It is completely true that like the experience of writing by hand there is nothing. Many insist that using pencils associated with tablets such as iPad are good substitutes, but there is still a lot of detractor from that opinion. But what if you could have the best of both worlds in one device? Today we tell you everything you need to know about smart digital notebooks , in addition to showing you some of the most interesting models you can buy.
How do smart digital notebooks work?
Probably if you have never heard of this type of device that “smart notebooks” sounds like a futuristic tale to you.
As we told you, to this day we are still many lovers of handwriting on the sheet of paper for a lifetime. But of course, unless you are somewhat technological, you cannot ignore the advantages that having your notes gives you (among many other things you can do on paper). And, to solve this, it is where the intelligent digital notebooks arrive, in charge of taking our traces on paper to a digital system “automatically”.
How is this whole process done? Well, the truth is that it depends on the smart notebook model we have. The cheapest ones are simply “stupid” notebooks that add certain characteristics to the paper to, among other things, allow us to scan the sheets afterwards with an app on our mobile to “digitize” them. Others, however, can do this process when we finish writing or even in real time . Although, as you can imagine, these latest models are much more expensive.
But, as we told you, this is the main advantage that these smart accessories have, although it is not the only one:
- They are reusable products : a plus that we had not told you about until now is that, in almost all models, we have the possibility of reusing the pages. This is because they are built with a synthetic material that when applying heat and rubbing the ink with a damp cloth , it comes off the paper. Therefore, the pages of these notebooks would be almost infinite. And we say almost because, obviously, the marks of the writing do prevail and, in the end, they will end up deteriorating with use.
- Different sizes : as in any other notebook, there are different sizes to adapt them to our needs. From the typical A4 (notebook sheet), A5 (half of the previous one), pocket notebook, etc.
- You save time : As it is a team with which we will later (or simultaneously) transfer our notes to digital, we will not have to duplicate the work done. Associated with this there is another advantage, and that is that some models are directly linked to cloud services . Therefore, when the page is scanned, they can be saved directly to Dropbox or Google Drive among others.
- Digital edition of notes : once the notes we take are digitized, in the apps of some of these notebooks we are allowed to edit them digitally: adding extra annotations, underlining, adding drawings or diagrams, etc.
Best smart digital notebooks
Having said all the above, and now that you know the essentials about these devices, it is time for you to know which are the best models for which you can choose to buy.
To make this work a little easier for you, we have made a compilation of some of the most interesting models that you can find on Amazon.
HOMESTEC smart notebook
The first of the models that we want to recommend is, in turn, the cheapest of all. This is the HOMESTEC smart notebook , which incorporates 40 pages of A4 size that, of course, we can reuse by erasing the ink with the top of the pen or with a damp cloth. The application that you can use to scan what you type is the well-known CamScanner. The package of course includes a pen, the notebook and different adhesive markers. Its price, in the A4 model and the option of pages with lines, is € 18.65 although it has a coupon for an additional 4 euros discount on Amazon.
Elfinbook smart notebook
One of the best known models in this smart notebook market is Elfinbook . This notebook has 30 reusable pages if we use the pen included in the pack, which is priced at 18.99 euros . Then, inside, there is a complete page that explains the process that we will have to use to scan the pages afterwards to digitize them, or how the written content is erased to use the page again. From your application we can directly synchronize our documents with different clouds, store them in folders or use OCR technology.
Rocketbook Smart Digital Notebook
If you want a smart notebook that is also useful and beautiful, this one from Rocketbook is surely your best option. This model is available in different sizes but, the most important thing is that we can buy it with different finishes and colors, so you can choose it to your liking. When we finish writing our notes, we will only have to scan them with the phone and the manufacturer’s app, and then quickly erase them with a damp cloth. Specifically, this A5-size model, with 36 pages inside, has a price of 37.99 euros .
Royole RoWrite
Now we move on to the most advanced models, those that can scan our notes, drawings or whatever we are doing in the notebook in real time. The first option that we want to show you is the Royole RoWrite , which has a touch surface at the bottom that, working together with its own pen, will send everything directly to the smartphone. In it, we can create different notebooks or turn the page to continue taking notes. Then, when they are all on the mobile, from the app it will give us the option to edit what we have written, underline or add more details. But of course, all these characteristics lead us to its price reaching 99.99 euros .
Wacom Bamboo Folio
On the other hand, as a somewhat smarter notebook, we also have this Wacom Bamboo Folio. This has the same advantages and characteristics as the previous model but, with a clear difference: we can buy it in different paper sizes: A4 and A5. Its price, in addition, does have great differences, reaching a cost of 259 euros in the A4 model.
