The Amazon Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is a color eImk tablet. It comes with a stylus you can write right away. This is designed to replace the need for paper notebooks. This will allow the owner to write his notes, or ideas on the colorsoft, and with 64GB of storage, I will imagine that they owner will be able to have a lot of notes to write. Since there is no expandable storage, there is no way to increase the capacity of the tablet, and I ma not sure how to transfer notebooks from one colorsoft to another. This will be important when you run out of storage. The Colorsoft is $680+ taxes./
Good
The first thing to recognize is the color eInk display. This means that there is no constant refresh of the screen which conserves battery. If I am for example just reading from the colorsoft, the back light is on and using electricity, but not the dots on the screen to form the words you are reading. This is just how eInk works which is ideal for devices like this. The refresh is 1hz which means it refreshes once per second unless being used.
There is good battery life. I been using it near constantly since it is new, and even after a day, I still have 64% remaining. While not excellent, I am sure part of the issue is the color screen. Still, with regular use, expect to recharge every couple of nights which is pretty good if you are going to use it on a regular basis. Since this is replacing my paper notebooks, and therefore conserving on money and the environment, it makes sense that this tablet will need to have a good battery.
It is also responsive. It hasn’t skipped a beat when writing. I hadn’t tried reading yet, but considering that I am focused on the writing aspect, ti would make sense that I hadn’t used this to read yet. Obviously, writing takes more demanding response than a book page that is turned every minute.
Next, there is the stylus which is included. The stylus is obviously needed for writing, but it not battery powered, so I am guessing this is a passive stylus. The stylus also has an “eraser” tip on the top which I have used a number of times. Even if I go through the lines that are on the screen, the lines form right back, so it behaves in a manner of writing.
Bad
The first bad thing is that it is expensive. When I purchased this, it was $680+taxes which pushed me well into the $700 mark. For someone that doesn’t get a lot of money, this is a financial hit on me. If I didn’t have a credit card, I wouldn’t have been able to get the Scribe. Considering it was this or buy a new paper notebook, I have chosen to buy the tablet, and save the trees. Since a paper notebook is more than $10, and will need replacing, the Scribe becomes economical and space reduction since I am not having to store multiple paper notebooks. I would imagine that $680 is a hit that will be felt by most people.
The setup was hard. I had to literally change my password to make it easier to type. Amazon should have done something like amazon.com/kindle/activate, and use a number system where I would provide a 6-8 digit number into the tablet, and that could have authenticated me. Instead, I had to change my password. It is less secured, but the only way I could have activate my Kindle.
There is no manual. There have been times where I was writing on a new page and had no idea how I created a new page while working on a current page. If you are at the last page, and tap on the right hand side, a new page will create automatically. This is a nice feature, but they should have provided a quick start guide with the Kindle since is not an Android device, n or is it a basic eInk reader. I also had to learn how to delete pages.
Ugly
The interface as defined above takes a little getting used to. I had a small learning curve, but I think I figured everything out. It is a bit of navigating, and of some reason, I had change colors of the pen’s lines which I figured out how I changed it. I would need to be more careful, but it would seem like I can choose 2 colors, and I just have to figure out how to change the secondary color to red. If I can set it to red, I will be able to use the tablet to do my budget, and since I have no more notebooks, it will be essential to change the color.
Conclusion
If you can afford it, I don’t think you will be disappointed. The big issue will be that price. It would be easier to justify it if it had expandable storage, but I am limited to just 64GB, and I have no idea of how much space is taken up by writing? In the end, I don’t regret my decision, but I do wish it was cheaper.