I got a new car last year. I would call a friend or family member and tell them about a new feature I had discovered. It had a device that could communicate. There are lane change warnings. There's a camera for parking. My friends and family, who have purchased cars in the last 20 years, sighed and reminded me that the features were new to them. For a lot of people the same thing will happen. If you are not familiar with the world of E Ink note-taking tablets, they will look neat.
The largest Amazon product is the Scribe. It is even bigger than the long-continued 9.7-inch Amazon. It is possible to make the print bigger and not blurrier, or you can pack more words onto the page, if you choose to do so with the Scribe. It is a lot more comfortable to read comic books and graphic novels on the device than it is to read a book on a computer.
The real appeal of this device is that it is the first one with a Wacom layer, which means you can use a stylus to make annotations to books. I have used a lot of the other E Ink competitors, like the more expensive Onyx Boox Note Air 2. TheKindle Scribe is not as good as those devices.
I am an e ink nerd. I import e-readers from China because I want to check out the new design. I knew that Amazon wouldn't have the fancy features of its competitors. I knew it was going to have to sacrifice. I knew that Amazon doesn't have to do much to compete in the e-reader market in the US. I wasn't happy.
It's fine as an e- reader. It was very easy to read The Priory of the Orange Tree with an e-reader. The words are clear and the page is refreshed quickly. I sometimes feel like an extra in Star Trek: The Next Generation when I read from the Scribe because it is so large and easy to hold in one hand. The cases for the Scribe are meant to look like pen pads, but I still love them. It didn't get in the way of the device like the book style case on other e-readers do It has a pen loop built in, but it doesn't feel like an add-on like a pen loop would.
The Basic Pen has a built-in eraser and a button-free design, but the more luxurious Premium Pen has a built-in shortcut button and a button-free design. If you don't have a case with a pen loop, both have magnets on the device. There is no charge for the pen because it is using Wacom technology. I didn't miss my regular E Ink stylus when using the Premium Pen.
Some of the best battery life I have seen in an e-reader is in the Scribe. I don't have to turn off the wi-fi to keep the battery from draining between uses like I do with other devices.
When I'm trying to choose what to read, it's one of my biggest problems. The integration of Comixology with the Amazon store was completed earlier this year. All of my books and comics are in the same place, even if it's not a black-and-white e-reader. You can now add filters to your library on Amazon. The recommendations on the Scribe's homepage didn't work out because of that. I have no interest in reading that comic book. When I mentioned this to Kevin, he was surprised and said he would have the team look into it. The Scribe tried to get me to sign up for a subscription in less than a minute. I didn't see ads for either service when I first turned it on. The Scribe doesn't have lock screen ads, so the nags were a bit much.
Maybe that is ok because you want it to take notes and also read books. Amazon made the glass rougher. The rougher texture of the stylus's nibs makes it feel more pleasant to write on an iPad. It almost feels like real paper to me.
The Remarkable 2 does it better than the previous one. There is a small gap between the glass you are writing on and the E Ink surface on the Scribe. It's obvious that there is a gap, and it creates a small delay as you write. I will happily take the delay if I can choose between front lights or no lights.
The reading experience of the Scribe is better than the Remarkable 2. As you read a book, you can create little notes on the Scribe, and it will automatically collect all of the annotations. It works like a dream if you keep writing it down. There isn't a device that lets you do that quickly.
It's the same for marking up PDF. You open the PDF and then send it to yourself. The thing was done.
The dedicated notebook feature is not up to par. It is easy to get writing if you open the cover and notebook. You can't choose from more than one pen and pencil grade. There are five different pen thicknesses and five different highlighter thicknesses. I would have liked to have more than one type of pen. Software updates could bring more features to the Scribe's notebook app, according to the man. With time, it will get better.
I am crossing my fingers that the situation will get better because right now it is goofy. If you want to get articles and other documents on the Scribe, you need to email your Kindle and wait for it to receive the files, which will load into your library with books you already own. It doesn't sync your notes to the app on your phone or the website. You can't make annotations when you open the same PDF on your phone. You can only read notebooks if you have a phone or other device. If you want to convert your handwriting to text, look for a different device. TheScribe does not do that. It is stunningly goofy how poorly this whole process works since Amazon is one of the most successful cloud computing companies in the world.
There is a 1/6th.
Amazon could not match the Remarkable 2 and it could have caused the other company to go down in flames. Even if their tablets aren't as pleasant to write on as a Remarkable 2, they all have intuitive and flexible note taking options. The Scribe just provides an adequate service. I have trouble escaping the sense that this is a sort of lazy entry into the market. The Remarkable 2 and the Note Air 2 are not really significant competitors. I was expecting something of real quality from Amazon given the price of the Scribe.
The Remarkable 2 costs $299 but requires you to spend at least $79 on a stylus. The Onyx Boox Note Air 2, which includes a pen and a case, starts at $449 and is cheaper than this one. It is still a bargain compared to the 10-inch competition, despite the fact that Amazon might argue that it is a luxurious option. It should have taken the note-taking abilities further.
If you are looking for a simple note-taking device or a large e-reader, the Kindle Scribe is the easiest choice. There is a lot of room for improvement for the software. The company will roll out more updates, according to the executives. The Scribe does enough to keep up with the competition and not much more.
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