Amazon Kindle Scribe: Revolutionizing Reading and Note-Taking

Amazon’s Kindle Scribe (2022 & 2024) excels in two key areas. If you’re looking for a top-notch black and white e-reader that allows you to highlight, underline, and annotate Kindle books, as well as a fantastic electronic notepad for writing or drawing, this device is a great choice. However, if you only need a tablet for one of those functions or require more specialized features, you might want to explore other options. I bought the 2022 model about a year ago, but unfortunately, I rendered it unusable last week by neglecting to secure the cap on my YETI coffee mug—note that the Scribe is not water-resistant. This review focuses on the 2024 model that I received this week.

Reading Experience: The Scribe measures just over 9 inches tall, 7.75 inches wide, and 0.375 inches thick, weighing 15.4 ounces. It feels a bit large and heavy for one-handed use, though this is typical for most books, and it won’t snap shut unexpectedly. The device features a 2480 x 1860 display with 300 pixels per inch, outperforming many competitors. This means it can display detailed grayscale images, such as blueprints, landscapes, and charts, while also ensuring crisp text and symbols. If your primary use is reading novels and short stories, a cheaper alternative might suffice, but for text reading, this device is unparalleled. It’s also ideal for academic texts that don’t require color, like Robin Wilson’s “Number Theory” or William Simpson’s “Hylomorphism.” However, some Kindle books available on my laptop aren’t compatible with the Scribe, particularly algebra texts and those featuring ancient Greek.

The Scribe truly stands out as an e-reader when it comes to markup capabilities. It includes a pen that you’ll want to keep track of—losing it cost me about $70 at the Minneapolis airport. The pen has a single button near the tip that changes its function; you can switch between pencil, highlighter, or eraser settings. One enhancement in the new model is the pen’s stronger magnetic grip on the device, addressing previous user feedback.

I love underlining key sentences, but I’ve always been particular about keeping my lines straight, often resorting to a ruler for precision. Thankfully, with this device, I can underline text seamlessly, resulting in beautifully straight lines. It’s a game-changer for me. However, there are occasional moments when the device confuses an underline for drawing or writing, resulting in an unwanted canvas opening—an annoying hiccup. You can also highlight text with the pen, though I find the gray less appealing; nevertheless, it functions well. Additionally, you can create a “canvas” for notes that remain linked to the text, accessible via the Kindle app on your laptop. One outstanding feature is the ability to send Microsoft Word documents to the Scribe for editing and annotating, which is a fantastic benefit for frequent document reviewers.

One note of caution: the annotation features do not work well with PDF files. While it’s easy to import academic papers and textbooks in PDF format, using the pen to annotate doesn’t yield the same precision. I prefer studying PDF documents on my laptop, where I can annotate easily with Adobe tools.

Writing Experience: As a retired college professor who taught political theory and philosophy for three decades and now enjoys learning algebra and number theory, I typically use my Asus laptop for text, but I need a pad for math. Saying the Kindle Scribe is merely an adequate substitute for pen and paper would be misleading; it far surpasses that. If you regularly write or draw on paper, try this device for a day, and you’ll never look back.

The writing surface resembles a standard sheet of notebook paper, minus the margins, and feels remarkably similar to writing on paper. The “ink” flows smoothly and accurately, with options for pen, marker, or pencil, each offering five thickness settings to suit your style. I prefer the pencil setting, which provides a crisp line with slight width variation for a more dynamic feel.

The Scribe excels as a notepad, especially when it comes to erasing. After 5,000 years of writing innovations, the methods for erasing have often been clumsy. The Scribe offers three easy ways to remove marks: use a lasso to select and delete multiple lines, the end of the pen functions as a standard eraser, or you can press the button to convert the pen tip into a precise eraser—a feature invaluable for writing algebraic equations.

Document Management: A common complaint about the Kindle Scribe is the lack of direct document export options. While you can send documents to yourself via email, it would be nice to save notebooks directly to OneDrive. However, this device compensates for that shortcoming with a fantastic feature: my handwriting has often been criticized, but when I’m ready to move a document to Word, I use the AI function to “Refine Writing.” This converts my scrawl into neat, justified text that resembles handwriting—it’s impressively accurate and easily editable. After refining, I can share it via email as a text file. You could skip the refining step, but I’ve found accuracy decreases without it.

One caveat: while the conversion works remarkably well for English text, it struggles with math. The Scribe often misinterprets symbols, mistaking a plus sign for the letter “t,” and it can’t recognize exponents. However, you can save a math notebook as a PDF image that retains legibility.

Protection: I recommend getting a case for your Scribe. Initially, I purchased a fabric folio cover, which soaked up coffee like a sponge—definitely not recommended. I recently received a COBAK case in dark green, which, while not guaranteed to protect against spills, at least doesn’t absorb water. It includes a space for the pen and extra nibs, which is convenient if you’re hypothetically on a nine-day cruise.

Bottom Line: The Kindle Scribe is an exceptional device for reading, annotating, and writing in black and white.