Anyone got a kindle scribe?

Been looking at these for a while now, as my kindle is way past its useful life.

I’m used to the small form factor of the kindle paperwhite and the scribe looks a fair bit bigger, but for note taking this looks quite good, apart from the fact it’s Amazon and probably locked down to their ecosystem etc.

just wondered if anyone here had pulled the trigger on one and what they thought of it.

Yes, got one a while ago. Mainly to use for note taking at work and replace an old Kindle.

It’s OK, rarely use the note taking now but it worked when I did. There weren’t any particularly useful syncing abilities when I last looked (for me anyway), not sure if they have changed now.

As a reading device it’s too big and heavy (imho).

If I started again I’d probably buy a Remarkable or something similar and another bog standard Kindle. Only reason I got the Scribe was the offer on at the time (cost approx £300 including case vs £600 for a Remarkable and a new Kindle).

Thanks.

theyre on sale right now so at a great price compared to normal price levels, but I’m not hugely convinced it’ll be that useful or great for notes at work, or notes in general

and the scribe looks huge compared against the normal kindle – way too big to hold for reading

interesting, had totally forgotten about these! I did look at them before as I still make a lot of handwritten notes and my desk is a mountain of different jotter pads and loose bits of paper ??

Good price at the mo like you say, although I doubt it will have the same abilities as the new iPad OS re. solving equations etc which I’d also find very useful ?

There weren’t any particularly useful syncing abilities when I last looked (for me anyway)

can you elaborate on this? I would need to be able to have the notes pop up on my Mac and be easily searchable (at the very least!) and ideally cloud-based.

I had a Kindle before and could never really get into using it so this would be purely for note-taking.

Syncing does seem to be limited to AWS using amazons whisper sync. No options for any other cloud storage.

So unless I’m missing something I’d have to export any notes / notebooks to get them to another environment.

that sounds less than ideal.

done some Googling… looks like it’s had a few software updates in the last year or so! Originally you couldn’t search the notes (which is crap!) but you can now. Syncing seems VERY clunky. Doesn’t look like you can view the notes on a PC at all without emailing them to yourself, however you can sync/view them via the Mac Kindle app – not sure if you can search from that though?

Despite there being a “2022” version on Amazon which is about £75 more, there is only one version of the device (gen 1) currently and the more expensive one just comes with accessories such as a case, etc.

I am tempted to take a punt on it at the offer price though, especially as I can stick it through the books ?

I have one. It’s not great, and definitely not the game changer I thought it would be.

Main one is the syncing as other people have pointed out.  Looks like the Remarkable is better at this but don’t have any experience with it.

£270 buys you a lot of notepads and pens.

I have one. And I love it.

I use it every day for note taking at work. I have a file for Daily to Do list (which means I can look back over weeks of to-do lists) A file for weekly notes (like the scribbles I’d normally have had in multiple notebooks, scraps of paper) and a file for ‘shit I’ve asked people to do’.  For me it has been a game changer. Searching it is useufl but tbh not essential anyway as you can’t do that with a notebook.

And it’s fine as a reader. Bit chunky compared to my old paper white but I can still use that – as they sync. So when on hols etc I take the paperwhite.

I’d get one if I were you.

£270 buys you a lot of notepads and pens.

that is the problem though! I already have a lot of notepads. 🙂 And all the pens in the world won’t help me search through them electronically!

but don’t have any experience with it

I’ve worked with a few ReMarkable users, all have loved them and said they were worth the (sizeable) price.

I was also looking at the scribe, but I just don’t think it’s worth it and only synching with Amazon services it probably falls outside of our strict IT Sec policy.

I do love me a good quality notebook. But they are very old school really, not very good for trees and once they’re full if you keep them they can take up a lot of storage. It’s also the one area, where no tech company has really cracked replicating the writing on paper experience. Ive used OneNote, iPad apps, every todo app going, and I still find myself using a notepad in some meetings. Sometimes it’s just easier to write it down.

Being able to search handwritten notes would be good.

There are a couple of systems that let you write stuff then search it.  I think Remarkable is one.

But I think the reason is a large number of people can type faster and more accurately than they can write.

Search on the Scribe is just the names of your notebooks.  It doesn’t search your notes.

Give it a whirl.  You’ve got 30 days to return it if nothing else.

You’ve got 30 days to return it if nothing else.

didn’t realise that with Amazon devices, thanks!

It doesn’t search your notes.

ah, looks like you have to share a PDF version which is then searchable. Needlessly clunky, but better than nothing I guess!

If anyone is looking for a low cost way of digitising notes then it might be worth checking out Rocketbook.

I’d looked at ReMarkable and the Scribe a few times but they did way more than I needed. I just wanted a electronic version of my (many) A4 notebooks. I write so many notes, it takes me forever to go back and find something and then I have to try and decipher it!

Those Rocketbooks look ideal – never seen those so thanks for the steer @cletus

After a bit more research I’ve talked myself out of a scribe.

the rocketbooks look intriguing and at that price point definitely worth a punt

I did end up ordering a Scribe but fully prepared to send it back for a refund with the 30 day thing if it’s crap!

Rocketbook does sound interesting, you can download some sample PDF pages from their website (which I’ve just done!) to print yourself & test the concept.

quick update to this! the Scribe is working out great, coming in really handy. The feel of it as you write is really good. Searching is possibly but slightly faffy (you basically have to create & email yourself a searchable PDF on the device) although tbh I haven’t call to do that much yet! I keep it on my desk at work and being able to fire up the Kindle app when at home to look through the notes sometimes is helpful.

I also bought the cheapest Rocketbook/pen combo (about £17 I think) but tbh got on so well with the Scribe I haven’t actually tested them out yet!