Up next in 10
The Penstar eNote N10 is a Great Budget Device – But is LACKING
3K views
Dec 4, 2024
After reviewing a competitor's tablet, Penstar wanted me to check out their new offering! This eNote N10 electronic e-ink notebook. After quite a while of using it daily, here are my thoughts: Exactly what I liked about it, didn't like about it, and who it is for! You can buy your own eNote N10 here (Paid Link): https://amzn.to/4ibyrjI Rather read the article version? You can read that here: https://gear43.com/penstar-enote-10-review
View Video Transcript
0:00
all right everyone let's talk about the
0:01
pentar penar eote in 10 I think that's
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how you say it now a while back as you
0:09
guys know I reviewed the supernote Nomad
0:12
and I was pretty impressed with it now
0:14
it didn't start off all amazing however
0:16
however I grew to really really enjoy
0:18
that tablet and well Penstar saw that
0:20
video and they reached out to me as they
0:21
were coming out with a 10in version of
0:24
their tablet and they wanted to give it
0:26
to me to see if I liked it and so I did
0:29
that I wanted to try it out and I wanted
0:31
to continue learning more about
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minimalist notebook taking electronic
0:36
devices and that kind of stuff and so in
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this video after using I think about a
0:39
month month and a half I'm going to let
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you guys know what I like about it what
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I don't like about it and exactly who
0:45
this Writing Tablet is for and so stay
0:48
tuned for that but before we do if you
0:50
guys do want to purchase this tablet I
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do have a link down in the description
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and the top comment it is a paid link
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and I appreciate if you guys do use it
0:58
as I do get a commission if you use that
0:59
link but let's go ahead and move right
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into it before we get into things that I
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do like about the tablet I want to talk
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first about what it is it is a 10.3 in e
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in display notet taking tablet now it's
1:12
based I think on Android 11 however it
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has its complete own overlay over top of
1:16
it meaning basically it has all of its
1:18
own software you can technically Sid
1:20
load applications onto it like the Play
1:22
Store however I tend to review and use
1:25
products as they come box so I didn't do
1:27
any of that and I used basically only
1:29
the appc apption built into the device
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now unlike a lot of other devices that
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it's competing with it does not have
1:34
multi-touch and it only works with the
1:36
stylus that's included with it and the
1:39
stylus does have a button which is
1:40
basically an undo button and then you
1:42
can flip the stylus around to basically
1:44
work as an eraser and then it does also
1:46
come with the folio already installed
1:48
now at the time of making this video
1:50
it's around
1:51
$369 meaning its base price is more
1:54
expensive than the Nomad that I also
1:57
reviewed but when you look at getting
1:58
the accessories that you should have
2:00
with the Nomad this is actually a
2:02
considerably cheaper alternative because
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everything comes with it in the box now
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outside of using the stylus there are a
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bunch of buttons on the left hand side
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of the screen that basically work as the
2:11
multi-touch instead of being multi-touch
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and they are mostly all mappable except
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for the top one which is basically a
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button you use to basically set the
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mappable buttons now it may not come
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with a Kindle application but if you
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have PDFs you can read books on it it
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has a built-in application for writing
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things you can technically access your
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email on however the experience is it's
2:32
not amazing and then you can even browse
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the internet using a built-in browser
2:36
you can listen to music and there are
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some cloud services associated with it
2:40
as well and that's the basic gist of it
2:43
and for those people that really care
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let's get into some of the detailed
2:45
specs it comes with 32 GB of onboard
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storage has a 1.8 GHz 4 core processor 2
2:52
GB of RAM and has a 227 PPI screen
2:55
resolution and of course thankfully it
2:58
has been updated and does us USBC
3:00
charging which charges up a 6,000
3:02
milliamp battery and just in case you're
3:04
wondering it weighs in at 86 lb is 198
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mm wide and 226 mm high and for those
3:12
that have glazed over because they don't
3:13
care about specifications let's move on
3:15
to my opinion on the things that I do
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like about the tablet all right so
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number one thing that I like it comes
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down to the writing experience and I
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don't know what they did but this thing
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feels just like writing on paper like
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it's no joke it's just as slick it's not
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gummy it really really does feel like
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paper it feels like you're drawing on a
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normal piece of paper I'm sure it has to
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do with the coating that they have on
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the screen matched with the stylist that
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it comes with it genuinely does feel
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like it's writing on the screen and that
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also kind of comes down to the stylus
3:44
the stylus itself is actually pretty
3:46
light now I'm used to heavier styluses
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to go along with these tablets in this
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lighter plasticky stylus actually feels
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a lot like a pencil it's the right
3:54
diameter it's light weight and it feels
3:57
really nice in the hands now I think the
3:59
button placement on it is a little bit
4:01
off because when I write like it's a
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normal pencil I do accidentally hit that
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back button every once in a while but
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overall I have to say the writing
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experience like the physical writing
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experience of this tablet is the best
4:12
I've used so far the number two thing I
4:14
like is its price point now its base
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price point like I mentioned earlier is
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$369 and The Nomad that it's competing
4:21
with is
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$299 however when you go with a nomad
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and when you get things like the pen and
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the folio it gets almost to around $500
4:29
and those are accessories that you have
4:30
to have really for that Nomad otherwise
4:32
it doesn't really make sense and wi $369
4:35
gets you basically all of that and makes
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it a fully usable drawing tablet that's
4:39
actually a pretty compelling price point
4:41
the number three thing is the home
4:43
screen I really like the home screen
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I've not been a big fan of a lot of
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these drawing tablets home screens they
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feel more like file systems rather than
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a home screen like you're used to on a
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smartphone and I have to say they did a
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very very good job on their home screen
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it's extremely usable it's all laid out
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really well it's not exactly like what
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you would expect from a standard Android
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phone or anything like that but it is
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all easy to use you know how to get into
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things and you don't have to go hunting
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into different menus that are placed in
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different places you have to swipe
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different places to get to it it just it
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works really really well and then the
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last thing that I really like about the
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tablet comes down to its 10.3 in screen
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diagonal I like the bigger screen it is
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really nice now it isn't quite as
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portable not something that's quite as
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easy to throw into your backpack as a
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smaller screen version however having
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that larger screen real state is really
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nice when you're drawing uh and writing
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things you can fit more on a single
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piece of paper instead of having swap
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between Windows to make it work and so I
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really did like the screen real estate
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that this thing gave you but that leads
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me into the things that I don't like
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about the tablet and that number one
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thing is while I enjoy the physical
5:50
writing experience of the tablet I
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actually wasn't a huge fan of the
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software behind it it always felt like
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there was a little bit of a lag when
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you're drawing so basically you kind of
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move the pencil along the screen and
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then you know the line kind of is like a
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millimeter behind it while it's trying
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to catch up I think that actually comes
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down to the refresh rate I think it's
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actually a lower screen refresh rate
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than the competitors meaning it takes a
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little bit more time for that you know
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the drawing to basically show up on the
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screen and I was a bit bummed out by
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that I also have to say I didn't super
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like the software behind switching out
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you know kind of styles of pens and how
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the actual like writing Works uh I
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wasn't a huge fan of the software it
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wasn't as easy to get to and be able to
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change your pen preferences and stuff uh
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than what I'm used to with some other
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products and then number two thing that
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I didn't like is the lack of multi-touch
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so so while it comes with everything you
6:43
need like the folio and the pen and
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stuff it's really difficult to use when
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you don't use those things now again
6:50
going back to the Nomad that I had used
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before it does have multi-touch on it so
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you can use it on its own you can take
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the folio off you can leave the pen
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behind and you can still easily read
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books using multi touch you can swipe
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all of those things and the pen star
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just kind of was a bit disappointing you
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never felt like you could fully use the
7:06
tablet without using the pen and the
7:09
folio which means you have to carry
7:10
those things around with you you have
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that added bulk and I wish it had that
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now I'm sure they did that to keep it at
7:15
a price point and a little bit more
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budget price point but I just never felt
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like I could move away from using the
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folio or that stylus and using the
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tablet on its own now you technically
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can by using the side buttons uh but I I
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think the normal person never will map
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those out to make it so that's it's
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anywhere as easy as using multi-touch
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hey guys so I actually got an email from
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penar specifically about this part and
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they said that it was actually
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deliberate it sounds like a lot of their
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customers uh would prefer to have a
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really goodlooking screen and it sounds
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like multi-touch in some of the
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additional layers on the tablet uh made
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it so it didn't feel as paper like to
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read on so they decided to do away with
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multi-touch I'm sure it helped out with
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budget but but I wanted to say that as
8:00
maybe there are people out there that
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are more concerned with having it feel
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more like paper rather than necessarily
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needing multi touch so that's pretty
8:08
interesting and then number three thing
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that I didn't like about it is it didn't
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include a ton of good applications now
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it had the basics it has a drawing app
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which is also paired with a note taking
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app which was a bit of a bummer because
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you don't have a lot of the flexibility
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would expect from like a dedicated
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artwork application and so I was a bit
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bummed by that and then the other that
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kind of bothered me is it didn't come
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with Kindle it didn't come with a Kindle
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application which is a big boner because
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that's where all of my books are and
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it's probably where a lot of your books
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are and these e notebooks work really
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really well for reading and that's just
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not something you'd want to do all that
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much on this tablet unless you start
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side loading applications onto it which
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takes a skill set on its own now of
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course it did come with some
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applications that like The Nomad didn't
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such as a web browser you can't even get
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on the web on The Nomad but you can on
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the pen star so like I was just you know
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kind of surfing around on gear 43.com
9:01
and on just an eink tablet which was you
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know kind of cool and that wraps up the
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things that I don't like about the
9:06
tablet so who is this for if this is
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somebody that needs a bigger screen and
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they really are exclusively using it for
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note taking this actually is a pretty
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good tablet because it comes with
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everything you need you don't have to
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make any choices you just order it shows
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up it works and that is about it however
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if you're looking for a more flexible
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tablet it allows for easier reading this
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may not be that tablet for you unless
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you really really want to get into side
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loading applications which at that point
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a lot of apps are built around
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multitouch and it may not work quite as
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well on this tablet so I don't know if
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you are somebody that takes notes and
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that's all you need you just need to
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digitize your notes this is a fantastic
9:44
option it's probably one of the best
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price it has the best screen it has
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really really nice writing capabilities
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but if you're running anything more than
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that I probably would recommend going a
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different direction now if you are
9:56
somebody that that does sound like again
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I do have a paid link down in the
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description and the top comment and but
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if you're somebody that that is not
10:03
great for make sure to watch this video
10:05
right here as that might be a better
10:07
option for you
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