I ordered this one as soon as it was announced and hadn't really realized how short on functionality it was going to ship with, but I'm still extremely happy with it so far.
First up, it's a very nice Kindle device and is amazing for reading my books on. I adore the screen on it, and it's very snappy and responsive to navigate and write on. The screen size is also wonderful for reading on for my nearly 50 year old eyes that have somehow slipped into reminding me of my age by needing multi-focal lenses. One thing on this front that I miss from my Oasis is the buttons on the margin for page flipping. Those are nice on that device, although I don't hate that they're missing from this one, I just kind of wish they were there. Another thing I'm a little annoyed with is no 4G or 5G built in. I'll live without it and tethering isn't hard these days, but it's an annoyance that didn't need to exist on at least the top end models.
I love the writing experience on the device, too. It's not smooth as glass like my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, it's much more like writing on paper. But it has a similar quick response to writing input that makes it feel pretty natural and not artificial or annoying, so Amazon have worked that part out well.
The functionality is very basic at this point, which is probably the most negative aspect of the device. But it's actually SO basic that I have few doubts that this isn't in the pipeline to be addressed in software updates over the next several months. I would suggest not gambling on that if the cost is prohibitive to you because you should always make your purchase decisions on what you actually get when you buy, and not based on future promises or a naive belief that what you want will be delivered at any point. I can afford to live with my device as is, and it'll still meet the needs of why I bought it, just not optimally, if they don't add what I consider the missing functionality to it. That's not going to be true for everyone.
The hardware they've used does support everything needed for all the additional features that I suspect Amazon is planning to add, if they've fully implemented it in the hardware, and at this price point, I believe they have, but I don't know it for sure.
Things I think it's missing are:
Pressure sensitivity for the pen
A wider array of writing tools (drawing tools primarily)
Stroke based storage instead of converting strokes to pixels
Ability to zoom in and out of notes and drawings
Handwriting recognition
Related to handwriting recognition, the ability to search note contents
More organization options for notes
Perhaps a second app to segment writing from drawing functions, but this isn't a want, just a speculation on how they may approach some of these features if they add them
Better Kindle integration - like having notes automatically sync to other Kindle devices and apps on other devices, more robust sharing options and integrating with other products like Office apps or drawing exports, etc.
Ways to mark up a book with the pen beyond just the current sticky notes. This is a complicated ask because of the way ebooks are formatted, but it isn't unsolvable.
My hope is that they are responsive to customer feedback and this becomes the premier Kindle e-ink device, and that they add this functionality to the current devices rather than milking them by only adding them to newer models. It seems more likely that they'll add most or all of the functionality to these devices, because otherwise they'd create a massive amount of customer backlash that they'd have to needlessly overcome, and that just isn't logical or necessary, so I think we'll see at least some of these features added over the coming several months to a year or two.
Carbon emissions from the lifecycle of this product were reduced compared to similar products or previous models.
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