What the HECK is the Kindle Scribe?!

[@WillBrownAuthor]

I share your viewpoint, but this is a reading device first. I think that the minimal writing features are good for this type of device. Other reviewers point to the lack of writing features as a flaw because they are coming from the viewpoint that it’s a writing device first but it’s not

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Exactly!

[@Williamb612]

should be a writing device…deceptive marketing…this should make the Remarkeable 2 obsolete

[@extrawdw]

Why it couldn’t be a great reading device AND a great writing device? It has all the hardware you need (well maybe except the processor), the issue is about the software

[@onemanbookclub2585]

My thought about this? They didn't want to develop new software. They just took the existing paperwhite software and realized if they simply added a small tweak, they could write on it and sell it as a note-taking device. A very simple move that created a lot of attention.

[@chuckyjules8488]

Love your enthusiasm and down to earth review. I just got the Scribe and this review was very informative!

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Awesome! I'm so glad it helped!

[@vernabailey3671]

I love any Kindle I’ve ever bought. I was hoping for an 8-9 inch Oasis, but Amazon is dragging their feet on that. So I opted for the Scribe. My eyes and the fact that I do less page turning on this makes it great to me. Note taking is a bonus, not something I really need, but I’ll use it lightly I’m sure. Never been one to mark up a book, so a post it is fine with me. For me, this is a win. Had I been looking for a device for intensive note taking, this wouldn’t have been the one I bought. I wanted a bigger e reader. I got one. Great review. 👍 P.S. g-hold universal tablet holder is what I’ll be getting instead of a case. It’s kind of like a pop socket but better for bigger devices. On the smaller kindles I just use pop socket.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Ah, excellent description of a good use case! I agree too, a new Oasis us what I REALLY want. As for the case, I agree 100%. I'm going to keep mine in a Moko felt envelope.

[@maribethbousum4656]

Thanks for taking the reading first mantra. As you said, most reviewers are doing the opposite. I'd love a follow-up about your reading experience with the scribe. Thanks!

[@onemanbookclub2585]

You bet! I'm afraid that folks looking for a note-taking device first will be frustrated. Stay tuned for an update!

[@WhitneyChakara]

You are right. It's a kindle first. Thanks for the review. My oasis is heavy enough don't think I'll be getting a scribe for reading and note taking.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

It's basically a big Kindle Paperwhite! Sounds like you know exactly what you need!

[@Dennisbergkamp1995]

Seems we can't get rid of the small dot with the drop down menu/ navigation bar, can we? Only move it from right to left. Reading wise it makes it look like you've got a huge smudge on your screen!

[@onemanbookclub2585]

You CAN hide it. Toggle in on or off like this: With a book open, touch the top of the screen to bring down the menu. Touch the three dots at the top right. You'll see "Hide Writing Toolbar." Tap that, and the dot dissapears. Follow the same steps to bring it back.

[@Dennisbergkamp1995]

@@onemanbookclub2585 Bless thee 🙏 I've yet to purchase it (still holding out for an Oasis 3, rumored to come out early 2023). But if I do end up getting the Scribe, do u know if it has a "With Lockscreen-Ads" version? On Amazon it only makes u choose between "with/ without Kindle Unlimited" but nothing on Lockscreen Ads

[@onemanbookclub2585]

It doesn't have that option on the Amazon product page, so I'm guessing no. Good luck! And if the Oaisis is updated soon, I'll be the first to snatch it up!

[@NerdishlyActive]

Great review! Can you fully remove the toolbar on the side of the screen when reading? My other question is to know if this will be a comfortable full time ereader for you. I look forward to your updated review!

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Thanks! The writing toolbar shrinks to a dot, but doesn't disappear. And the comfort? Well, that's my question too! Stay tuned!

[@NerdishlyActive]

@@onemanbookclub2585 I just heard from Reddit that somewhere in settings you can remove it fully! I hope that’s accurate.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

If it's there, I'll find it!

[@Sybilla9]

Yep in settings you can remove the toolbar and the dot too so it's a normal appearing kindle page. That would have been a deal breaker for me to have to see clutter on the side so it was a relief to find it in settings.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Perfect!

[@JT-ol5xo]

What is going on with the Oasis update???? I love it but had to move away with it old charging port. Would snatch one up in a second if they made it a USB C and maybe an 8 inch screen.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Yes! THAT'S what I truly want! Heck, give me an updated Oaisis with a stylus and note-taking software and I'd be set for life.

[@ew2755]

Kobo sage has an 8 inch screen and usb c port

[@onemanbookclub2585]

But not access to my library of Kindle ebooks...

[@sass2172]

Hello, Is it possible to covert written text to editable in txt file? On a PC?

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Not currently. Although they have promised software updates that will add functionality. That will be part of a future update?

[@cynthiaj.simmons870]

Great video!!! I already got it and I'm giving it to myself for Christmas I have the Kindle Oasis I got for my birthday on November 8th of 2019 I bought it brand new from my local pawn shop. I really fell in love with the Kindle Scribe for I first seen it this past August and thought I'm getting it for Christmas. Amazon gave me $400.00 in store credit and I got the 16GB plus the premium pen. I know I'm got to love it. I know it's a ebook reader and I love reading my Kindle content too I'm not much in writing much but to jot down notes and notes while I knit and crochet because I do that too. And I got the official fabric case for it in pink. But the Kindle Scribe will be just perfect for me!!! 🤗📖📕🖋🗒❤️

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Yay! I love your excitement! Happy Reading!

[@raquelinabook]

I decided to get the Scribe mainly for textbook annotations and reading manga and I have to say it works amazing for that. Does the iPad give me more options for annotating and making class notes? Absolutely. But the No-distraction workspace that the Scribe provides is much better for me. I’m keeping my Oasis for portable reading, but the Scribe has become my study buddy.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Awesome! Mine has found a similar home in my workstream. I gets lots of compliments on it too!

[@Ah-lj5rv]

nice video! thank for your review

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Thank you!

[@lisadugmore1787]

Ive been waiting so long to see it, my husband is buying it for me for Christmas so I still have to wait a little bit longer for it !!!!!!!!

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Oh! How fun! It's going to be a long three weeks for you! 😆

[@gregoryrobak456]

Hi, is it possible to completely hide the pen menu bar, or can you only minimize it? Thanks

[@onemanbookclub2585]

You CAN hide it. Toggle in on or off like this: With a book open, touch the top of the screen to bring down the menu. Touch the three dots at the top right. You'll see "Hide Writing Toolbar." Tap that, and the dot dissapears. Follow the same steps to bring it back.

[@xocoolchickxo]

I'm one of the people who thought this as a writing device first and a kindle second. But I don't mind if it's a kindle first. I already have a kindle paperwhite (10th gen) and I love to read and I love to write but I always have wanted an easy way to annotate books.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Maybe this will be just the thing!

[@MauriB37]

Can you put a folder in a folder?

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Unfortunately, no. I was hoping for that too. One folder. I did confirm though the notes are synced to the kindle app, so you can view the folders and notebooks on your phone or tablet. You can't edit from there, only view.

[@GalaxyFur]

The Kindle Scribe is just a Kindle Paperwhite with pen functionality. Amazon even basically describes it as a Paperwhite. It's defiantly an E-reader first and a writing devise second. As Mr. Mobile said, If you take away the pen, you just have a Paperwhite with a slightly larger display. The note-taking functionality is still on the Paperwhite for example. You just type things in instead of using the pen. The pen is just designed to be a natural way to jog down notes and streamline your experience if you are the type who does a ton of note-taking. Now the Kindle Scribe does drop three key features that are found on the Kindle Paperwhite signature edition. First no kids options at all. It's just not available on the Scribe. Second, you lose the ability to do wireless charging. And third, you also lose the water resistance that the Paperwhite devices have. The Scribe also is far better for reading at a desk. It's not nearly as portable. And to hold it while in bed or something, it gets heavy when trying to read one-handed compared to the other Kindles. But again for its size, it's still lite. However, this device may just be too big for those who want to read in bed or will hold the device for longer periods. It's really best from what I can see for reading at a desk flat on the table or perhaps propped up on a desk like one of its optional protective cases offers online. Compared to traditional pen devices like an IPad or a Samsung Galaxy S22, it doesn't offer nearly the functionality. Again it's designed to be a reading devise first though. I feel that the Scribe will fit a niche of people who are looking for such a device. However, I just don't see it being nearly as popular as the basic Kindle, the Paperwhite, or even Oasis. It will sell decently enough. But for the vast majority, I think people will find it's not optimal for bed reading or laying on the couch and just a bit too big to haul around. The software is the exact same as it is on the other Kindles and its more expensive price may be hard to justify if you are not a big note taker, since it doesn't do anything different than the much cheaper Paperwhite outside of the pen function. The bigger screen however may be easier to read for people who are harder of seeing. A bigger display does make it easier for folks who have not-so-great eyesight. So the pros of this device is a bigger screen if you are harder to see, compared to the other Kindles. Pen functionality if you love taking lots of notes and like doing highlights. The cons: (Compared to a paperwhite) It's more expensive, it's heavier, it's not as portable, lacks water resistance, kids mode, and the wireless charging option of the Paperwhite Signature Edition in particular. And while its display is bigger, it's not of any higher quality and offers the exact same resolution as the other Kindles. So one should ask themselves if the pen function and the larger display fit one's lifestyle better than the other Kindles. It's a great device and is geared to the doodler type. It fills a niche in the Kindle lineup for folks who will benefit from this device. It will defiantly complement Amazon's already great lineup of E-readers. And this device is about giving you choice. You now have five awesome Kindles to choose from. Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Signature Edition, Kindle Oasis and the Kindle Scribe. And all have slightly different feature sets that set them apart from one another.🙂

[@onemanbookclub2585]

100% Agree. Well said. Although I did read on it last night in bed quite comfortably 😅 😆!

[@nickisashkir]

The big screen seems great for textbooks or manga

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Absolutely. If I were a student or a consumer of Manga I'd be thrilled to have this!

[@nickisashkir]

@@onemanbookclub2585 I bought a remarkable right before I started my doctorate. It was so broken and I was so sad. I'm 100% sure this scribe would've made my doctorate easier.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Oh man, I just keep thinking about how great this would have been for me as a student!

[@pathworks]

I have a lot of reference books with code samples that are just too hard to follow on the traditional paperback size of the Kindles. I plan to couch read and prop tech e-books up on a tablet stand while learning. I type way faster than I can hand write so I'll probably only use the notebooks feature for meetings where I don't have a keyboard in front if me. So, in a nutshell, the Scribe's use case fits the way I plan to use it. Give me OCR in an software update and it will meet my needs.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Sounds exactly perfect!

[@Julie-ms9ss]

I also forgot to ask ( or maybe you mentioned it and I didn’t hear it) , if you can listen to audiobooks on it like you can on the Oasis. Thanks.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Yes, you can!

[@Julie-ms9ss]

@@onemanbookclub2585 Nice 👍🏼

[@NerdishlyActive]

Do you think 16gb is enough? I don’t do audiobooks or manga so it would just be ebooks and note taking + journaling.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

On average, a Kindle can hold about 250 to 300 Kindle books for every 1 GB of available disk space...so you're talking space for something like 5000 ebooks with 16GB. PDFs will very in size, but nothing huge. Plus all your content is stored on Amazon's Cloud until you need it anyway. So yes, 16GB is plenty, even of you were downloading audiobooks.

[@NerdishlyActive]

@@onemanbookclub2585 Appreciate it, Dan! How’s the reading experience going so far?

[@onemanbookclub2585]

So far so good! I read it in bed last night and it was comfortable... but too big to not feel awkward. I carried it with me to an event where I was doing to need to take notes. I think it's going to say at my desk and my Oaisis will continue to be my portable book. Still exploring!

[@Julie-ms9ss]

Thank you for the review. I’ve been wondering what it’d be like. I think it’d be handy if you’d be in a school class and possibly reading a book to take notes for a quiz, etc. I’m not sure how the writing feature would be of use to someone like me who only reads for pleasure. I suppose if you were in a book club and wanted to take notes ? This definitely looks like a cool gadget. I’m wondering also about the size and if it’d get heavy to hold over an extended length of time . The larger page size would be nice so you wouldn’t have to turn pages as often. Can you tell if it turns pages faster than your Oasis ? I’ll also be interested to see if you miss the turn buttons or not. Looking forward to your assessment after trying it out for a week. Have fun 😊

[@onemanbookclub2585]

I'm definitely liking the bigger screen, but it's not quite as...portable maybe? I can carry my Oasis in my back pocket and pull it out whenever. The Scribe I'm going to have to be more deliberate about. But I already read in my phone, my kindle, my computer...I imagine this becoming another way of having my book in an arms reach of desire. It actually does page turn a bit faster than the Oasis. I thought I'd miss the page then buttons, but so far I actually don't miss them--and I'm so surprised by that! The note taking features...I'll use that at work, etc...I'm a pretty big note taker. The big question is, will this method of note taking be enough to trump my current methods?

[@Julie-ms9ss]

@@onemanbookclub2585 Thanks for the speedy reply. I could tell you really liked it when you opened it. I don’t suppose there’d be anything wrong with using both devices. Take your Oasis as your “ travel reader” when you leave the house , but keep the bigger one as your “ at home” reader. Enjoy ! I’ll be looking for your updated review after you’re more familiar with it and can compare.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

That's what I'm thinking too!

[@CDubya.82]

Love the look of the scribe - Anticipation in the lead up to its release was high for me. Its definitely in my Christmas stocking this year. I'll make sure of it. PS Heads up! Your attempts to hide the gmail address weren't so great. 23:50

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Thanks for the heads up!

[@sorayabowie3212]

I think its a good option if it's your first kindle and you plan to do lots of reading and writing. Otherwise less it more, it seems too big to read on comfortably, especially in bed.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

It's feeling to me like it's going to have some specific uses...like I might keep this one at my desk and have the Oasis by my bed. We'll see, I'm still figuring it out!

[@Williamb612]

notice that the Supernote A5 and A6 x has been removed from all Amazon websites…Amazon is removing what they consider to be a threat to the Scribe…a pretty shady move

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Oh, interesting...

[@FireFr0ggy]

It doesn't help that Amazon heavily marketed it as a writing device. And for its first offering? It's even behind what Kobo Elipsa is cable of. It's comparatively anemic. Even if you say it's an ereader first than a writing device. For example Elipsa is capable of writing on the e-book. Margin notes and marking up. Scribe can't. I'm tempted for sure. But I am also thinking that it would be better to buy a Scribe in its 2nd or 3rd iteration.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

It's an awesome eReader that can take notes. I think it was a big marketing miss to try and pass this off as a premium note taking device--almost tone deaf to what currently exists in the market.

[@omoa5735]

Different countries have different covers for the same book

[@onemanbookclub2585]

True. In this case though, they aren't covers from different countries. The cover on the Oasis was old and hadn't updated yet. It actually updated quickly, and now the Oasis matched the Scribe!

[@omoa5735]

@@onemanbookclub2585 oh okay, thanks. Nice review btw

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Thank you!

[@ItClayTho]

I think I might be in the minority on this but the Scribe looks too big to read on to me. I don't like reading on my Ipad which is only slightly bigger. I think the Oasis is the perfect size, its right there at a paperback novel. I'm really hoping that when Amazon finally brings a color e-reader to the table, its an Oasis model. (also want USB-C charging, my Oasis is the last device that I have to keep a micro USB charger for).

[@onemanbookclub2585]

That's on my wish list too!

[@BrianHartman]

Good review. :) I've seen a few reviews of the Scribe, and yours is the first I've seen that states that it's a reading device first. I think that's right. But I also think that's part of the problem. The Scribe carries a hefty premium over a Paperwhite -- even over the Signature Edition. And most of what you're paying for is the writing ability, as far as I can tell. (There would be a slight premium for a larger device, of course, but I don't think it would be that much.) So the fact that it's such a better reader than it is a writer is kind of an issue. At least, it would keep me from buying it, even if I had the disposable income for it. It looks pretty competent when you're taking a standalone note, but the sticky note system is kind of unreasonable, IMO. You should be able to write directly on the book you're reading. It's my understanding that they did it this way for copyright reasons, but it would've been better if they'd simply had a layer over the book you could write on that got saved as a separate file and then overlaid when you opened the book again. The other thing is the size. It's just too big for my tastes. I can understand that some people want a bigger Kindle, and that's fine, but they could have released a Paperwhite-sized version with the larger version. I think that would've helped them undercut the competition on price, which this Kindle doesn't really do.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Agree! It's basically a big Paperwhite that you can write on.

[@richparkinson9647]

The overlay to write on would be amazing. That way you could toggle it on and off. Saving it as a separate but connected file would be fantastic. It would make this a must buy for me. I hope they add it in the future.

[@onemanbookclub2585]

I agree!

[@BrianHartman]

@@richparkinson9647 I wouldn't count on it. There could well be a technical issue I'm missing. But I hope they at least consider it, if they haven't.

[@twingytwango6971]

I’ve been watching all these Scribe videos yet there is no mention of the amount of gigabytes available for your own personal notes or scripts. How do we find that out?

[@onemanbookclub2585]

There are three options: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. All your digital content is stored on Amazon's Cloud, so onboard storage space really isn't an issue.

[@twingytwango6971]

@@onemanbookclub2585 Oh thank you for replying so quickly. I appreciate it!

[@onemanbookclub2585]

You bet! Good luck!

[@siti.hidayahram6458]

It’s sleek but no way I’m gonna buy Kindle Scribe. Maybe in another decade hahaha. Gotta aim the priorities^^

[@onemanbookclub2585]

Very wise of you! I wish I wasn't such a gadget nerd! Lol!

[@siti.hidayahram6458]

@@onemanbookclub2585 it's perfectly fine if you into this stuff and I'm glad you sharing with us! ❤️❤️

[@LvUhcX]

Wym new type of device? It’s not a new type of device ….

[@onemanbookclub2585]

It's a Kindle, but with new note-taking features = new device!

[@ulyssesnathanialowen3831]

after waiting a few months for scribe to arrive , it arrived today , promptly crashes and gets itself stuck in a loop updating its Os. amazon support were quite deeming and belligerent in their online chat to the point were i have hung up , raised an official complaint about the whole matter and will be shipping the scribe back to amazon tomorrow and most likely investing in kobos eclipse and converting may 500 book library !! buyer be warned !! to add to amazons farcical business practices , there have refused to post the very same review I have put on this site and others .. so I am sure its not news how reviews are being manipulated to show there products and service in a positive light ...

[@onemanbookclub2585]

How frustrating!