Ever since Amazon launched the Kindle Scribe successful 2022, the institution has been noticing immoderate different ways group are utilizing the device. Scribe users publication much nonfiction than normal Kindle owners; a afloat 60 percent of Scribe buyers usage the instrumentality astatine work. That’s possibly not shocking, fixed that the Scribe is the largest Kindle and the 1 pinch an included stylus for taking notes.
But still: this is possibly the first Kindle ever to not beryllium mostly a reference device, but alternatively adjacent parts book and notebook. With the caller Scribe, which the institution announced connected Wednesday (and leaked connected Tuesday night), Amazon is leaning into the notebook broadside of things successful a large way.
The caller Scribe, which will costs $399.99 for a 16GB type (a 32GB is $419.99, while the 64GB is $449.99) and will vessel starting connected December 4th, is simply a humble creation betterment complete the erstwhile model. The astir noticeable alteration is the bezels, which are now achromatic and the aforesaid size connected each 4 sides. The extremity is evidently to make the Scribe look and consciousness much for illustration a portion of insubstantial — some erstwhile you look astatine it and erstwhile you constitute connected it. Amazon has besides updated the included stylus, the texture and colour disguise of the 10.2-inch E Ink screen, and the Scribe’s soul package to make it consciousness much paper-y. Even the stylus’s eraser is supposedly better: Amazon executives raved astir really galore group effort to brushwood particulate disconnected the instrumentality aft they activity the eraser.
(If you’re wondering why the caller Scribe doesn’t person a colour surface for illustration the caller Colorsoft, by the way, I couldn’t get a consecutive answer, but the logic is almost surely price. The Remarkable Paper Pro does colour beautiful well, but it’s almost $600, and Amazon is acold much price-conscious pinch the Kindle line.)
“We’ve been intentional pinch reasoning astir the metaphor of a notebook,” says Kevin Keith, the VP of merchandise connected the Kindle team. “We want it to consciousness for illustration a notebook successful your hand.” Amazon continues to spot the Kindle arsenic a distraction-free device, free from each the chaos and enticements of your telephone and laptop — now it’s trying to use the aforesaid vibes to your penning arsenic it has to your reading.
Image: Amazon
I sewage a little demo of the caller Scribe astatine an Amazon motorboat arena successful New York City, and the Scribe does so consciousness bully to constitute on. In peculiar it seems to person done distant pinch immoderate of the hold you mightiness person felt successful the erstwhile model; the spread betwixt solid and E Ink aboveground felt smaller to me, which makes everything consciousness much contiguous and tactile. It didn’t needfully consciousness amended that what I’m utilized to from Remarkable and others, but it felt conscionable arsenic good. But that’s 1 short demo. We’ll person to spot really this point holds up nether existent testing.
Either way, the Scribe’s package updates are its astir breathtaking caller features. Most of them are designed to make the instrumentality much useful for writing. A caller characteristic called Active Canvas, for instance, lets you constitute notes connected books aliases PDFs that are really anchored in-line pinch the matter you’re reading.
The effect is beautiful cool: erstwhile you commencement to constitute a note, the matter underneath it fades beneath your markups, and erstwhile you’re done penning the matter automatically flows astir your note. If you alteration the font aliases margins, the statement stays successful the correct spot successful the text. You tin besides constitute notes successful a separator that expands to return complete portion of the screen, if you’d alternatively constitute adjacent to matter and not straight connected it. Or if each you want to do is item aliases underline immoderate text, the Scribe will threat your lines to the matter and make everything look neater. I’m somewhat skeptical of Amazon’s expertise to do this good pinch each documents, particularly the analyzable PDFs that Kindles person agelong had problem reflowing astatine all, but the thought present is very cool.
Image: Amazon
The different point the Scribe tin do now is person your handwriting into text. And erstwhile it does so, it tin nonstop your notes to 1 of Amazon’s ample connection models successful bid to do 1 of 2 things: summarize either a azygous page aliases an full notebook; aliases automatically “refine” your handwritten notes by translating them into a of handwriting-style fonts and formatting them much cleanly. Eventually you’ll besides beryllium capable to hunt your handwritten notes, too.
One of our gripes pinch the original Scribe was that your Kindle notes are successful a closed ecosystem. It’s a bully measurement to return notes, but there’s not overmuch to do pinch them — they’re conscionable for illustration insubstantial notes, conscionable sitting location successful notebooks. That’s still astatine slightest partially true, but Amazon’s starting to make those notes much accessible and much useful. The Scribe whitethorn still beryllium a Kindle, but it’s progressively much than conscionable a reference device.