Product test
Wacom Bamboo Spark - The alternative for paper lovers in a digital world
by Mariana Hurtado
Moleskine Smart Writing Set - Digital drawing and note-taking on the go
11.11.2016
Translation: machine translated
The stationery lovers among you may already be familiar with Moleskine products, but apparently the Milan-based company makes more than just beautiful notebooks. I took a closer look at the Moleskine Smart Writing Set.
I was sceptical at first. The Moleskine Smart Writing Set is very similar to the Bamboo Spark, but the price is a lot higher. So the question is clear: is the price justified? After testing it, one thing is clear: Moleskine know what they are doing. They have found a new fan in me.
However, the comparison with the Bamboo Spark is a bit of a bumpy one, as it and the Moleskine Smart Writing Set work with completely different methods. The Bamboo Spark recognises the work on the folio and the pressure of the pen, which allows me to use any paper as a drawing surface. The mechanism of the Smart Writing Set is completely housed in the Pen+ pen, but needs special paper to work. Which variant is more appealing is ultimately a matter of taste. But for now, let's focus on whether the functionality delivers what it promises.
In the box
First, let's look at the most important things: What do you get for your money? In addition to the Pen+, you get a Paper Tablet with your purchase. To be honest, I had no idea what this meant until I held it in my hands: A great notebook with protruding 100-gram paper, so rounded that at first glance it actually looks like a tablet.
The pen, made by Neo Smartpen, is a bit clunky. However, compared to other similar pens that use a camera for tracing lines, it is surprisingly thin and light. That's pretty impressive considering it houses the entire mechanism, battery and processor. It feels similar to those thick, triangular pencils I had to use at primary school, so it feels somewhat familiar.
On paper
With the Smart Writing Set, you basically have two options for working; either connected to your smartphone or in offline mode. Let's take a look at the first option first
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You only need to switch on the pen and synchronise it with the M+ Notes app and everything is ready to go. Every line you draw appears immediately afterwards in the app. As soon as you switch to a new page, the virtual page also scrolls automatically on the screen.
Watching my work being digitised in real time was almost as impressive as the pressure sensitivity. A few times I got a bit cocky and drew so finely that it was no longer recognised, but all in all it was spot on and you can always check in the app to see if everything is as it should be.
In the app
The similarity between the analogue and digital sketch is impressive. You would think that the little dots on the paper are the trick that makes it all work, but these are for your own reference. But the real secret behind the incredible precision is the Ncode technology on the paper, a micro-pattern that is recognised by the camera and tells the Pen+ exactly where the lines have been drawn. This is why the pen must always be held with the camera facing downwards.
Then there's another clever trick that takes the whole thing one step further: There's a little envelope icon in the corner of each page. If you draw on it - I ticked the box - a PNG version of the current page is automatically sent to your email address. The pattern could also be printed on any paper itself, but after using the Moleskin notebook, it would all feel like a downgrade (unless you don't like the dots).
The advantage of using the M+ app for employees is that you can choose the colour and thickness of the next line. However, if you prefer to edit everything later, you can see very nicely how each line is processed as a vector and you can also change it afterwards as you wish.
In offline mode, as long as the Pen+ is switched on, the employees' work is saved in the internal memory and synchronised with the app as soon as the two are connected. This should allow up to 1000 pages of offline work. It is simply recommended that you set the app to your preferred colour and line thickness when closing it, otherwise you will end up with three pages of notes in fuchsia with the thickest line option - not that this has ever happened to me or anything...
The app also transcribes handwritten notes instantly with great accuracy. Unless you're a doctor. Then the text recognition will probably fail quite quickly. The text is recognised reliably, as can be seen in the video below. For languages other than English, only one file needs to be downloaded.
In the app, the synchronised pages can be tagged and organised in digital notebooks and, of course, sent to a contact via your favourite app or saved in the cloud of your choice. You can choose from the following formats: PNG, PDF, TXT and my favourite: SVG.
The Pen+ can even be used to record sound, an option that I haven't used myself but which I can imagine journalists, for example, or students during a lecture might enjoy. The only disadvantage is that the app has to be running.
I have to admit that I have a bit of mixed feelings about the rounded paper edges. I can imagine that these can quickly become dirty and frayed, making the actual function of the cover somewhat useless. All in all, however, the design is excellent. Anyone who knows Moleskine will expect nothing less and will get nothing less.
I have only had two problems with the Smart Writing Set so far: after the first use, the app no longer wanted to recognise the pen, but I was able to solve this by deleting the Pen+ from the saved Bluetooth devices on my mobile. A new pairing later, however, everything worked perfectly again. The second was tracing pencil sketches, which produced rather disappointing results. But that's understandable when you consider how the Ncode pattern works. Apart from that, I was convinced; the battery life of five hours seems sufficient to me, and the pen can be recharged within an hour with any mini USB cable.
Moleskine has clearly exceeded my expectations with the Smart Writing Set. By collaborating with Neo Smartpen, they have taken another step towards blurring the line between analogue and digital and have given us a tool to simplify our creative endeavours without compromising on aesthetics.
Mariana Hurtado
Grafik-Designerin
m@arianahurta.doI might be a graphic designer, a Pokémon trainer and tech-savvy but I'm no creative writer. I'm on a non-stop quest against bad design. Since 2014, I call Switzerland my home.
Computing
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