How to Choose Between Kindle Scribe and ReMarkable 2
While you can take notes on your phone, sometimes being able to grab a pen and write something down makes more sense. You have several options for portable note-taking, including going the old fashioned way and carrying a notepad with you at all times, but if you want something lighter and with some extra features, consider a tablet. Kindle Scribe and reMarkable 2 are two options designed with note-taking in mind, but choosing between them requires some thought.
Specifications
On paper (pun intended), neither the reMarkable 2 nor the Kindle Scribe are particularly interesting. That’s because both of these tablets have e-ink displays, which means you won’t be gaming or running any resource-intensive apps on them. Here’s what you’re looking for for each tablet:
reMarkable 2 Features:
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Display: 10.3-inch E-ink touch screen.
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OS: Codex (Linux based)
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RAM: 1 GB
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Storage: up to 8 GB
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Processor: dual-core ARM 1.2 GHz.
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Backlight: No
Kindle Scribe Features:
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Display: 10.2-inch e-ink Cart 1200 touchscreen.
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OS: Linux based
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RAM: 1 GB
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Storage: up to 32 GB
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Processor: 1 GHz
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Backlight: Yes
Functionality
Both reMarkable 2 and Kindle Scribe offer great e-ink displays and easy-to-use styluses, but that’s where the similarities end. Although both devices have touchscreens that you can write on, the reMarkable 2 is more of a note-taking tablet than a Kindle Scribe.
To begin with, reMarkable 2 supports a full range of features such as integration with Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive. Setting up your Google account on reMarkable 2 is easy, making it easy to sync your work across multiple devices. You also get unlimited cloud storage, as well as the ability to take notes on mobile and desktop if you subscribe to a reMarkable Connect subscription. This subscription costs about $36 per year or $3 per month, and when you buy a tablet you get a year free. However, it is not very good at allowing you to read books with DRM. You’ll have to rely on DRM-free books, which blocks many books published on Amazon’s Kindle service.
On the other hand, Kindle Scribe is more of an e-reader than a note-taking tablet. Sure, it has the ability to take notes, but it’s very limited and you won’t be able to take notes in every book. Even books that allow you to take notes don’t allow you to simply write in the book itself. You are taken to a text field that you need to activate. The laptop’s features are good, but they’re extremely limited, and you can’t integrate your notes with external cloud services, making it difficult to sync files across multiple platforms since you’ll have to email them to yourself instead.
Both reMarkable 2 and Kindle Scribe come with styluses. ReMarkable offers two types of pens: Marker and Marker Plus. Marker Plus has a built-in eraser that makes it easy to remove mistakes from your notes. Likewise, Kindle Scribe comes with either a Basic or Premium pen. The Premium Pen has a shortcut button that you can configure in your tablet settings to provide quick access to various features such as pen sizes, eraser, and more.
It’s also important to note that the reMarkable 2 is not backlit. This means you’ll have to rely on ambient lighting to see anything on the screen. However, Scribe does have a backlight.
Choosing between two
Ultimately, there is no clear winner between these two e-ink tablets as they both offer different functionality and features. If you’re looking for a great tablet that can take notes and has plenty of integrations to get things done, then the reMarkable 2 is the only option here.
On the other hand, if you want a larger e-reader that offers some limited features and note-taking capabilities, then Kindle Scribe will be your best choice. No matter what choice you make, you should also consider the price. The Kindle Scribe typically retails for $339.99 for the base 16GB model, while the reMarkable 2 retails for $549 . If you just want a great e-reader, you can always check out our list of the best Kindle e-readers or even the best third-party e-readers to get some ideas.