---
source_url: "https://myereader.substack.com/p/kindle-scribe-with-frontlight-reviewimpressive"
title: "Kindle Scribe with Frontlight Review:Impressive Hardware, Familiar Compromises"
mirrored_at: 2026-08-25T01:08:26.562Z
host: myereader.substack.com
cited_in_42a: true
mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/myereader.substack.com/p/kindle-scribe-with-frontlight-reviewimpressive"
---

> **Original source:** https://myereader.substack.com/p/kindle-scribe-with-frontlight-reviewimpressive

Often, manufacturers release hardware updates that do not bring meaningful upgrades from the previous generation. The second iteration of Kindle Scribe, for example, was barely upgraded - it offered new colours (Jade and Tungsten Grey), a slightly better paper-like texture and an improved stylus.

The third iteration of Kindle Scribe, however, has more significant upgrades. It increases the screen size from 10.2 inches to 11 inches, further improves the stylus, doubles the storage on the base model, increases RAM, and delivers a 40% performance boost.

**From e-note ergonomics to a more tablet-like shape**

Many manufacturers design their e-notes with the left side wider to make them easier to hold one-handed. Likewise, Amazon designed the first and second generations of the Kindle Scribe similarly. The latest generation has shifted the design to a more uniform tablet-lake shape. Whether the approach of having one side wider is better or not is a matter of preference, but it is not a major drawback for most users either way.

Many e-notes - Onyx BOOX, reMarkable, Kobo - keep one side wider for grip. The Scribe now breaks from that convention with a symmetrical, tablet-like shape.

The increase in screen estate to 11 inches gives the Kindle Scribe a distinct market position. Most e-notes are either 10.2/10.3 inches or the larger 13.3 inches. The closest to 11 inches is the reMarkable Paper Pro at 11.8 inches. The extra screen estate might seem slight, but in everyday use, you feel the difference. PDFs feel more natural, as going from 10.2 inches to 11 inches means A4/letter-sized documents render closer to their actual size. There is also less zooming and panning, which, with the way the Scribe handles PDFs (as will be covered below), results in a noticeable difference to the flow of reading and annotating.

The extra screen estate is helpful not only for PDF documents but also for e-books with two-column layouts in landscape mode. The increased size provides extra width in landscape mode and enhances the [Active Canvas](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=T0MT2p2D8t046zUxih) feature, which lets you create handwritten annotations on specific passages. The written note appears alongside the text, and the larger screen means reading and annotating with the pen feels less cramped.

The 300 PPI resolution of previous generations remains the same. However, Amazon markets an [oxide backplane](https://www.techradar.com/tablets/ereaders/amazons-kindle-scribe-is-a-now-clan-of-three-with-thin-light-builds-and-a-new-colorsoft-option) that is claimed to result in faster page turns and screen refreshes.

The front light is similar to previous generations, with both cold and warm lighting (with the option to mix them). The lighting is even and with minimal shadowing at the edges. The screen is a lighter grey than other e-notes I’ve used. The good thing is that the front light isn’t a necessity, unlike with the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, which uses Kaleido 3 technology. Colour is a nice addition, but the much darker Kaleido 3 screen (without the front light turned on) and poorer contrast are trade-offs too high for some users.

**A different (cluttered) homepage interface**

The Kindle Scribe has a homepage interface that differs from that of other Kindles. The bottom of the homepage interface is split into three sections: (1) Library, (2) Workspace, and (3) More. The Library section, like other Kindles, is a space for accessing and organising e-books and personal documents in the cloud or as downloads. Workspace is a productivity space for creating notebooks and organising them into collections. The More section is an odd inclusion, as it contains access to a rudimentary browser (you are prompted when first using the browser that it has limited memory and is intended to be used with simple websites), Goodreads shelves (Goodreads is owned by Amazon), settings and Amazon shopping lists (another sneaky way from Amazon to get the user into its shopping eco-system!).

The More section lacks a clear purpose and occupies space on the home page interface with non-core features. Previously, Goodreads was accessible by an icon at the top, the rudimentary browser was relegated to settings, and there was no need to provide another pathway to purchase Amazon content (the Kindle bookstore served that purpose).

The homepage itself is cluttered, with multiple rows of Kindle Store content recommendations. At the top, there is an option to create a quick note, which generates a new notebook. Next to the quick note feature is a second column showing recently opened notebooks, e-books and personal documents. Further below is a genuinely useful row showing tips instructing users on different features to discover and try. Beyond that are more rows of content recommendations based on your reading history.

**An improved stylus, but note-taking features remain behind others**

The note-taking features are not as advanced as those found in other manufacturers’ products. There are no layers, zoom functionality, typed notes, a recorder, or the ability to insert images, attachments, weblinks, or photos. The basics are there - templates, search, pen types, automatically converting strokes into precise lines/shapes, shapes insertion, sharing notebooks, handwriting recognition and AI functionality. For many users, the Kindle Scribe will meet their needs. However, users seeking more advanced features and flexibility will feel constrained. For example, the absence of Bluetooth support for keyboards and typed notes is a feature available on most e-notes that Amazon has overlooked.

The interface is stable and user-friendly (something expected from Kindles). The main functionality can be accessed by tapping a dropdown menu that is permanently fixed to the side (though it can be set to the right or left). The menu provides access to pen types, shapes, the eraser, lasso, redo, and undo. Tapping on the top gives access to search, page navigation (with the option to move pages around in a notebook), AI features, notebook settings and exporting a notebook (or a page in a notebook).

While the notebook interface is well-designed and intuitive, the main problem, in my view, is that the dropdown menu is permanently locked to the left or right, so it occupies a small space at the end of the page, covering two lines near the top, which interferes when writing. It would have been a good idea to offer the option to switch the dropdown menu to a full menu that stays fixed at the top (as in Onyx BOOX notebooks).

The dropdown menu can be repositioned left or right, but not converted to a top-anchored bar - meaning it always overlaps part of the writing area.

There has been a technology trend to permeate AI into all sorts of products. Often, these ‘features’ can feel gimmicky, but in the case of the Kindle Scribe, the [AI features](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/kindle-scribe-gen-ai-notebook) are useful to have but underdeveloped. In notebooks, AI can summarise notebooks and convert handwritten notes into a script font. While these features are helpful, they still feel immature. The summarisation feature is restricted to 15 pages and is hit-and-miss, with key points sometimes left out because results are affected by handwriting recognition and the way notes are presented. Likewise, the ‘refine writing’ feature, which converts handwritten notes into a script font, is limited to ten pages. The processing speed can also be slow - if there are many pages to process, an error message that the content could not be generated often appears after a long wait.

There is also an AI-powered notebook search for notes. The search results also add AI-powered insights from the notebook to generate suggested questions based on its contents. The suggested questions are a useful tool for revision and for retaining knowledge from written notes.

Battery life during note-taking is a major positive that sets the Kindle Scribe apart from other Android-based e-notes. The in-house development of the firmware means battery life is optimised for each task. As a personal estimate for note-taking (a more intensive activity), the battery life can be in the 15-hour range (with the frontlight turned off). The note-taking battery life is a significant upgrade over the Onyx BOOX e-notes. From personal experience, Onyx BOOX e-notes often get in the 8- to 10-hour range when writing.

The included pen uses WACOM’s EMR technology. The pen does not require charging, feels light in the hand, and has very little latency during note-taking. The eraser at the top simulates the feel of rubber on paper, and there is another button for highlighting. The button can be reprogrammed in settings, too. A benefit of using EMR is the ability to use pens from third-party manufacturers like LAMY, Staedtler, Wacom, and others.

Kindle Scribe’s Wacom EMR pen is a standout - lightweight, with a reprogrammable side button and a top eraser that mimics the friction of rubber on paper.

The texture applied to the screen does produce resistance, but it is smoother than the previous two generations of the Kindle Scribe, which had a more pen-on-paper feel. Writing on a screen is still far better than writing on the glass display of a regular tablet.

**Workflow features are lacking**

Kindle Scribe’s workflow features are limited, but the neglect of these features is a broader problem in the e-note space. For Kindle Scribe, notebooks cannot be edited beyond the device; the only supported feature at the moment is viewing notebooks in the Kindle app. It is possible to export notebooks as PDFs and set them to be backed up to third-party services such as OneNote, Google Drive, or OneDrive (a special Kindle Scribe folder is created to store the exported notebooks).

Another oversight is the absence of a dedicated articles section. Kobo, for example, has integrated Instapaper into its interface and provides a dedicated space to access saved articles. It is possible to send articles through the ‘Send to Kindle’ web browser extension, but the resulting article is added to the Kindle library and treated as an e-book.

**Reading software: Some innovative features, but other areas need development**

Kindle Scribe is often accused of being first an e-reader and content driver for Amazon. There is some truth to that judgment, with the user experience being more locked down than on Android e-notes. Nevertheless, the Kindle Scribe has now integrated third-party cloud storage (OneDrive and Google Drive), giving it greater flexibility and functionality.

Third-party cloud support makes the ‘[Send to Kindle](https://www.amazon.co.uk/sendtokindle)’ feature unnecessary for transferring personal documents. Cloud support is not a complete sync between the cloud and the device. It is possible to download documents from the cloud, but any changes made to an e-book are not synced to the exact same document and folder. Instead, they are synced within the Kindle cloud and treated like a purchased document from the Kindle Store. It is a good solution, as it not only removes the need to use ‘Send to Kindle’ but also ensures the e-book syncs across Kindle devices and the Kindle app.

With PDFs, the situation is more complicated - while PDFs downloaded from the cloud will be added to the Kindle library, I noticed there is no syncing of reading location, highlights or annotations between Scribe and the Kindle app. Rather, PDFs are treated similarly to notebooks - they can be exported to third-party cloud drives to access on another device (exported notebooks and PDFs are stored in the same designated Kindle Scribe directory). Further, in the Kindle app, the PDF functionality is limited to a document viewer, with most Kindle Scribe features unsupported. Again, this is another example of a lack of workflow features between Scribe and the Kindle application.

The reading settings remain an area for improvement. It appears the Kindle Store has poor quality control, with some e-books’ formatting locked and cannot be overridden. When they can be changed, the font, margins, and spacing options are more restricted than on a Kobo, let alone an Onyx BOOX that lets the user control settings down to the smallest detail. There is a font-size scale, but the incremental differences between sizes are too large. There are also scales for line, paragraph, word and character spacing. Strangely, there is no option for margin scaling (margins can be adjusted in three levels: small, medium, and large).

Two strong areas of Kindle’s software are highlights and annotations. Highlights and annotations are organised in a special notebook that is synced across devices and can be exported. Annotations can be made as sticky notes in both typed and handwritten formats. Sticky notes can be accessed via a designated expandable menu locked at the top. Certain key highlights can also be pinned.

The other strength is the innovative way Kindle Scribe handles e-book annotations with Active Canvas. When you write a note within an e-book, Active Canvas creates a resizable box around it and reflows the surrounding text to make room. When formatting changes are applied, the canvas stays anchored to the original passage and isn’t affected by changes to font size or formatting.

The Active Canvas approach is more intuitive and user-friendly than the messier approach adopted by Kobo, where annotations can be entered anywhere in an e-book. When the formatting changes, it turns into a small sticky note box that expands when pressed, while only showing a few lines where the note was originally placed.

In another example of thin workflow support, Amazon [confirms](https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Kindle-Scribe/dp/B0DVQQGMCZ?th=1) in the FAQs section of its Kindle Scribe listing that Active Canvas notes cannot be viewed in the Kindle app:

> You can view your Kindle Scribe notebooks through the Kindle app for iOS and Android. To access them, go to the “More” tab in the app and select “Notebooks” to view all the notebooks created on your Kindle Scribe. Additionally, you can view any highlights or sticky notes you made in books; however, you can’t view underlines or Active Canvas notes.

PDF features are superior to a Kobo - which isn’t saying much, seeing as Kobo still doesn’t support selecting text to highlight, typed annotations using the virtual keyboard or contrast adjustments. Kindle Scribe’s software supports features to highlight, annotate (with pen or typed notes using the virtual keyboard), adjust contrast levels (there are only four contrast levels, which isn’t flexible enough given PDFs can vary a lot), change margins in portrait mode (with only three margin spacing levels allowed) and pinch-to-zoom.

These PDF features cover the basics, but users will feel constrained when flexible formatting is needed to handle documents with complex layouts. Further, the existing features don’t feel correctly implemented - below are some examples:

1.  While the pinch-to-zoom feature is smooth, the set zoom level cannot be locked across the entire document. As a result, because there is no tap to scroll to the next passage, a single page must be panned manually, which triggers a full refresh before the next passage renders. To move to the next page, the user needs to manually zoom out, then zoom in and pan the next page. In landscape mode, there is no option to zoom in/out, which is a strange oversight. However, it is possible to set increased margin spacing to compensate for the document text appearing too large. The downside, as noted before, is that there are only three margin spacing levels.
    
2.  There are no advanced features to cater for the variety of PDFs - for example, there is no two-page layout (in landscape mode), no text reflow mode or a way to split a screen into different parts to read complex multi-column page layouts.
    

If advanced and flexible PDF features are needed, an Onyx BOOX e-note remains the best choice.

**Concluding thoughts: A large Kindle, with some extras?**

One of the common criticisms of the Kindle Scribe, in the past, was its locked-down user experience and limited note-taking features. While the Kindle Scribe is relatively locked down compared to other Android e-note devices, this does not mean features are diminished for personal documents. Unlike Kobo, Kindle treats personal e-books as purchased content for syncing. The ability to download documents from cloud storage and add them to the Kindle library for syncing means the Kindle is more than an Amazon content gateway.

Where the locked-in experience is felt is the necessity of working through the Amazon cloud for syncing. The heavy marketing of Amazon content on the home page is another aspect that makes you feel as though you are using a device you do not fully control, since there is no way to completely disable the Kindle Store recommendations on the Home tab.

The heavy marketing is also felt in Amazon’s tracking, which is set by default. The tracking gives Amazon a profile of users to recommend content. It takes [know-how](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_H28jOxOdg) to disable certain forms of background tracking, but there is no way to turn it off completely.

Another downside is limited workflow capabilities and a lack of support for services like public library e-book borrowing outside the United States. Neglect of workflow features is not unique to Kindle; other manufacturers neglect them as well. Better integration of the Kindle application to edit notebooks started on a Kindle Scribe (and vice versa) could be an initial step toward making cross-device work more seamless.

Note-taking features do cater to basic needs. However, it lags behind reMarkable and Onyx BOOX. Most essential features are supported, but many more capabilities can be added to cater for a wider array of users. One important missing feature is the lack of text notes (there is also no support for Bluetooth keyboards for text input). There is Bluetooth capability, but it is currently limited to headphones and speakers for audiobooks purchased from Audible.

In terms of e-book features, the Kindle Scribe is better than many non-Android e-readers (such as Kobo and reMarkable). The highlight and annotations features are well-thought-out - specifically, the Active Canvas is an innovative way to anchor side notes with dynamic content like e-books. The notes produced are accessible and exportable in notebooks, too. However, the locked-in feeling persists because Kindles can export only a limited number of highlights from purchased e-books due to [publisher restrictions](https://glasp.co/articles/kindle-highlights-workflow).

Overall, the Kindle Scribe, due to its bottom-up firmware development, offers superior battery life and more stable reading software. It also supports the essentials for note-taking and PDF reading. Yet, it is the development of note-taking and PDF features that would take Kindle Scribe to the next level (while maintaining a stable software base and superior battery life). For users in the Kindle ecosystem, Kindle Scribe is much more than a larger Kindle, thanks to its note-taking capabilities and innovative integration of pen input while reading e-books. I would say that, beyond those already in the ecosystem, the Kindle Scribe is a capable and value-for-money e-note (when purchased on sale or with a 20% discount by trading in an older Kindle). The main issue is the type of end user - a user needing better workflow support and advanced note-taking, and PDF capabilities will likely go to Onyx BOOX, due to the restrictions in the areas noted above.

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