Still a Kindle for e-reading
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The higher brightness levels, glare-free Paperwhite display, warmth controls, and 10.2-inch screen make for an awesome reading experience. I only wish there were hardware buttons like I have on my Oasis to easily turn pages. It’s an essential feature to have, especially when handling a tablet this big. The left side bezel is a bit wide, in my opinion, but it does make it easier to hold the tablet with my left hand and write with my right. The funny part is that you can rotate the Scribe 180 degrees and have the wide bezel on the right side with a pen in your left hand, making it an ambidextrous tablet.
See also: Kindle Scribe vs ReMarkable 2 Tablet: Digitize your notes
How the Scribe replaces pen and paper
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A key function that I’ll add is how I can quickly and easily erase my handwritten notes by ‘brushing’ the eraser portion of the $59 Premium Pen. It’s an optional accessory for the Scribe, but one that I highly recommend picking up if you want the full note-taking experience. If you order the Kindle Scribe without a case, you will find that the pen magnetically attaches to the side with the narrower bezels – and it does so fairly securely. I have mounted the premium pen in this position 90% of the time without a problem. The Scribe is also quite thin at 5.8mm so it is easy to hold onto without a case.
While I have various other tablets, I’ve yet to find a pairing that feels natural, both in hardware and software, and often end up rarely ever using the stylus that they support. An e-ink tablet like the Kindle Scribe solves that issue.
Should you buy the folio cover?
The Kindle Scribe latches onto the folio cover via magnets which, I’ll admit, mostly stays intact when you’re just lugging the device around in your hand or a backpack. But if you drop it or try to pick up the Scribe by the front flap of the case, then be prepared to catch the falling Kindle.
Generally, I would recommend the folio cover if you want to keep the front of the Scribe protected and a more secure slot for your pen. Otherwise, I’d wait for more third-party cases to appear in the market so you can find your ideal function(s) and design.
Quick toggle between book reading and notebooks: It is quick and easy to add notes within books you are reading, but sometimes I have a thought I want to write down in one of my notebooks instead. Currently, users have back out of the reading experience and navigate to the Notebooks section in order to jot down a word or two. By adding a shortcut, the duality of the two features would be much more seamless.Basic file management: Unfortunately, you can’t reorganize notes on the Scribe, which is something I require as I accumulate documents over time. It would be nice to be able to cut and paste, insert pages, and share parts of your notes with others.Export notes in other formats: At this time, you can quickly and easily send your handwritten notes as a PDF to an email. I would love to have the option to send it as a text file, OneNote file, or Word document so that I could then do more with the notes.Handwriting to text: The ReMarkable 2 supports converting your handwriting into text, making notes highly searchable. This is absent on the Scribe.Import content into notes: It would be nice to be able to import other text, images, and visual content into a note document. At this time, notes only support what you write on the display with the pen.Shapes: While graph paper is one of the note templates offered, it is still tough to make straight lines in ink. I would love to see support for basic shapes such as squares, rectangles, circles, and even lines for when I need to sketch up designs and engineering mock-ups. Colored pens: Even if color e-ink is not used on the display, it would be nice to have access to different colors and highlighters so that when they are exported, the receiver can better visualize your input.
Bottom line
When I first considered the ReMarkable 2, I wasn’t looking for a tablet for media consumption, graphic designing, or the slew of other functions that are best performed by an iPad, Surface Pro, or Samsung Galaxy tablet. I was simply looking for a good digital tablet that mimicked my traditional pen-and-paper experience.
In its current form, the new Kindle just barely scratches my itch for a digital notepad, but I’m hopeful that future iterations will address the areas of improvement that I suggested above.
Alternatives to consider
