The Kindle Scribe is great for taking notes, but it needs to be more portable

Amazon has been sluggish to meaningfully change the Kindle, largely as a result of it does not need to. If you happen to can learn your books and, maybe extra importantly, buy them for a less expensive worth than they might price from a bookstore, you are most likely proud of the corporate’s e-reader because it exists. The largest change the corporate made to the Kindle final yr was the addition of the Kindle Colorsoft to the lineup, the primary of Amazon’s e-readers that has a shade display screen.

Coloration E Ink existed for years earlier than Amazon adopted it and by including it, the corporate was acknowledging a pattern. This is not the primary time Amazon has tried to maintain up with the competitors. The Kindle Scribe, the corporate’s main addition to the lineup earlier than the Colorsoft, was an try and do the identical factor.

The Kindle Scribe is an e-reader crossed with a note-taking gadget, with help for a stylus, and a display screen sufficiently big to show paperwork correctly. Notice-taking tablets just like the reMarkable 2 or Boox Note Air 3 have glad these wants beforehand, however Amazon’s benefit is that your library of books and audiobooks are on the Scribe, too, while not having to obtain a separate app or side-load EPUB information.

Whereas note-taking appeared like a little bit of an afterthought when the gadget debuted, Amazon has continued to help the Scribe with new options, even updating its design alongside the Colorsoft. It is a stable possibility if studying and writing matter to you equally, nevertheless it’s additionally restricted in a single apparent method: its measurement. You compromise on portability utilizing the Scribe and Amazon ought to contemplate making a smaller gadget that may do the identical factor.

The Kindle Scribe makes books document-sized

An enormous display screen is good for notes, however not for pockets

Regular-sized Kindles can learn PDFs and different paperwork if you happen to’re prepared to ship them out of your laptop to your e-reader. The benefit of the Kindle Scribe over a Paperwhite or a Colorsoft is you could view these paperwork at one thing near the scale of an actual web page, and write on them as naturally as a print-out you’d obtain at work or college. Compared to Amazon’s different Kindles, which have wherever between 6- and 7-inch screens, the Scribe has a ten.2-inch E Ink Carta show, packed into a comparatively gentle 15.3 oz aluminum physique.

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The Scribe is straightforward to carry and feels good to put in writing on. Amazon provides you ample house to take notes and has give you clever software workarounds to allow you to write straight on books with out obscuring the textual content (a collection of options the corporate calls “Energetic Canvas”). The scale of the Kindle Scribe solely feels bizarre when you begin studying. I really like massive fonts as a lot as the subsequent particular person, however nothing concerning the expertise of studying on the Scribe looks like studying a e-book. If something, probably the most comfy and best method to really learn on the gadget is sitting, propping up the Scribe on one knee.

This has much less to do with weight or thickness, as a result of the e-reader itself is barely 0.22-inches thick, and extra to do with how its display screen measurement makes it awkward to carry in a single hand, and a bit more durable to accommodate in a backpack or bag. It takes up extra space than a Kindle in a carry-on and if you have a look at the competitors, it is simply larger than it must be to supply all of the options that make it nice.

A extra compact note-taking gadget

Boox and Kobo do not restrict their styluses to the massive display screen

After I take into consideration the sorts of notebooks I loved writing in earlier than I began testing out note-taking tablets from Amazon, Ratta, and reMarkable, they have been all quite a bit smaller. The best Moleskine pocket book is pocketable, one thing you’ll be able to slip right into a again pocket or inside a coat jacket with out pondering twice. That is a a lot smaller measurement than a ten.2-inch Kindle Scribe. The best type issue for considered one of these note-taking tablets or e-readers is one thing smaller, much less like a college-ruled pocket book and extra like a Moleskine.

Opponents to Amazon supply a number of gadgets which can be across the identical measurement as a Kindle, however help handwritten notes just like the Scribe. If you would like a shade display screen, you can get one thing just like the Boox Go Coloration 7 Gen II or Kobo Libra Colour, for instance. Or if you happen to’re positive with conventional E Ink, you can do the Ratta Supernote Nomad or Kobo Sage. All of those gadgets supply the portability of a traditional e-reader, round a 7-inch display screen, and help for stylus enter. They match the Kindle Scribe by way of options, and in some instances, even transcend what Amazon’s prepared to supply (Boox’s gadgets run Android, for instance).

Clearly, there is a marketplace for this measurement of gadget. Amazon’s simply chosen to not deal with it but. Moreover portability, studying on a Kobo Libra Color simply feels higher, too. You get precise buttons to show pages, and the gadget is sufficiently small to carry in a single hand and use, one thing not as simply stated concerning the Kindle Scribe.

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There’s extra work to do on the Kindle lineup

Amazon should not relaxation on its laurels

Previous to the Kindle Scribe’s authentic launch in 2022, I by no means would have anticipated Amazon to enterprise out of the “meat and potatoes” of e-readers that may play audiobooks. Someplace inside the corporate there was a want to strive one thing new, although, and I hope that the identical motivation exists to think about a smaller Kindle Scribe.

Within the meantime, if you happen to’re prepared to do your studying in a Kindle app, it is perhaps price contemplating the Boox Go 7 Coloration. I discovered quite a bit to love once I went hands-on with the gadget. For one thing much more centered on studying, the Kobo Libra Color is a good possibility, too.