The Kindle Scribe is nice for taking notes, nevertheless it must be extra moveable

Amazon has been gradual to meaningfully change the Kindle, largely as a result of it would not must. When you can learn your books and, maybe extra importantly, buy them for a less expensive worth than they’d value from a bookstore, you are in all probability proud of the corporate’s e-reader because it exists. The most important change the corporate made to the Kindle final 12 months was the addition of the Kindle Colorsoft to the lineup, the primary of Amazon’s e-readers that has a shade display screen.

Colour 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 to do the identical factor.

The Kindle Scribe is an e-reader crossed with a note-taking system, with help for a stylus, and a display screen large enough to show paperwork correctly. Word-taking tablets just like the reMarkable 2 or Boox Note Air 3 have happy these wants beforehand, however Amazon’s benefit is that your library of books and audiobooks are on the Scribe, too, without having to obtain a separate app or side-load EPUB information.

Whereas note-taking appeared like a little bit of an afterthought when the system 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 manner: its measurement. You compromise on portability utilizing the Scribe and Amazon ought to take into account making a smaller system 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 should you’re prepared to ship them out of your pc to your e-reader. The benefit of the Kindle Scribe over a Paperwhite or a Colorsoft is that you may view these paperwork at one thing near the dimensions 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 anyplace 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 simple to carry and feels good to jot down on. Amazon offers you ample house to take notes and has provide you with clever software workarounds to allow you to write instantly on books with out obscuring the textual content (a set of options the corporate calls “Lively Canvas”). The dimensions of the Kindle Scribe solely feels bizarre when you begin studying. I like massive fonts as a lot as the subsequent individual, however nothing concerning the expertise of studying on the Scribe looks like studying a guide. If something, essentially the most snug and best strategy to truly learn on the system 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 tougher to accommodate in a backpack or bag. It takes up more room than a Kindle in a carry-on and if you take a look at the competitors, it is simply greater than it must be to supply all of the options that make it nice.

A extra compact note-taking system

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

Once 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 so much smaller. The perfect 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 perfect kind 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 provide a number of gadgets which are across the identical measurement as a Kindle, however help handwritten notes just like the Scribe. If you would like a shade display screen, you would get one thing just like the Boox Go Colour 7 Gen II or Kobo Libra Colour, for instance. Or should you’re superb with conventional E Ink, you would do the Ratta Supernote Nomad or Kobo Sage. All of those gadgets provide 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 circumstances, even transcend what Amazon’s prepared to supply (Boox’s gadgets run Android, for instance).

Clearly, there is a marketplace for this measurement of system. Amazon’s simply chosen to not deal with it but. In addition to portability, studying on a Kobo Libra Color simply feels higher, too. You get precise buttons to show pages, and the system 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 need to strive one thing new, although, and I hope that the identical motivation exists to think about a smaller Kindle Scribe.

Within the meantime, should you’re prepared to do your studying in a Kindle app, it could be price contemplating the Boox Go 7 Colour. I discovered so much to love after I went hands-on with the system. For one thing much more centered on studying, the Kobo Libra Color is a good possibility, too.