Amazon unveiled its latest Kindle device two days back, called Kindle Scribe. The Amazon Kindle Scribe is the first Kindle from the company on which you can not only read but also write. While the idea isn’t anything unique as ‘ReMarkable’ already makes E-ink tablets with writing functionality, Amazon’s Kindle Scribe does shine with its display, which Amazon claims is the world’s first 10.2-inch, 300 pixels per inch (ppi), Paperwhite display. Apart from this, there are a lot more things the Kindle Scribe can do. Let’s have a look.
Pricing & Availability
Kindle Scribe will be available starting at $339 (approx Rs 27,600). Available in Tungsten with options for 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB of storage, Kindle Scribe comes with a battery-free Basic Pen or Premium Pen, which includes an eraser and customizable shortcut button. It will be available from November 30. New leather, premium leather, and fabric covers, which can be folded to support Kindle Scribe at different reading angles, will also be available in a variety of colours. There’s no word on whether it will launch in India or not.
What’s the new Writing functionality about?
As said, the Kindle Scribe gets the world’s first 10.2-inch, 300 pixels per inch (ppi), Paperwhite display. On this large E-ink panel, using the stylus pen, one can write down whatever he/she wants. The pens use Wacom EMR technology and magnetically attach to the side of the Scribe.
This is the first time Amazon has introduced the Writing functionality on its Kindle device since its launch in 2007. Further, the company says it specifically designed the display/stylus combo to mimic the feel of writing on an actual paper using a Pen.
What types of Pen are available?
The Amazon Kindle scribe will ship with the basic pen which has accurate precision for when you are writing on the e-ink display. There’s also a Premium pen selling for $30 more that also includes a customizable shortcut button and an eraser sensor on the top. The stylus doesn’t requiring charging, and instead relies on EMR (electro-magnetic resistance).
What features are available with the writing functionality?
There are a bunch of features that have been made available with Kindle Scribe. The Pens support a variety of line widths, a highlighter tool, eraser tools, and an undo tool—all easily accessible in the on-display writing menu. Then there’s a new digital sticky notes feature on Kindle Scribe which allows you to easily add handwritten notes to millions of books. With notes and highlights automatically organized in one place to keep pages clutter-free.
You can also journal or take notes using a variety of templates, including to-do lists for tracking tasks and lined paper for meeting notes. All notebooks are automatically saved and backed up to the cloud for free, and, coming in early 2023, they will also be accessible via the Kindle app.
Does the Kindle Scribe has any competitor?
Of course, the Kindle Scribe has competition from ‘ReMarkable’. The company recently also sliced its new premium service from $5 a month to $3. ReMarkable has had e-ink tablets that can handle both book reading and handwriting. The company also claims that you can ’replace your notebooks and printed documents with the only tablet that feels like paper’.
The ReMarkable 2 tablet can convert your handwritten notes into text, take notes directly onto PDFs, integration with Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and a battery life lasting couple of weeks.
Amazon on the other hand, also claims that the Kindle Scribe can last 12 weeks based on a half-hour of reading a day and three weeks based on a half-hour of writing every day Lastly, on ReMarkable tablets, you can save Microsoft Word docs, PowerPoint presentations, or web articles to your paper tablet as PDFs for when you have time to focus.
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Does Kindle Scribe have third-party cloud integration?
Where ReMarkable’s tablet has a good set of third-party cloud integrations, Kindle Scribe users will have to wait until early 2023 for it, and that too for limited functionality. You can import and create handwritten sticky notes in Microsoft Word documents, web articles, and other document formats with adjustable font sizes and layout on Kindle Scribe.
However, the ability to send documents to Kindle Scribe directly from within Microsoft Word will come next year. With the Send-to-Kindle feature, you can also import personal documents from your computer or phone to Kindle Scribe and write directly on PDF documents. However, there’s no particular integration with Google Drive as of now.
What other features Kindle Scribe has?
Kindle Stores worldwide offer over 13 million titles, including millions of nonfiction books on the Kindle Scribe. In the US, one can access the selection of over 3 million eBooks, including over 1 million nonfiction titles, plus thousands of audiobooks, short reads, and up to three select magazine subscriptions. Moreover, Kindle Scribe comes with a free, four-month Kindle Unlimited membership as a part of a limited time offer.
Prime members can also read from a rotating selection of thousands of titles found in the Kindle Store—at no additional cost to their Prime membership. Kindle Scribe also has support for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Self-publishing through KDP gives authors more choices in deciding how to bring their books to millions of readers around the world.
Next, the new Kindle Scribe lets you personalize your experience by adjusting the font size, increasing the line spacing, or switching to dark mode. In addition, with the large display of Kindle Scribe, customers reading with larger font sizes will see more text per page, and they can also increase the size of items like the text on the home screen as well as book icons with the “large mode” setting.
Those who use assistive technology on the Kindle can use Amazon’s VoiceView screen reader to read English-language books on Kindle devices—including Kindle Scribe. Customers can also use operating system (OS)-level screen readers, such as TalkBack on Android or VoiceOver on iOS, to read with Kindle mobile apps.