Evander_James said:
Laine said:
Evander_James said:
Hello, I’ve been seriously considering a Supernote A5X2 and I’ve researched every product in this category, starting with the remarkable 2 and I keep coming back to “why not just get an iPad?”.
A Supernote nomad (because the A5X and the A5X2 aren’t being sold right now) will cost roughly $800 CAD.
Remarkable 2 is $630
Onyx Boox Note Air 3 is $610
A brand new, current gen iPad with a pencil is $687.
My question is “how do you justify spending this kind of money on a product with really only one advantage and a vast canyon of disadvantages compared to the iPad”. And to be clear, I wouldn’t need the other features of an iPad, I already own a surface pro 7 which acts as my travel computer (and it’s a fantastic little device).
PS. I don’t like apple and I wouldn’t support them even though the iPad does seem like a great tablet.
Also a PSA, I’ve read elsewhere in this forum that people are hearing back from Ratta customer support that the A5X2 is possibly being pushed to Q3 of this year. This thing isn’t coming out people lol
Reading your comments I suspect you’ve never owned an e-ink device or care about what paper and writing instruments you use. If so this thread wouldn’t read the way it does IMO. Because your arguments literally do not make sense to someone who has been bullish on both e-ink and the iPad and uses both almost daily.
The big reason I suspect you’ve never used an e-ink screen for any length of time is that if you read for hours on an e-ink device and read for hours on an iPad, you likely have felt that difference. Staring at a light all day vs not is easier on the eyes. It’s one less screen causing you eye strain.
I suspect you don’t care as much about the writing experience because the best way as someone who tried to make their iPad their digital notebook is that the “best” writing experience I could get out of an iPad with the various accessories felt like using a clipboard with a single piece of paper with a bic pen. I consider that one of the worst feeling experience’s that I don’t want to experience outside of the doctor’s office when I have to do that. As my daily writing experience that sounds like hell. The Supernote by comparison can be described as writing in a paper notebook. It has give like you are writing on a stack of paper.
This is just the screen. I don’t have to manage two batteries with the Supernote. The stylus doesn’t have one. The iPad has a respectable 10 hour battery life for watching movies that turns to laughable when compared to a Supernote that can last weeks on a single charge when reading and writing.
You also bring up fears about the Supernote being less durable than the iPad. The best way I can sum up how much this fear is unfounded is with the following question: Do you think if you dropped your iPad facedown from chest height onto concrete that it would survive that fall without a case? Ratta used to actually advertise the Supernote’s durability that way on the website. Mine has fallen off my desk a bunch of times and been literally tossed across a room. It still doesn’t have a scratch on it. My iPad would never have survived the abuse my Supernote casually gets on a daily basis.
But I’ll even take that a step further. What do you when your iPad breaks? What do you do when you want more storage in your iPad? Both of those solutions require going to Apple and may require a whole new device. The Nomad’s changes to the Supernote hardware, which are supposed to show up in the A5X2, makes all of these things easily fixed by the customer and worst case appears to need a screwdriver that usually resides in most people’s kitchen junk drawer.
I’m going to break down each of your paragraphs. starting with your second.
No I haven’t used a paper display, but clearly I’m aware of the benefits otherwise why would I be looking into them? I stare at screens most of every day, I don’t experience very much fatigue or strain from doing so. As a result, I do not need to eliminate that variable but I am very interested in the tech.
I don’t care about the writing experience at all. Again, I write on my surface pro 7 and have no issues doing so. That said, I still prefer to write than type.
My surface pro pen uses a disposable battery that has so far lasted me a few years on the original battery. I also charge my surface a few times a week and that does me just fine.
Why then don’t I use my surface pro 7 to take my notes? It would get destroyed the first day on the job because my work environment is not conducive to expensive computers. My pad of paper on the other hand, is more than durable. If the thing I get to replace my pad of paper is less durable than a pad of paper, that’s fine but if the cost to replace it is closer to the cost to replace my computer, I’ll just risk the computer… Why would I then risk the supernote if it cost more than my computer? But if it’s as durable as you say then yes, I can risk it because as you say, it can survive some abuse without replacing it.
My surface pro won’t break because I don’t put it at risk. The supernote will be at risk so what will I do if it breaks? Spend another $800 replacing it? all while my pad of paper is just another $10 for 5 pads? Storage isn’t relevant here as I can manage storage, especially given my surface has an SD slot just like the supernote does.
You fundamentally misunderstand my concerns here. The supernote A5X2 is as close to exactly what I’m looking for as I will ever find. BUT if its disposability is closer to my computer than to my notepad, I’ll just use my computer. It’s not complicated, the paper display isn’t worth it unless it is cheaper or more durable. The only reason to use the supernote over my computer is so that I’m not putting my computer at risk. So does it make sense to put another expensive device in its place?
>No I haven’t used a paper display,
Much of what you say in your comparisons communicate you haven’t. I would suggest the idea of getting an e-reader first. Kobo just did a hardware refresh so a bunch of last gen open boxes have shown up on ebay. This could be a lower cost to entry to see if an e-ink notebook makes sense to you long term. It is hard to comprehend why people are the way they are about e-ink if you’ve never used it. People keep thinking it is gonna be similar to other screens when e-ink’s best comparison is physical paper.
>The supernote will be at risk so what will I do if it breaks? Spend another $800 replacing it?
This missed my point that I was trying to make that you won’t have to do this with the Supernote. You’ll replace the broken part. The new A5X, based on the Nomad anyways, lets the end user replace all of the parts. Even the mother board can be replaced by the end user. No special tools required.
>BUT if its disposability is closer to my computer than to my notepad … It’s not complicated, the paper display isn’t worth it unless it is cheaper or more durable.
This is what I was trying to get at. The durability of the Supernote over an iPad or Surface Pro is night and day. My Supernote is hands down one of the tankiest gadgets I own. It has survived things I know my iPad Pro wouldn’t have. I’ve seen my Supernote take about about a four foot drop face down onto bare concrete from my standing desk without a scratch. I’ve dropped other phones and tablets, in a case, from half that height and they didn’t fair as well as the Supernote. The overall devices is arguably tankier than some of its competitors, like the Remarkable. I’ve mentioned that drop to my friends who own those and they look horrified at the idea of their Remarkable dropping like that because they didn’t think it would survive.