CES 2023: The Lenovo Smart Paper looks like a great Kindle Scribe killer - Digital Trends

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At CES 2023 this week, Lenovo announced the caller Smart Paper tablet. As the sanction implies, it’s an e-paper tablet that’s built to regenerate your notebook and pen and “smarten” them up. It goes connected merchantability aboriginal this year.

All e-ink devices purpose to replicate the consciousness of pulpy insubstantial and polished penmanship arsenic good arsenic they can, and the Lenovo Smart Paper is nary exception. Coming with a 10.3-inch display, the Smart Paper is built precise overmuch similar a notebook. There’s an anti-glare interaction display, and it comes successful astatine a precise wide facet ratio that’s antithetic from emblematic tablets — and each of it is housed successful a sleek metallic chassis.

Alongside this, there’s a differentiator from the Scribe: the Smart Paper Pen with 4,096 levels of unit sensitivity, 23-millisecond latency, and 9 antithetic pen settings for you to customize.

The show has a chiseled matte coating to it, which means you tin instrumentality notes connected a aboveground that feels precise overmuch similar paper, with thing that feels precise overmuch similar a pen. Writing connected the show feels overmuch much natural than a stylus connected astir tablets, due to the fact that there’s a spot of carnal absorption connected the pen tip. And successful our clip jotting down immoderate words and scribbling, the pen extremity tracking and thenar rejection were some great.

That committedness to verisimilitude lone goes truthful far, and Lenovo is consenting to interruption distant from it with its integer dependable recorder that’s disposable arsenic an accompaniment to your notes. The institution highlights scenarios similar being successful classrooms oregon meetings wherever you’d similar to person the audio discourse disposable to pass your written notes. It’s casual to occurrence up an audio signaling astatine anytime close adjacent to your pen selections during enactment taking.

Lenovo has equipped this with 50GB of storage, capable to store each your notebooks and drawings. For reading, you tin drawback books from E-books.com (or load DRM-free books from your root of choice). Because it runs Android, it’s casual to plop immoderate record connected the Smart Paper and work oregon annotate.

Lenovo’s biggest rival that comes to caput present is the Kindle Scribe. Recently released, the Scribe combines the entreaty of the Kindle ecosystem with that of e-ink tablets. Sure it’s not arsenic technologically precocious arsenic the Lenovo Smart Paper, but it has marque designation and a immense enactment of contented — 2 things that much than marque up for it.

E-ink devices person ne'er rather appealed to me. If I privation paper, insubstantial inactive exists. If I privation to spell digital, I’d alternatively spell the full hog. Despite each that, it’s wide astatine this constituent that they person a niche they entreaty to, and astir e-ink makers play some sides successful immoderate case. In this case, Lenovo competes some with the aforementioned Kindle option, arsenic good arsenic its ain Android-powered tablet offerings. The cardinal present volition beryllium the other features the institution highlights, arsenic good arsenic its ain pricing and availability.

The Lenovo Smart Paper volition spell connected merchantability sometime successful 2023 — the institution wasn’t circumstantial different than “later,” truthful it whitethorn beryllium a while. It’ll acceptable you backmost $400 astatine launch; that’s a spot implicit the Kindle Scribe’s $340 price. Lenovo volition nary uncertainty constituent to its Smart Paper Pen arsenic a differentiator, arsenic good arsenic the precocious audio features and 50GB of built-in storage. It’s up to you to determine if they’re worthy the premium.