Kindle Scribe (2024) evaluation: nothing to write down residence about

My highschool English trainer drilled into my head that there was a correct solution to learn a e book: “In the event you’ve learn a e book with out taking notes, you’ve not learn it in any respect.” She had a degree — taking notes helps me have interaction with the fabric in a a lot deeper means 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 in consequence. Nevertheless it’s distracting to tug up a separate app each time I need to jot down a word and onerous 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 would take notes with, but you couldn’t write straight on e-book pages. As a substitute, you would 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 possibly can 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 worth 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 nearly equivalent to its predecessor save for just a few beauty variations. It now arrives in a good looking 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 skim Kindle books and extra sophisticated to learn outdoors 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 light-weight altogether. 

Granted, it’s not simple lugging round a ten.2-inch e-reader, particularly one comprised of slippery aluminum, and you’ll’t maintain it comfortably with one hand. However on the flip facet, the additional display screen 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 you can take notes on it, and in that respect, I’ve combined emotions. The final handwriting expertise is superb. As earlier than, there’s no lag, and it actually does really feel as for those who’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 liked 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 customary, 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 in need of the competitors. With the brand new Energetic Canvas software, the corporate lastly addresses one in all my chief complaints with the Scribe: now you can write notes that stay seen straight on e-book pages, fairly than on sticky notes that disappear into an icon within the margins (Amazon nonetheless provides the sticky notes function for those who favor 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 effectively on different reflowable paperwork, together with PDFs and Phrase recordsdata. Amazon can even be releasing an expandable margins function in early 2025, too, permitting you to scribble notes in a facet panel you possibly can then conceal, 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 possibly can’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 measurement messes up the web page formatting, creating further areas between sentences. Whilst you can resize, there’s a lag that’ll sluggish you down. A number of instances, my notes disappeared altogether, so I needed to preserve adjusting the scale till it reappeared.

What’s extra irritating, you possibly can’t circle a phrase or phrase and jot down a word proper subsequent to it. When you write a word, the web page routinely realigns, so lots of instances the Scribe would add my word to the flawed 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 possibly can’t manually anchor it to the right 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’ll writing on a bodily e book. 

Marking up PDFs is much more intuitive and freed from Energetic Canvas’ limitations, so you possibly can take notes naturally. It’s also possible to mark up text-searchable PDFs and export them with out dropping the power to look inside the textual content. Sadly, you possibly can’t search inside 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 should utilize as weekly planners, checklists, and extra, all of which I discovered useful. It’s also possible to obtain extra templates from Amazon, or add PDF recordsdata 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 in anyway. The AI abstract function continues to be useful, given it does 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 possibly can 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. Comparable tablets from Onyx may summarize notes and convert handwriting to textual content, whereas additionally letting you insert hyperlinks to notes, recordsdata, 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 could actually’t summarize notes just like the Scribe, but it surely no less than 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. Having 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 step 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 onerous to annotate ebooks, and the brand new options simply aren’t as helpful in comparison with the competitors.

Even for those who’re simply in search of a big Kindle with primary 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 provides Energetic Canvas and the generative AI options if you obtain the most recent software program replace (or await 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 practically indistinguishable.

Pictures by Sheena Vasani / The Verge