Amazon Kindle Scribe (64 GB) - 10.2” 300 ppi Paperwhite display, a Kindle and a notebook all in one, convert notes to text and share, includes Premium Pen

I was hesitant at first because of mixed reviews. I have to say- I love it! Addressing Other Reviews I have to say that a lot of the things people are griping about can be solved by having patience. It is a first-generation device and, while better versions may come, this one is far from basic. I haven't charged it in a week, in spite of using it multiple times. I think if you use it heavily for a few days, you will need to charge it more often- but are we really to the point where having to charge a device once a week is a chief complaint? Every single device I have, including a recent phone alleged to be "top of the line," has some loading issues from time to time. It's part of technology and it will never be flawless. There is a learning curve, but once you start to play around with it, it's pretty user-friendly. Simple Google searches answered most of my questions quickly. I encourage you to form your own opinion. Cost I got it on sale and traded in an old device to make it cheaper, then am doing the monthly payments for the rest, so I found it all reasonable. Watch for sales and utilize monthly payments to help with costs. Reading The reading on this is stellar. If you love Kindles, you will enjoy it. It feels more like a book than a regular Kindle. I have several gadgets I use to prop items up. The HUANUO portable lap laptop desk (https://tinyurl.com/HUANUO-Laptop-Desk ) is my favorite. I also like laying it flat, like a paper, when I'm reading and writing on PDFs. This might surpass my paperwhite for reading, which is saying a lot since that thing is awesome. Writing I love writing on this. I got the premium pen and love using the "fountain pen" setting because it looks beautiful. I've found it really simple to create notebooks and lists. I like using it for brainstorming so I can still handwrite things, but not waste a bunch of paper, and love the undo feature for similar reasons. There's also a function to circle and erase a section, which is neat. Book Notes Others have mentioned not being able to write in book margins, but the notes feature is still nothing to scoff at. For most books, I can tap where I want to make a note, then either handwrite or type (with the on-screen keyboard), and it will leave a tiny note icon in that spot (which is easy to access later). This looks cleaner than writing on the book page, while still being functional and simple. A few books still only let you do the old-school Kindle notes, but those aren't bad either. They are creating more books with writing options. PDFs Being able to write on and highlight PDFs is a game-changer for grad school, so this is proving to be one of the more helpful features (and part of why I got one). You can adjust the margins of the PDF, depending upon if you want it more for reading or notes. I took notes on a PDF and sent it back to myself, then later pulled it up on my desktop for my research. Size, Battery, & General Functionality The size is just right, feeling more like a book or paper, while still being condensed. I was able to repurpose an old planner cover for it. As mentioned above, I feel the battery life is impressive, as it tends to be on all Kindles. I've used it for hours on a multi-day road trip without recharging. It's also the first device I can read and write on in a car without getting carsick! As will be the case with most 2-in-1 technology, you might not get every single facet of each one when you combine them- but I do not feel this to be lacking. USE YOUR DESKTOP for set-up/adjustments I emailed some PDFs and that went well. You can also customize your pdf-sending email. Emailing PDFs to your Kindle email will work for most PDFs and is only limited by your email provider's size restrictions. For larger PDFs, I tried a few different things and finally settled on connecting my Surface tablet/desktop with the Kindle Scribe. I used a USB to USB-C cord and was able to drag and drop files from any folder on my desktop right into the Kindle documents folder. This was the fastest and easiest way to send files that were too big for sending via email. I'm glad I bought it and hope others will form their own opinions and get just as much joy out of it. Like any product that is the first of its kind, there is room for growth, but the updates they send through are great and this is still outstanding.

I ordered this one as soon as it was announced and hadn't really realized how short on functionality it was going to ship with, but I'm still extremely happy with it so far. First up, it's a very nice Kindle device and is amazing for reading my books on. I adore the screen on it, and it's very snappy and responsive to navigate and write on. The screen size is also wonderful for reading on for my nearly 50 year old eyes that have somehow slipped into reminding me of my age by needing multi-focal lenses. One thing on this front that I miss from my Oasis is the buttons on the margin for page flipping. Those are nice on that device, although I don't hate that they're missing from this one, I just kind of wish they were there. Another thing I'm a little annoyed with is no 4G or 5G built in. I'll live without it and tethering isn't hard these days, but it's an annoyance that didn't need to exist on at least the top end models. I love the writing experience on the device, too. It's not smooth as glass like my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, it's much more like writing on paper. But it has a similar quick response to writing input that makes it feel pretty natural and not artificial or annoying, so Amazon have worked that part out well. The functionality is very basic at this point, which is probably the most negative aspect of the device. But it's actually SO basic that I have few doubts that this isn't in the pipeline to be addressed in software updates over the next several months. I would suggest not gambling on that if the cost is prohibitive to you because you should always make your purchase decisions on what you actually get when you buy, and not based on future promises or a naive belief that what you want will be delivered at any point. I can afford to live with my device as is, and it'll still meet the needs of why I bought it, just not optimally, if they don't add what I consider the missing functionality to it. That's not going to be true for everyone. The hardware they've used does support everything needed for all the additional features that I suspect Amazon is planning to add, if they've fully implemented it in the hardware, and at this price point, I believe they have, but I don't know it for sure. Things I think it's missing are: Pressure sensitivity for the pen A wider array of writing tools (drawing tools primarily) Stroke based storage instead of converting strokes to pixels Ability to zoom in and out of notes and drawings Handwriting recognition Related to handwriting recognition, the ability to search note contents More organization options for notes Perhaps a second app to segment writing from drawing functions, but this isn't a want, just a speculation on how they may approach some of these features if they add them Better Kindle integration - like having notes automatically sync to other Kindle devices and apps on other devices, more robust sharing options and integrating with other products like Office apps or drawing exports, etc. Ways to mark up a book with the pen beyond just the current sticky notes. This is a complicated ask because of the way ebooks are formatted, but it isn't unsolvable. My hope is that they are responsive to customer feedback and this becomes the premier Kindle e-ink device, and that they add this functionality to the current devices rather than milking them by only adding them to newer models. It seems more likely that they'll add most or all of the functionality to these devices, because otherwise they'd create a massive amount of customer backlash that they'd have to needlessly overcome, and that just isn't logical or necessary, so I think we'll see at least some of these features added over the coming several months to a year or two.

Wanting the Kindle Scribe when I saw it hit the market. However, after reading many reviews, it did not look like it would fit my needs. When I saw the Scribe on the Last Prime Day (2023) I was torn about making the purchase. A new software update had recently been released and offered a lot more of the options I was looking for. I took the gamble and purchased it, hoping it was not a mistake. The experience has been amazing. Completely impressed with the Kindle Scribe! As one that has used a tablet for reading my kindle books, the scribe is very nice. But the handwriting and pen use is incredibly gratifying. The writing is smooth and very natural. I am not using paper notebooks for meetings anymore. My 4-year-old son wants to always borrow my Scribe to draw with. I love that I can take and read notes in full direct sunlight, a major win for me. I leave my back light on full 99% of the time. The battery lasts me about 7-10 days before I feel the need to charge it. My only issues so far are I have had to replace the nib on the pen twice. It may have something to do with my 4-year-old and I are using the Scribe for sketching and the 4yr old’s heavy hand. If any of the development team reads this, I would like to have a few sketching tools available, specifically a blend or smudge tool. Additionally, additional shades of grey for the highlight feature. Update to review after 3-4 months - I am still happy with the Scribe! I wanted to see if there was a way to make sure my notebooks are getting backed up in to my account? I am not sure what that looks like but to have my notebooks available in a cloud format on the web or PC is becoming be very important to me. October 2024 - Still Using it Daily – Outlook or Calendar Integration Would Make It Perfect! I’m still using my Kindle Scribe every day for notes and meetings, and it continues to impress me. The ease of jotting down quick notes and sketching out ideas has streamlined my day-to-day tasks. One feature that would make the Scribe an unbeatable tool is the option to integrate Outlook or another calendar system. Having that functionality would turn the Scribe into the ultimate planner, perfect for scheduling and note-taking in one device. The Kindle Scribe remains an excellent investment, and I look forward to seeing any future updates that could bring it even closer to the ultimate productivity device!

I loved the idea of the Kindle Scribe and couldn't wait to get it. I thought it would be a perfect tool to carry with me for all kinds of reference work and note taking, but unfortunately the reality just did not live up to the hype. Ultimately, the inability to use it across platforms just made it impossible to work in to my daily routine. The battery life was impressive, and even after struggling to use it and letting it sit for weeks it still had battery power remaining and started right up. The feel and readability was amazing, and I wish that I could take notes on that device forever. However, the functionality of taking notes on books (or in a notebook) is basically limited to Kindle formats, and really not even intuitive on any Kindle device other than the Scribe. This meant that it was basically only useful if I carried the Scribe around with me everywhere I went if I wanted to access my notes. While the size and weight was fairly portable for, say, going to class, it was not an every day solution if I wanted to take a note of someone's phone number to reference later while in line at the grocery. The device had a great feel and was lovely to use, but if you want one place for all of your notes and reference to live, the Kindle just didn't do it for me. If Amazon would open up their technology and make a small effort to work across platforms, it could be so much more applicable.

The justification: I wanted this device from the day it was announced. It felt like an extravagancy that I could not justify. I love my Kindle, it is an ergonomic way to read fiction in bed, on the couch, on the go, or anywhere. I loved my Paperwhite for the ease on my eyes when reading in any light, especially in bed. I read a lot of religious, spiritual, philosophy and non-fiction books which I enjoy reading with the Kindle App on my computer where I can have a dialogue in the notes section of the app with the book. I call this read/write in my priorities, which this is one. The device had read & write as the top billing. It was perfect. I still could not justify the expense. I stalked it. It was unrealistic to think it would go on sale during the Christmas season. I still kept checking it. Shortly before Christmas I decided I wanted to get all of the unnecessary devices that were trade-in eligible out of my possession. I have a lot of old devices that I hold onto simply because I do not have a safe way to dispose of them, and I do worry about the security of my personal information. This has become a bit of an issue, so I wanted to make a dent in the old devices while they were eligible for trade-in. This process led to me not having a Kindle for the first time since I got my first. My prior Kindle Paperwhite was no longer eligible for software updates, it was really old. It was included in my trade-in cleansing. I felt naked without a Kindle. It did not feel right. I did not want a regular Kindle, and the Paperwhite was in it’s off-year device cycle. I did not want to buy a Kindle in the middle of it’s newness. A year after coming out, and a year before the next one. I kept looking at the Kindles, I was ridiculously tortured by the situation. I finally decided that there was no reasonable choice but the new Kindle Scribe, but I still had to justify the expense. I was able to use one of the trade-in discount credits toward the Kindle Scribe and then used gift money and some rewards points, which brought my out of pocket expense to nothing. It was a gift for loyalty or something like that is what I kept telling myself, I believed myself enough that I was ok with it. The Scribe arrived on December 22nd. I was sending gifts to family addressed to DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS, and here was a gift to self. I should be an example, right? At the same time, I was going to be setting up everyone’s tech gifts on Christmas, so maybe it is ok to open it early, right? I opened it early, I felt guilty about it, but I opened it. First impressions: It was really cool, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to use it. I felt like I had splurged on an extravagance that was maybe unjustified. I wrote some stuff, I drew out a layout for our new home network that I would be setting up on Christmas. I always tell people what I get with their gift cards or gift money and what that item meant to me. I was too embarrassed that I bought such an expensive device that only does a couple things to tell anyone that their gift card money went toward it. (Thank you Timothy) In hindsight, this device was totally worth it based on how I use it. After a couple months of use: This is one of my most used devices, at times I use it more than my phone. My favorite aspect of it is that it is a tool for learning where distractions from this goal aren’t accessible. I can read, I can write, and I can stream my Audible books to Bluetooth. [UPDATE: but, not at the same time you cannot stream Audible from this device and read the book on this device simultaneously.] I named this after the motto of my university; enter to learn, depart to serve, because that is what it helps me do. I have several 300+ page handwritten notebooks that I have written on my Scribe. Writing is what I do the most on this device. It is a different style of writing than typing on a computer, phone, or tablet that get’s missed in the digital age, things come out differently. I type fast, but writing my hand provides more time for reflection while writing. Writing is a way that I process concepts and this is a new and valuable tool for my process. I had fallen away from composition books on paper, for numerous reasons. I use the Scribe for journaling, meeting notes, a food log, and a whole lot more. This device is not as ergonomic for reading as my Paperwhite was. It is bigger and heavier. I have a stand on my bedside table that I use for reading in bed, this works well for me. The primary useful function for me with this device is writing. Last month’s update added new pen functions including pencil and fountain pen. I now have a sketchbook notebook where I can draw and play with fun lettering. Someone forgot to put a screen rotation lock on this device. For reading a screen rotation lock might not be very important, but for writing it can be annoying, for drawing it is flat out frustrating. I placed a feature request a few different ways, I am hopeful that this oversight will be corrected in an update in the near future. I foresee this being even more annoying with the April update. The Scribe has become a trusty friend in the kitchen too. The large screen size makes Kindle cookbooks work for me in the kitchen. This is a fun exploration with my Kindle Unlimited subscription. I can try all kinds of different styles of cooking without all the ads and cookies that come from browsing recipes on the internet. I feel justified in the expense of this device. I use this a lot, it adds value to the time I spend with it, and it is free from the distractions that other screens are plagued by. It is also absent the fear and divisions that our media and social media are overly saturated in. I can safely open this screen without concern for what recent event is going to break my heart. It’s my favorite tablet. Update: I can't leave this review at 4 stars. The screen rotation lock is only worth 0.2 stars, so I am rounding up to 5 stars. I use this device for everything that I would use paper for. I read books with it. I use cookbooks with it. I write composition notebooks with it. I send papers to it instead of printing them out; this includes drafts of documents I am working on and recipes I find on the internet (yes, I still look at recipes on the internet, it just isn't my favorite or go to option). While I cannot say it saved me what I paid for it in paper costs, I can balance that cost out with what it saves the planet and that is priceless. Every little bit helps.

I love my other Kindles (Signature Paperwhite and Oasis). And I REALLY wanted and tried hard to love this one and find a way to incorporate it into my day to day because, like many, the idea to combine my books, my audible, and the myriad notebooks I carry around (and lose) in a single tablet is a trifecta experience. But Generation 1 is definitely not worth it. I was able to get it substantially cheaper thanks to a holiday sale and a trade in, and if it's not worth it at almost 50% off, it's definitely not worth it at full price. Here's why. Using it as a paper notebook replacement is cumbersome, unintuitive, and time consuming. If you imagine how many people work - a textbook, laptop, or other resource on one side and a notebook for taking notes on the other, that's a process familiar to most and flows well. My thinking was that "Finally, I can keep all my notes well organized, add more details to my highlights, etc." We'll, you can't. This Kindle works the same as every kindle or fire tablet when taking notes - you highlight, add the note, with the only difference here being that you can do so with a Stylus. The real problem is that this space is limited to what you see in the picture. Even on the other kindle platforms you can type forever, or use voice, to make long notes. Here, you can't - you're limited to that tiny tiny space and can't expand it. Basically, this equates to replacing your paper notebook with tiny post it notes. It's completely impractical to say the least. You also can't change the background of this area like you can in the "notebook" support, which means no dotted or lines, etc. You're literally cramming everything onto the digital version of a Post-it-Note. So then I thought, "Ok, I'll setup a notebook and just switch between the book and the notebook, and at least the notebook will let me write as much as I want / as many pages / page background theme, etc. But no, there is no way to seamlessly switch between the book you're referencing and this kindle's notebook feature. You have to close the book, start up a notebook, find the page where the note should go, close it, start the book back up again, and keep going. If you made a manual reference in your notebook as to where in the book this is relevant, this reference becomes completely useless the minute you change your font size or orientation. As a Japanese language student, I was particularly excited about being able to practice kanji as I can't imagine acres of trees that have died just so I can practice writing characters. And, I was particularly excited that I could do so on the page of the Japanese textbook I was referencing. But alas, no again. For some reason this kindle would not work well with my eTextbooks. Some would not open, some I characters wouldn't show up. Performance wise, this tablet is abysmal. When under small to moderate load, the time it takes for pen strokes to register can be counted in full seconds. Switching screens, opening books, etc, are noticeably slower compared to other kindle versions. For students especially who need to take more notes that will fill a sticky note, and for language students especially too, this tablet completely misses the mark. The software, in general, is lacking considerably with relatively few options compared to competing eInk tablets. Amazon says so itself in the project description with comments like "Regular software updates." I want this tablet to work so all my Amazon subscriptions, books, etc, and all my notes / notebooks can accompany me, so I'll Try Gen 2 when it comes out. Honestly, this version feels like a pre-release alpha version or prototype a small group would use to give feedback on. It was released way too early and in no way is it ready for the wild. To overcome the shortcomings, I sent it back, and I use my oasis with my Remarkable 2, which feels much more natural, with my Oasis. Well, at least I'm down to two high quality products in the meantime, but looking forward to seeing if Amazon can revamp this to make it an equally usable environment. Aside from the tablet itself, I must say, the "Premium Leather Cover" that comes with the bundle is just junk. I wouldn't pay 71 cents for it much less 71 dollars. Imagine the thickness of a normal piece of leather. Amazon shaved that into 100 layers and pasted it on cardboard, and the other side is felt (so not an all leather case). It really is disappointing what a low quality item they tried to throw into making their "bundle." I'll be buying a 3rd party cover for it if I checkout later generations.

One of the most useful products I have owned in tablet format is a great tool for taking notes. Possibly it could be a great reader for those who are not interested in colored diagram textbooks, etc. It is very power efficient. It allows writing in Pen, Ink Pen, and Pencil modes, and it feels very real.

The Scribe is very nice for reading Kindle books and with a working pen is a decent replacement for the now defunct Sony Digital Paper. The Scribe came with a pen (stylus) that made marks on the screen when it was about an inch away from it. This made it impossible to use it as digital paper. I contacted Amazon about the problem and I thought I was chatting with a human being about it. I was told to order a new pen and when the pen arrives, I should contact Amazon and I would get a refund. The pen (ordered on 12/27/2023 arrived yesterday (1/6/2024). This pen works fine. I attempted to contact Amazon to get my rebate. First I tried chatting but the chat was with a robot that understood nothing about the problem. I then tried the callback option and it was also with a robot that didn't understand anything. So in addition to the $400+ for the Scribe and defective pen, I had to pay out another $64 for the replacement. When I saw that the replacement pen would take over a week to arrive, I ordered a pen that is designed for the Remarkable 2 which arrived in two days. That stylus works perfectly. Also, I searched the web and found that my problem with the pen was not a rarity. All sorts of fixes were given on the internet and all but one failed. The one that worked involves attaching a piece of aluminum foil at exactly the right place on the pen (in my case about 1.5 cm from the tip). I cut a piece of aluminum foil about 1 cm wide and put it on the pen and slid it until the pen only wrote when touching the screen (actually the point may vary, to find it encircle the pen near the point with the foil if it is too close to the point the pen will not write at all, slide it back until the pen writes this was 1.5 cm for me). I then used Scotch tape to hold the band of aluminum foil in place. I Then had a working pen. I checked the internet to try to understand why this "hack" worked. The reason has to do with the way that the stylus works. The screen has a grid imbedded that puts out an electromagnetic wave the pen has strategically placed coil that changes the energy from the screen to energy for the pen. It seems that the aluminum foil interferes with the signal and weakens the overactive pen. The Remarkable 2 pen works and the now redundent replaced premium pen works so I have 3 working pens. My main use for the scribe is to edit pdf files of manuscripts (this was the reason for the Sony Digital Paper) since printing large manuscripts uses a lot of paper. Bu one of my hobbies is drawing and I am enjoying using the Scribe as a drawing pad. It is an amazing convenience to be able to erase ink. The line it makes in pencil mode seems to be made with a pencil. Bottom line is if it came with a pen that worked or there was a possibility to communicate with a human about a problem then this product would deserve 5 stars.