TESTED AMAZON KINDLE SCRIBE
Amazon supersizes its e-reader then adds a pen and a notebook section. It’s a whole new Kindle experience… but does it live up to the promise?
from £330 / go.stuff.tv/Scribe
If you thought the £230 Kindle Oasis was about as premium as Amazon’s e-reader range was going to get, think again… and say hello to the Scribe.
This is a large-screen Kindle in the iPad price bracket – and that’s a seriously challenging place to be for a black and white E Ink reading device. E Ink is still niche tech, although the excellent Remarkable 2 recently showed us there’s life in it yet – and with the iPad Pro making a success out of working with a stylus, it feels like there’s something here for Amazon to grab hold of, even if digital note-taking doesn’t quite have the success its long history might suggest.
The Scribe is available in 16, 32 and 64GB storage sizes, starting at £330 with the so-called Basic Pen and £360 (as reviewed) with the Premium Pen, which has an eraser on the non-nib end and a shortcut button. Is the Scribe worth that kind of moolah? Well, it’s complicated…
Lovely machine
Like the Kindle Oasis, this is premium hardware writ large. The 10.2in 300ppi E Ink display (1) is so very sharp. This is the only large e-reader around with such a high-res display (even if smaller Kindles now offer 300ppi too). You won’t be zooming into things much.
Whole lotta histories
The Scribe is still primarily an e-reader. The Kindle system’s supremacy here is unrivalled, and it now has 13 million titles in its library. The device comes with three free months of the Kindle Unlimited sub service should you want it; and it will ask if you want to subscribe to Audible too.
Chalk this way
You can annotate books or PDFs pretty easily, and you’re able to email files to your Kindle or upload them via the web. A writing toolbar appears and you can use the pen, highlighter or eraser (3); this is fine for annotating text but little use for colour stuff like, well, Stuff.
The loving bind
The 433g tablet has a very slim design at a mere 5.8mm thick, and there are four small rubber feet on the back – which mean the back won’t get roughed up. The included pen (2) attaches to the side magnetically – this doesn’t charge it, as it doesn’t need power to operate.
Texty? No, no, no…
Writing on the display is lovely, but the biggest problem with the Scribe is that your scribbles (4) remain just that – there’s no way for them to be recognised and turned into text. That’s a major disadvantage compared to the (cheaper) Remarkable 2 and Moleskine Smart Writing Set.
