The Kindle Scribe is nice for taking notes, however it must be extra transportable

Amazon has been gradual to meaningfully change the Kindle, largely as a result of it does not must. For those who can learn your books and, maybe extra importantly, buy them for a less expensive value than they’d value 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.

Colour E Ink existed for years earlier than Amazon adopted it and by including it, the corporate was acknowledging a development. 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 machine, with assist for a stylus, and a display 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, 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 machine debuted, Amazon has continued to assist the Scribe with new options, even updating its design alongside the Colorsoft. It is a stable choice if studying and writing matter to you equally, however 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 machine that may do the identical factor.

The Kindle Scribe makes books document-sized

An enormous display 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 faculty. 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 mild 15.3 oz aluminum physique.

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The Scribe is simple to carry and feels good to write down on. Amazon provides you ample area to take notes and has provide you with clever software workarounds to allow you to write immediately on books with out obscuring the textual content (a set of options the corporate calls “Energetic Canvas”). The dimensions of the Kindle Scribe solely feels bizarre when you begin studying. I like massive fonts as a lot as the subsequent particular person, however nothing in regards to the expertise of studying on the Scribe seems like studying a e-book. If something, essentially the most comfy and best approach to really learn on the machine 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 just 0.22-inches thick, and extra to do with how its display measurement makes it awkward to carry in a single hand, and a bit tougher to accommodate in a backpack or bag. It takes up extra space than a Kindle in a carry-on and once 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 machine

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

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 had been all rather a lot 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 type issue for certainly 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 units which can be across the identical measurement as a Kindle, however assist handwritten notes just like the Scribe. If you’d like a shade display, you would get one thing just like the Boox Go Colour 7 Gen II or Kobo Libra Colour, for instance. Or should you’re fantastic with conventional E Ink, you would do the Ratta Supernote Nomad or Kobo Sage. All of those units supply the portability of a traditional e-reader, round a 7-inch display, and assist 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 units run Android, for instance).

Clearly, there is a marketplace for this measurement of machine. Amazon’s simply chosen to not handle it but. Apart from portability, studying on a Kobo Libra Color simply feels higher, too. You get precise buttons to show pages, and the machine is sufficiently small to carry in a single hand and use, one thing not as simply mentioned in regards to 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 unique 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 contemplate a smaller Kindle Scribe.

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