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I've had a Kindle Scribe for just over a year, and my micro review is: "It's like paper, only much more expensive." The writing experience is good. I use it f

I've had a Kindle Scribe for just over a year, and my micro review is: "It's like paper, only much more expensive." The writing experience is good. I use it for largely bullet journaling of things I need to do. It works well, but honestly a paper notebook would work nearly as well. I had hoped to get nebulous other benefits, I'm not exactly sure what, but maybe exporting or templates or viewing from multiple locations. But the software is fairly slow and fairly minimalistic. Honestly: It's an e-reader with minimal pen functionality. What it has over a notebook is: It lays flat, and it's easy to erase. I do use it every business day. Downsides: Page flipping is maddeningly slow, and the pencil is $50 if I lose it, and $1 nearly every time I drop it (replacing the nib). I've had a number of close calls where I thought I lost it and didn't look forward to the cost of replacement. I'm amazingly close to selling it on ebay and replacing it with either a notebook and pen, a Boox Note Air 3 (non-color). I hear ReMarkable is coming out with a new one soon too.

lowkey 2y ago
A few years ago I supported a Kickstarter project for a paper notebook that may be a great fit for your needs. The Rocket Book is a wire bound paper notebook that has icons on each page and a mobile app. When you take a picture of a page with your phone it automatically syncs to your favorite cloud apps. As a bonus, it is designed to work with a special heat sensitive erasable pen so the notebook is reusable. Simple pop it in the microwave under a mug of water for 1 minute and the book comes out blank and ready for reuse. I am not affiliated and ultimately decided to type my notes or use an iPad but wanted to suggest it for those who prefer paper. https://getrocketbook.com/ https://getrocketbook.com/
- geoelectric 2y ago
  Looks like current ones are water-washable instead of microwavable, which I assume has the disadvantage that you need to do it page by page. But you can use off the shelf Pilot Frixion pens with all of them, including the OG Wave version (which they do still sell as one of their cheaper ones, but looks like it can only take a few erase cycles). This looks surprisingly good. The app that does the scanning and transfer to other services has a 4.7 on the iOS App Store, so I assume it works reasonably well, and I don’t see any subscription fees whatsoever. $20-60 for a notebook is pretty dear, but certainly cheaper than $200-300 for an e-ink tablet as long as you can get enough reuse out of them.
- linsomniac 2y ago
  That's a good reminder, I did try Rocketbook, I just printed out some of the samples and used them with pen/paper. At that time I was trying to get fancy with making a custom template, but for most of my use I really don't need anything more than lined paper and I rarely refer back to it after I'm done with a day, so no need to scan it. I had originally started with a Panda Planner (because I got a bunch of them years ago to try to get my family into the habit, but that plan didn't work, so I had them laying around). I generally liked it, but wanted to make a format custom to my workflow, and that's where the Rocketbook was going to come in. But eventually I just went with lined paper and carried that over to the Scribe. Also of note: You can search and download "daily planner" templates on the Internet and print them to try different formats and see what works for you.
chx 2y ago
> It works well, but honestly a paper notebook would work nearly as well. When I went to university I used a Crosspad. It's been a quarter century and as your comment shows for actual use that's still fine. To recap, you are writing on paper mounted on an electronic pad with a special pen which radios in your position and the device records vector strokes you later can download for reading / editing. It wasn't a success because it was early and the software wasn't great and also because you needed to put in the work after class to somehow tag your notes for later searching. As long as handwriting OCR is as unreliable as it is, I fail to see what adding a screen -- with its additional cost and weight -- to this setup brings. And indeed your comment shows: nothing.
dash2 2y ago
I can recommend Ratta Supernote. I’ve got the A5X and I still use it regularly after a couple of years. It has handwriting recognition, the interface is pretty nicely designed, and sync is handled well also.
geoelectric 2y ago
I bought one recently, and I’m using it primarily as an ereader at the moment. I really like that in landscape mode, it’s the same size as two 7” Oases side by side. It feels like reading a paperback when I display the text in two page-sized columns, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed having that. It turns out the “look to the left, then to the right” thing you do to read the two pages makes the experience feel much more authentic to me. It’s also a manga-reading beast, for the same reason. It’s much more enjoyable to read in two-page mode for me. I am impressed with how good the writing feels on the surface. It’s very tactile compared to my iPad. I’m looking for places I can try to work it into my flow. I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff that has simply not occurred to me because I’ve become so used to not having pen and paper around.
r-spaghetti 2y ago
What about the fact that those kindle products are equiped with amazon apps that are preinstalled and can not be deleted. Apps and infrastructure that share your personal data with god knows who?
globular-toast 2y ago
> It lays flat, and it's easy to erase. A spiral-bound notebook lays flat too and, if you use good paper and a good pencil it's easy to erase as well.
phony-account 2y ago
I’ve had the Scribe for about six months and absolutely love it: I actually relish using it every single time I open it up. I’ve had Kindles for probably 10 years, gradually upgrading until the latest warm-screen version Oasis. But reading on these smaller screens always felt like a compromise: having to constantly flip pages was a nagging mental reminder that the platform was digital, and for some reason this always impinged slightly on my enjoyment. I use the Scribe in portrait mode and now it feels like a luxurious hard-back page I’m looking at. The only thing that would make it conceivably better would be a yellower tint to the base color, which even the warm light doesn’t quite achieve - making it feel even more like a paper-page. I also write work notes on it every day. The pen feel is beyond comparison to ‘writing’ on an iPad - which is really nothing more than sliding around with a piece of plastic on a sheet of glass.
- linsomniac 2y ago
  I haven't used the Scribe much for reading, I do most of my kindle reading before bed, and I find the smaller Oasis is a nicer form factor for me to read while holding it. Using the Scribe as a reader, if you wanted something bigger, is probably a great experience. I agree that the pen feel on the scribe is great.

lowkey 2y ago

A few years ago I supported a Kickstarter project for a paper notebook that may be a great fit for your needs. The Rocket Book is a wire bound paper notebook that has icons on each page and a mobile app. When you take a picture of a page with your phone it automatically syncs to your favorite cloud apps. As a bonus, it is designed to work with a special heat sensitive erasable pen so the notebook is reusable. Simple pop it in the microwave under a mug of water for 1 minute and the book comes out blank and ready for reuse. I am not affiliated and ultimately decided to type my notes or use an iPad but wanted to suggest it for those who prefer paper. https://getrocketbook.com/ https://getrocketbook.com/

geoelectric 2y ago
Looks like current ones are water-washable instead of microwavable, which I assume has the disadvantage that you need to do it page by page. But you can use off the shelf Pilot Frixion pens with all of them, including the OG Wave version (which they do still sell as one of their cheaper ones, but looks like it can only take a few erase cycles). This looks surprisingly good. The app that does the scanning and transfer to other services has a 4.7 on the iOS App Store, so I assume it works reasonably well, and I don’t see any subscription fees whatsoever. $20-60 for a notebook is pretty dear, but certainly cheaper than $200-300 for an e-ink tablet as long as you can get enough reuse out of them.
linsomniac 2y ago
That's a good reminder, I did try Rocketbook, I just printed out some of the samples and used them with pen/paper. At that time I was trying to get fancy with making a custom template, but for most of my use I really don't need anything more than lined paper and I rarely refer back to it after I'm done with a day, so no need to scan it. I had originally started with a Panda Planner (because I got a bunch of them years ago to try to get my family into the habit, but that plan didn't work, so I had them laying around). I generally liked it, but wanted to make a format custom to my workflow, and that's where the Rocketbook was going to come in. But eventually I just went with lined paper and carried that over to the Scribe. Also of note: You can search and download "daily planner" templates on the Internet and print them to try different formats and see what works for you.

chx 2y ago

> It works well, but honestly a paper notebook would work nearly as well. When I went to university I used a Crosspad. It's been a quarter century and as your comment shows for actual use that's still fine. To recap, you are writing on paper mounted on an electronic pad with a special pen which radios in your position and the device records vector strokes you later can download for reading / editing. It wasn't a success because it was early and the software wasn't great and also because you needed to put in the work after class to somehow tag your notes for later searching. As long as handwriting OCR is as unreliable as it is, I fail to see what adding a screen -- with its additional cost and weight -- to this setup brings. And indeed your comment shows: nothing.

dash2 2y ago

I can recommend Ratta Supernote. I’ve got the A5X and I still use it regularly after a couple of years. It has handwriting recognition, the interface is pretty nicely designed, and sync is handled well also.

geoelectric 2y ago

I bought one recently, and I’m using it primarily as an ereader at the moment. I really like that in landscape mode, it’s the same size as two 7” Oases side by side. It feels like reading a paperback when I display the text in two page-sized columns, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed having that. It turns out the “look to the left, then to the right” thing you do to read the two pages makes the experience feel much more authentic to me. It’s also a manga-reading beast, for the same reason. It’s much more enjoyable to read in two-page mode for me. I am impressed with how good the writing feels on the surface. It’s very tactile compared to my iPad. I’m looking for places I can try to work it into my flow. I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff that has simply not occurred to me because I’ve become so used to not having pen and paper around.

r-spaghetti 2y ago

What about the fact that those kindle products are equiped with amazon apps that are preinstalled and can not be deleted. Apps and infrastructure that share your personal data with god knows who?

globular-toast 2y ago

> It lays flat, and it's easy to erase. A spiral-bound notebook lays flat too and, if you use good paper and a good pencil it's easy to erase as well.

phony-account 2y ago

I’ve had the Scribe for about six months and absolutely love it: I actually relish using it every single time I open it up. I’ve had Kindles for probably 10 years, gradually upgrading until the latest warm-screen version Oasis. But reading on these smaller screens always felt like a compromise: having to constantly flip pages was a nagging mental reminder that the platform was digital, and for some reason this always impinged slightly on my enjoyment. I use the Scribe in portrait mode and now it feels like a luxurious hard-back page I’m looking at. The only thing that would make it conceivably better would be a yellower tint to the base color, which even the warm light doesn’t quite achieve - making it feel even more like a paper-page. I also write work notes on it every day. The pen feel is beyond comparison to ‘writing’ on an iPad - which is really nothing more than sliding around with a piece of plastic on a sheet of glass.

linsomniac 2y ago
I haven't used the Scribe much for reading, I do most of my kindle reading before bed, and I find the smaller Oasis is a nicer form factor for me to read while holding it. Using the Scribe as a reader, if you wanted something bigger, is probably a great experience. I agree that the pen feel on the scribe is great.