My high school English teacher drilled into my head that there was a proper way to read a book: If youve read a book without taking notes, youve not read it at all. She had a point taking notes helps me engage with the material in a much deeper way than just reading.Nowadays, I am incapable of reading anything without writing down my thoughts, and my Notes app is a cluttered disaster as a result. But its distracting to pull up a separate app every time I want to jot down a note and hard to find those notes later. The Kindle Scribe promises to fix that with its note-taking capabilities, making it easy to scribble in the margins like I do on paper.RelatedThe original Kindle Scribe, from 2022, missed the mark for me. Here, finally, was a Kindle you could take notes with, yet you couldnt write directly on ebook pages. Instead, you could only annotate disappearing sticky notes and only on some Kindle titles. I quickly gave up on the Scribe, and for the past year or so Ive mainly used the Kobo Elipsa 2E instead.Since then, the Kindle Scribe has come a long way. Now with the second-generation e-reader, you can finally jot notes directly onto a wider range of Kindle ebook pages, convert handwriting to text, and even summarize notes in its built-in notebooks.But the Scribe has more and better competition than ever. And with a price bump, it needs to nail these new features to make it worth $399.99. Thats especially true given the original Kindle Scribe is still available for $60 less, and you can download all of these features onto it via Amazons latest software update.6Verge ScoreAmazon Kindle Scribe (2024)$399.99The GoodActive Canvas lets you finally write directly onto your Kindle booksThe new AI-generated summary and handwriting conversion features are usefulSpacious and sharp E Ink displayThe BadIts still not easy to annotate ebook pagesNote-taking capabilities are still lackluster compared to competitorsOverpricedgiven the main changes are software updates also available on the last-gen model$400 at Amazon$400 at Best BuyHow we rate and review productsThe latest Kindle Scribe is almost identical to its predecessor save for a few cosmetic differences. It now arrives in a beautiful new Metallic Jade colorway, and it has even, paper-like white trim instead of the asymmetric black bezels on the original model.Otherwise, the Scribe is still very much a larger version of the Kindle Paperwhite at heart, and it shares many of the same strengths and weaknesses as its smaller sibling. Its still exceptionally easy to buy and read Kindle books and more complicated to read outside of the Amazon ecosystem. It isnt waterproof or as snappy as the Paperwhite, but its fast enough with an adjustable warm light and the same, crisp 300ppi display resolution. Thats sharper than the $399.99 Kobo Elipsa 2E, and on par with the $379.99 Onyx Boox Go 10.3, which lacks a light altogether.Granted, its not easy lugging around a 10.2-inch e-reader, especially one made from slippery aluminum, and you cant hold it comfortably with one hand. But on the flip side, the extra screen real estate makes it easier to read and take notes. The tablet weighs slightly less than a pound, which helps with portability.1/2The Premium Pen stylus comes with a customizable shortcut button and a rubber eraser.1/2The Premium Pen stylus comes with a customizable shortcut button and a rubber eraser.But the Kindle Scribes key selling point is that you can take notes on it, and in that respect, I have mixed feelings. The general handwriting experience is excellent. As before, theres no lag, and it really does feel as if youre directly writing on paper. It comes bundled with Amazons Premium Pen, a small green stylus that comes with a new rubber soft-tipped eraser that reminds me of an actual pencil. I loved using it, especially since it doesnt require charging and comes with a customizable shortcut button just like its predecessor. (The Premium Pen is now standard, instead of being a $30 upgrade option, which partially accounts for the price increase from the original Scribe.)While I enjoyed writing with the pen, the Scribes new note-taking capabilities still fall short of the competition. With the new Active Canvas tool, the company finally addresses one of my chief complaints with the Scribe: you can now write notes that remain visible directly on ebook pages, rather than on sticky notes that disappear into an icon in the margins (Amazon still offers the sticky notes feature if you prefer those). The software feature adds a resizable text box around your handwritten note, then reflows the rest of the page around it. It also works well on other reflowable documents, including PDFs and Word files. Amazon will also be releasing an expandable margins feature in early 2025, too, allowing you to scribble notes in a side panel you can then hide, though thats not yet available to test.The Kobo Elipsa 2E (left) is still way easier to take notes on than the Kindle Scribe (right).But Amazon still doesnt really understand how people naturally take notes on books or what would make those notes useful. While the old sticky notes and highlighted passages sync with Kindle mobile apps, you cant view the Active Canvas notes on your Kindle mobile or browser app, or export them to another app theyre only visible on the Scribe. You cant add them to your on-device notebook, either. Plus, sometimes the text box size messes up the page formatting, creating extra spaces between sentences. While you can resize, theres a lag thatll slow you down. A few times, my notes disappeared altogether, so I had to keep adjusting the size until it reappeared.Whats more frustrating, you cant circle a word or phrase and jot down a note right next to it. Once you write a note, the page automatically realigns, so a lot of times the Scribe would add my note to the wrong part of a line or passage. Amazon doesnt let you move the text boxes around, and you cant even draw an arrow from a line to your note, so you cant manually anchor it to the correct piece of text either. All in all, its a frustrating, complicated experience, especially when rivals from Kobo and Onyx let you seamlessly annotate pages with easy-to-find notes just as you would writing on a physical book.The Kindle Scribes built-in notebook comes with multiple templates, including a daily planner.Marking up PDFs is a lot more intuitive and free of Active Canvas limitations, so you can take notes naturally. You can also mark up text-searchable PDFs and export them without losing the ability to search within the text. Unfortunately, you cant search within the markups. You also cant mark up sideloaded PDFs; you have to use Amazons Send to Kindle feature. That said, Amazon says your documents are encrypted, both while being sent, in the cloud, and while on the device.A glimpse of some of the other templates and pages Amazon provides.Amazon also made some improvements to its built-in notebooks, offering a wider selection of templates than when the first Scribe launched. Theres 18 preloaded templates ranging from lined to dotted paper you can use as weekly planners, checklists, and more, all of which I found helpful. You can also download more templates from Amazon, or upload PDF files and treat them as templates.1/3I wrote some of my review in the Kindle Scribes built-in notebook partly so I could test the AI features.1/3I wrote some of my review in the Kindle Scribes built-in notebook partly so I could test the AI features.The Scribe also gets two new AI features for its built-in notebooks that can summarize your notes and refine your handwriting. However, youll need an internet connection to use them and you cant tie notes you made in the built-in notebook to notes within ebooks or PDFs whatsoever. The AI summary feature is still helpful, given it does a good job of providing a broad overview of your notes. Meanwhile, the refine your handwriting feature for the most part accurately converted my handwriting into typed text, albeit slowly and onto a separate page you can only add either to the front or back of your notebook. You cant convert Active Canvas notes into typed text, though, which would have been a useful addition.Even with those additions, the Scribes built-in notebook capabilities still arent as rich as its rivals. Similar tablets from Onyx can also summarize notes and convert handwriting to text, while also letting you insert links to notes, files, websites, and attachments, record your voice, and hop into a split-screen feature. The latter lets you take notes using all the advanced built-in notebook tools, while simultaneously navigating apps downloaded from the Google Play Store like Kindle and Kobo but also the likes of The New York Times. The Kobo Elipsa 2Es note-taking tools arent as advanced as the Boox and it cant summarize notes like the Scribe, but it at least lets you quickly convert handwriting into typed text in the original notebook document.Its a decent Kindle for taking notes just like its predecessor. Photo by Sheena Vasani / The VergeThe Kindle Scribe is a better e-reader for taking notes compared to when it made its debut two years ago. Being able to write directly on ebook pages is a welcome improvement, and converting handwriting to typed text is a helpful addition. But though its starting to fall more in line with rivals from the likes of Kobo and Onyx, the Scribes still not the best option for serious note-taking. Its still too hard to annotate ebooks, and the new features just arent as useful compared to the competition.Even if youre just looking for a large Kindle with basic note-taking capabilities, the new Scribe is a tough sell when the original model is still available for $60 less and also offers Active Canvas and the generative AI features when you download the latest software update (or wait for the over-the-air update in 2025). Id recommend skipping the new Scribe and sticking with the last-gen model. Both are good e-readers for reading Kindle ebooks and casual note-taking, but theyre nearly indistinguishable.Agree to Continue: Amazon Kindle ScribeLike many e-readers, Amazons Kindle Scribe requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it contracts that no one actually reads. Its impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people dont read and definitely cant negotiate.When you first use your Kindle Scribe, youll be asked to connect or create an Amazon account. When you set up or connect your Amazon account, Amazon will receive your email and billing address as well as your credit card number so you can buy and download content. You must also agree to the following terms:Amazons Kindle Store Terms of UseAmazons Amazon.com Conditions of UseAmazons Amazon.com Privacy NoticeAmazons Amazon Device Terms of UseAmazons Amazon Photos Terms of UseAmazons Audible Conditions of UseAmazons Kindle Personal Documents Distributor Terms of UseAmazons Alexa Terms of UseAmazons Kindle Unlimited Terms of Use (if you purchase Kindle Unlimited)Amazon Prime Terms & ConditionsAmazon Kids+ Terms & ConditionsKindle Unlimited Terms of UseIn total, there are 11 mandatory agreements to use the Kindle Scribe.Photography bySheena Vasani/ The Verge