Penstar eNote: Unboxing and First Impressions of a New Touchless, but Interesting E-Ink Tablet

[@malvinavelia8234]

Voja in playful mode!! Love it!

[@0omisnews459]

I love the idea of a pen only device, especially when combined with a supernote pen and software

[@mattbarclay]

The rebuilding of the box was hilarious, a welcome addition to my morning. Also thanks for the first impressions video.

[@davidrussell9662]

I love the buttons!!! I want buttons!!

[@heartgungirl]

Thank you for the review, I was curious.

[@TechforRealLife]

Really looking forward to the in depth review. I struggle waaaaaay too much with palm touches and many times a day I get hijacked by them no matter what settings I tweak. A pen only device would help my struggles huge. Your review is giving me a lot to think about.

[@OlivierMalinur]

Very nice device for 2010.

[@blitherithicus]

Thanks for reviewing this gadget.

[@EgdeFilms]

Been waiting for this one. Subscribed!

[@EgdeFilms]

The buttons are a blessing and a curse. It could be the best eink tablet on the market with the customizable buttons but there NEEDS to be a way to remember which button does what. Maybe if they gave you stickers or some sort of symbol or markings on the buttons.

[@nanabai329]

Looking fowarf to the deep review before i get the boox go 10.3.

[@je4nsly]

Hi (I’m borrowing a friend’s account to ask this), does the Penstar pen work on any of the other devices? I can’t any clear information about what kind of stylus it is. Thanks! (Also, you trying to put that box back together was great, glad you didn’t edit that out, lol.)

[@johnsch8634]

No, it is Hanvon's ( a chinese company) proprietary version of the EMR tech and is not compatible with Wacom EMR pens or devices.

[@JMaxwell1000]

WOW! Another fantastic introduction from My Deep Guide. Your initial insights are very valuable and have helped me decide. The fact that you cannot convert handwriting to text when you're in offline mode is unfortunately a deal-breaker. Supernote A5X2 - I'm waiting for YOU! Many thanks to Voja for these excellent insights.

[@ninjad.musica9404]

I love that singing when opening the box 😂😸

[@BrwnEyedSouthernGurl]

Good morning Voja. Pocketbook is coming out with a new device (Pocketbook Color Note) shipping is October 15, I think. If you would, please review this one. Thank you.

[@dpav02]

The lack of touch would drive me crazy.

[@johnsch8634]

You'd think but it's only noticeable when you first use it or when going back and forth between devices.

[@torejorgensen5344]

Wish they had given it a bit more speed and memory. Hope they add long press and double press in a software update. For the notebook it would be nice if the insert shape could be used with libraries so you could add your own symbols for quickly sketching various types of diagrams. Though maybe the insert image can solve that. When you test it, can you think about wether the insert image is made in a good way for making diagrams? Price isn't bad, but they are (at the moment) only sending to a handfull of big countries.

[@torejorgensen5344]

Also check if there are more choices for the buttons available when selecting a specific app, so that you can for instance choose pen type or a drawing shape with a button press when inside the Notebook.

[@johnsch8634]

You could check the Hanvon N10, it's the same device for the Chinese market... maybe it's exported to your country. They have a pro version that's faster and has more memory.

[@litjellyfish]

It’s me again about shading with pencil. I could not see if the pencil tool allows you to use the white and greys as well or if it’s only support black color? :) thanks

[@YusufMumtaz]

I want to know more about the Table of Contents feature in Notes. How will it compare with the Headings feature in Supernote?

[@livexia]

I have hanvon n10, I really dislike the os, book management is really painful. Due to update I lost some annotation in pdf. I dont like the screen protector(original n10), newer version seems improved.Good hardware, but very bad OS. Looking forward on your further testing.

[@johnsch8634]

The OS isn't the best part, and the fact the last update for the 2023 n10 was December 2023 is going to make me not want to buy from them again. But I really like the hardware

[@livexia]

​@@johnsch8634 Yes, the hardware is great, the OS is terrible, and I always recommend against it. I had a few issues and reported them to customer service, and while most of them were handled quickly and customer service provided the latest version of the built-in apps to fix some of the issues, I eventually got tired of being a product tester because some issues were never fixed. The built-in apps don't even have push updates, and I really don't want to have to regularly call customer service for the latest version of the apps.

[@LeftyPencil]

Why luck using another pen with it?

[@livexia]

@@LeftyPencil No luck, I think only havon's pen will work, and there is a newer version pen for newer devices that I think won't work for old devices. boox pen(wacom) won't work.

[@johnsch8634]

I see Penstar hasn't done much to change the original Hanvon N10. Hanvon released a "pro" version with 300ppi a beefier CPU and android 14. But probably the same interface quirks and bugs. One Chinese youtuber hated the screen protector/film thing so much he tore it off, personally I kinda like it. This is the 2024 version, but my 2023 version came with a metal clip on the pen which fell off, but I fixed it with super glue. I imagine a plastic clip will break almost instantly.

[@inveele]

I hated all the Boox devices I tried, but I really liked the Penstar. Android but with just the right amount of complexity. Touching on screen with pen does not bother me, as in exchange you get a whiter screen (I was so disappointed with the grayish screen of Boox Go 10.3, for example). With an updated ram and harddrive, this Penstar package would beat all Boox devices for me. I haven't tried a Supernote. For the past week I have been using this device, I have been loving it (Despite the mispronounced button names here and there 😂)

[@SteamyPMcGee]

Glad to read your perspective as I couldn't understand who would want this and why. Thanks.

[@MattMazer-gr2dd]

what exactly is reflow?

[@rush48192]

i believe the site says andriod 11

[@RossMcCarthy-qk3yp]

I love how shameless they were in stealing the design of the card for the reMarkable 2 nibs

[@jthomas4057]

Would consider this except for the fact it is running Android 11, which is already past end of life with no further security updates.

[@wiertara1337]

About those pen pressure sensitivity levels - can anyone notice the difference between 4000 and 8000 levels? I doubt that... 🤔

[@wiertara1337]

Btw, great video as always, Voja!

[@johnsch8634]

not likely, and the software didn't do much better with only 4000 levels in the 2023 model.

[@5idi]

15 nibs 😱

[@johnsch8634]

nibs are cheap

[@5idi]

@@johnsch8634 It"s not about money, it's more about the gesture, althought original nibs (for other brands - didn't check this one) are arguably expensive. Samsung original tips aren't even sold separately. To find a good cheap replacement is a challenge.

[@designdisorder]

No matter how good the hardware is, mediocre software kills the experience in total. One of the reasons why I still like the rM.

[@litjellyfish]

Well I mean the software / UI for remarkable have been pretty mediocre as well. What they did get good from the beginning was the pressure art / writing took feeling I must say

[@MaxPlanck-hq1pp]

Cancle instead of Cancel...

[@johnsch8634]

There's quite a lot of that in the OS. They did a few updates that improved the English, but then I think they just gave up on it.

[@juanledezma5455]

UI looks like Onyx boot

[@rush48192]

or you can just turn off touch on your boox

[@MyDeepGuide]

But you don't have the buttons.

[@robintree3306]

First comment 😊