Kindle Scribe: An In-Depth Look at Amazon's Newest E-Reader
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Speaker 1: We're here to take an in-depth look at Amazon's first EIN tablet, the Kindle scribe. This is more than just an extra large Kindle. It's a tablet that's built for handwriting notes. It comes with a pen that doesn't require charging, so you can immediately start scribbling in your notes or in. It's built in Notebook app. It has 300 PPI resolution on its ein display. Comes with 35 L e D front lights that can be adjusted from cool to warm and starts at $340 for [00:00:30] a model with 16 gigabytes of storage. So is the scribe a writer's paradise? Keep watching to find out
Speaker 1: If you wanna check on the scribe. I've left links in the description. I've also put in chapters so you can go straight to the part you're looking for. So the first thing to know about the scribe is that it's a tablet that won't play videos. Unlike the Apple iPad or Amazon's own Kindle Fire EIN tablets aren't [00:01:00] capable of browsing the web or playing games, at least not very well. Instead, their main focus is to bring distraction free writing and reading to students, professionals, and anyone else who loves to write by hand, but wants to ditch the clutter and waist of paper. Basically, the scribe looks and feels like an extra large Kindle paper White or Oasis, though it lacks the physical page. Turning buttons of Amazon's premium E-reader describes 10.2 inch display is evenly lit [00:01:30] and easy to read. Words look crisp and clear while the device itself is fast and responsive.
Speaker 1: Anyone who's owned a Kindle will instantly feel at home on the scribe. In fact, the only difference between the layout of the scribe and other Kindles is the addition of a notebooks tab on the bottom of the home screen menu. The scribe's notebooks are easy to use, but lacking in features compared to other ING tablets. You can export your notebooks via email, but there's no Dropbox or any other third [00:02:00] party support. There are 18 notebook templates available, including six lined options, graphing paper, musical notation, and to-do lists. All of that is great, but these notebooks lack any smart features. For example, there's no way to insert equations or convert your handwriting to text. Similarly, you don't get any help in drawing shapes or straightening lines. All of this might be fine for some people, but anyone looking to use the scribe for high volume note taking [00:02:30] might need more.
Speaker 1: Despite these limitations. Writing in the scribe is a joy. The pen is comfortable and easy to hold, and writing feels completely natural. It's one of the best writing experience I've had on an EIN tablet, though I wish there were a few more pen options to choose from. There's only one pen type, which allows you to choose between five thickness settings. Otherwise, you have a highlighter and an eraser, and that's it. Like I said, the [00:03:00] notebooks are great, but the whole thing feels pretty basic. Things got worse when I tried writing inside of books and other documents. See, Amazon doesn't actually let you write directly on the page in anything other than a pdf. Instead, you'll need to write on sticky notes. If you wanna hand write a note in a book or even a Word doc, not only does this prevent you from scribbling in the margins of books, it also means you'll need to take a separate action to start writing it [00:03:30] all.
Speaker 1: To write, you'll first have to tap an onscreen button, which launches the note once you finish writing and close it. This sticky will be saved, but will only leave a small mark on the screen to indicate where it is. You'll be able to access all your notes by tapping on your notes and highlight sections, but that comes with its own set of problems. That's because when you write a note in a book, the text related to the note is not automatically populated into your notes and highlights. [00:04:00] All you get is the note itself without any of the context in which you wrote it. Clicking on it will open the note and bring you to the page where it was written. And this is great in theory, but is confusing if you have more than one note on each page as it doesn't direct you to the exact location where the note was created.
Speaker 1: It's fine for those who just wanna make an occasional note or highlight, but as a deal breaker for those whose work requires serious note taking. It's important to note [00:04:30] that literally all of the other ING tablets I've tested let users write directly onto their documents, including some books on their device rather than just using sticky notes. And just to add insult to injury, the scribe doesn't let you write or use sticky notes at all on manga comics, graphic novels, magazines, or newspapers. The scribe will let you write directly on the page in PDFs, but the experience isn't that great. The pen itself works well, but dealing with the PDFs is [00:05:00] more difficult than it should be. When you're in a pdf, you aren't able to adjust the font size or layout, so instead you have to pinch to zoom in order to enlarge or reposition the document.
Speaker 1: That part works well, and it's not too hard to find a level that works best for you. Unfortunately, once you positioned your pdf, you can't stay there. The scribe makes it impossible to maintain your current zoom levels from one page to the next. Instead, you have to zoom all the way out again [00:05:30] in order to swipe to the next page. Just to reposition it all over again, this is a huge pain and makes reading long PDFs cumbersome and frustrating. Describe really performs best as a large screen e-reader. Reading on this 10.2 inch screen is truly a pleasure. Sure, it would be nice if Amazon gave us a few more options for font size and line spacing, but it's still possible to get a customizable layout that works well on the larger screen. [00:06:00] And unlike other Kindle models, the scribe becomes ad free. So you can see the cover of the book you're reading as a screen saver.
Speaker 1: There also aren't any explicit ads in the home screen. No, Amazon has stuffed it full of recommended Kindle content. So let's talk price describe with 16 gigs of storage and the basic pen costs $340. I have the model with a premium pen, which adds an eraser and shortcut button and costs 370, [00:06:30] which is a difference of $30. If you think you might ever want the premium pen, I'd recommend getting it packaged with the scribe. Since the premium pen costs $60 on its own, the scribe does not come with any kind of case, but Amazon sells them starting at $60 for the fabric version. The $80 premium leather case magnetically attaches to the device, but also doesn't thoroughly cover the sides of the scribe. Instead, the side cutouts allow you to [00:07:00] store the pen on the left side and access the charging ports and power button On the right, there is also a more secure dedicated pen loop at the bottom of the cover.
Speaker 1: Now the scribe is Amazon's first ing tablet, but it's not the only one. Cobo, which is owned by Rakuten, has long been nipping at Amazon's heels when it comes to its e-reader lineup. In fact, the Cobo Lya may well be the Kindle scribe's most direct rival. The Lya is [00:07:30] a 10.3 inch E ink tablet, and it works seamlessly on Cobos own extensive library, allowing users to mark up directly on PDFs and other Cobo books and ubs. It even lets you mark up library books borrowed from overdrive and will remember your markings if you later buy the book or take it out again from the library. The included pen requires a AAA batteries to work, but the ellipse comes with 32 gigabytes of storage, handwriting, conversion, [00:08:00] and Dropbox support. Its resolution of 2 27. PPI is a little less than the scribes, and though it does come with front L e D lights, it lacks the warm light of the scribe.
Speaker 1: The COA costs $400, but also comes with a case and a sleeve cover included. Meanwhile, the remarkable two is one of the most popular EIN tablets available and is my favorite for handwritten notes. This tablet's 10.3 inch 2 26 PPI display [00:08:30] is not quite as sharp as the scribes, but the screen is ever so slightly larger like the scribe. The remarkable two also comes with a pen that pairs automatically and doesn't need to be charged. Users can write directly on the screen to mark up PDFs or unprotected DRM free e pubs. It has eight gigabytes of internal storage and now includes handwriting, conversion and Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive integration. Those services used to be part of Remarkables [00:09:00] Connect subscription, but are now included for free with every device. The Connect subscription itself still exists, but now costs $3 a month instead of eight. It offers a remarkable two protection plan along with unlimited cloud storage and the ability to add notes in your notebook when you're on mobile and desktop devices.
Speaker 1: Unlike the Scribe, the remarkable two does not have access to the Kindle Library, and you won't be able to take notes on any Kindle books that you own. It also lacks [00:09:30] any kind of built in lighting, which means that you'll need to use a lamp to read in the dark. That said, it's now one of the cheapest EIN tablets available at $279. So as the Kindle scribe, the EIN tablet to get, only if you want a large screen e-reader or are desperate to hand write sticky notes in Amazon books. If you handle a lot of PDFs and wanna take lots of handwritten notes, the remarkable two is still going to be your best bet. Those looking [00:10:00] to write directly in books should check out Cobo and their integrated content library. Ultimately, the scribe isn't good enough at either PDFs or inline note taking to recommend it as anything other than a gigantic but excellent. Kindle, what do you think of the scribe? Do you want one? Let me know in the comments. Give us a like and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one. Thanks for watching.
