Don't mind me today. I'm just getting a little snack before we commence the durability test.
Today we're going to be checking out our very first e-ink tablet called the Kindle Scribe. It is
the very first e-ink tablet for both reading and writing. And I did buy two of them...you know what
that means [wink]. I think it even has a stylus inside which should be pretty interesting to
see how that works. This video is not sponsored by Amazon even though Kindle is owned by Amazon. This
video is sponsored by Huel. But don't worry, it takes less than 60 seconds to make a nutritionally
complete, affordable, vanilla shake with 40 grams of plant based protein. It's not just protein
either, the shake has 27 vitamins and minerals. I mean, just look at the list of all these nutrients
on the back, plus no artificial sweeteners. Huel Black is an easy way to maintain and
keep track of your nutritional goals. I've lost 15 pounds since last June, thanks for noticing,
all thanks to keeping track of my calories and, of course, my daily workout of snapping phones in
half. New year, new me...you know how it goes. And Huel Black has a 12 month shelf life. Personally I
like the vanilla flavor, but I have not yet tried the cookies and cream or strawberry shortcake
yet. I'll be getting those next to spice things up. I like it because it's not super sweet like
you might see with some other protein powders. If you want your own plant based, affordable,
nutritionally complete food. I'll leave a link down in the description. But you don't have to
take my word for it. Over 270 million meals have been sold in over 100 countries. You'll
even get a free t-shirt with your order. And huge thanks to Huel for sponsoring this video.
Now that I've refueled with my healthy vanilla shake from Huel, it's time to see if an e-ink
tablet can survive a durability test. It should be interesting. Let's get started.
[Intro]
Now, tablets with e-ink displays have been around
for a really long time and are actually fairly priced.
It's easy to find them for less than $100. This guy, however, the Kindle Scribe with the stylus,
costs quite a bit more, sitting right around $370. The stylus and power cable are joined together,
but at that price point we are up in the iPad territory, so let's see if the cost is worth it.
This is my first experience with an e-ink display this large, and I guess the main difference
between electronic ink and regular IPS or OLED is that e-ink is grayscale and has basically no
refresh rate...ever...unless it's time to turn the page. The unrefreshing screen is what gives
us a battery life that's calculated in weeks instead of days. It comes in 16 shades of gray,
I guess 50 shades costs extra, and it actually does a pretty good job of displaying images,
in black and white of course. The 10.2 inch screen has a density of 300 pixels per inch,
which is about the same as what we saw in the iPhone 11 so there's pretty solid
clarity. Plus going into dark mode inverts the colors, not only for easy night reading,
but also some vision impairments can see white text on black pages better. So I can see this
feature being very useful since most regular books are printed black on white. The matte screen also
reduces glare. It does feel like glass, but we'll have to find out here in just a second.
If I rotate the tablet top to bottom, the screen does refresh itself by not
only inverting the page but also inverting the coloring of each pixel quickly before returning
back to normal again. Like a really expensive Etch-a-Sketch. It happens both while reading a
book or if you're scrolling through the e-book library. Not a bad little unit. I can see it
being extremely useful for the type of person who wants to carry thousands of books around.
I was surprised to learn, however, that even though you might purchase a book from Amazon,
you don't actually own it. You're only buying permission to read the title – the title's
not actually yours. So there is some merit to just getting a physical copy. But then again,
it all just goes back to how many books you want in your pants – everyone's different.
It's also surprising to see that the matte screen is also made from plastic,
with scratches appearing at a level 3 and deeper grooves at a level 4. It's definitely not glass.
There is no camera on this unit, which is nice. The real differentiator from this e-ink e-reader
from others is the stylus. It's got a removable tip and the ability to take notes – not directly
on the page itself however, but as a small Post-it note type thing that's saved as an
icon wherever you're inserting the note. Pressing the button on the sides allows
me to highlight instead of write. This would definitely be more useful on PDFs or forms
which the scribe can also do. While taking notes, however, fingers cannot do any of the drawings,
and I think we should find out why, especially since this stylus supposedly never needs to be
charged and has no internal batteries of its own. How does the screen know where the stylus is at?
It's all done with very similar technology to what we find in Samsung's s-pen stylus. A coil of
copper wires around the tip that can accurately be detected by a wire mesh behind the pixels.
In the far end of the stylus, near the digital eraser, we find some magnets whose only job is
to hold the pen to the edge of the tablet. I kind of forgot to show this beforehand so
just use your imagination to see the rest of the pen still attached. The body of the e-ink
e-reader is pretty simple. Bare metal on the right side and bare metal on the top side. I
guarantee there's a grandma who's watching right now for the first time and is very confused.
On the left side we have the USB-C port which you won't be using much since a single charge can last
up to three months. We also have a metal power button all made with 100% recycled aluminium.
Thumbs up for that. Nice work, Kindle.
The bottom of the Scribe is also metal and there are some interesting features on the back. Little
rubber footpads in each corner which are actually quite nice. Very securely attached to the panel,
and they do a very good job of elevating the reader when it's set down. A slightly more quality
experience than just having the bare metal rest on a table or desk – kind of like built in coasters.
It's pretty impressive that in a span of about 600 years, we went from Gutenberg's printing
press making books one handset letter at a time, to a lightweight internet connected e-ink e-reader
that can instantly pick from 13 million different titles. Technology changes pretty fast. The Scribe
is pretty cool and definitely has its place, but I don't think that physical books are going anywhere
anytime soon. I know the biggest question on your mind when clicking on this video is what
happens to an electronic ink display during the bend test and let's find out. We know that LCDs
go black and usually recover. OLEDs go white and usually don't recover. And e-ink...well, it looks
like this e-ink display does nothing under the heat from my lighter. There is a slight ripple
of melted plastic on the top, but the screen itself is unfazed and undamaged. I'm impressed.
The picture you keep seeing by the way is a sculpture on a hilltop in Ohio that the author
thinks was made by a very advanced civilization on earth about 10,000 years ago which got wiped out
at the end of the last Ice Age. I'm not normally a conspiracy theorist, but this one's actually
pretty interesting. And with a tablet this thin, the bend test should also be interesting.
With the price of an iPad, let's hope this Kindle Scribe is durable.
You gotta admit, that was some pretty hefty flex, with some serpent-like curvature. Yet,
the e-ink display is still totally functional. The frame is a bit crinkly now,
but catastrophic damage has occurred so far. Super impressive. Bending from the front, however,
yields different results. While no physical cracks have appeared, it does look like half the display
is now unresponsive. Black and white streaks running down from the right side corners, but
the left half of the tablet is still displaying text, although unresponsive. Let's find out why.
Taking off the back cover is easy enough. No screws or glue to worry about.
The dual cell battery takes up most of the real estate inside of this thing – all 3,000 milliamp
hours of it. The rest of the guts include the motherboard and a rather thick display. Apparently
this thing is backlit with 35 LEDs that shine through the e-ink to illuminate the pixels at
night. Very similar to the QLED technology we see on Samsung TVs, but illuminating grayscale
instead of colors. Separating the outer plastic from the pixels reveals that there is actually
quite a bit of glass inside so the screens are crackable even if glass isn't on the exterior.
There is one additional layer between us and the pixels, which are still amazingly turned on.
These 16 shades of gray don't mess around. Apparently when the pixels are flipped to black
or white they stay in that orientation forever, even in death this e-ink display is taking its job
seriously. The words and letters are permanently etched onto the tablet's surface. Scratching
past the layers of pixels we can see a copper mesh that's used to find the stylus. Regular
Kindles that don't have a stylus would also not have this mesh. It's very, very interesting.
I hope any grandmas passing by haven't entirely lost their faith in this new generation. We do
the durability test for science of course, and the joy of learning new things. And grandma, if you're
looking for a much happier, non-destructive video, I'll link our off-road wheelchair project for kids
that was just released last week. Definitely one of my favorite videos. Like I mentioned at
the beginning, I do have an extra Kindle Scribe to give away. Just be subscribed and leave any
comment down below – any comment at all. I'm curious though, when was the last time you sat
down and read a book. Let me know. And as always thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.