Amazon’s latest entry in the e-reader market, the Kindle Scribe (2024), offers some key additions to its features, although there still seems to be room for improvement before these become truly useful.
Amazon’s Kindle Scribe (2024): What’s New and Improved?
Amazon’s Kindle Scribe initially made its place in the market in 2022, by introducing the ability to take notes on your e-reader. The new Kindle Scribe has built on that promise and improved some key features along the way. The latest addition is the ability to jot notes directly onto a wider range of Kindle ebook pages.
With the second-generation e-reader, you can finally convert handwriting to text and even enable AI to summarize notes in its built-in notebooks. But the Scribe now faces more competition than ever, and with a price bump, it needs to perfect these new features to justify the asking price of $399.99.
Design and Display
The latest Kindle Scribe is almost identical to its predecessor, save for a few cosmetic changes. It now comes in a new, stunning Metallic Jade colorway and it has a paper-like white trim instead of the asymmetric black bezels found on the original model.
The Scribe is still very much a larger version of the Kindle Paperwhite and it shares many of the same strengths and weaknesses as its smaller sibling. It’s extraordinary how Amazon makes it easy to buy and read Kindle books, yet more challenging to read outside its ecosystem. In contrast to the Paperwhite, it isn’t waterproof or as snappy, but it’s fast enough with an adjustable warm light and offers the same crisp, 300ppi display resolution.
Note-Taking Capabilities
The Kindle Scribe’s key selling point is its note-taking capabilities, although the user experience still leaves a bit to be desired. The handwritten note-taking experience is excellent with almost no lag, and the bundled Amazon’s Premium Pen makes writing feels just like paper.
However, the latest features still appear to fall short when compared to the competition. Despite the addition of the new Active Canvas tool, which lets you write notes that remain directly visible on ebook pages, it’s still too hard to annotate ebooks, and the new features just aren’t as useful compared to the competition.
Should You Buy the Kindle Scribe?
The Kindle Scribe 2024 is a better e-reader for taking notes compared to its 2022 predecessor, with notable improvements and additions. While it’s starting to compare better to rivals like Kobo and Onyx, it’s not yet the best option for serious note-takers.
Considering the cost, it’s a tough sell when the original model is available for $60 less and offers similar features with the latest software update. Hence, it may be better to stick with the last-gen model. Both can offer decent reading and casual note-taking experiences, but they’re almost identical in all other aspects.
Final Words
As an e-reader, the Kindle Scribe has some impressive features and is unbelievably easy to use. The built-in note-taking features make this a cut above the average e-reader, but it still needs work. This is a promising e-reader, but until the note-taking experience is improved, we suggest caution in committing to the new and more expensive model.
This comprehensive review of the Kindle Scribe 2024 is aimed to provide potential buyers with an unbiased opinion about the device’s strengths and weaknesses.