Note taking is, and always will be, the heart of collaboration. Either on paper, your computer or via an AI, notes are crucial for everyone. Rocketbook has designed a reusable notebook that apparently you should be able to use again, and again, and again. I took that from the “important tips” I received with my Rocketbook Everlast. But, let’s get straight to the point here. I can’t use it once – let alone again, again and again.
What is the Rocketbook Everlast?
Excited to use my Everlast properly, I read through the instructions. I should be able to write notes in my specialised notebook, upload them to a Slack channel of my choice or send them to anybody by email, simply by scanning the page via an app on my smartphone. For anybody that takes regular notes – office managers, project managers, marketers, journalists, literally everybody takes notes – this should be the simple technology that stops us from going through reams and reams of paper.
Using the Rocketbook Everlast
The pen and paper feel is near perfect. In fact, it is perfect. If you offered your Rocketbook pen and notepad to a colleague, they would have no idea that it wasn’t a regular pen and notepad. Therefore the user experience is nailed down. Nobody can say “I can’t use this” and revert back to pen and paper.
The next stage is doing something with your notes. Depending on the model of Rocketbook you buy, you can upload to Google Drive, Evernote, Dropbox, OneDrive, OneNote, Slack, Box, iCloud, iMessage or email. I use Slack so thought I’d post my notes to a random channel to show off how cool my birthday present was and how I was going to save the trees one piece of paper at a time. However, scanning my notes from my iPhone X took me a good 90 seconds to get right the first time. The second time, even longer. Seemingly, there was no nack to scanning.
Scanning notes
I persevered and uploaded my notes to Slack and emailed them to myself – just in case. The notes arrived on my Slack channel and in my inbox. I was underwhelmed. After the amount of time it took to scan the notes, I essentially have a photo of my notes in my Slack channel. To take a photo of my notes and upload manually to Slack or email would have taken me 10 times less than using the Rocketbook app. Literally. I timed it.
Re-using the Rocketbook Everlast
I thought I could use my manual workaround to put the Everlast to good use, at least. You get 36 pages in an Everlast before needing to erase any notes. Even for a frequent note taker, this would be fine as you can erase your notes once you have uploaded them to your chosen medium.
The eraser on the end of the pen works great. If you make a mistake, you can erase it with no hassle. However, to clear a full page, you will either need to carry a damp cloth with you at all times or have the patience to erase entire pages with the eraser.
Alternatives to Rocketbook
I reached out to Rocketbook twice to see if they could help or comment on the poor usability of their product. As yet, I have not heard back. Searching their Twitter for help, I come across some alternatives. You can go as high end as Remarkable, which is more of a graphics tablet and costs around £470. At the lower end, Blackboard by Boogie Board is more competitive, costing the same price at £35. One user, @BrookeAnnEmms, suggested she just uses her Microsoft Surface. The Surface does offer note-taking functionality as it doubles as a tablet and comes with a stylus. But, the writing experience – perhaps the most important element – is far superior on the Rocketbook Everlast. If I was forced to use a Surface over a traditional notepad, I think I’d just type up my notes.
For £35, the Rocketbook Everlast is a novelty. It was fun to try. Until I hear back from Rocketbook, I shall be returning to my collection of notepads. By the time I need to buy a new one, hopefully, note-taking, uploading and re-using will be mastered… I have a lot of notepads.
