Note: this is part 2 of the original blog post I wrote. If you haven’t read it yet, go check it out as it is a brief overview of my first impressions of the Kindle Scribe
Introduction
I’ve used the Kindle Scribe for a whole semester now. It was ok for taking notes, but after this semester, my use-cases for it has changed significantly.
First of all, I decided to try out Obsidian in the middle of the semester, and that was a choice I did not regret. I’ll talk more about how I take notes with Obsidian in a later blog post, but in short, its capabilities (and what I use it for) has been more powerful than plain pen-and-pencil (obviously), and thus the Kindle Scribe as well.
Secondly, since there is no color capability, taking notes with the Scribe turned out to be a lot less fun. Sure, there were the different pen styles (e.g. fountain or pencil) I could try and sure there was the various different thicknesses I could try. Not to mention the highlighting tool included in the UI. But the lack of color has been a bigger bummer than I thought.
I guess this is because I had used color extensively and found it hard to review my notes when they didn’t have color to catch my attention/differentiate between different types of information presented. It’s harder to recall a block of black and white rather than globs of red, green, and blue.
So, if I have not been taking notes with the Kindle Scribe, then what have I been using the Kindle Scribe for?
A $600 scratch paper
I hate to admit it, but I have been using this $600 device for reading papers and as scratch paper. The thing is, carrying this around is far more convenient than carrying around a stack of paper in a binder. I also use it for taking notes in my piano class as I need to take notes very quickly (and hauling my computer isn’t exactly practical). The advantage of pen and paper is when you need to quickly take notes but also need to be able to quickly put it away.
I mean, it works for what I use it for. The battery life is still amazing as ever, being able to last weeks on a single charge, and the display is still a valid reason why you would buy a completely separate device rather than use the Freeform app on the iPad. Speaking of the iPad, I commonly use the Kindle Scribe in conjuction with my iPad if I’m solving homework questions on-the-go. The user experience of just propping the iPad up somewhere and writing my work on the Kindle Scribe is far better than trying to wrangle with Freeform on the Stage Manager/split screen of my iPad.
I also now know what the difference between the “premium pen” and then regular pen is: the premium pen has an eraser function that can essentially be reprogrammed to be any alternate pen function (e.g. highlight or lasso). It’s quite useful so I would say it is worth the price increase, as it avoids needing to switch back and forth between pen and eraser on the UI.
Conclusion
Do I recommend the Kindle Scribe? Scratch paper and reading, yes. Note-taking? Just use Obsidian.