SuperNote Nomad

From the «more paper than paper» department:
Title: I’m finding the joy in writing again with a little help from the Supernote Nomad
Author: Cheyenne MacDonald
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2024 13:00:48 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/im-finding-the-joy-in-writing-again-with-a-little-help-from-the-supernote-nomad-130048878.html?src=rss
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I've recently accepted the fact that I am, and always will be, a pen-and-paper
kind of gal. When it comes to writing, nothing does it for me quite like the
act of scrawling by hand. I’m more creative, less distracted and more
emotionally invested in what I’m doing than when I type on a keyboard.

But over the last decade or so of writing professionally, I've become
disconnected from writing by hand. I spend most of my time hunched over a
laptop, and have unwittingly conditioned myself into writing almost exclusively
in this way for the sake of efficiency. While that’s undoubtedly what works
best for the day-to-day demands of news blogging (I mean, how else could we do
it?), my shift away from notebooks has killed my will to do any creative
writing outside of work. These days, every time I crack open a laptop to write
in my off-hours, it feels like a chore.

But what also feels like a chore is typing up pages upon pages of handwritten
text after dumping all the words in my brain out onto paper. This burden is
what first got me looking into digital notepads; since many of them can convert
handwritten notes to text files, they’re kind of the best of both worlds. For a
while, though, none of the available options really spoke to me — the
reMarkable 2 and other E Ink tablets[1] are just too big for my taste. Then,
Ratta came out with the Supernote Nomad[2], and I was sold.

The Nomad is perfectly compact. With a 7.8-inch screen, it’s more like the size
of an ereader, meaning I can toss it in a mini-backpack and bring it with me
everywhere — and I do. My Nomad arrived in May (I ordered the $329 Crystal
version, because I’m a sucker for a transparent shell) and I've been using it
just about every day since. I was cautiously optimistic about what actually
writing on this thing would be like, but it exceeded all of my expectations.

It took only a few minutes to get used to, which mainly came down to me getting
over my somewhat irrational fear that the pen — the one that’s made for this
device — would scratch the display. (It was expensive, okay?) The tablet
doesn’t come with a writing implement, and I shelled out a little extra for the
$89 Heart of Metal pen, a decision I’m super happy with. It’s nothing like a
stylus, but instead has a sharp, precision tip like a real pen — hence my
initial hesitation.

The experience of writing on the Nomad is so close to the feeling of actually
using a pen and paper. There’s texture to it, something you don’t get with the
smooth experience of writing on an iPad. I write pretty fast, and haven't had
many issues so far with lagging. It comes with a bunch of writing templates,
including lined “paper” with a few different ruling size options, and you can
create your own templates or download those made by others. I haven't messed
around much yet with custom versions, though, because the built-in offerings
have been adequate for free writing, note-taking and organizing my life.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well the handwriting recognition tool has
been able to convert my chicken scratch to typed text. My handwriting is fine
at best, but when I'm working fast, things can get pretty messy. It's not 100
percent accurate — it’ll throw in the occasional string of gibberish — but the
device mostly gets it right. You can export the converted writing as a .TXT or
.DOCX file, and have the Nomad format it for you. This requires some cleaning
up, but it’s never a huge job.

Supernote devices can sync with a number of different cloud storage providers,
like Dropbox and Google Drive (though Google is currently not working for me,
so that’s one point against it), along with the company’s own cloud. You can
lock individual files and folders behind a passcode, too, which I really
appreciate. Nothing haunts me more than the thought of someone reading through
my unfinished drafts, some of which aren’t destined to ever see the light of
day.

And I’ve finally ditched my paper planner — something I never thought would
happen. Supernote’s built-in monthly calendar and weekly planner have finally
given me an alternative that actually works for me. One of the main things
that’s kept me using paper planners is that I like to doodle as a way to make
important events or tasks stand out, and the Supernote Nomad allows me to do
this. The only thing I miss is using stickers and pens of different colors, but
I’ll survive.

In the last month or so using the Supernote Nomad, I’ve probably gotten more
writing done (the “for me” kind) than I had in the last year. It just doesn't
trigger that dreaded “you’re at work” feeling that my laptop and even other
distraction-free writing devices, like the Freewrite Traveler[3], have.
Eventually, I hope to get around to drawing and reading on it as well, but for
the moment, all I want to do on this thing is write because I'm having such a
great time doing it. And before you ask — yes, I wrote this article on my
Nomad.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/im-finding-the-joy-in-writing-again-with-a-little-help-from-the-supernote-nomad-130048878.html?src=rss

Links:
[1]: https://www.engadget.com/best-e-ink-tablet-130037939.html (link)
[2]: https://supernote.com/products/supernote-nomad?variant=44112947380460 (link)
[3]: https://www.engadget.com/astrohaus-freewrite-traveler-eink-typewriter-review-130000032.html (link)