Now that Amazon has finally released a large-screen Kindle with stylus support, some are finding the Kindle Scribe’s software a bit too limited, especially when it comes to the note-taking features.
It’s not surprising the Kindle Scribe is lacking in some areas compared to other devices considering how late Amazon is to the E Ink notebook game. Onyx and Remarkable have been refining their notetaking devices for over 5 years now.
To be fair, the Kindle Scribe is a better dedicated ereader than those devices (especially the Remarkable, which can barely be considered an ereader at all), so it’s more comparable to the Kobo Elipsa. Both are great for reading, and just okay for notetaking.
Onyx’s devices are the most well-rounded, but they’re also the most expensive, and Onyx has an annoying habit of releasing new models every 6-12 months with minimal changes so they’re always in a state of flux, and it gets rather confusing when they have like 10 different notetaking devices to choose from at any given time. They’re also based in China so good luck getting any customer support. But Onyx’s open Android software has a lot going for it, and the built-in app is great for PDFs.
The Kindle Scribe, Remarkable, and Onyx’s devices all have EMR touchscreens and work with Wacom styluses, and none of them require batteries or charging. The Kobo Elipsa’s stylus requires a AAAA battery and it uses MPP (Microsoft Pen Protocol).
Here’s a list of the best Kindle Scribe alternatives:
Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus
The Onyx Note Air 2 Plus is the latest model in the Note Air line. It has better specs than the Scribe, aside from the 227 ppi screen, and it runs Android 11 and is open to installing apps, including the Kindle app so you can read Kindle ebooks on it as well (however, the Kindle app doesn’t support handwriting so it can’t be used in the same manner as the Kindle Scribe).
I haven’t reviewed the Note Air 2 Plus specifically, but I did review the original Note Air and it’s about 95% the same so check my Note Air review to see it in action. Sometimes they still sell the older models and they’re usually priced quite a bit lower so they’re worth considering too.
Onyx also sells other models like the Max Lumi2 with a larger 13.3-inch screen, and they just released the Boox Tab Ultra with some performance upgrades. There’s also the Nova Air 2 with a smaller 7.8-inch screen.
Kobo Elipsa
The Kobo Elipsa is a lot like the Kindle Scribe in the respect that it’s a great ereader, but it doesn’t have as many features when it comes to writing and notetaking as the other devices on this list, although it does have some advantages over the Scribe. The specs and price are somewhat comparable, but the Elipsa has a lower resolution 227 ppi screen and a frontlight without temperature control.
Check my Kobo Elipsa review for more details and to see it in action.
Remarkable 2
If you want the best E Ink device for taking notes and drawing, the Remarkable 2 is the one to get. It has tons of features and the smoothest writing experience. But as far as ereaders go, it’s not good. It can be used as a functional PDF viewer but that’s about it. It doesn’t support any ebooks with DRM so most purchased books are out, and the reading-related features are very minimal and it doesn’t have a frontlight.
See my Remarkable 2 review for more details about it.
I had the Onyx Tab Ultra for a heartbeat, before flickering warm LEDs(after cranking up the level to max it worked at normal settings) and complicated e reader functions scared me into a return. It was fast for e ink!
I would have already purchased an Elipsa if it had warm lighting. I prefer the more customizable Kobo interface…margins generated page numbers, page in chapter,progress bar, line spacing. Pocket integration!
However < the Scribe allows me to use two really good dictionaries( Webster's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged..most complete that I have seen , and Wordnet). Kindle indexes on device books…huge if you are trying to find a term amongst many books. Great battery life. While the Sage has higher contrast, the Scribe screen still looks good and is BIG. Great for graphics and technical books.
No mention of the Supernotes? By all accounts they look to do equal if not better than the Remarkable 2, especially considering they work closely with their community to create increasingly better experiences. Plus so far they haven’t locked most of their features behind a subscription…
Until they start selling from retailers in the US it’s hard to take them seriously, and this an ereader blog not an eNote blog so unless it’s good at ereading it’s not going to get noticed around here. I reluctantly reviewed the Remarkable and didn’t like it because it’s not really much of an ereader at all, but for people that only care about notetaking it’s a better option than the Scribe.
Fair enough! Thnx
But that was also true until just recently with the remarkable. It was direct order from a foreign firm. It’s only in the last month that one could buy them at Best Buy
I agree. I have one and like it a lot.
Reading the reviewed products here I wonder why the Huawei Paper Matepad hasn’t been mentioned.. It’s great if you need to take notes (better than the items in this review at least), read ebooks and since it can install android apps you can also use it with OneDrive and its TB space size.
Because it isn’t sold in the US. It only seems to be sold in China, as far as I can tell.
Why would I want any of these (especially the Kindle), which are all monochrome when I can get the Bigme Inknote Color? Reasonable, tough not great, color for what I want it for (technical books, many in PDF only, with colored diagrams), pen with a responsive note-taking app, Android 11 with Google Playstore installed, dual cameras (which I don’t care about), 128GiB storage, SD-slot.
And since I could get it, I did. 4-5 days of battery life with heavy reading. Verified that the SD-slot supports a 1TiB micro SD-card. Since it’s Android, I was able to install Userland running a full Linux distribution in which I installed PowerShell to play with the code snippets in the book I’m rea
And dor light reading, I still have my Kindle Voyage, great as éver.
Yet another Chinese company without any actual support or distribution in the US, and the fact they have to resort to crowdfunding says a lot about their company. I doubt the software has been well optimized for E Ink, probably loads of ghosting with the color E Ink screen, and I don’t think the Kaleido screens are very good personally, and Bigme’s devices are massively overpriced for what they are. In my opinion Onyx is the only company that makes E Ink Android devices that are good enough to be sold on the market for the average consumer. Even then they’re best for tech nerds and software developers that are comfortable tweaking stuff.
It’s mucho more expensive, though
I would not mind recommending the boyue devices as I have a likebook P10. These are budget device which after one year it is working fairly well. The only issue I have with the company is that they so far have not provided frequent system updates and they do not offer replacement nibs for their proprietary pen. I have written to them about the nibs on their facebook page and they only said their would forward the idea to their marketing team and that was it. The only issue I have (besides no replacement nibs) is there is a slight yellowing around the edge of the screen. Not that big of a deal and does not really stand out much, but it is there. Which is a shame because for a budget device it has served me very well this past year.
Scribe’s biggest fail is that there’s no handwriting recognition
Have you looked at the Mobiscribe Origin? It’s a smaller device, but it does a lot of things right for a decent price. The writing experience is great, and it supports the Google Play Store, so I can read every ebook.