Kindle Scribe vs Remarkable 2 – From a Journaling Perspective

When I heard that Amazon was releasing the Kindle Scribe in late 2022, I thought it was “game over” for Remarkable.

After all, how could they possibly complete against the bookselling behemoth that is Amazon?

But within a few days of it’s release, it was clear that Amazon were not directly going after Remarkable with the Kindle Scribe.

Whilst there are hundreds of reviews out there that go into great detail. Today, I want to focus purely on comparing these two from a writer/journalers prospective.

Afterall, that's the real reason we're interested right?

One thing to point out from the start is that there is a near two year age gap between these devices, which in the world of semiconductors is a lot. However, both have very similar specs:

As you can see the Remarkable 2 is slightly thinner and lighter than the Kindle Scribe. But be aware it has half the storage of even the basic Scribe.

However, you can sign up to Remarkable’s Connect service, which provides unlimited cloud storage for a monthly fee (more on this later). If you do not want to pay for "yet another subscription" it's something you need to consider.

Writing Experience

Although I initially loved the snappiness and responsiveness of the Kindle Scribe, over time I realised that the screen what a lot slippier than reMarkable which made the Scribe feel like you were writing more on a regular screen.

In contrast, the reMarkable can at times feel more jagged and sluggish, but I find that if you purchase a more premium pen such as the LAMY, you have a much nicer writing experience.

If you’re looking for a paper-like experience the reMarkable wins. The matte texture of the display feels more like paper when writing and provides a more pleasurable experience.

Both devices suffer from a ‘pen proximity’ issues. That is, if you hover the pen near to, but not touching the screen, it will write on the display. This is a feature of most e-ink touchscreens and neither one is better at this.

Interface and Usability

There is quite a difference in the user interface of both devices.

ReMarkable has opted for the sleek minimalist look, the layout of templates is clean and easy on the eye, everything is in it’s place and nothing feels cramped or cluttered.

The Scribe on the other hand is trying to please both ebook readers and note takers. If you own a Kindle Paperwhite, then the home screen on the Scribe will look very familiar. With shelves of book recommendations in various categories to choose from.

If you switch to your library things look a bit more organized, but they appear less structured and I find the generic pdf cover quite annoying on Kindle.

Remarkable also has a better variety of templates to choose from compared to Kindle.

Cloud Management

ReMarkable were initially criticised for introducing a cloud-base subscription service, but once the hysteria has died down it appears to have been well adopted.

First of all, when you purchase a reMarkable you get a 1-year free trial of the service, to see if you like it. This includes Unlimited cloud storage, a protection plan and mobile/desktop note-taking, all for a reasonable monthly price.

This allows you to sync all of your content to multiple devices allowing you to take notes anywhere.

In contrast, Amazon currently has no cloud feature available on the Scribe. Instead, users need to use SendtoKindle to transfer documents wirelessly to their device, which is incredibly tedious.

Overall

For me the Kindle Scribe is good for making annotations to ebooks and pdf documents, but the inability to sideload and lack of cloud support is a real turn off.

In comparison, when it comes to note taking or annotating pdf’s, reMarkable really does live up to the name. Their minimalist approach to the user interface and experience makes it a joy to use.