Verdict
The Lenovo Smart Paper is a smart digital notebook with a agiotage intent and a bundled in stylus and type , but a high RRP and a somewhat inflexible nature drop it behind the competition .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Lenovo describes the Smart Paper as “ your go - to twist for note - taking , meter reading , & sketch ” , and the ordering of that verbal description is telling .
This 10.3 - inchE Ink tabletis not intended as a traditionalKindle - stylus eReader . It ’s a £ 450 premium note - taking pecker , which pose it in the party of theOnyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus , and makes it way more expensive than the £ 300 - ish Remarkable 2 , Kobo Elipsa 2E , and Amazon Kindle Scribe .
There ’s doubtless a market for such equipment . The interrogation is , does the Lenovo Smart Paper do enough to distinguish itself from those fulfill ( and often chinchy ) rivals ?
Design
It might be a relatively unseasoned Cuban sandwich - category of the eReader genre , but the ideal build gene for the digital notebook already come along to be a locate thing .
Lenovo has n’t tried to reinvent the wheel with the Smart Paper . It get to the basic look and feel of theRemarkable 2and theKindle Scribe – a large but penny-pinching 10 - inch tablet with an asymmetrical bezel enable an easy one - handed grip .
At just 5.5 millimetre fatheaded , it ’s mode thinner than theKobo Elipsa 2Eand slenderly fragile than the Kindle Scribe , yet slimly deep than the 4.7 millimetre Remarkable 2 . It ’s one of the lighter digital notebook out there at just 408 g , though again it ’s fairly undercut by the Remarkable 2 and the Elipsa 2E.
I appreciated Lenovo ’s decision to go with an all - metallic element torso . It lends the Smart Paper a swish , professional feel more in keeping with the Kindle Scribe than the Kobo Elipsa 2E.
It keeps things nice and minimalist on the front , with nary a sign of any branding and a contrasting black and grey finish . The only renowned design lineament , really , is the little magnetized trough that ’s been dug out to keep the stylus when not in habit . I think this might prove teasing when holding the Smart Paper for reading material tasks , but I actually came to like the solid rest and additional purchase it cater .
There ’s a small power button to the right wing of the top edge , and a USB - degree centigrade great power at the bottom of the remaining edge . That ’s it for points of interest group , other than a metallic Lenovo logotype and a ‘ two shade of grey ’ fetch up to the rear . This really is a very skin - down invention .
One of the master ways in which Lenovo can perhaps justify the price of the Smart Paper ( other than its premium build ) over those cheaper competitor is that it has bundled a suit in . It ’s one of the more elegantly faff - free model , with a pagination form agent that operates entirely through magnet , making it highly easy to pop the twist in and out .
This also draw me fear for its effectiveness in a drop situation . plainly I did n’t dare test this , but it feels as if the rightfulness ( or wrong ) sort of droppage would go to the Smart Paper flying costless of its protective case .
Conversely , the way the stylus slot into a protective alcove in the case suggest that it might prove some physical body of anchor dot in such a scenario . Either means , it ’s a welcome addition , though as it ’s not essential to the overall function of the equipment , I would have preferred the choice of a tacky package without the lawsuit .
I did notice that carry the Smart Paper in its shell with my left hand , using the pen bump as a innate thumb grip , caused the front cover to distort and stir up , exposing the lower right recess of the machine . It could perhaps do with some supply spine rigidity , or else stronger cover version attractor .
Screen and pen
The Lenovo Smart Paper packs a 10.3 - inch vitamin E Ink screen door with a 1404 x 1872 resolution , lead in a pixel tightness of 227 PPI . That ’s the same as the Remarkable 2 and the Kobo Elipsa 2E , but well short of the 300 PPI Kindle Scribe .
It ’s a gracious canvas on which to take and write , but if you have any wider experience with the format , you will notice that it ’s not quite the sharp .
Lenovo has include a backlight , so the Smart Paper is operational in darker scenarios , unlike the Remarkable 2 . It ’s not really a massively essential feature – this is a writing and sketching pecker , and no one does that in the iniquity – but it ’s nice to have still .
We ’ve observe that penning is the main subroutine of the Smart Paper , so it ’s only meet that Lenovo bundles in a stylus . The Lenovo Smart Paper Pen is very accomplished , with 4,096 story of pressing and a premium playpen - like tone . At 15 g , there ’s a prissy weight to it whilst writing , and the Smart Paper ’s flatness display furnish a pleasing degree of electrical resistance .
Latency is at a speedy - enough 25ms , so there is n’t too much meanwhile when scrawl . All in all , it ’s an agreeably rude spirit that lets you produce keen handwriting – or as corking as you would normally manage with a penitentiary and paper , at least .
Electro - magnetic reverberance applied science means that you ’ll never need to charge the Lenovo Smart Paper Pen either , which is another rubbing - reducing measure to add to the lack of buttons . Some may neglect the provision of an ‘ eraser ’ on the back of the pen , but I kind of appreciated the no - nonsense simplicity .
In pragmatic terms , I did miss the ability to intuitively gloss eBooks with highlights and scribbles in the margin , which you’re able to do pronto with the Kobo Elipsa 2E.
Features and performance
The Lenovo Smart Paper run on a Rockchip RK3566 processor work at 1.80GHz . It ’s far from the speedy element out there , but then you do n’t buy such an E Ink machine for rude performance .
It ’s generally good enough for the special task it sets out to professional , with fluid handwriting to the bow . Flipping between varlet in ebooks is n’t the suave or speediest experience , but then , show me an eReader that does provide such a affair .
You get 4 GB of LPDDR4X RAM here , which is plenteous for such a modified gadget , and 64 GB of reposition as banner . Wi - Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity are also include . The latter is handy , as there are no loudspeaker system and no 3.5 mm headphone jackfruit if you want to output any audio .
Intriguingly , Lenovo has turn to a version of Android to execute the Smart Paper ’s UI . It ’s a heavily streamlined , nigh - on unrecognisable take on Google ’s mobile OS , though . You do n’t get admittance to the Google Play Store , unlike the Onyx Boox range .
It ’s perhaps most patent in the motion - ground UI and the drop-off - down control centre battery-acid . Otherwise , this is a sparse , monochrome interface . On the home projection screen , there ’s a simple row of tabs down the left side , include Notebook , Library ( for your ebooks ) , Apps ( email , calculator etc ) , My twist ( basically a Files surgical incision ) , and one for Google Drive .
The latter social occasion did n’t seem to work at all for me on repeated attempts . What ’s more , Lenovo ’s own Cloud Drive frame-up is profoundly knotty .
Ah yes , the subscription framework . Once I ’d booted up an Android version of the Lenovo Smart Paper app and successfully sign on in , I was able to buy some swarm storage , but at £ 8.99 for 5 gigabyte across three month , it ’s no one ’s idea of estimable note value .
There are similarly questionable charge for function such as talking to recording and displacement , on an hourly or per - character basis .
Away from these prohibitively restrictive tier up , the Lenovo Smart Paper provides solid offline handwriting recognition . It use up a while to process , but it accurately turned my handwritten cacography into digital text with relatively few errors .
When you do want to habituate the Smart Paper as an eReader , there ’s accession to eBooks.com . If your eBooks are located elsewhere , you ’ll take to go through the involved cognitive process of using the preinstalled Firefox web browser to sideload the app of your choice .
Yes , that ’s a major benefit of using Android , and I was able-bodied to get Kindle up and ply using an demonstrate online self-governing app computer storage . But I distrust that your average Smart Paper customer wo n’t be minded to engage such a course , especially as internet browse on any gimmick like this is a truly horrible experience .
Battery life
bombardment life is predictably epic from this 3500mAh cell . Like all of its rival , Lenovo promises “ battery that last for weeks ” , or “ 8,500 page of reading sentence ” , and I certainly was n’t able-bodied to carry through an integral charge in the hebdomad or so of perfunctory usage I had it for . It lost about 6 % in two sidereal day .
There ’s a 10W power adapter in the corner , which is sizable for a machine of this eccentric . The occasional all-night charge is the order of the daytime here , while having 20 % leave in the cooler will still get you through a couple of hours of reading .
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Should you buy it?
The Lenovo Smart Paper devote you everything out of the box seat , including a style and a protective folio grammatical case .
The Lenovo Smart Paper is one of the more expensive digital notebook on the market place .
Final Thoughts
The Lenovo Smart Paper is a well - built , cleverly project digital notebook that gives you everything you take direct out of the logic gate – at least from a hardware perspective .
Besides a unassailable backlit screen , you get a okay stylus and a comely typeface in every loge . It ’s right up there with the best of its rivals from this perspective . excite in a clean Android - base UI , and the Smart Paper is on its way to contender position .
However , the whole package is shoot through with a lack of flexibility . This range from a mellow price shred with no choice to recede the type , to a prohibitory cloud storage subscription model and a circumscribed eBook provision .
It ’s a high - calibre instance of the data format , but the Lenovo Smart Paper feels a small too inaccessible compared to some of its more take in competition .
Trusted Score
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We test every e - reader we go over thoroughly . We use the gimmick over the review full point . We ’ll always assure you what we find and we never , ever , accept money to review a production .
FAQs
Yes , a 10W charger with a USB - C cable
Yes , you get a cover roll up right away into the box
Full Specs
