The E Ink paper tablet market is growing. Initially, it was a space where unheard-of and smaller brands like ReMarkable and Onyx launched niche products to appeal to a specific set of customers. Now, the big names have seen the appeal and interest with Lenovo being one of the more recent manufacturers to try its hand at this new product category.

Design

  • Lenovo: 195 x 226 x 5.5mm - 408g Kindle Scribe: 196 x 229 x 5.8 mm - 433g Both: Included pencil/stylus Lenovo: Included folio case

Looking at size and thickness, there’s really not much to separate the Kindle Scribe and the Lenovo Smart Paper, there’s a millimetre of difference in width, and only 3mm difference in height, with the Kindle Scribe being both taller and wider than the Lenovo model. It’s also a fraction thicker and heavier, so Lenovo clearly went in with the aim of making a slightly more nimble device. And that’s not the only practical element it offers.

Both devices feature a thicker bezel down one side of the front surface, however, the Lenovo has made more use of that space by designing a shallow groove for resting your pen/stylus when not in use. That should make the magnetic attachment a little more secure than it is on the Kindle Scribe, which uses magnets at the very edge of the device to grip onto the included pen. Both do include a pen as standard when you buy the tablet. You don’t have to purchase it separately. Only the Lenovo tablet ships with a folio case, however. If you want one for your Kindle, you’ll need to buy one.

Neither device is equipped with lots of buttons and ports; you get one button and one port on both. That’s the power button and the USB-C port.

Display

  • Lenovo: 10.3-inch E Ink touchscreen Kindle Scribe: 10.2-inch E Ink touchscreen Lenovo: 227ppi sharpness - colour adjustable front light Kindle Scribe: 300ppi sharpness - adjustable warmth front light Both: Anti-glare, matte/textured finish

There are similarities and important differences when looking at the two devices’ displays. Starting with the similarities: they’re both a similar size at 10.3-inches and 10.2-inches on the Smart Paper and Kindle Scribe respectively. They’re both E Ink too, which means a relatively low refresh rate monochrome display that’s incredibly battery efficient. It also means they reflect the light from their surroundings back at you, so actually become clearer in brighter conditions.

Note-taking and e-book reading

Lenovo’s offers a much wider selection of notebook template styles: 74 in total. It also offers nine pen styles, for drawing, shading and writing. To support those additional pen styles, the stylus/pen itself has tilt and pressure sensitivity, enabling you to draw and write with different thicknesses and angles automatically. Its smart features also allow you to convert handwritten notes to text and will even let you record speech and use a built-in transcription service to turn that into text as well. The Lenovo Smart Paper tablet also has built-in email and calculator apps as standard too, expanding its usefulness further. There’s a Lenovo Smart Paper app for mobile and desktop that will allow you to access your cloud-synced notebooks, but that feature requires a subscription.

Both devices support a number of different document formats, so you shouldn’t find that either limits you here. You’ll be able to open nearly all the most popular formats, including epub books, PDFs and Microsoft Word docx files.

Connectivity, storage and battery life

  • Lenovo: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 - 64GB storage Kindle Scribe: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth - 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage Lenovo: 8500 pages of reading Kindle Scribe: Up to 12 weeks of reading (based on 30mins per day)

When it comes to the amount of space you get to store all your documents, each tablet offers plenty. Lenovo’s ships with 64GB as standard, whereas the Kindle Scribe is available with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB, depending on how much you want to spend.

The difficulty with comparing battery life at this stage is that Lenovo has stated its own battery in terms of the number of pages you can turn on a full battery. Its spec listing states you get around 8500 pages from a full cell, which translates to about twenty-one 400-page books. This is an approximate figure, however, and doesn’t really account for levels of brightness, or how much writing and note-taking you do.

Regardless of which you go for, the fact that they both use a very low-power display technology means you don’t really have to worry about battery life at all. We suspect you’ll get roughly a month from each, if not more, with moderate reading and writing usage.

Both devices will allow you to connect to Wi-Fi networks for downloading documents, books and syncing. Likewise, they both feature Bluetooth connectivity for pairing with speakers and headphones.

Price

  • Lenovo: $399 Kindle Scribe: from $339

When it’s available to buy, the Lenovo Smart Paper will set you back about $399 in the US but - as mentioned - that includes the stylus, a folio case and 64GB storage. All things considered, that’s a very good price. Buying the same level of storage with the Kindle Scribe and getting a case as well would cost about $499.

However, you can spend considerably less on the Kindle Scribe, as long as you’re happy with less storage and no case. The full retail price is just $339 for the 16GB model, and - at the time of writing - there was a discount that took it below $300, and we suspect we’ll see similar discounts at various points over 2023 and beyond.

Conclusion

Which one of these devices ends up being best for you will likely depend on what you envisage using it for and how much you want to spend. In Kindle’s favour is the fact that there’s a lower entry-level price, plus the fact you get easy and instant access to the Kindle book library with its millions of book titles. And if you’re a Prime subscriber you get additional benefits like free books to read with Prime Reading or access to even more books with a Kindle Unlimited or Audible subscription.

Lenovo’s device seems quite different, even though it uses similar display technology. It’s got smart features like voice transcription and translation for recordings, plus the ability to turn handwritten notes into text. With email and music support, it feels like it does that bit more. It isn’t cheap, but it does come bundled with a case and pen as standard.