Initial Impressions on the Kindle Scribe

Last updated: December 8, 2022

I’ve long considered getting a reMarkable 2 but have never pulled the trigger on it.

Part of the reason was I’ve always been partial to reading Kindle books and taking notes on them, and my iPad Mini does that fine.

Then Amazon announced the Kindle Scribe. More affordable, initial deal for Prime members and a good trade-in price for my Kindle Oasis and the $500 device got down to $280. So I bought it. Here are my initial impressions:

• It’s big, but I don’t think too big. And I love the extra space on one side to grip the device.
• Reading on it is nice. I can crank up the font size without feeling crowded.
• I love the notebooks feature. I’ve been using it as my primary note taking device this week and it’s been great.
• The pen is light and super neat. There’s an “eraser” on the other end, and a shortcut button you can configure. I use mine to highlight.
• Writing on it feels the most paper-like I’ve experienced on a digital device.
• If there is lag, I don’t notice it.
• You can directly markup PDFs. So. Good.
• The battery life is incredible.

If there’s one shortcoming, is the lack of ability to get my RSS feeds on the device. I’d love to make this my one and only reading device, but it’s tough.

That’s not really the Kindle’s fault either. Articles written for the web don’t work well on a book medium.

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