4 Best Smart Notebooks, Tested and Reviewed

Look no further than the ReMarkable 2 if you’re seeking a smart notebook that comes closest to feeling like real paper but can transform handwritten notes into easy-to-read text. Although our pros acknowledge that investing time is necessary to become comfortable with ReMarkable’s numerous features, this smart notebook remains a top choice for avid notetakers seeking to organize digitally without the distractions of a tablet.

To access unlimited cloud storage and sync notes across your smartphone and laptop, you’ll need a $2.99 per month Connect subscription, which ultimately can make the ReMarkable 2 as expensive as a tablet. But if you go without the subscription, you’ll still have access to integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and email. That means you can send your meeting notes to Google Drive directly from your notebook.

HOW IT PERFORMED IN OUR TESTS: The 10.3-inch display gives ample room for note-taking, and we found the device both lightweight and comfortable to hold. We’re especially fond of the numerous writing utensil options that are included, such as the choice among ballpoint pen, pencil, paintbrush, calligraphy, and more. Though we wish more ink colors were available for sketching and that the display featured a backlight for low-light situations (similar to some e-readers and tablets on the market), we like that this smart notebook automatically digitizes your notes (no phone scans necessary!) and stores them for future use.

READ OUR FULL REVIEW: ReMarkable 2 Tablet

This new and improved 32-page lined notebook from Rocketbook comes with a Pilot Frixion pen and microfiber cloth, so you can wipe away your notes or doodles and start anew. It's available in two sizes: letter and executive.

Before watching your ink disappear, grab your smartphone to capture a photo and safely store your notes in the Rocketbook app. Our pros found the process of saving notes in the app both intuitive and easy. We loved that you can email your handwritten notes or send them to a destination such as Google Drive, Evernote, Dropbox, OneDrive, and more directly from the app. You can even turn handwriting into text for certain destinations by enabling "OCR Transcription." Just don't expect this to work across all platforms outside of email, Evernote, OneNote, and Google Drive.

HOW IT PERFORMED IN OUR TESTS: Our pros found it easier than expected to wipe down pages with a damp cloth and were impressed by the resulting clean, blank page—though we're curious to see how pages look after extended reuse. We would have preferred Rocketbooks to come with a Bluetooth-connected pen that automatically captures content, but we like that the FriXion is easy to replace should you lose it.

The Pilot FriXion is actually a Good Housekeeping Seal Holder and "smart" in the sense that it uses technology that allows the pen's ink to be erased by using friction. If you want a smaller notebook, our pros also recommend the Rocketbook Mini, as well as the Rocketbook Fusion, or Rocketbook Pro if you’re looking for various page layouts to help with daily organization.

Combine an e-reader with a smart notebook and you get the Kindle Scribe. Like with most Kindles, you can download books straight to your device, but with the Scribe, you can also jot down notes and make to-do lists in the notebook section.

While this e-reader is larger than other Kindles and has a border on the left that’s larger than we’d like, our experts found it intuitive to use, fast, and responsive. It also has a claimed 12-week battery life, so you don’t have to worry about it dying on you anytime soon. Plus, avid readers will especially appreciate that you can take handwritten notes on a book’s text via sticky notes. Just keep in mind that the Scribe cannot sync your notes with popular platforms such as Google Drive or Dropbox, but you can email them to yourself to save them on another device.

HOW IT PERFORMED IN OUR TESTS: We were impressed by how nice it felt writing on the Scribe’s 10.2-inch Paperwhite display, which isn’t exactly like paper but definitely doesn’t feel like a traditional tablet. We also love the comfortable feel of the included pen, which features a handy button that you can program to highlight notes or change the pen’s tip to pen, fountain pen, marker, or pencil.

If you’re a loyal user of Moleskine notebooks and love their look and feel, then this smarter version was made for you. Unlike every other smart notebook on this list, the Moleskine Smart Writing Set gives you the best of both worlds, allowing you to digitize your notes on the Moleskine app while still holding on to your paper version in a physical Moleskine smart notebook.

We recommend this upgraded Moleskine for working professionals or college students who prefer taking handwritten notes but could benefit from a digitized version. Though we wish you could reuse your notebooks once you’ve filled them up, a replacement notebook is fortunately similarly priced to standard Moleskines.

HOW IT PERFORMED IN OUR TESTS: While it’s pricey, our pros were blown away by how effectively handwritten notes and sketches were transformed into a digital copy in the Notes App in real-time, thanks to the included smart pen. Plus, even if you don’t have the app open as you write, your notes will be saved directly to the pen and later synced into the app. We found that the pen paired to Bluetooth quickly and that the compatible Notes app was easy to use for sharing work.