Author: Paolo Alfio, a priest of the Catholic Church in Sudan

I have been using my Supernote A5X on a daily basis for almost a year now. I chose it after seeing numerous comparisons between the various commercially available digital ink writing devices. Before buying it, I then followed various reviews on YouTube, from various channels, such as: Pixel leaves, Good e-reader, Kit betts -masters and My deep guide. My use of the device is mainly in areas of central Africa where the temperatures are very high, the environment very dusty and the power supply conditions are often precarious. Despite this, to date I am very satisfied with the purchase of this device and must admit that over time it has far exceeded my expectations.

Its usefulness, as far as my use of the device is concerned, does not lie in replacing the computer (which is still my essential work tool), nor in replacing the tablet, nor in reading books in electronic format. To this day, in fact, I use the device together with the computer to take notes from books or resources in digital format, together with the tablet in conference presentations, or as a note-taker on the books I read in digital format. 

Compared to other devices in the same category, Supernote A5X seemed to me to be a winner because of its simple software system, reduced to the essentials, with short learning times and intuitive. Its hardware is elegant, but above all with a page available large enough for large notes that can be used often. The functionality of converting the notes into PNG or PDF format inside the device is very useful for managing my notes on my computer or in the Cloud, which is also very useful.   

In the management of my daily work, in fact, Supernote has been the ultimate solution for the management of my notes, my writings, and in general to the use of traditional paper and punishment. Before I bought it, I used to use a lot of notes, notebooks, diaries of all kinds with the result often of losing precious notes, thoughts useful for my work and having to carry a large amount of paper everywhere and always with its weight, space and the difficulty of having several notebooks where, depending on the subjects, I would accumulate my notes. Some time after its use, I can say that Supernote has replaced the use of paper, to this day it is the one place where I keep all my notes, with very little space, very little weight and the convenience of always having everything at hand. 

I found the recent Chauvet 2.5.17 update very useful because it further widens the page available for notes, eliminating the space taken up by the options bar and, below it, by the number of pages in the file title. I also really liked the new pen stroke size, eraser and highlighter options in this update, although more can still be done in this area by increasing the number of stroke types, their size and colouring. I find the tool that cuts, copies and pastes very useful, and the tool that diversifies the various layers almost of no use. The Digest is also a tool that has revolutionised the way I read and take notes!

It would be important, in my opinion, to develop the software further by giving the possibility of being able to select, copy and use parts of text from files that are read from the device in the various formats, in the notes. This would increase the connection between notes and the texts that are read in the device. 

Still the feeling between the pen (I have a Lamy) and the screen is perhaps too close to the feeling of writing 'on a credit card' (Supernote was designed to feel closer to a gel/ballpoint pen than a pencil), which could be corrected with the development of a different type of pen. The Folio is very useful and elegant, but unfortunately it is incompatible with the larger case, which has no space for the pen (this large case is no longer for sale anyway). About the folio the only weak element is the interior that once it gets dirty and has stains, it is very difficult to clean.

Overall I am very happy with my experience with my Supernote and I think that in the future devices like this will change the way we think about how we write, connect our ideas and collect our thoughts.