Is barely helpful AI price the additional money?

My hand is cramping. It’s not carpal tunnel or another doubtful cause that’s inflicting the ache. It’s an analog ache that’s oddly satisfying in a nostalgic means. In the previous couple of days, I’ve held a pen and written extra phrases for a for much longer time than I’ve ever performed in years. As I pushed myself to handwrite massive components of this evaluate to spend extra time with the 2024 Kindle Scribe’s stylus and note-taking instruments, I began to really feel a sensation I hadn’t remembered since my teenagers.

I typically really feel the urge to jot down ideas and lists, however I by no means actually needed to spend longer than quarter-hour writing. And but, Amazon’s new AI options for the Kindle Scribe appear to cater extra to those that labor over essays or missives that they in the end have to share with others. The Summarize and Refine instruments on your notebooks, for instance, can shorten and neaten up your scrawl so, I assume, you possibly can ship it to a different individual to learn. That’s it, actually. The opposite enhancements to the Scribe’s writing expertise are for scribbling on books, which I’ll get to in a bit.

Editor’s observe: As a result of Thanksgiving holidays within the US, we’ve not had the time to check each ingredient of the Kindle Scribe 2, so we cannot be assigning a evaluate rating. With that stated, the product is already on sale, so we needed to present our preliminary impressions and are publishing a evaluate in progress. We are going to replace the story with a rating and extra impressions as soon as we’re happy that we have understood all of its strengths and weaknesses.

What’s modified on the brand new Kindle Scribe

As I stated earlier, most of what’s new on the Kindle Scribe is inside. On the surface, Amazon did tweak the bezels not in precise dimension however in colours, in order that there’s a white rectangle surrounding the display, inside a teal inexperienced column on the facet. Should you opted for the “tungsten” model, then as an alternative of teal inexperienced you’ll see darkish grey. I really like the brand new coloration, however it’s a bit complicated and makes me suppose the grippable space is narrower than earlier than when actually, it’s about the identical. Nonetheless, it is a small criticism, if that, and one that’s principally mitigated by how recent the brand new model seems to be.

The opposite essential change is on the Premium Pen, which now has a rubberized high for its fake eraser. I’ve at all times appreciated how straightforward this was to make use of on the unique Kindle Scribe, and I’m completely satisfied to report that the up to date texture doesn’t get in the way in which of responsiveness. It definitely feels sufficient like erasers of my youth that from time to time I discover myself subconsciously swiping away phantom mud. I’ll level out, although, that I needed to remind myself to make use of the eraser on a number of events, since I used to be extra accustomed to easily hanging out a mistake with the pen. The brand new Premium Pen additionally has a customizable shortcut button so long-pressing it may possibly activate the highlighter, pen, marker, pencil, eraser, canvas or sticky observe.

Drawing on books on the brand new Kindle Scribe

Lastly, along with the 2 AI-related instruments I already talked about, Amazon additionally up to date how one can write on ebooks. As I described in my hands-on in October, the brand new Energetic Canvas characteristic makes it so that after you place your pen on the web page, a field will seem to comprise your writing. In comparison with the clunky implementation on the older mannequin, which required you to first go to the floating toolbar on the left of each web page, choose the sticky observe characteristic after which write in it, this appeared an enormous enchancment.

In my testing up to now, although, this was much less spectacular. The software program was buggy in my expertise. On one event, I drew a spiral over the phrases “We had a very good yarn about previous occasions” in an Agatha Christie novel. A translucent field appeared, containing my drawing in a layer above the textual content, with a verify mark and cross on the high. You’re presupposed to faucet the verify, which can trigger the field to totally solidify and the remainder of the web page’s phrases will rearrange themselves to make room. Nevertheless, once I hit X accidentally, the field didn’t go away, and I used to be in a position to proceed so as to add doodles all around the display. Once I flipped to a distinct a part of the e book and got here again, although, it disappeared, solely to reappear later once I was making an attempt to underline one thing.

That’s clearly only a bug, and when executed as meant, Energetic Canvas does work. You possibly can resize the field, and features will proceed to reflow to make room or snap again into place. The bins will keep the place you left them, as an alternative of disappearing beneath just a little tag the way in which they did with the unique Scribe. It’s a slight enchancment, and although I can’t but think about how I’d use it in actual life, it’s good to comprehend it’s there.

I do must level out a few caveats, although. This doesn’t work on samples — you possibly can inform whether or not the Energetic Canvas is supported by checking if the floating toolbox is current. The opposite situation, which is an even bigger one, is that Energetic Canvas can generally be triggered even if you’re simply making an attempt to underline one thing. Drawing traces beneath or on textual content will generate underlines, which shall be listed by Amazon the identical means highlights are, so you possibly can simply discover them once more in a while.

It’s fairly annoying if you’re making an attempt to underline some textual content and the phrases soar away to make room for a field you by no means needed to look. It will get much more irritating when, because of the lag, it’s important to await seconds for the field to go away after you faucet the X on high of it. Worse, that bug I discussed earlier precipitated the spiral and different doodles I had drawn to indicate up the place I used to be making an attempt to underline phrases. Fortunately, I used to be in a position to delete that when it reappeared and had no extra phantom bins.

These little hiccups could be much less of an issue if Amazon weren’t already behind its rivals. Comparable merchandise from corporations like Kobo already supply higher help for writing on books, the place you possibly can circle particular phrases and the drawing will keep in place (although that is wonky if you happen to resize the textual content afterwards). I perceive that Amazon has to handle the resizability of its content material, to help individuals who typically change up font sizes whereas studying. There must be a greater means.

One is perhaps coming. On the Kindle’s launch occasion, the corporate did preview a collapsible margins characteristic, which helps you to scribble within the column on both facet of each e book. Importantly, you’ll be capable of resize these columns and the house in them can scroll vertically, supplying you with loads of room to cram in your musings. Sadly, this characteristic is just going to be obtainable in early 2025, so I wasn’t in a position to try it out. It’s additionally price noting that the unique Kindle Scribe, which continues to retail for $340, shall be getting the Energetic Canvas and generative AI options, in addition to the collapsible margin when that arrives.

Generative AI options on the brand new Kindle Scribe

The place issues really feel extra completed is in Notebooks, the place Amazon has needed to cope with fewer limitations. This part accommodates your lists, jotpads and artworks. Like you can on the unique, you possibly can choose from quite a lot of backgrounds like traces, a dot grid and even planner or calendar views.

It’s right here that you just’ll discover the brand new Summarize and Refine instruments, by tapping on the sparkles icon on the highest menu bar. Deciding on both “Summarize” or “Refine writing” will carry up the choice to work Amazon’s magic on the web page you’re on or the complete pocket book. After you determine, the Kindle will get to work, utilizing cloud-based processing to generate both a abstract of your phrases or a tidied up model of your hen scratch. This often took about 10 to fifteen seconds, relying on the size of the supply materials. As soon as a result’s returned, you’ll additionally get the choice to customise the font and line spacing, in addition to the flexibility so as to add it to the top or starting of your pocket book.

I used to be stunned to see the Scribe make sense of a disorganized plan I made for evaluations protection that concerned some lists with three in a row up high, two on the backside and three lining the appropriate facet. The Refine device precisely laid them out in sequential order, giving me a listing of lists beginning with the one I had within the high left place and ending with the tiny one titled “OSes” that I had squeezed in under “iPads” on the backside proper.

The abstract it returned for this instance was additionally first rate, and in all the opposite notes I examined I noticed largely correct outcomes. Any mistake the system made felt cheap, since I’ve horrible handwriting. It’s probably not the Scribe’s fault that it thought I wrote “Addly” when actually I simply had an especially malformed “n” and a barely legible “g” on the finish of “Including.”

Once I did make an effort to put in writing extra neatly, the Scribe was extra correct, however that just about feels prefer it defeats the aim. If I’m going to attempt to write higher for the AI so it may possibly make my handwriting neater for others to learn, then how is that completely different from making a higher effort for people?

As competent because the generative AI options right here have been, I nonetheless stay hesitant to name them helpful. I’m not the kind of person who likes writing lengthy sufficient to wish AI summarization (to that finish, you’ll have to have at the least 25 phrases on a web page to qualify for Summarize). I additionally don’t typically share my handwritten ideas with different individuals, although on the extraordinarily uncommon event that I do, I might see Refine being a very good begin.

The issue is that Refine isn’t at all times correct, and its generated consequence isn’t editable. If I might go in and proper “Addly,” then I may not thoughts sending that doc to my staff. Or if that have been the one mistake within the refined writing, I might share the observe and inform my associates to disregard the one error. However I’d have to put in writing an entire new appendix simply to make clear the errors, at which level I’d as nicely sort up my unique ideas.

Neither Refine nor Summarize are groundbreaking new options in generative AI and even note-taking, both. Apple presents a model of Refine on the brand new iPadOS, whereas Summarize is one thing we’ve seen throughout merchandise from Google, Apple, OpenAI, Samsung and extra. Whereas I respect that Amazon has largely averted chasing hype with its adoption of generative AI on the Kindle Scribe, I would like extra time and testing to raised perceive how helpful it is perhaps in the long term.

What I like concerning the Kindle Scribe 2 up to now

As I did with the unique, I do just like the Scribe rather a lot. It presents a easy, handy writing expertise in a svelte, comparatively mild package deal that’s simply 0.22 inches thick and weighs 433 grams (0.95 kilos). None of these dimensions have modified within the second-gen mannequin, although the ten.2-inch display in some way appeared sharper to me, regardless of having the identical brightness and pixel density.

Studying on such a roomy canvas is a pleasure, though I choose to take the Paperwhite on the go because it’s rather a lot simpler on my wrist. That expanse will be useful for these with visible impairments which may want a a lot bigger font, for instance.

I’ve additionally favored doodling on PDFs and “write-on books.” The latter is a class of titles within the Kindle retailer which can be formatted so you possibly can doodle immediately on them. I borrowed a few these by my Kindle Limitless subscription, and had a blast fixing cryptography and Sudoku puzzles. I did see some promising books on this class, like interactive or hyperlinked planners, however the buyer evaluations for these put me off.

There’s numerous potential in that house, although, that might make the Kindle Scribe much more helpful. I simply want Amazon would make investments extra within the format and make a pocket book you possibly can write on that may additionally work along with your telephone’s calendar or reminders app and seamlessly combine what you write in your planner into your digital universe.

What I don’t like concerning the Kindle Scribe 2

Alas, that’s not a actuality. And the truth is that there are numerous issues Amazon might stand to enhance. Whereas I can perceive that discovering a option to maintain a unfastened stylus hooked up to a pill is difficult, the magnetic edge that the Premium Pen can latch onto is only a precarious method. I used to be strolling into my residence with the Kindle Scribe in my hand and jostled the door accidentally. Two seconds later, I used to be questioning the place the stylus had gone. It was on the ground, and once I picked it up, I seen the nib was slanted.

I didn’t know if I had broken it, and although it nonetheless labored nicely, I finally noticed some scratches on the Scribe’s display that I think may not have been there had the pen not dropped as a consequence of a lightweight knock towards a doorframe. The corporate does embody some alternative nibs within the field, so fixing that is pretty straightforward.

I additionally actually want Amazon’s Notebooks have been extra versatile. They’re higher than they have been with the unique Scribe, however you continue to can’t edit them within the cell Kindle app. You possibly can view your Notebooks there, which is sweet, however it’s barely annoying that they’re listed in alphabetical order as an alternative of based mostly on what’s not too long ago been opened like they’re on the Kindle.

Amazon charges the brand new and unique Scribes as having the identical battery life — that’s, as much as three weeks if you happen to write for about half an hour a day, and as much as 12 weeks if you happen to learn for that very same period of time. In my evaluate of the older mannequin, I noticed battery numbers drop 35 % in a few week with plenty of writing and testing. With the brand new Kindle Scribe, the ability stage is at the moment at 21 % after popping out of the field at 50 % simply a few days in the past. I’ve been testing its AI, writing and annotating options fairly relentlessly in that point, and often see the proportion fall one or two factors at any time when I generate an AI abstract or refinement, too.

I’ll want rather more time to get a greater sense of how the brand new Kindle Scribe’s battery holds up beneath extra normalized use, but when it behaves like its predecessor, I shouldn’t have to cost it greater than as soon as each couple of months.

Wrap-up

Amazon’s new Kindle Scribe has numerous competitors from corporations like Kobo, Boox and reMarkable. And with a worth of $399, the brand new Scribe is a whopping $60 costlier than its predecessor, which can even get numerous the brand new software program updates. To be honest, the brand new Scribe comes with a Premium Pen for the value, whereas the cheaper mannequin solely features a Primary Pen, so that you’re partially paying extra for a greater stylus.

Whereas I do like the brand new coloration choice and barely improved annotation capabilities, I’m unsure Amazon has performed sufficient to justify the extra value right here. I’d a lot somewhat see the corporate focus its efforts on enhancing its Pocket book syncing and cell enhancing software program, in addition to investing in innovating on the write-on e book format, than chase the generative AI pattern. Irrespective of how a lot restraint it’s exercised in doing so.