Lenovo is actually a bit late with the Smart Paper e-ink writing tablet unveiled at CES – but it could prove attractive competition for Amazon, Huawei, and reMarkable. We tested it briefly at the trade fair.
E-ink tablets with a writing function are on the rise, after Amazon, Huawei and most recently Xiaomi, Lenovo is now emulating the principle of the reMarkable tablet. Like the aforementioned, Lenovo’s Smart Paper is equipped with a 10-inch display. 1872 × 1404 pixels result in a dot density of 227 dpi, for comparison: the panel of the Kindle Scribe has a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. The Smart Paper adjusts the brightness to the ambient brightness in 24 levels, and the color temperature from light blue to pale yellow can be adjusted in just as many levels.
Like Amazon, the display fits Lenovo’s Kindle Scribe asymmetrically. The tablet can be held on the wider left edge while reading, and there is also room for the stylus in a recess. The digitizer recognizes 4096 pressure levels and is tilt-sensitive. Two microphones are on board for voice recordings.
Lenovo preloads the Android AOSP-based tablet with a number of apps, such as a calendar, e-book app, calculator, clock, mail client, and note app. eBooks can be purchased from the eBooks.com store, which is primarily stocked with English-language books, or you can drag ePubs from other sources onto the tablet. A companion app for iOS, Android, and Windows syncs documents, notes, and books across multiple devices. Lenovo does not use the Google Play Store, but apps can be loaded onto the tablet via APK.
Successful handwriting recognition
When writing on the tablet, we noticed a minimal latency, which didn’t bother us after a short period of getting used to it. The stylus glides over the screen with less resistance than a pen over paper. The offline handwriting recognition also cracked illegible writing quite reliably. The notes, which have been converted into formattable text using handwriting recognition, can then be searched for keywords used in them.
Lenovo equips the tablet with a weak quad-core Rokchip SoC. The four cores of the RK3566 clock at a maximum of 1.8 GHz. This is supported by 4 GB of main memory, the 64 GB of internal memory cannot be expanded. Headphones connect the tablet via Bluetooth 5.2 or USB-C, there is no headphone jack on the device. According to Lenovo, you should be able to fill up to 170 pages of notes with one battery charge of the 3550 mAh battery. Lenovo is asking 479 euros for the tablet, which will be available from January, and is delivering it with a pen and folio cover.
Correction: A previous version of the article incorrectly stated that reMarkable 2 cannot process ePubs. We canceled the position.
Note: The organizer of the CES paid the author’s travel expenses.
(rbr)
