Back in December 2021, I tried out the Supernote A5X e-ink notebook and was very, very impressed. Since then, I’ve been using the Supernote pretty much daily in place of pen and paper notebooks. All of my page layouts and thumbnails for the latest Graphic Novel Leah and I worked on were done digitally on the Supernote.
Only a month or so after my review, Ratta, the company behind Supernote, released a kernel upgrade that significantly improved things such as page turn times, and even battery life.
One of the other features added (via a previous upgrade) was “Gesture Erase”. Instead of having to switch between pen and eraser modes by clicking on the menu and selecting which you wanted to use, Gesture Erase allows users to place two fingers of their non-dominant hand on the surface of the Supernote to activate the eraser. Lift your fingers off, and you’re back to writing or drawing. Quick and simple as that. And it genuinely makes a huge difference to the flow of your writing or sketching.
Now, the Supernote Team have very kindly sent me a LAMY Al-star black EMR pen to try out with my Supernote.
The version of the LAMY AL-star Supernote supply comes with hard, rather than soft nibs (as you might use with a WACOM tablet). The body and lid of the pen are made of anodized aluminium, and it feels ever-so-slightly chunkier than the Heart of Metal pen I’m used to using (more like a very nice fine-liner compared to a very nice ballpoint). The thing the LAMY Al-star has which other pens don’t though, is one little button. Clicking the button on the pen’s grip activates the eraser, and releasing it brings you back to writing/drawing mode.
I was already completely used to using the Gesture Erase function, but I can’t deny that clicking a little button on the pen is even handier, easier, and more intuitive. It’s a small thing, but these little details can make all the difference.
Supernote products are now also available in Europe via www.gorillascribe.com