Handwriting, who still does that? These days, we mostly type on a computer or a smartphone. At least I do. I rarely have a pen and paper with me. It annoys me that my notes are scattered all over the place and I can’t easily edit them. Wrong structure for your notes? You just end up scribbling somewhere in between. And where the hell is that note when I need it?
One way to take digital handwritten notes is with an iPad, which also has a stylus. My girlfriend treated herself to the stylus for her iPad, and it’s not exactly cheap. And it just doesn’t feel good to write on a brightly lit glass screen. It just wasn’t for me.
For quite a while, though, I kept stumbling across the ReMarkable 2, an e-ink tablet that specializes in capturing notes. The device is the company’s only product, and besides selling the device, they make money through a subscription – cloud access is only available for a monthly fee. On top of that, according to reviews, the device is great for writing but less suitable as an e-book reader.
And then Amazon released the Kindle Scribe, a large-format Kindle with a note-taking function. I chose that order intentionally. At its core, the Scribe is an e-book reader. The note-taking function is an add-on. According to the first reviews, it was also rather basic. But the reviews also mentioned further development, so I bought the device. After all, it’s 200 euros cheaper than the ReMarkable 2.
Kindle Scribe
On the plus side, of course, I can now leave my old Kindle Paperwhite at home. The Scribe works just like any other Kindle and is great for reading thanks to its large display. PDFs, articles saved from websites, and mangas are a dream on this screen. Despite its size, it maintains a pixel density of 300 DPI. The automatic backlight and its adjustable color temperature are new to me and work very well. That’s a plus compared to the Paperwhite, which has no color temperature and no automatic lighting. And a huge plus compared to the ReMarkable, which has no backlight at all. I think it’s great to be able to read and write effortlessly even in dark environments. So far, so good, which makes the Scribe a large and souped-up Paperwhite for now.
But it’s not called the Scribe for nothing. The most important new feature is the ability to write on the display with the included stylus. To achieve this, Amazon has moved away from glass again and put a slightly rough surface on the display. Unfortunately, this means the Scribe is no longer waterproof, but I wouldn’t take it to the beach anyway. My Paperwhite already has some serious scratches thanks to sand and wind. But the writing feel with the Scribe’s surface is excellent. It’s not far from pen and paper; for me, it almost feels even better. The distance between the stylus and the display is smaller than on an iPad, and the e-ink display’s response time is surprisingly fluid. It just feels good.
This brings us to the device’s limitations. You can definitely tell that the Scribe’s operating system is actually made for reading. The management of notes is very basic. There’s a new Notebooks section where you can create notebooks and folders. But PDFs aren’t there; they’re in the Library. And there are also two types of PDFs – either you can write directly in them, or you can attach a note to an element in the PDF. The latter is just like on a Kindle before, but now with handwriting. This confused and put me off a bit at first. Why can’t I write directly in books?
The answer is simple: PDFs and books are, by default, converted into a Kindle format that adapts the text to the respective screen and font settings. This makes it virtually impossible to allow for meaningful notes within the text. This only works with PDFs that remain in their original layout – but then they can’t be adjusted. It’s understandable and actually a good solution. But unfortunately, this also means you can’t use PDFs as templates for a notebook. A daily planner or a bullet journal as a template? Only if you work with them in the Library and not in the Notebooks section. Annoying, but not a deal-breaker.
That brings us to the notebooks. You can choose the style for a notebook from various templates: lined, grid, to-do list, calendar, and a few more. Within an open notebook, you can now (finally) do the usual things. Write with a fountain pen, pencil, felt-tip pen, or marker in various thicknesses. Erase or select a section, cut it, and move it. I find the latter function especially great. The Scribe is now also pressure- and angle-sensitive, which makes for a fantastic experience, especially with the pencil. But that’s about it. Okay, it’s everything you need to create notes.
In the end, I love taking notes on the Kindle, but I’m certainly not going to pull the device out while shopping to read my grocery list. Sometimes I don’t have the Scribe with me but still want to access my notes. Or share them with others. For that, I can open and read the notes on the Kindle app on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, which works without a problem. Alternatively, I can email a notebook to myself or someone else as a PDF or as converted text. The latter has worked quite reliably so far. The only thing I’d still find cool is a live view, meaning mirroring the Scribe’s display to my PC for meetings. That’s not possible (yet).
All in all, I’m very satisfied with the Scribe, and I’m enjoying handwriting again. It’s often faster than typing. Plus, you have much more freedom in how you design things than on a computer. I can fully recommend the device as an e-book reader and largely recommend it as a notebook. I’m curious to see if Amazon will continue to provide the device with new features; maybe I’ll get that live view eventually.