Delightful Digital Notebook & E-Book Experience - 6 Month Supernote Nomad Review

After 6 months of use I'm happy to report that the Nomad e-book reader and digital notebook is awesome.

The features are thoughtful, construction is sustainable in parts, and you can even draw on it.

Hardware

The Nomad feels great and the design is pleasing. It's slim but with a suitable amount of weight. Interactivity with the pen feels surprisingly nice. There are a number of gestures that make navigating an easy experience.

Screen

Everybody's familiar with the pace of e-ink screens so there will be no surprise here. The contrast is very good and reading is easy.

Specs

The Nomad is 191x139mm with a 7.8" (19.82cm) diagonal screen (300 DPI), 32GB storage (expandable of course), 4GB RAM and a 2700 mAh replaceable battery. The power button and USB-C connector are on top, but the interface auto-rotates if you prefer to flip things around.

Navigation and Manual

The gestures and sidebars make navigation easy. Depending on the app you're in the controls will do different things. For example, while painting you can swipe down on the sidebar to undo or swipe up to redo.

Have a look at the Nomad manual here to find out about the extensive array of gestures.

Smart Pen

There are various pen options but I got the 12.5g Standard Pen which has 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and a ceramic nib that never needs to be replaced or charged.

The Nomad comes with a delightful painting app with various tools for getting creative (pencil, dip pen, marker, spray) and 16 levels of grey scale, and you can export it all to PSD.

Folio

Here again you have various options but I got the vegan leather (RoHS & REACH compliant) folio which provides great protection with its dual magnet lock on top and bottom. The case can accommodate either rotation depending on whether you like the USB port to be on the top or bottom. Small things but they add up.

Connectivity

If you don't have internet access you can still connect via an OTG thumb drive or local WiFi and all handwriting recognition is offline.

Left-handed? Right-handed?

Both are welcome here, orientation rotates automatically and because there are dual sidebars everyone is accommodated equally.

Sustainability

The screen film is made from environmentally friendly materials and part of the shell is made of bio-based materials. It is also anti-bacterial and free of phenols for those of you that suffer with common food-based allergens.

Repairability

The Nomad's battery can be easily replaced, ensuring a longer life.

Software

Sync

There are dedicated Windows/Mac apps for transferring files, events, your screen during a Zoom/Google Meet, and there's even the ability to send handwritten emails via Gmail/Outlook.

Reading

Reading Using the Nomad as an e-reader is a piece of cake. Just load in your PDF or EPUB files via USB, cloud, or the Supernote app and you're good to go. The experience is as comfortable as you'd expect, and you of course have access to the basics such as changing fonts, contrast, and zoom.

Working with documents

Included are some handy features for working with certain files such as trimming, exporting, creating bookmarks, digests, annotations, highlights, and comments.

Notes

The Nomad bills itself partly as a digital notebook, which is fitting given the dozens of templates on which you can take notes, make plans, and so on. The collection should be more than capable of fulfilling all of your note-taking needs. But there are also some thoughtful features that take advantage of the jump to digital that go beyond simple, static, notes.

Links

As the name implies, links are a clever way to bring connectivity to your notes using the zettelkasten method. The idea is that you can create a web of knowledge by linking together notes and documents from different places. It's a smart way to organise your thoughts and introduce structure, something that can be particularly helpful for people with ADHD, Autism, and other neurodivergence.

Headings and Keywords

Another tool aimed at helping with organising your Nomad digital notebook is the Headings and Keywords functionality. Select words that act as headings of your notebook, and then highlight keywords that belong in that heading. Then you can quickly and easily access a sort of table of contents which has those headings. As your notebooks become bigger this will be a great way to navigate quickly and efficiently.

Handwriting Recognition

Built in is the capability to recognise your handwriting (in 60 languages!) and convert that into text which can be exported a text or word document. This means that you can leave the keyboard at home but still be productive or take notes when inspiration or ideas strike.

Community

Supernote is an independent company based in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Washington. They have an active community on Reddit where you can provide feedback, read about updates, and get help if you need it. The company has also made their Trello public so it's interesting to see the direction they're taking.

Overall

Everything works and it works well, the Supernote Nomad is a treat to use!