New Kindle Scribe crowns 15 years of evolution of Amazon’s e-reader

There are readers who haven’t picked up a book in over a decade. What made the e-reader possible was e-ink. Also known as electronic paper, this screen technology has been decades in development. An e-ink screen consists of microscopic capsules of dark and light pigments laid across a grid, The light pigment is positively charged, and the dark pigment negatively charged. Apply a positive charge to a grid square, and the light particle rises to the surface and vice versa.

E-ink’s advantages over a ‘traditional’ display screen technologies like LED, TFT, and LCD, are legion. For a start, it uses minimal power because the display is not emitting any light. Without power, the dark pixels simply stay in place, leaving the text or image on the screen. For readers, it was a game-changer – eye strain became a thing of the past as, although e-ink is not especially responsive (making swift changes between images and layouts impossible), it is perfect for text.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2022

The new Kindle Scribe is the newest and dearest version of Amazon’s own brand of e-readers. For the first time, the Kindle is available with a pen, hugely increasing the device’s function and flexibility. Kindle Scribe is first and foremost about the books and won’t be much use unless you indulge in some kind of Amazon subscription. However, even the premium Kindle Unlimited subscription isn’t an open gateway to the world’s printed matter, and there’s still lots of content that has to be paid for separately. 

Confusingly, Unlimited allows for access to some, but not all, of the extensive Audible library (pair the device with Bluetooth headphones to listen to audio books), as well as a limited set of magazines. These are published as ‘Kindle editions’, which not only have to make the most of the black and white screen, but also lose a lot of their character and readability when text it rendered in large, unbroken chunks.

As with all e-books, formatting can be an issue (typographers and graphic designers will be wincing), especially if you’re playing around with the 14 levels of font sizing. The deluge of self-published books that came with the Kindle’s launch (via Kindle Direct Publishing) further denigrated the art of book design. That being said, the Kindle has been a boon for the voracious reader, especially those less concerned with a book’s physicality and more with its content. A backlight means you can read in the dark, and you can also adjust the ‘warmth’ of the screen.

The Scribe’s Premium pen is pleasant to use and glides across the tablet’s surface. The Notebook function lets you create individual workbooks, with lined templates for diaries, notes, etc. The innovation isn’t Amazon’s, for e-ink pen input tablets are starting to proliferate. Right now, we’re regular users of the excellent reMarkable 2, and there’s also the app-enabled Boox NoteAir2 to consider.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2022 versus reMarkable 2

What the Scribe gets right is having a case with a pen loop – the reMarkable’s magnetic clip is all very well but doesn’t stand up to being jostled around in a bag. If you don’t have the case (another optional extra), there’s a much more powerful magnet than the reMarkable to keep the stylus in place when not in use. Mercifully, the pens used by these devices are interchangeable and don’t require any charging of their own although they come with extra tips, as the stylus eventually needs replacing. 

To make the most of the Scribe’s 64GB storage, you’ll be entering a world of subscriptions and DRM (digital rights management). Power users will find ways of porting their libraries between devices without much hassle, but the Scribe favours the long-time Amazon user who can cope with immersion and co-operation with the company’s massive eco-system and all its probing tentacles.

In comparison, the reMarkable feels like a far more indie and standalone proposition. It also reads PDFs and e-books (in the widely used ePUB format), and you can scribble all over them to your heart’s content. You can do the same with the Scribe, although it won’t let you deface e-books, only add jottings to ‘sticky notes’. 

The ReMarkable is first and foremost a note-taking device, not something to read on. Artists will enjoy its wider variety of ‘pen’ types, which include calligraphic writing modes, pencils, and markers, while the screen is slightly coarser and more paper-like, creating a realistic bit of resistance to the nib. 

Both offer a premium experience, but obsessive jotters will have more affinity with the reMarkable’s very analogue feel. The Scribe, on the other hand, takes e-readers to a new level of sleek sophistication.

Amazon Kindle Scribe, £359.99 (16GB model, including Premium pen), Amazon.co.uk

reMarkable 2 (includes Marker Plus and leather folio), £557, reMarkable.com

A short history of the Kindle

Fifteen years ago, in November 2007, Amazon launched the very first Kindle. Over the years, the company has managed to eke a huge number of variants out of what is essentially a very simple form factor. There’s still a veritable bookshelf of Kindle options, including models pitched at younger readers and the Paperwhite line, a more compact, not-quite-pocketable device that is more akin to a paperback book, with a screen that further refined e-Ink to make it ever more paper-like.