Review: 'I compared the new reMarkable Paper Pro to the Kindle Scribe'

An introduction to each device

I’ve been using my Kindle Scribe for note-taking and reading for the last year or so and have been very happy with the experience. I was aware of reMarkable products and a number of friends own their popular reMarkable 2, which was clearly a more premium product than my Scribe. I never felt the need to switch up though, until the Paper Pro hit the market, along with its revolutionary ability to write and sketch in colour on a paper tablet. I’ve now been using the Paper Pro for four weeks and am able to compare the two experiences properly.

How they look and feel

Both the reMarkable Paper Pro and the Kindle Scribe are extremely thin, measuring in at 5.1mm and 5.8mm respectively. While the Paper Pro is noticeably thinner than the Scribe it’s not quite as thin as its black and white predecessor; the reMarkable 2 – which was an incredibly thin 4.7mm and only just thick enough to accommodate its USB C charging port.

The Paper Pro is heavier than the Scribe, weighing 525g as opposed to the Scribe’s 433g, but this is largely because the Paper Pro has a significantly larger screen. At 274 x 196mm the Paper Pro is almost the same size an A4 notepad, while the Scribe is noticeably shorter at 230 x 196mm.

Aesthetically speaking I’ve never been unhappy with how my Kindle Scribe looks or feels. It has rounded corners, a metal chassis and feels well-made enough, but when sitting next to the Paper Pro it very much looks like the lower budget option, which of course it is. While Amazon aims to do what they do best – getting as many functional units out into the market as possible – reMarkable clearly aims its devices at the more discerning customer. Every aspect of the design has been laboured over. Even the subtle groves around the frame aren’t just there to look nice, they are designed to mimic the feel of stacks of paper on your fingertips. This is a luxury gadget rather than a necessity, a Rolls Royce rather than a Tesla – and reMarkable seems happy for their potential customers to know they’re paying a premium for the experience.

The same can be said of both devices when sat in their official folios. The Scribe looks nice enough in the green faux leather folio, and there’s the added bonus of a holding loop for the stylus. But the Paper Pro’s leather folio looks and feels like a much more sophisticated product, which is hardly surprising when you compare its £169 price tag to the £54.99 of the Scribe folio. reMarkable also seems confident enough with the magnetic holding capabilities of the Paper Pro to not feel the need to include a loop for the stylus.

reMarkable also sells a keyboard folio that handily allows users to type as well as using the stylus. You can even use a combination of both, which could be particularly handy for some users. The keyboard connects physically with the Paper Pro rather than using Bluetooth, it doesn’t need to be charged separately and it has backlit keys. Whether or not it’s worth paying £219 for this is debatable, but another way to look at this price tag is that it’s only £50 more than the standard leather folio and there’s no comparable product to this – yet – for the Scribe.

User experience and interface

The Paper Pro uses an incredibly minimalist user interface and actively markets itself as a distraction-free device. You’re not going to be installing any fancy apps on your Paper Pro, you’re going to be using it for the same sorts of things you’d use paper: taking notes, jotting things down, writing, doodling, reading or sketching. You can create various notebooks, pop them into folders, and use a variety of templates, like blank paper, ruled paper, graph paper and to do lists with checkboxes.

Anything you do jot down can be exported into PDF format and it’s also possible to convert handwritten notes into editable text, which also makes retrospectively searching for or within old documents much easier. The Paper Pro’s predecessor was first and foremost a digital notepad and wasn’t even particularly interested in promoting its ability to read epub files, and remarkable seems content to focus on the same abilities with the Paper Pro, but in colour.

The Kindle Scribe, on the other hand, is very much focused on the ability to read eBooks and it can even play audiobooks from Audible if connected to a Bluetooth headset. This is probably no great surprise to anyone that’s owned a Kindle Fire tablet as Amazon likes nothing better than devices that can consume content from its store. That is by no means a criticism, and none of these features are flashing content in your face, you actually have to go out of your way to purchase content or be distracted by the rudimentary web browser.

Writing Experience

If you’re looking at either of these two devices you’re probably interested in the writing and sketching experience. It’s important to note that the experience on both of these devices is immeasurably better than writing on an iPad or any other glass screen. They are both designed to mimic writing on real paper. For its part the Kindle Scribe does a pretty good job for its price and comes packaged with either a basic or premium stylus. Both of these have tilt and pressure sensitivity that allow for natural handwriting and sketching. The premium version of the stylus also includes a dedicated eraser and a customisable shortcut button, which can speed up functionality for certain actions, such as highlighting. The writing experience on the Scribe is responsive and precise enough, but the screen does have a slightly glassy feel that may lack that tactile "give" that you get with paper. For me it feels similar to writing with a felt pen, which is satisfying enough, especially at its price point and for a device that isn’t solely designed for writing on. It’s also possible to use many other Wacom-type stylus with the Scribe and I was even able to use a seven-year-old model from Samsung on it.

The Paper Pro’s predecessor, the reMarkable 2, had an excellent reputation for providing the most realistic, paper-like writing experience available and reMarkable have built on this experience in the Paper Pro. Every stroke with my stylus feels completely natural thanks to the reMarkable's paper-textured screen and the friction of its nib against this. Writing, sketching, and drawing feel intuitive and fluid, making this device perfect for artists, as well as those wanting note-taking functionality. The Paper Pro is able to handle pressure sensitivity, shading, and layering in ways that the more utilitarian Kindle Scribe just can’t match, and it’s a far more satisfying experience all round. For those interested in digital illustration, or just doodling then the ability to use colour is where the Paper Pro has changed the game completely in paper tablet devices. Colour can be really important in note-taking too, not only is colour pleasing to the eye in general but it’s particularly useful for highlighting and annotating, which really helps when organising your thoughts on paper, and digital paper is no exception.

Reading Experience

The Kindle Scribe leverages Amazon’s vast Kindle ecosystem, giving users access to millions of eBooks, including bestsellers, magazines, and newspapers. Its reading interface is one of the best in the industry, with customisable font sizes, themes, and brightness levels. The Kindle Scribe also offers adjustable warm lighting, which helps to reduce eye strain during extended reading sessions and can transition from daylight to a more comfortable nighttime hue.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is compatible with ePub and PDF files, but it does not support Kindle's proprietary eBook formats. As a result, it lacks direct access to Amazon's Kindle Store, which may limit the range of available content. That said eBooks and PDFs can be read and annotated on the device in colour, and – unlike its predecessor – the Paper Pro also includes a backlight, so reading in the dark is now possible, just as it has been on the Scribe since it .

So, which one is for me?

Whether the Kindle Scribe or reMarkable Paper Pro is for you depends on how you plan to use the device. If you’re an avid reader of eBooks and see digital notetaking or sketching – in black and white – as an added bonus, then the Scribe is probably going to meet your needs and at £329 the 16GB model is not going to break the bank in the process. I particularly like the fact that I could use my old Samsung stylus on it, especially after my son sat on the premium Scribe stylus and snapped it in half – though interestingly this still worked when I glued it together.

If on the other hand, you are a serious notetaker, a perfectionist, an artist or someone who just likes colour in their notes then you’re going to need to stump up £559 for the Paper Pro. The experience will be worth the extra money if these are important aspects to you, especially when you consider that the 64GB version of the Scribe costs £409.99. Sadly, there are no third-party pens on the market for the Paper Pro yet, as it uses an active marker and even reMarkable 2 markers don’t work on it, so you’ll need to take care of the one that’s included. You’ll also need to consider the fact that productive note-taking and drawing on a beautiful piece of technology are the main focus of the Paper Pro, and that while you can read and annotate eBooks and PDFs, consuming content from Amazon isn’t going to be what you use this device for.