Amazon Kindle Scribe – Remarkable E-Reader & Digital Notebook
As a Kindle Oasis 3 user myself, I would say the Kindle Scribe is a perfect large Kindle for reading and note-taking. Text and images appear sharp on its 10.2-inch, 300 PPI display with evenly distributed adjustable warm backlight. Writing feels smooth and natural with no noticeable lag. It is definitely heavier than the Oasis 3 but lighter than a similarly sized tablet like the Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab. I bought the Amazon Kindle Scribe 64GB with premium pen, leather folio cover with magnetic attach and 9W power adapter for US$325.97 back in March 2023. Shipping and GST added another S$30 and S$49.70 respectively.
Amazon listed the original price of this bundle as US$519.97. So it is roughly a 37% discount for the price that I paid for. I was a little skeptical when I saw the discount and wondering if there were inherent issues with the Kindle Scribe design and hence the huge discount. After using it for a while, all is well and I scored a good deal.
The Amazon Kindle Scribe
After waiting for two weeks, the Kindle Scribe finally arrived from the US. The packaging was a little bumped up but there are no damages to the items within. The next thing to do is to unwrap them!
Kindle Scribe 1st Generation (2022 release) Specifications
- Dimension: 196 x 229 x 5.8 mm
- Weight: 433 g
- Display: 10.2-inch Paperwhite display technology, 300 ppi, 16-levels of grey scale
- Storage: 16, 32 or 64 GB
- Connectivity: USB-C, Bluetooth and WiFi 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz
- Pen weight: Premium (15.1 g), Basic (14.2 g)
- Supported Content formats: Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PDF, TXT, PMP, EPUB through conversion; Audible audio format (AAX).
Using the Kindle Scribe
The Kindle Scribe has a good sizeable screen estate for reading. The wider border on one side makes it easier to hold or anchor it in the hand. Using my fingers as the pivot, the Kindle Scribe rest firmly in my hands. It doesn’t matter whether you are left- or right-handed as it will auto rotate the screen.
One thing I must admit is that I do feel its weight after reading for a while (compared to using the Kindle Oasis 3). But there are pros to the Kindle Scribe.
Reading Academic Papers – Doing a remarkable job at it
I think most would have come across research or academic papers that are: firstly, in PDF format and secondly, in two-column formats. These do not play well with Kindles with smaller screen. Reading and annotating on these documents is a breeze on the Kindle Scribe. You can actually annotate directly on the document – circling important sections, highlighting (albeit in grey), penning down your thoughts or changes, etc.
The Kindle Scribe is doing a remarkable job in this department.
Annotating (and Drawing/ Doodling)
After writing on the Kindle Scribe, I decide to see if drawing diagrams, mind maps, fishbone diagrams, etc. is smooth on the device. I was thinking, “Hey! Why not attempt drawing?”
Yes, it works perfectly. I can email these handwritten (or hand drawn) notes out in PDF format.
Conclusion
If you love to read and want to pen down your thoughts occasionally, the Kindle Scribe would be a good device. Especially if you are already in the Amazon Kindle ecosystem. The 10.2-inch display makes reading a pleasure and the ability to capture handwritten notes ensure your creative ideas don’t slip your mind while you are attempting to record it on your mobile phone or piece of scrape paper.
Personally, I feel the Kindle Scribe’s note taking capability is just the start. The hardware appears to be capable of doing more – it has Bluetooth for audio, snappy handwriting responses. With new software add-ons, it could be capable of recognising and converting handwritten characters into proper fonts and perhaps support Bluetooth keyboard so that you can write your paper on a distraction free device (aside from those story books in your device).
All in all, I like the Amazon Kindle Scribe. It’s great!
