Tale of two eink notebooks
Posted on December 27, 2020
I am a pen and paper person. On a typical day, I write about 10–30 handwritten pages. (I write on a half-folded printer paper, so it is actually only 7-15 pages “full” pages). For the last decade or so, I have written almost exclusively using fountain pens (Pelikan M200, Pilot Vanishing Point, and occasionally, Pilot Metropolitan).
To reduce the amount of time I state at a screen, I purchased a Oynx Boox Max3 tablet almost a year ago, primarily to read academic PDFs. The 13.3" screen of Max3 is perfect for reading dense IEEE formatted two-column PDFs. Max3 is an Android device and many Android apps work reasonably well on it. So, I ended up using it for internet browsing, reading emails and Slack messages, delivering zoom lectures, and even watching Youtube videos! Clearly, J.K. Rowling had Max3 in mind when she described the newspapers with moving pictures in Harry Potter.
Once the pandemic started, I was working from home like everyone else. Pen and paper was suddenly not as convenient. With two young kids running around in the house, my handwritten loose sheets of paper would often disappear only to return with a unicorn drawn in the middle of a carefully crafted proof argument. More seriously, sharing my handwritten notes with my graduate students suddenly became a chore. Earlier I could simply walk into their office and drop my notes on their desk. Now, I had to scan and share them. (I know, I know. First world problems).
Since I had a Max3, I started using it as a notepad. The default stylus was a bit lousy, so I bought the Lamy EMR pen with Remarkable nibs.
I exclusively used that combo in the Fall semester: using it to prepare my lecture notes, deliver “chalk and board” zoom lectures, write initial drafts of research papers, and comment on subsequent typeset drafts. Basically, most teaching and research activities for which I used pen and paper.
I like Max3 as a replacement for pen and paper but it was a bit too big for me to write on. Max3 is of the size of a legal pad, I am used to writing on something which is half the size of a letter paper. But more importantly, when I am reading a research article, I would take notes on a different piece of paper. In principle, I can do the same on the Max 3 by using the split screen functionality, but doing so makes the PDF too small to read comfortably. So, I decided to buy a second 7.8" eink tablet: Supernote A6X plus the heart of metal pen.
I have had the A6X for about a week and used it to write about 200 pages. Here are my initial thoughts on how A6X compares with Max3 as a note taking device.
Writing experience
Hands down, I prefer writing on A6X, which feels very close to writing on paper with a fountain pen. I cannot exactly pinpoint the reason, but it is a combination of weight of the pen (which is just about right), the thinner and harder nib, and the softness of the screen protector. The writing experience on the Max3 is also very nice, but it is still a bit too smooth for my preference.
I also like the fact that the A6X nibs are made of ceramic and won’t need to be replaced. The Max3 nib needs to be replaced every 3 months or so of heavy writing.
I was concerned about the lack of an eraser button on the heart of metal pen, but in the end it does not bother me too much. For the most part, I just scratch out the words as I would do when writing with a real pen. Using an eraser on A6X has the same delay as using a correction tape. So, I use it sparingly. However, when I do have to use an eraser, the A6X eraser is not as convenient as the eraser in Max3. Max3 has a “stroke eraser”, which erases the entire stroke. So, if I write a line of text, select the eraser, and strike out the line, everything on that line will be eraser. On A6X, I need to either use the point eraser or the area easer, none of which are as convenient or as accurate as the stroke eraser.
Although both devices are black and white, Max3 has the option of choosing a colored pen, which don’t show up when exported. I used that feature quite often in my class notes for headings or for highlighting important points. A6X only has 3 shades of gray to choose from.
The notepad interface
The notepad interface is a mixed bag. There are a few features, where A6X simply nails it, while for many other features, Max3 has a more feature rich interface.
One feature that I really like in A6X is that if I swipe on the last page, it automatically inserts a new page. So, I almost get the feeling that I am writing on a real notebook. On Max3, I need to click a button to insert a new page.
Another nice feature on the A6X is that I can either add a new page before or after the current page. On Max3, I can only insert a new page after the current page. However, Max3 is really quick in inserting a page, while A6X is slow. So much so, that it fakes a page insert but then displays a pop-up saying “Insert new page” which takes about a second or two to disappear. Furthermore, on Max3, the button to insert a new page is right on the main menu, while on A6X, I need an extra click to access “insert page” button.
A6X also has this super cool feature of selecting text as a “title”, which is then shown as a heading in the table of contents. Max3 has no such feature. This “title” feature makes it easy to navigate in a big notebook.
Max3 has a cleaner interface for renaming a note. I use the “handwriting” feature on both device to write the name of the note rather than using the digital keyboard. Max3 can easily and quickly recognize multiple words. A6X can only recognize words one by one and is very slow to do so.
A6X does not provide a quick way to access the lasso tool. To select that tool, I have to open the “vertical menu” but doing so covers part of the page. So, often I need to open the vertical menu to select the lasso tool, close the vertical menu, and only then select the text. In contrast, Max3 makes a different trade-off. It shows the vertical menu by default, and there is a full-screen mode which hides the vertical menu and also zooms the entire page.
The export feature on A6X is a bit limited. The exported file is placed at the top level of the “Export” folder, even if I exported from a note which was in a sub-directory in the “Notes” folder. Moreover, the filename includes the date and time when the note was exported. As a result, there are multiple exported PDFs corresponding to a single file, which I think is going to make the “Export” folder very unorganized in a few weeks. Max3 handles the directory structure much better.
Another nice think about the Max3 is that you can configure it so that the note is always exported to PDF and synced automatically when it is closed. On A6X, both the export and the sync need to be triggered manually.
A6X is supposed to have a feature where you can draw a star on a page to bookmark it. I haven’t been able to get this to work reliably. My hand drawn stars are never recognized as a bookmark symbol, while quite often my “of” and “op” are recognized as the star symbol. It is really annoying and completely destroys my flow while writing. I wish there were a way to either disable the star symbol or make it more elaborate (like start with a circle around it) to avoid accidental triggers.
Conclusions
In spite of the negatives, I do really like A6X for writing. Relatively speaking, the drawbacks are minor and I might get used to some of them over time. We’ll see.
This entry was posted in Eink and tagged max3, a6x, supernote, boox.