Moleskine is essentially synonymous with notebooks, and the Moleskine Smart Writing Set ($199) brings the classic journal brand firmly into the twenty-first century. The Smart Writing Set is an analog-to-digital note-taking solution that consists of a Paper Tablet notebook, a Pen+ smart pen, and the free Moleskine Notes app. Similar to the Wacom Bamboo Spark ($159.95 at Amazon) , Moleskine's solution allows you to take physical notes on real paper with an ink-equipped pen and sync them to your phone or tablet. You can edit notes, transcribe handwritten words into digital text, and share files with yourself and others through a variety of apps and cloud services. The set boasts several advantages over the Spark, however, such as writing color options, automatic page detection, and a pen that takes standard ink refills. It's certainly a bit pricey, but all of these features add up to our Editors' Choice for digital note-taking devices.
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Design and Setup
The Paper Tablet looks a lot like your standard Moleskine notebook, the type you expect to see an artist hunched over, scrawling their latest idea in the corner seat of a café. It's a hardcover journal that measures 8.50 by 5.25 inches (HW), with an elastic strap to keep it closed. The design differs from a standard notebook in that the pages stick out about half an inch beyond the cover and have curved edges, which Moleskine says is meant to mimic the design of a tablet. Inside, the pages are covered in a dotted grid pattern embedded with technology that recognizes the smart pen's position on the page.
Unlike the Bamboo Spark, which has a smart panel that can use any type of paper, the pages in the Paper Tablet are all firmly bound, and you can't swap in a regular sheet of paper and expect it to work the same. You get 173 usable pages in the notebook (counting the front and back pages), so you won't run out of room quickly, but you will need to purchase a new Paper Tablet ($29.95) when you do. The Spark is similar in size at 8.2 by 5.8 inches, but Wacom has some alternatives available as well. The Wacom Bamboo Slate ($129.95 at Amazon) is a clipboard-style device (we reviewed the larger 12.9-by-10-inch version, but it also comes in a smaller size). The Wacom Bamboo Folio ($600.00 at Amazon) is its more professional-looking counterpart, similar in size to the big Slate (13.3 by 10.5 inches), but with a sturdy cover and different material.
As for the Pen+, it's a nicely built aluminum writing instrument with three flat sides and a tip that resembles a fountain pen. It takes standard ink cartridges, which makes refilling it simple and inexpensive. There's an LED status indicator for charging and syncing, a Power button, and a cap with a metal clip. It also has a micro USB power port, and comes with a micro USB cord for charging. That's another difference from the Bamboo Spark, since here it's the pen that needs to be charged, not the writing surface. The pen should last for 5 hours of continuous writing, though it seemed to hold up longer than that in my tests.
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The Moleskine Notes app is attractive easy to use. It's available for both Android and iOS devices, and displays all of the notes you take in the Paper Tablet. Once downloaded, you can sync the Pen+ by following some on-screen instructions that only take a few seconds to complete. After some quick tutorial screens, you're ready to go.
Features and Testing
The Pen+ uses an infrared camera near the tip that tracks what you write. On-board memory holds up to 1,000 note pages, which allows you to digitize your notes later when your phone or tablet isn't handy. You can see the pen's remaining memory and battery at any time by pressing an icon in the top-right corner of the app.
As you write in the Paper Tablet with the Pen+, your scribbles appear on a digital page in the app in nearly real time, as opposed to the Spark, Folio, and Slate, which only load once you sync. While the Pen+ writes in black ink on the page, the app greatly expands your possibilities. Through the app, you can change pen thickness and select digital ink color on the fly. There's a full color wheel of options, which is a major benefit over the black-only Spark, particularly for artists. There is a second Bamboo app available that allows color editing, but it's not nearly as streamlined of a system. Pen tracking is accurate, with a good sense of how much pressure you're exerting on the page.
Another benefit to the Smart Writing Set is that it can recognize when you're writing on separate pages, thanks to the use of the smart paper in the Paper Tablet. If you write on one page then switch to another, they will automatically be entered as separate files in the app. Writing in the same spot on a new page in the Spark will just make that new writing appear on top of the old writing in the app. You'll need to save each note and start a new one manually every time you want a clean page, which isn't a big hassle, but certainly isn't as convenient as the Moleskine notebook recognizing where you write automatically.
Moleskine's app has a bevy of useful sharing and editing features, including the ability to transcribe handwritten text into digital text, so you can copy and send it through email or other apps. Like the Spark, the accuracy of this feature is impressive—it rarely misinterpreted my writing, which isn't exactly the neatest. You can also label notes with tags to make them easily searchable, and record voice notes that can be played back later. There's also an edit function for highlighting or writing on your digital notes.
There's no shortage of ways to send notes to yourself or someone else. When you're finished taking notes, you can export the file in multiple formats through various services, which the app makes very simple. You can choose to export writing as text, send it as a PDF or image, or upload it to cloud services like Dropbox or Evernote. There's also an email icon in the top corner of every Paper Tablet page—tapping it with the Pen+ activates a prompt to instantly email the page to someone.
Conclusion
The Moleskine Smart Writing Set is an impressive note-taking solution, combining the familiar tactile feel of writing in a notebook with convenient modern technology. The Wacom Bamboo Spark, Folio, and Slate offer similar experiences, sending notes from the page to your device, but Moleskine has a few key advantages. The ability to change input colors, a more advanced pen that uses standard ink refills, automatic page detection, and Moleskine's classic styling are all reasons I prefer it to Wacom's devices. Some of these features are app-related, and can theoretically be added to the Bamboo app, but the state of Moleskine's app, Pen+, and Paper Tablet at release is fantastic. The Smart Writing Set is my preferred method of analog-to-digital note-taking, and an Editors' Choice.
Moleskine Smart Writing Set
4.5
Editors' Choice
See It$199.00 at Moleskine
MSRP $199.00
Pros
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Classic notebook design.
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Smart pen includes on-board memory, an infrared camera, and takes standard ink refills.
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Automatic page detection.
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Wide array of file format and sharing options.
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Cons
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Expensive.
The Bottom Line
The Moleskine Smart Writing Set is a handsome, feature-rich notebook and smart pen for easily bringing your analog notes to a digital world.
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