TCL Is Launching a Digital Notebook, and It's Like a Smoother Kindle Scribe Colorsoft

When it comes to digital note taking, you usually have two choices: Do you want E Ink, or do you want speed? Devices like the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and the Remarkable Paper Pro have shown there's definitely an appetite for E Ink note taking, even if it can be a bit laggy. But for the most responsive digital notebook possible, you usually have to settle for something like an iPad with a stylus. Now, TCL wants to change that.

The budget-friendly tablet and TV company has finally announced its first full-fledged digital notebook: the TCL Note A1 NXTPAPER. Launching on Kickstarter soon and releasing sometime in February, the trick here is a clever one: Notes taken on this device should look like they're written on paper, but the screen is as fast as a gaming monitor.

That's thanks to the company's NXTPAPER technology, which isn't exactly new, but has been positioned in the past more for media consumption than creation. Unlike E Ink, which uses physical ink capsules embedded in the display, NXTPAPER uses a standard LCD screen with a matte, glare-free coating and various levels of blue light and reflection-fighting software to simulate paper.

The result—which I can speak to, having gone hands-on with it over multiple CES showcases—isn't exactly as easy on the eyes as E Ink, but it is convincing, and is far more usable for just about everything that isn't just reading plain text. Considering how slow E Ink updates and how limited it is in displaying colors, that's not a bad compromise. Plus, the matte layer also acts a bit like one of those special screen protectors artists will buy to make drawing on a tablet feel more like drawing on paper. It works well enough for my chicken scratch.

The Note A1 NXTPAPER runs Android, has an 11.5-inch screen that's been TUV-certified for eye comfort, and can display 16.7 million colors and refresh at 120Hz (or up to 120 frames per second). Given that the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft can only display around 4,100 colors and has a 12-14 ms response time between inputs and updating the display, that's not bad.

And since there's Android here, you get a few other bonuses as well, like the ability to cast your notes or Powerpoints to a digital whiteboard. TCL hasn't said if the Note A1 will be certified for the Play Store yet, but if so, it'll also be easy to download any note taking apps you want, as well as additional goodies like comic book apps. With the high refresh rate, you could even use this notebook to watch videos.

As for what sets this apart from TCL's other NXTPAPER tablets, there's a stylus included, native support for file formats ranging from Word to PDF to Excel to EPUB, and connectivity for cloud storage services like Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. Plus, if you haven't guessed from the name, there are a bunch of AI features.

Credit: TCL

Much like the Viwoods AIPaper, the Note A1 has AI transcription, translation, summarization, rewriting, and handwriting-to-text features built-in. TCL hasn't said how these will work yet, but a brief video of the device in action shows small glimpses. Personally, I'm most interested in the "handwriting beautification" feature, and I could see people who like doing math longhand appreciating the "handwritten formula recognition."

The downside to all of this is that traditional screens don't tend to last nearly as long in between charges as E Ink ones, but with an 8,000mAh battery, TCL is hoping it can avoid that, even if it has yet to reveal official battery life numbers.

When it launches, the TCL NXTPAPER will start at $549, as compared to the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft's and Remarkable Paper Pro's $630. That's a pretty significant savings, and seems worth considering, especially if you can't decide between E Ink and LCD. It won't be quite as easy on the eyes as a Kindle, but it could be far less frustrating for fast writers, while still feeling less computer-y than something like an iPad.

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