for those who had an e-book as PDF file, it may very well be marked up) and I discovered it straightforward to import PDFs utilizing Amazon’s Ship-to-Kindle function the place you merely drag a file right into a field on the Ship-to-Kindle net web page and it will get despatched your Kindle (there are different choices to ship information, together with through the Kindle app for iOS, Mac and Android in addition to through electronic mail). It is also straightforward to export information through electronic mail. 

Sadly, marking up PDFs is not as seamless or intuitive as it’s on different E Ink tablets. Once you’re in a PDF, you are not in a position to regulate the font dimension or structure, so as an alternative it’s a must to pinch-to-zoom as a way to enlarge or reposition the doc. That half works properly, and it isn’t too laborious to discover a degree that works greatest for you. When you’re positioned in your PDF, you may’t keep there. With the launch software program, the Scribe makes it unimaginable to keep up your present zoom ranges from one web page to the subsequent. As an alternative, it’s a must to zoom all the best way out once more as a way to swipe to the subsequent web page, simply to reposition it once more. This will make studying lengthy PDFs cumbersome.

You may as well import and create handwritten sticky notes in Microsoft Phrase docs (DOCX, DOC), HTML, EPUB, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP textual content and graphic information, however not in manga, comics, graphic novels, magazines or newspapers. Like with different current Kindles, you may take heed to Audible audio format (AAX) or text-to-speech audio with Bluetooth headphones or audio system. Moreover, Amazon says it is working with Microsoft to will let you export a Phrase doc straight from a pc to your Kindle Scribe inside that Phrase doc. That function is coming in 2023, Amazon says, together with the power to sync. 

Without spending a dime note-taking, doodling or creating notebooks and journals, the Scribe has 18 templates to select from, together with six lined choices, graphing paper, musical notation and to-do lists. You’ll be able to set up your notebooks in folders and search by their titles and Amazon says that in early 2023, you’ll get entry to your notebooks by the Kindle app sync function on different units.

Nonetheless, as my colleague Sarah Lord — who additionally hung out with the Scribe — notes, “All of that’s nice, however these notebooks lack any good options. For instance, there is not any solution to insert equations or convert your handwriting to textual content. Equally, you do not get any assist in drawing shapes or straightening traces. And whilst you can export your notebooks through electronic mail, there is not any help for Dropbox or another third-party service.” That is probably not a giant deal for some people, however the lengthy and in need of it’s that severe note-takers may need extra.

Lord says she prefers the ReMarkable 2 as a pure note-taking E Ink pill, but it surely has its limitations as an e-reader and clearly would not embody entry to Amazon’s in depth Kindle eco-system and its large library of ebooks. 

Kindle Scribe closing ideas

The massive query for lots of people shall be whether or not to purchase a Kindle Scribe or maybe a brand new iPad or a Samsung Galaxy Tab S, the perfect Android pill (or so lots of people say). Whilst you nonetheless have to purchase some form of stylus for an iPad (whereas Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8 sequence features a stylus, iPads do not), it clearly presents much more performance, zippier efficiency and high-resolution coloration show (alas, we’re nonetheless ready for coloration E Ink). You’ll be able to actually take notes and mark up paperwork with an iPad — and likewise principally use it as a pc, significantly for those who hyperlink a keyboard to it. 

However as I stated earlier, the Scribe is for somebody in search of a distraction-free machine with a selected goal, and I do assume it has some room to develop a bit with software program and have updates, a few of which we all know are coming in 2023. 

In comparison with a pill, it additionally delivers a lot better battery life. You’ll be able to stand up to 3 months of battery life for those who simply use the Scribe as an e-reader (primarily based on 30 minutes of studying a day), however note-taking attracts extra vitality and cuts battery life down significantly. Nonetheless, relying on utilization, you may nonetheless get weeks of battery life whereas note-taking and doodling. It fees through USB-C — a cable however no energy adapter is included — and utilizing a 9-watt or increased adapter does pace up charging identical to it does together with your iPhone or Android smartphone. 

The Scribe’s dimension and weight make it extra of a burden to hold round, particularly when you think about the smaller baseline Kindle can match right into a coat pocket. However in all, the Scribe strikes an excellent steadiness between a large-format e-reader and an E Ink note-taking pill. Of us will most likely have some quibbles concerning the Scribe’s excessive value and the robustness of its mark-up and note-taking capabilities, however I do anticipate we’ll see the machine enhance within the coming months.

CNET’s Sarah Lord contributed to this evaluation. 

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