Notebooks are extensions of our minds, a place to explore thoughts and to preserve them. Like minds, notebooks are not created equally.

Notebooks aren’t just pen-to-paper systems anymore. Terms like smart notebooks, digital notebooks, cloud-based notebooks, and other variants are making their way into notebook marketing.

We’re going to look at three affordable notebooks and the digital systems designed around to inform you of how they work and to give you an idea of what might be an ideal option for you.

Why Digitally Store Notebooks?

The kind of people who value taking notes are convinced that they have a gem of an idea on a page just waiting for the right time to shine. Charles Darwin, for instance, had notes on the Origin of Species that were sat for decades only to later to help him develop the Theory of Evolution.

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

However, we don’t live in the same world as Charles Darwin. This is the 21st century — we have a lot of things going on. Think about our hard drives, our workspaces, and our homes. We hoard/collect/curate and just have way more information at our disposal than Darwin ever did. And when that day comes where your idea is the solution to the next big thing, or when your personal eureka moment happens, you need to be able to access those precious thoughts you wrote down when inspiration struck years ago, without heading to the attic to sort through boxes of musty smelling, moisture-damaged, yellowed paper parchments, only to end up frustrated at your lack of archival abilities.

So, we have an app for that.

Pen, to paper, to cloud — that’s what we’re going to focus on. Enter the Rocketbook, Hamelin notebooks, and the Thinker’s Notebook. These three systems have been chosen because they’re affordable and efficient. Plus, I’ve tried all three of these notebooks so you don’t have to.

(note: I’m not an affiliate for any of these products)

Explaining Digital and Cloud-Based Notetaking Systems

There are essentially two ways to store your precious notes in the cloud after you scan them with your smartphone or tablet:

Through a single app-based system and/or by syncing it with other office and/or notetaking applications, such as Google Drive, OneNote, Evernote, Dropbox, and similar apps.

Here’s what I’d suggest. If handwriting notes has been your jam up to this point, meaning that you don’t have Word docs, Google Docs, Apple Notes, Google Keep, Evernote, or Microsoft Onenote, and you don’t frequently access your notes in these types of apps, then relying on a single-app system is a decent way to go.

A peek into my OneNote System

If you already have notes scattered on the internet through various cloud platforms and apps, or you rely on a robust digital notetaking application such as OneNote and Evernote, then single app-based systems can be limiting.

Here’s the advantage of single app-based systems and a bit of an explanation. What I mean by a single app is that the app’s primary function is to store scans of your notes within the application and to organize them in-house. Essentially what you’re doing is taking a picture of your note and creating photo albums/folders for your notes, which is what The Thinker’s Notebook app and Hamelin’s Scribzee app do. Sure, you can share these notes with other apps, moving the image files over to something like Evernote, although this is quite cumbersome with the Hamelin and Thinker’s apps in comparison to what Rocketbook offers. Also, the Thinker’s and Hamelin apps are quite limited in their functionality and perhaps, more importantly, the Thinker’s doesn’t work well, or at all, with OCR, which allows you to search your own handwriting — which in my opinion is a gamechanger.

You can’t beat the Rocketbook system when it comes to playing nice with the user and other apps.

from the Rocketbook Press Kit

First, it’s OCR functionality is incredible. If you treat the Rocketbook app like a single app-based system and keep all your scans on the app, you can then enter a few keywords in the app’s search bar and find any notes containing your handwritten keywords. My handwriting isn’t the best, especially when I’m working quickly, but I can’t say enough about the job Rocketbook does in this department, making sense of my chicken scratch. Keep in mind, I’m printing — OCR really isn’t all that possible with cursive.

Second, getting your notes to other apps is a breeze with Rocketbook. You can do this after you scan, or, you can preset seven destinations within the app that are linked to a symbol. These symbols are at the bottom of every page. Simply put an “x” on the appropriate symbol or multiples, and when you scan it will automatically sync to the destination of your choice. This could be to a Google Drive folder, an email address, or a notebook section within apps Microsoft Onenote or Evernote.

Plus, it’s fast. There’s no need to press the shutter — just hold it over and the app takes care of the rest.

It’s not worth doing a detailed app-to-app comparison. Rocketbook is superior due to its flexible nature compared to Hameline’s Scribzee app along with the Thinker’s Notebook app.

There are workarounds to Hamelin’s and Thinker’s issues, which I’ll mention at the end of this article, along with some drawbacks of the Rocketbook system. Of course, you also have to consider the pen-to-paper experience when thinking about what product you’re planning to pull the trigger on.

The Look Good, Think Good, Feel Good, Review…

Let’s face it, you’re an adult now. You don’t want a notebook that looks like something your grade school teacher handed you. You’re a professional and you need to look like one.

Rocketbook Core (formerly known as Everlast)

When you first get this notebook you’re going to feel like you’re in the future. The pages are plastic. This is because the Rocketbook Core is supposed to last forever and carries reusable pages. You must combine it with Pilot Frixion erasable pens and highlighters. By doing so, you need only to dampen the microfiber cloth Rocketbook provides to wipe your pages clean of your thoughts, of course, after you beam them securely to the cloud.

from the Rocketbook Press Kit

This notebook is a conversation starter when you’re with colleagues given its appearance. I use the executive size version, which fits great in bags and folios.

However, some traditionalists scoff at the pen to paper experience. It feels a bit more like writing on a whiteboard and you don’t get that satisfying scratchy sound along with the little vibration running from the pen through to your brain that comes with the typical pen-to-paper feel.

Furthermore, it takes about 10 seconds for the ink to dry on a page. If you’re one of those people who like flipping note page to note page, you’re in for a smudgy mess. Some say this forces them to be more deliberate and efficient with their notetaking, however, it’s a limitation nonetheless. On top of that, ghost marks of old notes will appear faintly behind your new ink after about six months of heavy use. It’s nowhere near the ghosting Rocketbook’s microwavable notebook (The Wave), and it doesn’t show up on your scans, but it might be a distraction to some.

The curling I speak of…

To add to that, after about a year of use, my Everlast’s pages started to curl due to the moisture caused by wiping the pages. It’s still usable and the degree of curl fluctuates depending on how you store it and how often you use it, but it wreaks havoc on the best part of the Rocketbook digital note-taking system — the effectiveness of the paper to digital process. As the pages curve, even slightly, the camera system has a difficult time picking up which symbol you ticked off at the bottom of your page which represents its destination. I’ve frustratingly had to go through my notebook sections in OneNote to find and delete multiple redundant notes after the app sent it to multiple destinations. Of course, a workaround would be to simply apply destinations manually after you scan your note, however, knowing that there’s a better option is frustrating.

Price for Executive Notebook: $32 USD for 36 pages (the highest cost of the three)

The Hamelin

image courtesy of Hamelin

There are a lot of great features to these notebooks: a hardcover, Optik-white paper that prevents bleed through (it’s nice and thick) meaning when you flip the page the notes on the backside are less pronounced, a bookmarks tabs package, clean tear lines so you can remove and place in notebook’s pocket pages, and three-hole-punched pages for the letter-sized notebooks (coming in both lined and dot pages). These make the Hamelin one of the most functional and satisfying notebooks on the market.

I find myself using the executive size (8”x10”) lined version quite often. It’s big enough to play within a page and expand on your thoughts and it’s small enough to lug around either in a bag, folio, briefcase, or while juggling your phone, pens, and a mug of coffee on your way to a staff meeting.

It’s a satisfying notebook to write in. Some might be put off by the multi-colouring options — they’re quite bright. Perhaps some want more of an, “I’m an executive look,” but that’s not something that bothers me.

Price for 8”x10” version $8.99 for 150 pages

Price for 8”x11.5” version (1 subject) $9.99 for 150 pages — 3 subject is $12.99 for 180 pages

(Most affordable of the three reviewed)

The Thinker’s Notebook

This 9”x6” little notebook is perhaps the most interesting. It’s durable, looks good, and its biggest highlight is its binding.

image courtesy of Thinker’s

Actually, the disc-bound binding one of the most innovative things I’ve seen in a notebook. You can easily tear out a page and reinsert it to another spot in the notebook. After a tiny bit of research, I saw that other notebook systems have disc bound options, however, we’ll keep this to notebook systems that marketing themselves as paper and digital hybrids.

I was quite skeptical at first with this system. I thought the pages would begin to rip and degrade the more you tear and re-insert. However, after testing it out, this doesn’t appear to be the case, unless you start needlessly playing within the system. By that point, you should just deal with move on to a binder. The paper is of high quality. It feels good to write in and to hold onto.

image courtesy of Thinker’s

But here’s my complaint. The pages are in landscape mode, or horizontal, or not like how any notebook I’ve ever encountered is laid out. They also do this neat little thing where the print lines on one side of the page and dots on the back, but I prefer one or the other. Furthermore, there’s a lot of other things on the page, such as a date and title section along with a big old QR code looking thing that eats into the page real-estate.

I thought I could get over the layout. With bindings like this, I wanted this notebook to be the one. The name “Thinkers” spoke to me and the customer exclusive Thinker’s Workshop (valued at $99 but free with the purchase of a notebook) is actually a nice little online community to be a part of. But, I’m struggling with how to organize my thoughts with this one. I’m using it as a topic exclusive (in this case, music) fashion and just ignoring the line layout and going vertical.

Price: $19.99 for 50 pages, but refills are $9.99.

And The Look Good, Think Good, Feel Good Winner Is…

image courtesy of Hamelin

The Hamelin. It’s versatile, satisfying to write in, and efficient. The Rocketbook Core and Thinker’s Notebook have problems in that category. Plus, it’s the best-priced.

Although Hameline succeeds in the paper game, where it falters is in the cloud and digital arenas.

However, there’s a way to work around that.

Microsoft Office Lens.

Microsoft Office Lens is a slick scanner app that has OCR and scanner capabilities on par with Rocketbook. If you already use Microsoft apps, especially OneNote, you need this product. It scans more than notebooks, appropriately finding the edges of paper documents, photos, and whiteboards with ease.

I actually use this to scan my Hamelin notes to OneNote and could do the same with my Thinker’s Notebook.

SO WHO’S THE WINNER?

Really, this depends on your workflow syncing with online apps. If you’re someone just looking for a decent backup system for your handwritten notes, I’d suggest either the Hameline or the Thinker’s Notebook and their companion apps. Choosing between the two would depend on your handwriting preferences.

If you’re like me, consider yourself tech-savvy, and have thousands of notes already on the cloud, I do recommend that you use Microsoft OneNote as your main repository. It’s much more affordable than Evernote, and with Microsoft Office Lens, you could zap notes from all three listed notebooks into the system. Really, Microsoft Office Lens lets you turn any notebook into a “smart” notebook, however, in an era where companies are marketing their smart, digital, and cloud notebook technology, the purpose of this article is to help you get a better understanding of what’s out their and what’s best to purchase for yourself.

This is what I’m going to use.

I’m going to continue to use the Hameline as my goto notebook. Once the pages run out on there, I might consider the Rocketbook One. It’s a paper version of the Rocketbook Core, and while it doesn’t tout the physical quality of Hameline notebooks, I wouldn’t mind having a notebook with super effective cloud sharing capabilities for a day to day multi-subject application.

A note on sustainability….

Rocketbook prides itself on sustainability and reusability, however, there will come a time where you’ll need to throw out your Rocketbook, due to ghost marks and other degradation. Given its plastic content, I’m not sure if the material will linger around Earth for the next million years. Hamelin also touts its sustainability factor, giving where it sources its product from and that paper is a renewable product. The truth is, we’re not entirely sure what’s more sustainable in the long run, however, we should be mindful of sustainable practice when making a purchase.