Need to replace paper for handwritten notes. Device recommendations?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I take a lot of notes and they often include a lot of drawn diagrams and freehand handwritten notes.

I'm getting a bit sick of paper and pencil. The paper notebooks add up and things are usually spanned across multiple notebooks. The ease and 11.5 x 8.5 inch form factor are nice though, not to mention the ability to write in fine detail, small lettering, etc. And it's relatively easy to flick through an entire notebook quickly to find a certain note. It's also easy to return to a note that was written like several months ago and erase and edit part of it.

Can someone recommend a good electronic replacement for 11.5 x 8.5 paper notebooks that can do all of the above?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

There are none for the use you described. For those needs, paper and pencil are superior technology.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I'm really confused by this. We've had electronic tablets for years that have been used by artists to create very fine digital art. And we can't manage to do a digital, uh, notepad?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I'm really confused by this. We've had electronic tablets for years that have been used by artists to create very fine digital art. And we can't manage to do a digital, uh, notepad?

We have them but, they don't work as well as paper and pencil.

 

[lxskllr]

Depending on your exact usage, paper/pencil notes, then taking a picture of it with your phone might work. I do that a lot for work. Between that, and pdfs, I've cut my paper usage by a good bit.

 

[shortylickens]

Watch the video:

https://www.amazon.com/Rocketbook-WAV-S-Wave-Smart-Notebook/dp/B01GU6TINM

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Watch the video:

https://www.amazon.com/Rocketbook-WAV-S-Wave-Smart-Notebook/dp/B01GU6TINM

Yeah, I saw that before. Here is their newer model with "infinitely reusable" pages.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071Y3MSRK/ref=twister_B073S2ZGVT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Over time the pages might get indented too much from previous writings and of course editing old notes that have already been uploaded to the cloud can't be done with the Rocketbook and would require a separate device such as a Wacom Intuos and a laptop.

But there doesn't seem to be any other option that's not stupid expensive.

There's this:

https://remarkable.com/pre-order

But it's not even out yet plus it'll be $716 (lol!!!) when it's released. But I'm sure it'll get copied by the Chinese ASAP when it comes out.

I chatted with Wacom and they could only recommend me the Wacom MobileStudio Pro line, which is literally a laptop. Either that or get an Intuos pad that needs to be tethered to a laptop (no Android support for the pad).

 

[gorcorps]

Closest thing I've used for what you're describing is a tablet running OneNote. I'm not sure how the mobile version is as I've only used the windows versions, but it's what I've been using at work for years to digitize my daily notes

 

[v-600]

Still rocking a surface pro 3 that getting on for 3 years old and still going strong. I'm sure you could get one fairly cheaply now that might do exactly what you want. One note has become my go to notetaking app across the Surface, ios and android.

 

[IamDavid]

Not the correct size but he Surface Book from Microsoft is perfect for this. I log hours a weeks of hand written notes into OneNote. I couldn't be happier with how well it works. Totally worth every penny.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

People think and work organically. While that's a Capt. O statement, people who are enamored with using the latest technology seem to think that approach is inefficient. The reality is both approaches are right. The difficulty is determining which approach makes the most sense for solving the task at hand. The only thing worse than technophobia are those folks who change the way they they live and think just to leverage a particular technology.
Some folks are more visually oriented than others (I definitely am) and in most cases, our current technology is a very poor tool for daily uses. The overhead in using computing for these tasks is massive. Digitizing sketches, searching and, rendering take high powered expensive hardware and software that is still slower than manipulating physical media. The main advantage to using technology for these types of tasks is the opportunity to view the information in a different way. Unfortunately, the current software doesn't have that kind of manipulating built in necessitating another more expensive program.

 

[Mike64]

You might consider a hybrid "system": "taking" the notes on paper, then scanning them into searchable (and editable) PDF format. I don't own a device that's even theoretically capable of realistic-speed free-hand note-taking, but nothing I've ever read or seen suggests that really any current tech is capable of keeping up with normal-speed handwriting/drawing, to begin with, and when you add being able to deal with fine drawing (for small letters or small-but-detailed drawings), that throws another fairly big wrench in the works, both hardware-based and practical (you'd either have to use a very fine-tipped stylus for everything, or switch styluses while working). On the other hand, for this sort of material, you don't need a very fancy, or high-resolution, scanner to make usable PDFs from hand-written materials which of course are much more useful for searching for old content. "Flipping through", not so much, but that, on the other hand, pales in comparison to being able to search hundreds of pages/documents quickly based on content...