Amazon Kindle Scribe (64 GB) - 10.2” 300 ppi Paperwhite display, a Kindle and a notebook all in one, convert notes to text and share, includes Premium Pen

I’ve had my scribe for a few weeks now and while I rarely write reviews, thought I would for this since I’ve had kindles since they came out. First, I’ve had kindles hd and the paperwhite and while I like the paperwhite better for my eyes, I’ve not found one I consistently used one, since the kindle DX (which only recently died), because the screens were so small. I have trouble with my eyes and need to enlarge the print, so the small kindles really don’t work as well for me. That said, I still have a kindle hd with my scribe. I haven’t tried the website on the scribe — I don’t see it — and I like to be able to look things up based on what I read as I’m reading so that is an advantage to the hd. I’ll have to see about the web browser on the scribe when I find it (I missed the return date on the hd too, so that’s why I have it. I love the larger size of the scribe. This and the pencil are what really sold me. I feel like I have my dx back (off only it had cellular!!!), my favorite kindle ever. It allows me to enlarge the font based on how my eyes feel, which is great when I pass the 3 hour mark. I also love the ability to change the screen from grey to a warmer color. I am one who prefers warmer colors to cool colors, so that’sa nice thing they added. What I most like is the ability to take handwritten notes and to have the notes you’ve taken across books collected together into one notebook. I need to play with this more, but I’ma writer, so this feature is amazing for me for many reason. I start with a vague idea that different books not necessarily having anything to do with each other May actually be put together to form a premise, so to have mother from those books smushed together is incredibly helpful. That’s basically how I would organize my hard paper research. I don’t know if this is possible but if not, this would be a great update, and that is to create collections of notes in different notebooks, to create a collection of books and then have a notebook within that collection with all the notes for the books in that collection. That would be pretty easy to code. Finally the pencil. I love it. I love it so much better for writing than my Apple Pencil. I feel like I’m writing on paper. It’s beautiful. I like the Apple Pencil for things like procreate and my scribe for taking notes. I’m left handed and I usually don’t have problems. Every now and then my palm will change it from a handwritten note to a text note, but it’s not a big deal. I use the pencil to tap on handwritten note and it puts me back. As a lefty you get used to dealing with these things. I’ve had worse problems trying to write in apps. I also tried the oasis. It was nice. It also worked with my eyes. The buttons for the pages was a nice added touch. It is small, but it makes great use of the real estate available on the page. I was a little frustrated because I twice ordered the cellular version and both times received the Wi-Fi version, so I gave up on the oasis and bought the scribe, which I hadn’t bought because it was Wi-Fi. I’m so glad I did. Aliso, I’m case you don’t know, you can change your kindle address to something simple like [email protected], so it’s easy to tell someone where to send documents or books to you (and easier to send things to yourself). If all you want to do is read books, the oasis is fabulous. If you like having things in color and want the ease of a quick Internet to research concepts you read about, the hd is great. If you like to research and like the idea of having your notes from different books collected in one notebook, or would appreciate a larger screen, or would enjoy a writing experience, the scribe is great. There’sa kindle out there to meet just about everyone’s needs. (I’m posting without proofing, so please forgive typos.)

There is only one con: it's not waterproof. It's 2025, why isn't waterproof technology the industry standard?? Anywho. This is hands down the single best purchase I have ever made. I've been dreaming of this ever since 1999 when I won a Game Boy off a Mountain Dew bottle top at a Thunder Skate USA facility. It came with a game called Wave Rider. It was because of that infuriating game that I realized my true nature- I'm a nerdy book worm to the core. Why couldn't this game be a book? The Kindle Scribe is a childhood dream come true! My favorite feature of this device is the notebooks. I have journaled since I was 8 years old. I'm now 35. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to keep nosy noses from rifling through your most private paper thoughts? I do. I had taken to burning my journals after filling them up. No need to literally hang on to my mind garbage. I have always had too many thoughts taking up space in my head, creating the need to jot them down and make them go away. Now, with the Scribe, I can click a button and the brain baggage is instantly destroyed. No more wasting paper (the poor trees!) No more searching (and stealing!) perfect pen to write with. The Scribe comes with the perfect pen! A forever pen! I got the basic pen. A basic pen for a basic... you know. The fountain pen feature is revolutionary! I've been "perfecting" my penmanship for decades and still write little better than a chicken's left foot. Woe is me and any who have to read my scratch. No more! The best part is that the ink never runs out, it always writes perfectly smooth. I also love how big this Kindle is. I'm blind as a butt in blue jeans, so this size is a huge plus for me. With my OG Kindle, setting the font to large yielded only a few sentences per page making me feel like I was back in pre school learning to read. No more! Other bonuses- I had signed up for a free month of Kindle Unlimited before ordering the Scribe. When I did order, it came with THREE months of free KU! A total of FOUR FREE MONTHS! But it got better. I ordered an OG Kindle for my mom (who is not as blind as a butt in blue jeans) and it came with another THREE MONTHS OF FREE KU! A grand total SEVEN MONTHS OF FREE KU! I was over the moon! I had also found it on sale (January of 2024) for $270. I put an $80 dollar gift card toward it and it brought my total down to $204! Woohoo! I ordered a fancy flippy pink adjustable magnetic cover for it separately. I am in love with this device. Never have issues with battery life or charging. I will say this though; I think the Scribe was marketed to the wrong demographic. I abhor writing on books, highlighting, dog-earing, and otherwise desecrating books, so I don't give a hoot in a hay storm about the sticky notes debacle other reviewers take issue with. I use this for pure entertainment purposes; sometimes I switch from reading to simply scribbling my brains out for the fun of it. Seriously. I have no idea if this is a good buy for work related tasks and I don't care. It's perfect for keeping track of what the one year old is eating, doodle notebooks for the nine year old, and reading and scribbling until there's drool pooling and crusting at the corners of my mouth for me. Like I said, it's a childhood dream come true! The only way I'd come off my Scribe is if they made a new one that is waterproof. Which reminds me- I got the software update of the new one! Thanks amazon! Seriously, best 200 bucks I've ever spent. A year of daily use and zero complaints (except the waterproof issue- grr *shakes fist*.) I can't recommend this enough. This is THE Cadillac of reading/ writing toys for adults!

I bought this for several reasons; - Easily organize notes on different clients for work - Be able to write creatively and have the ability to save it digitally - Replace my unsupported very old paperwhite kindle I work with many clients in my job. I like being able to take quick notes on paper during meetings. I tried a variety of ways of organizing physical paper notebooks and pages between clients and nothing was efficient. I was always defaulting to writing on consecutive pages in one big notebook for different clients and then having to flip back through to find the spread-out information for a single client. I tried physical folders and notebooks with removeable sheets of paper. I tried multiple different paper notebooks for clients. None of this was efficient and certainly unreasonable to travel with. So I started to research digital notebooks. I almost pulled the trigger on the reMarkable 2 on two separate occasions. I got all the way through the selection process and couldn't get myself to pay the $500 plus for such a limited device. Other digital notepads had a crazy cheaper price point but were not at all comparable according to online reviews. I happened to finally come across this Kindle Scribe and after watching YouTube comparisons between this and the reMarkable notebooks, I felt the pros of this one won me over. Especially when they mentioned that the ink lags less with this one versus reMarkables. Forty minutes into my experience, I am already super happy with my decision and I know this is going to solve my multi-client note taking issues for work. Out of the box this device is super intuitive to set up and use. I looked at zero instructions before setting up and using it. (I had seen review videos but nothing too instructional.) If you follow the set up steps (your only option), it leads you to the typical overview of a device where it highlights your various settings and options. I have had kindles before, but even the new stuff on here was very intuitive and easy to navigate. The pen is quick enough (not laggy) that I do not mind writing digitally at all. IF I were using this for artistic purposes, I'd have a small issue with it. But I don't really notice the lag once I'm writing quickly and focused on work. My handwriting looks ever so slightly worse on here than in person but overall, considering I dislike lag, this device doesn't seem to lag problematically at all - it's negligible. I can tell I'm not writing on paper, but the feel isn't slippery at all. It's pleasing. I'm sure this is in part due to the pen too, which is the pen that has the eraser (more expensive of two options). The screen looks just like an old paperwhite kindle, but you can adjust the brightness and also the warmth of the screen. I love this option. I'm sure I'll be adjusting it in different lighting. It's easy to navigate from your kindle library to your notebooks for writing/drawing. You can create a folder to organize your notebooks. I have a work folder, inside of which I have a separate lined w/margin notebook for each client, plus a check box notebook for my work to-do's. Outside of the work folder, I have a personal To-Do list. I love the ability to organize work and personal notes and carry it all in one device that is smaller than the old lined notebook I was carrying. In terms of the ink styles and highlighting, there are options of thickness for ink ranging from thinner than my mechanical pencil to roughly the thickness of a regular (not fine tip) Sharpie. When you click the button on the pen, it turns into a highlighter. I didn't think I'd necessarily need an eraser because I almost never need one when writing with a pen or pencil, but on this device I've used it a lot. It's easier to erase with a digital eraser than a physical one, so I'm less apt to strike through something, and more likely to erase it (something my past writing teachers would hate). Also, because my handwriting is slightly impacted by the digital aspect, it's nice to have an eraser for cleaning up truly sloppy letters. So, it's worth it to me to have spent $15 more for the higher end stylus with the eraser. I made a few more hand-written notes on my device (see photo). As I employ this for work and fun, I'll come back to post any pertinent updates. I'm particularly interested to see the capabilities for transferring the notes off of this device and into my work google drive. After 1 solid week of use, I am comfortable with this device and absolutely love it. I ended up adding two grips to the pen to make it comfortable to write. It won't adhere magnetically to the side now, but I purchased a case that has a pen holder. Today I discovered that you can add blank pages to notebooks and reorder the pages. This is fantastic as I recently decided to add a cover page to each of my notebooks to track the top level details of each client. I so highly recommend switching to a digital notepad if you're a pen and paper note taker. It's much more versatile than trying to switch to typed note taking. Update after 2 years of use (May 2025): I am so glad I purchased this. I have used it daily for work for two years. It is easy to silo work folders and notebooks from my personal folders and notebooks. I use it while traveling because I can access all of my kindle books for personal use and I have all of my client notes for work with me. It works great, no different than when it was brand new. A charge lasts weeks! I added pen grips to the stylus for comfort. Overall, highly recommend. Side note - if you like to sketch and do creative writing, this is great because you have endless paper while traveling. If I'm in a meeting, sometimes I concentrate better if I can doodle on a page. I make doodles/marks while making my important notes and then I can easily erase the doodles later. If I randomly think of something I want to build in my yard during a meeting, I can flip one page, sketch my design, and flip back. Then later I can cut and paste or move that entire page to another notebook. Fabulous for A.D.D.

There are a couple of things I would like if they added, but overall it's been FANTASTIC! Things I wish would be added: - Different page styles within one notebook - Ability to zoom in and out of notebook pages - Ability to write and underline things in Kindle books (You can only do this in PDFs) Overall this is great! The writing does react to pressure, so you can use some tools to do calligraphy or modern calligraphy. I use the marker to do modern calligraphy to spice up my notes lol - I did this with my normal notebooks- but now I only need one pen, instead of bringing multiple pens, pencils, and markers with me. If I make mistakes, I can easily erase or delete. I was hoping to be able to underline things in books when I was reading, as I sometimes like to differentiate between highlighting and underlining content within books. I was disappointed you could still only highlight in Kindle books, but the pen does make this process a lot easier! Something I was really frustrated about, and looked up how to do, and saw others complaining about the same thing, with no resolution, was the ability to move content from one notebook to another. I was upset this wasn't an available feature, but I am not sure if they added it, or if I was just able to figure out how to do it, but man was I excited when I was able to make it happen. I was actually so excited I felt the need to post a review and share how to do it on here, with those that might be struggling with the same thing. How to: 1. Go to notebook where the content is that you want in another notebook 2. highlight the content 3. Select the copy icon 4. Select a tool other than the clipboard 5. Open the notebook you want the content to go 6. Select the clipboard tool 7. Click on the page, BOOM there is the content! Hallalejua! This thing truly is amazing. I got it as a perfect device to be able to take on trips. You can take notes, read books, etc. all with ONE device. Instead of taking notebooks, and multiple books with you. (I am the type that would take multiple books with me because "I don't know what I will feel like reading when I am there!" )

This is amazing! I bought this for the notebook feature, and it works very well. Navigation between notebooks is a bit clunky and takes longer than I would like, but the general operation is wonderful so far! The texture of the notebook looks so much like real paper, and the ink pen setting really looks like ink. The pen is weighted, so it is wonderful to write with.

I love my other Kindles (Signature Paperwhite and Oasis). And I REALLY wanted and tried hard to love this one and find a way to incorporate it into my day to day because, like many, the idea to combine my books, my audible, and the myriad notebooks I carry around (and lose) in a single tablet is a trifecta experience. But Generation 1 is definitely not worth it. I was able to get it substantially cheaper thanks to a holiday sale and a trade in, and if it's not worth it at almost 50% off, it's definitely not worth it at full price. Here's why. Using it as a paper notebook replacement is cumbersome, unintuitive, and time consuming. If you imagine how many people work - a textbook, laptop, or other resource on one side and a notebook for taking notes on the other, that's a process familiar to most and flows well. My thinking was that "Finally, I can keep all my notes well organized, add more details to my highlights, etc." We'll, you can't. This Kindle works the same as every kindle or fire tablet when taking notes - you highlight, add the note, with the only difference here being that you can do so with a Stylus. The real problem is that this space is limited to what you see in the picture. Even on the other kindle platforms you can type forever, or use voice, to make long notes. Here, you can't - you're limited to that tiny tiny space and can't expand it. Basically, this equates to replacing your paper notebook with tiny post it notes. It's completely impractical to say the least. You also can't change the background of this area like you can in the "notebook" support, which means no dotted or lines, etc. You're literally cramming everything onto the digital version of a Post-it-Note. So then I thought, "Ok, I'll setup a notebook and just switch between the book and the notebook, and at least the notebook will let me write as much as I want / as many pages / page background theme, etc. But no, there is no way to seamlessly switch between the book you're referencing and this kindle's notebook feature. You have to close the book, start up a notebook, find the page where the note should go, close it, start the book back up again, and keep going. If you made a manual reference in your notebook as to where in the book this is relevant, this reference becomes completely useless the minute you change your font size or orientation. As a Japanese language student, I was particularly excited about being able to practice kanji as I can't imagine acres of trees that have died just so I can practice writing characters. And, I was particularly excited that I could do so on the page of the Japanese textbook I was referencing. But alas, no again. For some reason this kindle would not work well with my eTextbooks. Some would not open, some I characters wouldn't show up. Performance wise, this tablet is abysmal. When under small to moderate load, the time it takes for pen strokes to register can be counted in full seconds. Switching screens, opening books, etc, are noticeably slower compared to other kindle versions. For students especially who need to take more notes that will fill a sticky note, and for language students especially too, this tablet completely misses the mark. The software, in general, is lacking considerably with relatively few options compared to competing eInk tablets. Amazon says so itself in the project description with comments like "Regular software updates." I want this tablet to work so all my Amazon subscriptions, books, etc, and all my notes / notebooks can accompany me, so I'll Try Gen 2 when it comes out. Honestly, this version feels like a pre-release alpha version or prototype a small group would use to give feedback on. It was released way too early and in no way is it ready for the wild. To overcome the shortcomings, I sent it back, and I use my oasis with my Remarkable 2, which feels much more natural, with my Oasis. Well, at least I'm down to two high quality products in the meantime, but looking forward to seeing if Amazon can revamp this to make it an equally usable environment. Aside from the tablet itself, I must say, the "Premium Leather Cover" that comes with the bundle is just junk. I wouldn't pay 71 cents for it much less 71 dollars. Imagine the thickness of a normal piece of leather. Amazon shaved that into 100 layers and pasted it on cardboard, and the other side is felt (so not an all leather case). It really is disappointing what a low quality item they tried to throw into making their "bundle." I'll be buying a 3rd party cover for it if I checkout later generations.

Why is it that by now we don't have a decent replacement for paper? Don't believe what you hear about either the Scribe or the Remarkable 2. Both of them suck compared to plain old paper and pen. It's not even really the stylus input - that part works fairly well. It's the rest of the note-taking and drawing software - almost unusable. I planned on using the scribe as a full replacement for books - both in normal reading and in studying. I've been interested in both higher end math and microbiology, and have found some free PDF books that are available online and are really some of the best for learning these subjects. My plan was to download the PDF versions of these documents to the scribe, then work through them, highlighting and taking notes directly on the PDF's as I go. This is a capability the scribe supposedly has. But, the usability of it sucks. First of all, I didn't find out until after I purchased the scribe that it is limited to PDF document sized of under 80MB! Now why would they limit a PDF document to only 80MB when the device itself has 32GB of storage? But, it gives an error and will not let you transfer documents that are larger (even by a slight amount). So then I tried editing a smaller PDF document on it. Very clunky. I can't just draw on top of the PDF. I have to touch somewhere in the PDF, then a window comes up where I draw what I want in the window. Then when I close the window it appears in the document as a small paper looking icon that must be clicked on to see the drawing. How can I truly take notes and highlight items in these documents with this? Basically - SUCKS! So far, the best tablet I have used for this type of studying and note taking on PDF's are the Samsung tablets with their stylus (such as the S6 lite with S Pen - just slightly more than $200. on Amazon). This tablet's built in note taking app can read and write PDF's (very large PDFs as well). And, once loaded, the interface to take notes over top of the PDF is very smooth and well polished. After opening a PDF document, just simply click on either the pen icon or highlighter icon. Then start drawing on the PDF document. There's no window that pops up - the notes just appear in the document as you would expect. Click the highlighter and then click in the document and swipe across to highlight. Simple. And, if you click again on either the pen icon or the highlighter icon a small window pops up with tons of details that you can easily change (from color of pen to pen size to pen type to pressure sensitivity - similar options with the highlighter). When done, just click save and the PDF document is saved with all of your notes, drawings, and highlights intact and viewable. I also tested opening the PDF document with normal PDF reader application and all of the notes, drawings, and highlights showed up perfectly in that as well. Simple and effective. The only negative aspect of using that tablet for this purpose is the weight. While the tablet is very well made and feels sturdy it weighs quite a bit more than a scribe or remarkable - maybe a bit too heavy for normal book or PDF reading. As a possible compromise I would recommend getting the Samsung tablet for studying and taking notes, and maybe also purchasing a cheaper Kindle paperwhite for just normal book reading. Beware though that the Kindle Scribe is a very clunky device for PDF editing and note taking - I would recommend staying away from it (until maybe some time has went by and Amazon spends the effort to make the interface work as it should).

I ordered this one as soon as it was announced and hadn't really realized how short on functionality it was going to ship with, but I'm still extremely happy with it so far. First up, it's a very nice Kindle device and is amazing for reading my books on. I adore the screen on it, and it's very snappy and responsive to navigate and write on. The screen size is also wonderful for reading on for my nearly 50 year old eyes that have somehow slipped into reminding me of my age by needing multi-focal lenses. One thing on this front that I miss from my Oasis is the buttons on the margin for page flipping. Those are nice on that device, although I don't hate that they're missing from this one, I just kind of wish they were there. Another thing I'm a little annoyed with is no 4G or 5G built in. I'll live without it and tethering isn't hard these days, but it's an annoyance that didn't need to exist on at least the top end models. I love the writing experience on the device, too. It's not smooth as glass like my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, it's much more like writing on paper. But it has a similar quick response to writing input that makes it feel pretty natural and not artificial or annoying, so Amazon have worked that part out well. The functionality is very basic at this point, which is probably the most negative aspect of the device. But it's actually SO basic that I have few doubts that this isn't in the pipeline to be addressed in software updates over the next several months. I would suggest not gambling on that if the cost is prohibitive to you because you should always make your purchase decisions on what you actually get when you buy, and not based on future promises or a naive belief that what you want will be delivered at any point. I can afford to live with my device as is, and it'll still meet the needs of why I bought it, just not optimally, if they don't add what I consider the missing functionality to it. That's not going to be true for everyone. The hardware they've used does support everything needed for all the additional features that I suspect Amazon is planning to add, if they've fully implemented it in the hardware, and at this price point, I believe they have, but I don't know it for sure. Things I think it's missing are: Pressure sensitivity for the pen A wider array of writing tools (drawing tools primarily) Stroke based storage instead of converting strokes to pixels Ability to zoom in and out of notes and drawings Handwriting recognition Related to handwriting recognition, the ability to search note contents More organization options for notes Perhaps a second app to segment writing from drawing functions, but this isn't a want, just a speculation on how they may approach some of these features if they add them Better Kindle integration - like having notes automatically sync to other Kindle devices and apps on other devices, more robust sharing options and integrating with other products like Office apps or drawing exports, etc. Ways to mark up a book with the pen beyond just the current sticky notes. This is a complicated ask because of the way ebooks are formatted, but it isn't unsolvable. My hope is that they are responsive to customer feedback and this becomes the premier Kindle e-ink device, and that they add this functionality to the current devices rather than milking them by only adding them to newer models. It seems more likely that they'll add most or all of the functionality to these devices, because otherwise they'd create a massive amount of customer backlash that they'd have to needlessly overcome, and that just isn't logical or necessary, so I think we'll see at least some of these features added over the coming several months to a year or two.