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Supernote A5X. Everything You Need as a Professional.
Thinking and Decision Making
8/10
I feel like I go into the zone, like I used to feel writing poetry in my first little black moleskines as a young man, when I make notes, think through a problem, or read, or write long form on the supernote. Its a superb tool for thinking.
Communication
4/10 They've built in email, which is super, but it is a little clunky to set up and I'm not sure you would use this in stead of a computer or phone to communicate.
Collaboration
2/10
Very little here, you can share your notes, send things, and access a shared dropbox I suppose, but that would be the sum total for collaboration.
Reading and Learning
5/10
The reading apps are just fine, it's a great screen, but aren't they all! You can crop .pdfs for a view which uses all of the A5 screen, and you can annotate everywhere. But there's no back or front light and no way at all to browse the web or complete e-learning.
Planning and Organisation
6/10
It sits alongside my laptop and phone as my go to for jotting down ideas, details and tasks, and you can use it as a bullet journal really effectively with the star marks to manage work in progress and completed.
Innovation and Creation
7/10
For writers, this is the e-ink tablet of choice. But for all other creative processes, look elsewhere. The handwriting feel is good, and the recognition is accurate. I could imagine my self writing a novel on my A5X... well I just might.
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Best use cases for the Supernote A5X and the Supernote A6X
Supernote feels like it replaced paper and then thought about how it could be better than paper.
It's all about the table of contents and the searchable keywords. It just let's you build your notebooks in such a way that you can always find what you need without having to think about where you wrote it down. All you have to do is to remember to actually make the notebooks in that way!
My main reason for using these devices is that they replaced my paper planner as a teacher. I basically have a page for each day and just note down all the things I'm supposed to do each day. I love that you can delete tasks once done. And so it feels like you are just clearing your to do list every day! And the supernote star marks feature is a great way to organise tasks, and turn them into a to-do list within the notebooks itself.
They are always moving towards having more digital organisation tools. And they let you follow along in their own trello as they work through each planned update to their software. It's an amazing way for a company to interact with their customer base and it's the reason why they have fans rather than simply customers!
The supernote gives you more, you can read .pdfs and .epubs, but also word documents, and you've also got access to your entire kindle library with a dedicated kindle app.
In this way I feel that only the supernote could actually replace your e-reader itself. Which is something that they should do easily!
That being said they both have similar, lovely A5 screens which are great for reading on! Eink is easy on the eye, and you can read in all lighting conditions... except dark... as neither of these have a backlight!
And as an academic reader e ink tablets are amazing, because you can add your notes on the side, even insert pages in documents if you need to add extra handwritten notes. The only downside with these two devices for academic reading is the size. Many academic texts are designed for A4 size printed books and so the print can be pretty small. There are some options at A4 size you might want to look at if academic use is your main purpose. Also the larger size gives you the option to have reference text on one side and notes/working text on the other in split screen view.
Conversely, both of these devices are larger and heavier than the latest kindle or kobo devices. And so they probably aren't going to take their place as your bedtime, or beach day reader!
I do not have the world's most accurate handwriting, but for some reason, I pick up this wonderfully weighted heart of metal pen, and I put this fine ceramic nib, (which you never have to change by the way) onto this restorative film, and I can just write really neat script it seems almost every time. It is really very nice.
There are only two pen types. And I only ever use one, the pressure sensitive one. But those tools are good, they are customisable in themselves. Supernote plans to bring more options in a later update. But it's because of the added resistance of the indenting film that I seem to be able to write very neatly.
And there's some addictive about writing on it. I just want to pick it up and make notes. It's also pretty accurate to the edge. Remarkable, for example, and other devices with magnetic cases and styluses, seem to have this issue with the very edges of the screen being difficult to write neatly. I'm mega impressed by the handwriting recognition on this device. It seems to be able to get my writing every time if I just take a little bit of care to form my letters properly and not scribble.
It prefers if you print your letters and it takes just a little bit of time to turn writing into text. The supernote uses the recognition technology widely, in searchable keywords, word documents and emails, and it's also easier to edit and work with the text after recognition.
The supernote is limited in drawing, there's only really two types of pen brush, a pressure sensitive one and a non pressure sensitive one. You can vary tone etc, but there's little in the way of artistic features. Coupled with the feel of the stylus being more of a ballpoint pen, it just doesn't feel inviting to sketch on. You certainly can draw on it and can produce good things. But it looses out to the remarkable which is quite a refined experience for artists.
It's all about the combination of the top layer and the nib. The supernote has this slightly soft film screen which the ceramic nib indents as you write. It then regenerates and is once again perfectly smooth. It really feels like you are pressing a pen into paper.
