Kindle Scribe vs Kobo elipsa ?- Replacing a DX

[mdovell]

It looks like my DX may have finally died I'll deal with potentially fixing it to get side loaded material back off of it but at this point I think one of these two should be good.

Here's my main objects

1) Large ereader

2) Uses Calibre well for magazines/newspapers

3) Note taking and functions. Now when I saw this I also mean IN the books. The dx did have that but it would take awhile to do them. Drawing on pdf's would also be a great help

I don't really care about surfing the internet or audio books. Amazons ecosystem is nice but it seems to me that the Kobo seems to be better outside of the need of a AAA battery.

Does leaving the kindle mean that much of a loss? I mean could I convert my old library

[Quoth]

The AAAA cell maybe lasts for 6 months and is 20c*. I have a reMarkable with Wacom EMR as used on Scribe as well as an Elipsa. I also have a working Kindle DXG (I replaced cell) and did recently have an Oasis. I still have a KK3 and PW3, so totally familiar with Amazon ecosystem and Calibre. I've had magazine subs on Amazon and read them on a Kobo H2O.

I've not yet had to replace Sage or Elipsa battery and still "good". The Battery icon on GUI reports state.

I'd only use either for PDFs. I use 8″ Kobo Sage to read for pleasure, write with conversion to text to export and read for work (proof & annotate PDFs).

I proof PDFs on Elipsa and use it for PDF datasheets and manuals. It's like writing with a ballpoint pen on paper copy. No need to do anything special. The handwriting/sketches appear to be added as an extra image in the PDF file. Nicer than the reMarkable.

The Sage/Elipsa Basic Notebooks are like the reMarkable Notebook, just a sketchpad, though there is PDF or PNG export. The reMarkable is multilayer mono-paint package. Overkill.

The reMarkable is rubbish compared to the Elipsa: no USB Mass Storage, only one-at-a-time USB network. No Library features, only File Browser. No true Text Annotation, no handwriting conversion/recognition and only 6 G byte storage.

The Elipsa and Sage has the Kobo text annotation, like any Kindle, but also handwritten sketches and handwriting can be attached as notes to eBooks instead. No idea how you extract them as I'm only interest in real text annotation of ebooks, or the Stylus "on the page" digital inking sketch/handwriting on the PDFs.

Kobo integration to Calibre is best of all ereaders and I read all my ebooks bought from Amazon on the Kobo Sage.

I'd only consider the Scribe for proofing PDFs; the 300 dpi vs 227 dpi is an advantage. From using Kindles with Amazon & Calibre the Kindles are inferior for ebooks to Kobo, but better than other ereaders. Though the 227 dpi Elipsa has less dots than the 300 dpi Sage, I'd prefer PDFs on the Elipsa.

From reading all the posts here on Scribe and reviews it seems the "Sticky notes" are not much different to Kobo stylus annotations for ebooks. It's totally crazy you are expected to send PDFs to Amazon. Many organisations wouldn't permit that. As a programmer, it's political rather than needed to make PDFs work.

The Kobo Sage is better for PDFs than the DXG!

I might buy a Scribe if they improve the software regarding PDFs and fix Kindle in general; doesn't need to manage via Amazon web page and can set series & Collection from PC without jailbreaking. Series is often wrong, collections a pain. I find annotations better on Kobo.

OTOH it's likely Kobo will have the 10″+ 300dpi panel. The Scribe is much more use than a reMarkable and more honestly described but the ONLY advance over other 10″+ size eink (other than reMarkable) is really 300 dpi vs 227 dpi.

(* I dismember cheap 9V alkaline tablet batteries (6LR23 / PP3?) for 6 x AAAA cells.)

[Quoth]

And the Advance Notes, good enough to write book chapters on Kobo Sage & Elipsa use Nebo. You can copy the Nebo files to other Kobo Sage & Elipsa , or iPad/Android/Mac/Windows with Nebo installed. But they export as plain text, docx or HTML (later copy via USB, or use WiFI and Dropbox). The Advanced Notebooks don't just do handwriting conversion, but inline sketches, recognition to maths, recognition to Visio style shapes and leave text as handwriting. The docx export stores all this.

[Quoth]

Since I wrote above, there is a new FW, 4.35.xx for the Kobo Elipsa (and most other models)
https://pgaskin.net/KoboStuff/kobofirmware.html

It improves handwriting conversion/recognition, adds tickable check box (as text converted from handwriting).
Improved support for PDF crop/zoom to remove margins.

[talaivan]

For reading eBooks, if you want a large reader, I would go with the Kindle Scribe, because it's the only 10" reader with 300 DPI, and that makes a huge difference over the Elipsa. BUT the Elipsa/Sage software is much much better, so if you need to mark up PDF's and the like, I'd go with one of those. If you want a smaller ereader, the Sage has the same kind of screen the Scribe does, and it's a very good size for reading. I am a senior with somewhat problematic vision, and so I find the Scribe quite useful -- but not for any kind of note-taking.

[Quoth]

But if you can't read fine print the change from 227 to 300 may have no effect at all?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by talaivan

For reading eBooks, if you want a large reader, I would go with the Kindle Scribe, because it's the only 10" reader with 300 DPI, and that makes a huge difference over the Elipsa. BUT the Elipsa/Sage software is much much better, so if you need to mark up PDF's and the like, I'd go with one of those. If you want a smaller ereader, the Sage has the same kind of screen the Scribe does, and it's a very good size for reading. I am a senior with somewhat problematic vision, and so I find the Scribe quite useful -- but not for any kind of note-taking.

The Kindle Scribe has a serious problem. The case has a wide gap that exposes the insides. Until Amazon fix this, I would say to stay away. It's too expensive for such a flaw.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The Kindle Scribe has a serious problem. The case has a wide gap that exposes the insides. Until Amazon fix this, I would say to stay away. It's too expensive for such a flaw.

The Scribe is fine - this is a non-issue. I have a Scribe, do you? No, you don’t….

[Fat Abe]

Originally Posted by Pjama

The Scribe is fine - this is a non-issue.

The original green case for my Scribe is thinner and more fragile than the cover of the DXG. However, there will probably be better cases offered by other vendors in the future.

One of the maintenance chores that e-reader owners have to do is replacing the lithium batteries. I did that for the DXG, and will likely do that for one of my Kindle 3 w/Keyboard readers. A DXG owner can likely get away with not upgrading immediately to a Scribe (in 2023), provided they use workarounds. You can still sideload most purchased books, where they allow you to download AZW files (which you can convert to Mobi, as needed).

The big question any purchaser of a large screen reading device needs to ask is whether they need a color display (for graphic novels, art books, etc.). Of course, the ability to annotate may trump that feature.

[Quoth]

The DXG is really a fake large screen (9.7″) as it's only 150 dpi and too slow for most PDFs.
Anyone wanting better will have replaced it years ago. It has no publisher or user fonts and only old mobi support (original azw/KF&). You can't even set the time and date, but need a cell connection and some places no longer support the modem in it.

Annotation is painful as it has no touch interface and the keyboard is appalling.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The Kindle Scribe has a serious problem. The case has a wide gap that exposes the insides. Until Amazon fix this, I would say to stay away. It's too expensive for such a flaw.

The slots guide ambient light to the ambient light detectors, making them more accurate and responsive. No internals are 'exposed' or at risk.

[Quoth]

Could easily be done without slots. It's a poor style of design, but that wouldn't put me off.

[tomsem]

I really like my Scribe, but if you are mostly side-loading and marking up PDFs, you'll probably be a lot happier with Sage.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by tomsem

The slots guide ambient light to the ambient light detectors, making them more accurate and responsive.

But they get dirty and can no longer direct the light - a design flaw

[stumped]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The Kindle Scribe has a serious problem. The case has a wide gap that exposes the insides. Until Amazon fix this, I would say to stay away. It's too expensive for such a flaw.

i thought it proven that it's not a flaw- its where the light gets in for audio adjust feature. Its in other threads. so its deliberate design and will not be getting "fixed"

but if the light gets in, so can the dirt ?