NEWSLETTER
Amazon’s latest Kindle is a large e-reader that wants to replace not only the printed book but also the paper itself, offering on-screen reading and writing with the included stylus.
The Scribe starts at £330 ($340) and is the company’s largest and most expensive model yet with a 10.2-inch screen, dwarfing the 7-inch Oasis and 6.8-inch Paperwhite.
It has the same paper-like e-ink display technology as its smaller siblings, which is sharper than its rivals, and an LED front light that automatically adjusts brightness and color tone to suit the time of day. , which makes it readable in any light.
The touchscreen feels silky smooth, instead of traditional glass, and responds as well as a phone to your taps and swipes. The 5.8mm-thick recycled aluminum body feels slim, solid, and premium. There are little rubber feet on the corners, which keep it from sliding on a table.
One side of the screen has larger bezels that allow for good handling. The screen automatically rotates so you can hold it either way, but it lacks the Oasis’s page-turn buttons, so you have to swipe or tap instead. The included stylus attaches to the slim side of the Scribe with strong magnets for storage.
Read
The reading experience is similar to other recent Kindles. You have access to a vast library of eBooks and audiobooks, each of which can be purchased on the device or on the Amazon site. It syncs over Wi-Fi, downloads text, graphics and audiobooks to your internal storage and stays up to date.
Otherwise, the large screen fits a large number of books on the screen at once. I can hold the Scribe in one hand, but its size and weight of 433g, more than double that of the Paperwhite, make it a couch potato reader where it rests on various parts of the body or furniture like a large book. It’s a genuinely delightful reading experience that allows the book to shine through.
The large screen enhances the experience of reading comics and graphic novels available on the Newly Merged Kindle and Comixology Stores but it’s not as good as an iPad. The comics don’t fill the screen properly and the lack of color means only the monochrome books are fully readable, but I did enjoy reading a few. Original Judge Dredd Comics in black and white.
Writing
The writing experience in Scribe is surprisingly good. The screen surface actually feels papery when the tip of the stylus glides over it, providing just the right amount of friction unlike glass on a tablet or phone.
You can annotate books with typed or handwritten sticky notes. Documents sent to the Scribe via the Kindle app or website it can be marked up, either directly on the page for PDF files or via sticky notes for other file types.
Finally, the notebooks feature essentially replaces the paper journal. You can have as many notebooks as you want and organize them into folders. There are 18 different templates to choose from, including blank and lined pages, grids, to-do lists with checkboxes, schedules and calendars, and even sheet music.
As a simple paper replacement, Scribe is great, but it lacks the advanced features that other devices offer. There is no handwriting recognition to convert it to text. You can only view, but not edit or use the notebooks through the Kindle app on Android, iPhone, or iPad. Notebooks are also not available on the web or Kindle desktop apps. You can export your doodles as PDFs by emailing them from Scribe, but you can’t sync them with any other note-taking apps or services, like Evernote.
Documents sent to Scribe for markup are treated like books and therefore end up cluttering your reading library, not grouped with your notebooks. Scribe has a lot of potential as a paper replacement, but anything short of the actual writing experience is terribly basic.
Specifications
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Screen: 10.2-in Paperwhite with Color Adjustable Frontlight (300 dpi)
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Dimensions: 196x229x5.8mm
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Weight: 433g
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Waterproof: neither
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Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C
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Storage: 8 or 32GB
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Rated Battery Life: 12 weeks of reading 30 minutes a day
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Native format support: Kindle (AZW/AZW3), TXT, pdf, unprotected MOBI, PRC, Audible (AAX)
Sustainability
The Scribe will receive software and security updates for at least four years after it is last available on Amazon. The company does not provide an expected life for the battery, but it should last more than 500 full charge cycles with at least 80% of its original capacity. Access to self-repair options varies by country. The device contains 100% recycled aluminum and 48% recycled plastic.
The company offers exchange and recycling schemes and post information about your various sustainability efforts.
Price
The Amazon Kindle Scribe costs from £329.99 ($339.99) with 16GB of storage and the basic stylus – the premium stylus costs an extra £30 ($30). The 32 GB and 64 GB versions come with the premium pen.
For comparison, Kindle basic costs £84.99the white paper £104.99The oasis £194.99the remarkable 2 £358 with pen and Kobo Elipsa £349.99.
Verdict
The Scribe is the full-size Kindle many may have been waiting for. There’s no question that the large, high-quality screen, long-lasting battery, huge library of e-books, and premium build are appealing for couch reading and outperform the 10-inch-plus competition.
Whether you’re looking for giant text or just to fit a large amount of your book on the screen, size really does matter. Otherwise, the reading experience is similar to other Kindles: average for comics due to the grayscale display, but great for regular books if you give up all control to Amazon and don’t want to buy your content elsewhere.
The feel of on-screen writing is terrific, but it lacks the modern features needed to improve on a paper notebook. There’s no handwriting recognition, no syncing with other services, nothing more than reading on Kindle mobile apps and exporting via pdf via email only. It’s all very basic.
While it’s about the same price as its big-screen e-ink rivals and an iPad, it’s not a general-purpose tablet. You have a web browser but can’t load the Guardian site, for example.
The Scribe is a great giant-sized premium e-reader. But its enormous potential as a digital writing device has yet to be realized.
Advantages: Giant screen, very long battery life, auto brightness and colored front light, recycled aluminum, fantastic writing feel, magnetically attached stylus included.
Cons: Expensive, basic typing experience, no handwriting recognition, no helpful laptop syncing or compatibility with third-party services, case not included.
