Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook – Dot-Grid Eco-Friendly Notebook with 1 Pilot Frixion Pen & 1 Microfiber Cloth Included – Infinity Black Cover, Letter Size (8.5′ x 11′) (EVR-L-K-A)

Because of the price, i wasn’t completely sold on being an early adopter of the kindle scribe. I was interested in a way of writing notes and transferring them to electronic files and sharing. That led me back to rediscovering the rocketbook and so, i took a chance.

Glad i did.

It has an easy system of organizing your notes into pdf files that include labeling and sending them where you want – emails, google drive, dropbox and more. As a ux designer, it’s been great adding this to my creative flow.

It has ‘smart titles’ and ‘smart search’ features where it can understand your note labeling to organize better, but it doesn’t have ocr to turn your handwriting into text (scribe can’t either). That’s ok – in just a few weeks, my note taking has become more organized and very shareable.

My biggest issue- the frixion pen that’s included can be a little spotty. Sometimes it seems like it’s running out of ink and moments later it’s just fine. From the picture, you see i also added my own pen holder (not included). I have a knack for setting a pen down after writing and never find it again.

Hi! I’m a writer. I’ve spent 41 years on this planet so far, and i’ve spent 40 of those years with a pen, pencil, or other writing utensil in my hand. I write like i breathe: constantly and for the purpose of staying alive. Writing — hand, pen, ink, paper — is a part of every single day, for my personal enjoyment, for therapeutic purposes, and for academic and research pursuits, as well as for educating my daughter. As a result, i use a lot of paper. I’m not sure i can explain the volume of paper i’m talking about here, but let’s just agree that on a scale of 1 to 10, i’m somewhere north of all the numbers, deep in uncharted territory. Two nights ago when i couldn’t sleep, i wrote a four-page letter that i’m never going to send on the subject of (i kid you not) writing letters for the purpose of not sending them. I think that sums me up. For the purposes of this paragraph anyway.

I’ve been curious about rocketbook for a while now, and the ability to archive my handwritten work has been incredibly appealing. I picked up a full size notebook at a discounted price one day, figuring it would be worth a try, and i’m very glad i did!

I have used stone paper and frixion pens in the past, so i was familiar with how the basic concept worked, being able to use a damp cloth to wash away the writing. And as others have said, the pages do not feel like paper. The page is totally smooth. If someone handed me a sheet of it without any indication what it was for, i certainly wouldn’t think of writing on it. But it works out pretty well with the frixion pens, and it wipes clean just like it’s supposed to, ready for another round of notes or ideas or lesson plans. It has enough pages that i can work on multiple tasks and still have clear pages for things that come up through the day. It is close enough to the pen-and-paper experience that i feel like i can connect with what i’m writing the way i need in order to do the work i want to do.

I think i would really enjoy the executive size for my daily journaling, or the fusion for my school preparations and planning. I will definitely be purchasing additional rocketbook products in the future.

When i was trying to decide whether to purchase the notebook, i saw a lot of reviews that listed drawbacks or said the rocketbook wasn’t what it claimed to be. I decided to try it anyway, and i’m glad because what people were complaining about is pretty normal stuff when you’re dealing with a reusable, yet ultimately consumable, product.

Everything we use can be used lightly and last longer, used heavily and not last long, be abused and break, or be set on a shelf safely in perfect condition. You really can’t expect a notebook to defy that reality. You get to choose how to use the notebook, and that determines what kind of experience you’re going to have.

So let me tell you about several things that affect how i use my rocketbook. They’re not drawbacks; they are simply things to know in order to set reasonable expectations and get the most out of a great product.

To extend the life of my rocketbook, i write with a light hand. I make sure my pen is not at an angle that causes it to scratch the page. I avoid using the eraser for more than a few letters. I archive pages as soon as possible. Every few days, i clear all the pages. I keep the notebook flat or stack it between my laptop and my clipboard if i slip it into my backpack. I make sure not to bend or crease the pages.

If you write with a naturally heavy hand or often scratch the paper with your pen, you may find indentations lingering after each use or scratches quickly adding up, which can cause the pages to deteriorate more quickly.

Erasing with a damp cloth cleans away the ink. Using the eraser in the pen is convenient, but it uses friction and heat to remove the visible ink. Moderate use of this eraser is perfectly reasonable and won’t cause problems. A lot of this type of erasing can alter the surface of the paper in such a way that it wears out faster.

Archiving and clearing all the pages every few days ensures that i haven’t neglected to catalog my notes or work, and keeps the ink from sitting on the pages too long. If you leave ink anywhere for too long, it will eventually leave some ghosting behind, regardless of whether the surface is intended to be erasable or reusable. Avoiding that ensures the pages come clean easily.

Being careful not to crease the pages or the notebook is just reasonable, since i want it to be flat.

I can see that the pages will eventually show wear and i will probably retire this rocketbook at some point in the distant future, in favor of a newer one. And i won’t mind doing that because i will have used it well! It will be able to boast of lasting far longer than any other notebook i’ve ever owned, and of saving many many trees.

I have electronic tablets and a convertible laptop both with e-pens. As much as i tried to use these to capture electronic notes and spontaneous ideas, they seem to stifle or slow down the creative process so i tried a rocketbook. Rocketbook and the frixion pen have the familiar pen on paper feel that allows ideas to flow seamlessly. Then, the rocketbook app digitizes and distributes those ideas quickly and perfectly. The ocr works better than any i’ve ever used. I have destinations set-up for home, personal, and work emails, my wife’s email, my one note drive and my onedrive. I use the rocketbook app on both an old galaxy j3 smart phone and tablet. Unlike some apps, the rocketbook app can be used from both with no problems. The only issue is that the destinations have to be managed separately on different devices. After the notes are captures, i simply wipe the pages clear and i’m ready for the next idea to hit me. This is a cheap, electronic note solution that uses devices that i already had.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this product because the idea seemed too good to be true. I read tons of reviews before purchasing and while they were generally positive, there were some that had me worried. I took note of the reviewers who stated that the pen included didn’t work very well and they had to buy another pilot frixion pen. To be one the safe side, i also ordered a two pack of the 07 pilot frixion ball pens. I’m glad i did, but not for the reasons you think. I’ll get to those later…

My detailed review is below, but for those of you looking for a quick overview, here’s the bottom line:

the rocketbook notebook exceeded my expectations. I’d even classify it as amazing!! The pages are coated with a synthetic polyester blend which provides a fluid writing experience and the ability to scan the page and send to almost any destination is one of it’s best features. I highly recommend it to everyone from students to writers to business professionals and everyone in between.

For a more in-depth review, here are my thoughts…

First, the rocketbook notebook.
I love it! In fact, it’s not too good to be true! It’s just as advertised. I’m one of those people who buys a ton of notebooks/journals but then is afraid to write in them. They’re so pretty, i don’t want to mess them up! Yet, i still buy them. I also buy lots of pens and markers. It’s an addiction… I journal regularly and have done so since 2003. I have several notebooks full. I love the feeling of pen on paper!

My favorite pen for journaling is the pilot g-2 with 1.0 thickness. I love the smoothness of the ink and i never have a problem with smearing despite being left-handed. I wish they made the g-2 pens with 1.0 thickness in multiple colors, but sadly, the 1.0 thickness only comes in blue and black. (i hope someone from pilot is reading this!)

i’ve considered going electronic with my journaling but i think handwriting tells part of the story. When i go back and read past journal entries, my handwriting provides additional insight into my feelings at the time. I can often tell what mood i was in when an entry was written just by flipping through the pages. The same can’t be said for journaling on a computer and that’s what makes the rocketbook so perfect!

The rocketbook allows the pen and paper feeling (only better) with the added security of knowing my thoughts won’t be lost if i misplace my journals.

As others have stated, it doesn’t feel exactly like pen on paper. Personally, i think it feels better! The pages are slick, the ink is smooth, and the writing is fluid.

The pen included with the rocketbook notebook is a .05 clicky pen and i didn’t like it. I admit that i didn’t give it much of a chance. When i opened the package, the first thing i did was use the pen to test out the first page. I only wrote a couple of words. Disappointed, i put the notebook and pen aside. Was this another purchase i’d never use?

A couple of days later, i decided to try again. The only difference was that i used the pens i purchased separately, the pilot frixion ball pens. The rocketbook requires pilot frixion pens. Instead of the 05 clicky style pen that’s included, the frixion ball pens i purchased are 07 and have caps. I don’t own or use any other pens with caps (or erasers) so i don’t have to worry about using the wrong pen. When i want to write in my rocketbook all i have to do is grab the pen with the cap and start writing. I didn’t think i’d like the 07 since i prefer 1.0, but i have no problem with the frixion 07 in my rocketbook. It feels great! Now that i’m used to the feel of the rocketbook, i’ll have to give the 05 another try.

I’ve been using my rocketbook for a couple of weeks with no problems. The ink takes 15 seconds to dry, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue for me. Fifteen seconds isn’t long and once it’s dry, it’s set! I used the cloth to wipe away the ink several times on the same page over the past several days and have yet to experience ghosting.

The help section of the app states that notes should be erased frequently (with the cloth). Notes left longer than a couple of weeks may result in staining or ghosting. Today i used the cloth to wipe away notes that i’d written on a page several days ago and i had no problems with ghosting or wiping away the ink. The 05 clicky pen that’s included has an eraser. So does the frixion ball pen with/cap.

The eraser on the frixion ball pen is on the end of the pen, not on the cap, so to erase you have to take the cap off. The eraser should be used sparingly. According to the app, abrasion from erasing may damage the coating on the pages. The last time i used an erasable pen was back in junior high school. Do you remember the papermate pens that supposedly erased, but didn’t? After using the eraser you could still see the ink. For those of you who like to erase, the pilot frixion erases just like a pencil. The eraser is a nice bonus, but it’s not a necessity for me, especially when i can use the cloth to erase.

I love the rocketbook notebook and i look forward to using it for all my writing needs.

These books are so cool. My boss gifted me one for christmas. I am a note-taker. I’ll take notes by paper during calls or meetings, and usually not need them later on – then i have a bunch of clutter on my desk if notes i have to decipher. This gets rid of that headache. You’re able to take notes and either upload them, or if they’re not needed after the call you can just wipe them away with water! I love that the pen is erasable too so you don’t have to upload notes with gibberish to your phone. I ended up buying one for my husband the day mine arrived and he loves his too. This product is great and such an improvement to my work.

I assume you know rocketbook contains pages you write on with a water based ink pen, then scan them with your phone to send an image of each page to evernote, email, etc. Then you erase the writing using water and a rag.

The medium size is great because i use it every morning on a lapdesk with a 10′ fire tablet to watch news videos and it is convenient to take notes. Yes, i could type notes into evernote directly, but i prefer old fashioned handwriting for this creative phase of my research.

Using their app to take pictures of pages for download to the pc (or evernote which i use) works well once you figure out the menus and workflow. The app needs some work because if you have 10 pages to photo, there are too many clicks for each single page and that process should be streamlined to make it easy to do a batch of 10-30 single pages in a row.

Some issues to expect:
– rocketbook requires the use of a special frixion pen with water-based ink that can be erased with water and a rag. Don’t forget and use a normal ink pen – it won’t erase.

– don’t buy frixion colored pens because the ink is too light unless you are an artist and want to do color drawings.
– new users like me will forget that you can only use the frixion pen, and will grab another pen and write notes that then won’t erase. The pages are dull in appearance. If you use regular ink, you have to use something like ‘goo-be-gone’ to remove the ink, and it will remove the top dull coat, leaving a shiny page – but it seems you can still erase frixion ink from the shiny pages. For awhile, i had about six useless pages with unerasable ink on them until i took the time to find what would remove them.
– you really need a way to always keep the frixion pen with the rocketbook. You can order an adhesive holder that attaches to the side (which i did) or to the top (which i wish i did instead). Get it for $7 which is expensive for a piece of plastic, but it improves the convenience of always having the frixion pen handy. Then you will find the frixion pens have a rubber cover on the barrels which won’t insert into the holder easily. So you have to use two hands and push the top of the pen into the holder to use it.
– frixion pen ink doesn’t last very long, unlike g-2 pens. Also, you can’t buy refill tubes (unlike g2’s) and the ink tubes are black so you can’t see how much ink is left. Thus for the convenience of using a rocketbook for it’s features, you are stuck with using frixion pens. I wish a lower-priced, better designed (for rocketbooks) competitor with longer life and replaceable ink refills would come out.
– the rocketbook app creates image files of each page, but does have text recognition for only the top line of each page (surrounded by double #), thus it shows up as the searchable title line if you send it to an evernote notebook like i do. They do have versions with full word recognition features but i haven’t looked into it (yet). That would be great if you wanted to use full text searches in email or evernote, for instance. It would be great if they had a way to code some keywords so you could enter keywords for each section, identified by, for instance, tag names you use in evernote, thus you categorize or can find labeled sections more easily with search.
– the bottom of each rocketbook page contains a scannable code. Nowhere did they tell me that the horizontal bottom of each page is not part of the image. Apparently, the section with the code cannot be part of images, so they should block it out or make it a different shade with clear info that the bottom 1′ of each page will not be part of the picture images and you will lose that info once you erase it.

So far, even with the above issues, i still use rocketbook daily because i got tired of writing notes on yellow pads then retyping them into a word document. I like handwriting notes rather than typing them into a laptop, for instance. I separately ranked frixion pens as a 3 due to the reasons above.

I learned about this product from a buzzfeed article. The idea of a reusable notebook sounded amazing, but i didn’t understand how it would work. I loved the idea of having different subjects and then having the app sort them out. I asked my friends of any of them had tried it and when they hadn’t, i was excited to try it out. With covid-19, i’m working from home and my kids are schooling from home. It’s making everything just a bit more difficult for everyone. Anything that might help was something i was willing to try. For science. And for geeking out.

You use pilot frixion pens. There are 7 “destinations” that you indicate at the bottom of the page, and you can choose more than one. I have a core (without lines) and a matrix (graph paper) book. Once i realized how much i loved the core, and since one of my destinations in for my son’s math, i got the matrix to support what he’s doing since he also has two notebooks he uses, with lined and graph paper.

The things i like:
one page could be work, one could be my personal stuff, and the next page school stuff, then back to work related. As long as i’ve marked the destinations properly, and i scan them in order, it automatically creates the separate files. I can also mark a page for more than one destination.

Definitely enough pages to get me through my busiest days. I think one day i used 14 pages. I was worried i might “run out” and need to scan & wipe mid day, but i didn’t.

With the pdf files, it’s really easy for me to share notes from a day/meeting with those i may benefit from sharing. This tends to be with my coworker after a meeting i was in that she wasn’t, or after our joint meetings i can send my notes to everyone.

If i need to “re-send” already scanned notes to a different destination, i can do that.

I can name my files after scanning if i want.

I don’t have tons of paper notebooks laying around.

Pilot frixion pens come in a variety of colors and styles so i can color code things, if i’m so inclined, and highlight them as well!

Even if you have 2 notebooks, like i have the core and matrix, it’s the same 7 destinations for both. It’s a plus for me, as the graph paper is kind of a supplement to the other notes, but that might not be the case for others.

Things i don’t like:
it does take a bit for the ink to dry, and i tend to smear it. I don’t think it would work for a lefty.

I’m haven’t found a good note repository for everything related to a subject yet. I’m trying evernote for school related notes and assignments, but i don’t have enough experience to know if that will work yet. I’m just using email for the rest.

Not really a product problem, but unless i’m very careful about my notes (i’m almost never), the text recognition is almost always ridiculous jibberish, making the text search feature useless for me. I do think tethered was one time, where i’d been *very* careful of my writing, is the only time it “read” the words properly.

Again, due to terrible handwriting, a lot of the shortcuts like ## file name ##, i can’t use because the software doesn’t recognize my handwriting.

Sometimes i’m lazy and i don’t want to scan at the end of the day or wipe the pages clean. This week was a bit brutal and i just scanned 3 days worth of notes and wiped down. Thankfully there was enough pages for me to keep going even on my lazy days.

You can only use pilot frixion pens.

Things i’m not sure about:
if you leave your notebook in a hot car, they warn you that your ink/notes might disappear. It hasn’t happened to me, but yikes! Sacramento or phoenix gets hot in general, would that be an issue in the summer?

If i bend or tear pages, is there a way to salvage that. I foresee lots of smooshed in backpack drama if i were using this when i was in college.

So, i bought this for my 12 year old daughter. It was on sale, seemed kind of neat, though i have to say i was a little skeptical it was worth what i paid, but hey, figured i’d try it out.

Let’s just say that i am a believer now. Really cool and innovative product. It’s a fantastic homework tool where my daughter can erase no longer relevant information, yet keep important notes. I will help her with math on it. I guess it’s just so cool to have a reusable notebook like this.

Great product.

Oh. My. Where to start…
I am an avid note-taker and faithful pen and paper kinda person. I have notebooks upon notebooks upon notebooks lining my bookshelves. I create recipes; design workbooks; research herbs and create formulations; we homeschool so i’m always gathering resources, jotting down ideas, scheduling, tracking and taking notes; there’s always a running to-do list, shopping needs, meal plans and of course all the random things that pop into my head on a minute-to-minute basis.

Why is this simple little notebook so life-changing?
1. I am no longer spending a tiny fortune on journals, notebooks and all the pens.
2. Subsequently, i may have single-handedly saved an entire forest from my info-ferreting brain.
3. Holy cow i can easily find any of my notes?!? I can funnel 7 different subjects to my specially assigned google drive folders (which was incredibly simple to do!) by checking an icon at the bottom of the page and taking a picture! Boom! Done, filed, even auto titled if i use double hashtags before and after whatever i want to call it! And i can add tags, and look up by keywords and have my handwritten notes transcribed to a typed format if i so choose!
4. It wipes clean… For those in the back: it. Wipes. Clean! A lil mister bottle and the accompanying cloth (or any soft cloth, i’ve found), one to two wipes and a quick dry, and i’m on to the next rabbit-hole of thought that presents itself!
5. I love customization. I took the first 7 pages, used a permanent marker, created templates for to-dos/shopping lists, a monthly calendar, homeschooling schedule, meal plans and a future planning log. I can “erase” at-will when things change, take a picture for my records, wipe clean and use the same page again the next month!! (no more redrawing spreads in my bullet journal is a breath of fresh air.)
6. They have free print-outs on their website!!! Because a lot of my workbooks are hand-drawn, i simply print out one of those sheets, draw and ink my doodle, take the picture and… Boom! Now if i want to do more to the original i have a copy to revert back to, too!!

There are, of course, always drawbacks.

I needed to buy the special pens and markers (because one should always color-code or doodle awesome things!)- it’s “technically” not a necessity, but for me it totally was!

The frixion pens took a bit to start writing smoothly- they still skip sometimes if i’m writing too fast. I slow down and it smooths out. The markers are much better for smoothness but sometimes too light for what i’m looking for.

Frixion pens erase with heat. I need to be much more aware and mindful about where i absent-mindedly leave it. But i heard you can throw it back in the freezer and it comes back! Keepin that one in my back pocket…

I took it into the kitchen to try out one of my recipes and something got splashed on it and i lost half of it. Sad day. The next time i took a pic and filed it before i started… Just in case.

I didn’t want to assign the icons to my google folders in permanent marker (what if i changed my mind?!?), but the frixion pens kept smudging. So i took scotch tape and stuck that on the key in front, then i used permanent markers to label them. All i need to do is peel it up and restick with fresh tape if i need to change it!

For myself, the benefits far outweigh these small quirks. I’m looking forward to purchasing their other notebook styles, unbinding them, creating a frankenrocketbook and rebinding into my ultimate reusable brain splat paper!!

In all seriousness, i love this thing. I’m pretty sure you will too.

I take a lot of notes, make a lot of to do lists… It’s a lot of paper, it eats up space, and it takes a lot of time to organize. Digitalizing the whole process of note-taking, while keeping the writing gesture alive, is something that i always dreamt about (also because environmentally reasonable), but i always resisted the call of e-ink tablets (pricey, seemingly never fully reliable). And so, by chance, i discovered the rocketbook: the executive size one was on sale here on amazon, and i bought it to give it a try. Now i enjoy the best of both worlds: i write, and i easily and quickly organize my notes digitally.

There might be a little learning curve at the beginning, especially when it comes to making scans of the written page: my recommendation is not to erase your writing until you’re 100% satisfied with your scans. After 3 or 4 document scans, you should be able to master the task of scanning the rocketbook page with your phone, and you should be able to speed up your process. The ocr component through the (excellent) companion app does what it can, and it’s not always reliable: but this has not been a problem for me, as i prefer my scans to be compiled in a single pdf and that’s it. The uploading system (i use google drive), and its related features (ex. Tagging, automatic file names) is fast and seamless, and it never gave me problems.

Erasing the pages is very simple: just follow the instructions provided, carefully swipe your writing away, possibly in a repeated single direction, and maybe wait for like 20 seconds for the page to dry up, so to avoid residual stickiness from the wet towel.

In general, i would say that using a rocketbook has prompted me to write more ‘calmly’ than before, when i used traditional notebooks: i make sure my trait is clear, i take my time to ensure a good scan, i take care of completing a good erasure of my work from every page. These adjustments are a very small price to pay for an almost endless notebook, and for the related platform that offers quick and efficient organizing capabilities.

I am very happy with my rocketbook: it might very well be the last notebook i will ever buy… Or, at least, something close to that at least. I think it also makes for a great gift for another writer!

Rocketbook vs. Elfinbook: i use both and here is my opinion.

Each of these books has their pros and cons. Hopefully i can outline both for you from my perspective so you can see what you prefer.

Paper: rocketbook uses a paper that feels more plastic and thin. Elfinbook paper feels more substantial and the ink takes to it much faster. Rocketbook uses a square dot grid pattern, while elfinbook has lines, much like a normal notebook. So when you scan from rocketbook, it comes across looking like you just wrote on copy paper (no lines) while elfinbook comes across with lines for more of that notebook look. For my preference, and others that i’ve let test, elfinbook was the clear winner here.

Size: somewhat arbitrary as i’m guessing both have different sizes. Rocketbook is more of a personal notebook size…think daytimer size. Elfinbook was larger and a little less convenient to carry around. The drawback with rocketbook is the size does prohibit the amount of info you can put on a single page. More pages mean more scanning and organizing. Elfinbook held more notes obviously and it is nicer to have more space for sketches, thoughts etc. I call this one a draw, as it is a personal preference. I personally prefer the smaller size.

Page turning: odd category i know, but that is why i included it here as i never thought it was a big deal…until now. Hands down, rockebook wins here with being able to turn the pages just like a spiral bound notebook. Elfinbook, with its thicker pages required me to open the book and fidget with the pages and spine to complete a page turn…without being concerned of ripping near the spine. Rocketbook you can treat like the old school notebooks: flip pages behind current page and keep going. Elfinbook required a lot of effort for me to even want to try and do that.

App integration: rocketbook gives you multiple options to instantly send your notes just by simply making the symbol on the page. You’ve previously told the app where each symbol will send the note. Rocketbook seamlessly reads that and bingo, your document shows up where you told it. Elfinbook is more of a manga process. You have to pick where you want it each time. That becomes a hassle if you use the book for multiple entries (work, personal, diary etc) and have to continually switch where you want it to go. With rocketbook, i could use 10 pages, each with a different place to go to the cloud just by marking the symbol, take the scan and you are good to go…no delays, no switching after each scan. Rocketbook takes this category.

App: hands down, rocketbook’s app is more polished. Elfinbook has a ways to go and could be superior with a few updates. Their ocr is horrible (rocketbook doesn’t offer that). Elfinbook has a burst type mode and does seem to capture pages faster with its dark border recognition feature. I give this to rocketbook again, it is just a more polished app.

All in all, i would take elements of each book to create a better one. I continue to use both, but want my rocketbook to have lines on the paper, and have the thicker paper from elfinbook.

If i could give it 4.5 stars i would be happy. Love the idea and the actual functioning of it. It’ll be easier to just have my things on my phone, tablet, and computer. I send them to my google drive and it works like a charm. This book is literal magic. It’s easy to write on: doesn’t necessarily feel like paper (but then again it isn’t, so why feel that way?) but the frixion pens write really well on it regardless. Be careful and allow a few extra seconds for the ink to dry so that it won’t smudge. I set it up so that immediately after i scan it, it will show up into my drive.
The reason for 4/4.5 stars instead of 5 is that many colors of frixion brand pens do not show up well or at all. If you typically write your notes in black, blue, or red ink this is not a problem. I fell in love with the frixion pens a few years ago and since then have exclusively bought frixion brand. They are trusty; they write smoothly and erase well every time as long as the eraser is clean. I have the gel pens, the click pens, the markers, the pastel highlighters, and one regular yellow highlighter in this brand (i have a problem lmao) but i am a student and i use my pens all day long. They don’t bleed through regular paper or anything. When a friend showed me this book i had to have it (what can i say, i am an office supply slut) and bought it immediately.
I’m going to attach my test pictures so that you can know which things work best with the everlast rocketbook.
I’ve included a color key at the bottom and highlighted which colors show up mostly true to color so that you can buy ones that are more likely to look nice once scanned. The pens stay put really well, the black marker fades easily, but overall the colors will show up.
Pens: all of the pens showed up once scanned. Some looked more like black than their actual color (1, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25)
markers: all of the markers showed up once scanned. Some looked discolored (35, 36, 37)
pastel highlighters: so disappointed! They are beautiful colors but the only one that showed up was the yellow (41).

I uploaded the scan and also took a picture of the page itself to show the difference in colors. Hope this was helpful!!

Overall, i love love love this product and will keep using it and recommending it to others (along with the frixion pens!!)

First, i want to clarify that the four-star rating was decided based upon accessory products (frixion pens/markers) and their compatibility with the rocketbook itself.

Pros:
i love being able to scan and store my notes for multiple reasons.

I never have to worry about misplacing anything. Everything is easy to find in an organized place. It is difficult for me to keep notes in order when i am attending multiple classes every week. My paper notebook was in shambles. There was nothing helpful about keeping notes that way.

Before, i never used colored writing utensils. Now, not only am i able to group concepts together, but i find taking notes much more enjoyable and rememberable. *with that being said, i highly recommend purchasing a pack of corresponding colored pens/markers.

My current courses are prerequisite to what i will be taking next semester, so i find comfort in knowing that my notes from this year will be safe and accessible because of rocketbook. I will be able to easily refer back to any information that i may need later on.

I never have to flip through pages, i can simply search for titles or even keywords that i need.

I also find that it is less of a struggle to study since all of my notes are stored on my phone — i can basically do it anywhere.

My rocketbook has struck up a couple conversations.

Cons:
because i am busy and tend to forget, i have gotten to a point where my rocketbook is full. This can be frustrating as you begin to take notes and realize that you have no clean pages. This is completely my fault, and my rating is not based on this. However, i still thought that it was necessary to mention. The rocketbook is fairly easy to clean. *i recommend carrying a pack of alcohol wipes as well as the microfiber cloth that is included in order to clean pages anywhere, anytime. It is a quick process, but you do have the scan your previous notes before erasing. This can be awkward if your teacher is already teaching.

I did find — after my first cleaning — that the frixion pen left minor intentions in the pages. I was not a fan of this. I have not noticed it since i started using the markers (which i will soon mention). Also, the pen did not write as smooth as i had hoped. I have only used a black pen.

I started using the markers after my pen stopped working. This happened about a month after i got it. I was hoping that it would resolve itself (as pens tends to do), but it has not wrote correctly since. The markers write much smoother than the pen, and i do not have to press as hard into the pages. However, looking back on the scans, i find that the pen looks better than the marker (if both are black). You can see writing from the pen in the “the skeletal system” scan.

However, the markers require more time to dry and leave “dots” where you put down and pick up. I used black as my primary color but realized that it was not showing well in the scans (noticeable in “adaptive immunity”).

The colored markers write and look exceptionally well, in my opinion. However, lighter colors may not even show up (as seen in “kinematics problems”) i have looked back at scans to find information missing due to the light-colored markers.

Once it is gone, it is gone.

You have to be careful when writing notes, because you will smear your hand/arm through the ink. This is one of the worst drawbacks. If you write from top to bottom, it usually works, but god forbid you have to make adjustments to something above what you just wrote. The drying time can make it difficult to keep up, add information, and draw pictures.

The erasers on the pens/markers are not the best in the world, but they work. However, something i noticed especially while using the pen, it can be difficult to erase something and then write in that same spot. The pen left eraser shavings that could not be swiped away (because of the wet ink), and it refused to write where something has been erased. To me, it can be difficult to erase, especially when you are surrounded by fresh ink.

Overall:
i will not switch back to a regular notebook, at least for the time being. Despite its drawbacks, the rocketbook has helped me become a better student. I would recommend it to a friend. However, i will be looking into more pen/marker options. Hopefully i can find something that works better.

Ok, i like the rocketbook a lot. I used it for a three day virtual event, taking extensive notes, and ran out of pages. (i believe there’s about 36 pages in the one i purchased.) the black frixion pen that came with it, barely lasted a week. Also, i use the gray cloth that came with it, but it became so wet after erasing 26 pages and i used a very soft, new, white t-shirt to dry the pages, so i wouldn’t damage them. Rocket book recommends you do not use the eraser on the page to erase your notes. Rocketbook also mentions that if you have to use the eraser, it’s ok, but erase lightly so that the surface coating of each page is not damaged. I found out that it’s easy to use the eraser to correct one or two characters while you’re taking notes . But, it’s preferred that you use water, lightly misted onto the pages.
=>now my reason for telling you to buy two rocketbooks, (and i am), is because when you are taking a great amount of notes and you run out of available pages in the one rocketbook, you can change to a brand new rocketbook and continue. Then, when you have time, after you have forwarded the documents to your online destinations, you can erase the first one, and dry and each page carefully and it will be ready to go if you need to continue taking notes after the second rocketbook is filled up.
=>further note, i bought a package of frixion pens in all colors. The blue seems to be the best color imho, and the red is very usable to accent the pages.
=>all in all, it’s a good start and i put a bath-towel on the bed and lay the rocketbook on that opened up. Lightly dampen the page with a misting sprayer, and wipe from the center spine outward to the edge of the page. Be careful on getting any spray near the spine because it bleeds through to the next page and sometimes it’s hard to get them dry because it keeps “wicking” onto the pages next to it. When you are done drying the rocketbook, go back and re-dry every page, paying special attention to the center spine where the water or moisture may remain. Btw, i purchased this in january 2021 and it is now february 21, 2021. Oh, rocketbook recommends letting the ink dry on the page at least 15 seconds before you turn the page that you just wrote on. I sometimes forgot and didn’t observe this, and think it needs a little more time, and under 15 seconds, it smudged both pages. =>also, you might not notice, but there are little symbols/icons at the bottom of every page that are tied to your destinations that you set up in “destinations” area in the app. These icons, that are very faint, are documented inside the front cover of the rocketbook and those can assign those to be whatever you want set up. For instance, i set up the diamond to be icloud. I would recommend not writing closely up at the top edge or the bottom edge or the left or right edge of each page, especially the bottom, because you might “trigger” an automatic function by accidentally getting ink on one of these very faint icons at the bottom of the page.
=>also, i deleted every major scan in between beginning a new scan because there was some confusion, sometimes, on what i intended. That’s about all the personal experience i can pass on to anyone that purchases this or is considering purchasing this item. I hope this review saves you time and helps you make a great decision. =>additional rhoda meeting notebook comparison thoughts and note: i used to buy a lot of rhoda meeting books adding up to a lot of money being spent every year. I know i could scan those notebooks, and sometimes did, but it was always very hard being disciplined to do that and many times i felt myself going through the paper pages of the rhodia meeting books to find a note that was critical to a project. I will still definitely buy rhodia meeting books (they are excellent) for specific subjects that i want to keep in a written format.
=> but, i’m very glad i found the rocketbook. I also purchased some beacons for the whiteboard and those worked as advertised. My best advice is to use the rocketbook on some non-critical note taking before committing to a critical project. I also have other ways of taking notes with an apple pencil and whiteboard etc., but this rocketbook is as close to native writing that i can get. Make sure you have spare frixion pens, because you should not use other pens on the surface of the pages.

I always need note pads to take notes at work and i was using those standard notepads, and after piling up like 7 or 8 of them i was looking for another solution. So i was already taking pics of certain notes and uploading them to my pc as a pdf so when i remembered about this notebook, i was like, why did i wait this long lol. I guess it was just the price, but after using it for a few days, i’m still kicking myself for not buying it sooner. The fact that i can do it all with this one notebook is amazing. There are plenty of pages on here and what i do is once i upload my pdf’s i erase the page to start fresh. So basically, at the end of the day, i have an empty note book ready for the next day. You do have to wait a few seconds for the ink to dry, but once it dries, it stays lol. The book did come with 1 black pen and a microfiber cloth. All i needed was a small spray bottle i got at walmart for $1 and i was set. You do need to damp the microfiber cloth to clear the page, and once you get used to that, you’ll be set. I opted for the executive size cuz its smaller and good for me. What i dont like about it is that the cover feels flimsy and is prone to scratches, but that does not take away from the functionality of the book.

The scanning feature is amazing and i have mine just set up for dropbox and my email so you just check the icon on the bottom and boom, its good to go. It will take you a few times of using the notebook to get used how writing feels on it, you are basically writing on plastic so its not quite paper, but its not too different. About a day of use and you will be good to go. I really am kicking myself that it took me this long to buy it.

This is such a cool notebook my only wish is that the dot grid was a little bit darker so it was easier to see when writing since i love writing on lined paper. With that said it’s awesome to send notes directly to my google drive or even text them to someone from the book.

I love the rocketbook however the pen that came with it was out of ink within 5 weeks of me receiving it! That’s crazy since no other pen can be used on it. I would like a replacement pen!

Like the reusable aspect since my daughter needs to write, color, draw, create things on paper daily. Erasing what you have drawn is a bit taxing and doesn’t come off completely by but it’s enough for my 9 year old to keep using it without problems

I use this as a journal to easily save journal entries to the cloud in my handwriting. I love that the text is searchable and can be transcribed into printed text. This only works with frixion erasable pens, which are expensive and run out quickly. To clear the pages, you have to wipe each one with a wet cloth (which comes with the notebook). I bought the cover since the notebook is pretty flimsy by itself. I think next time i‘ll try the one that erases in the microwave, to save time on clearing the pages.

First of all, i only review products i would recommend to friends and family and this is one of them. Here are some pros, cons, pro tips and ideas i have for future versions of this. As for the pens, take the ink and put them in a pilot g2 pen, trust me.

Pros:
i have found that when using some of the default settings, the app tries to create a higher contrast image, and it does an impressive job. These pictures are not just pictures. They are on par, if not better than using the scanner that comes with some of the best office printer/scanners on the market. (i did have to change a setting to use the highest resolution my s7 edge can take.)

think of this notebook as a portable whiteboard, that lets you take top quality scans and share them instantly. Because that is exactly what it is. Just don’t use dry erase markers. Check out the rocket book color for use with other markers/crayons. In a pinch, i have used pencil and it was erasable, it took a little more elbow grease, and there was a higher chance of leaving imprints and damaging the protective coating due to me using 0.5 lead. I don’t recommend using pencil but it is the only worst case alternative to the frixion pens.

I have noticed that the app increase the contrast and can sometimes miss parts of letters if you write lightly on the pages. At first i was making a serious attempt to write lightly so i would not leave imprints on the pages, but i quickly realized these pages are solid quality and there are no noticeable pressure marks, even on pages that are reused every single day. So i chalk this up as a pro for build quality.

Cons:
the standard frixion pens are terrible build quality. They feel like i would find them on the 10 for 99 cent aisle in walmart. Luckily they are made by pilot, and you can easily unscrew the pen and put the ink in a pilot g2. It makes a world of difference.

Frixion pens come in multiple colors. But by default the scans boost the contrast to give a clear image so much, that it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between black, red, and blue. (other colors may work better) you may end up having to turn the color enhancer off in settings if need be.

Erasing can be a challenge, you will have to keep a water bottle to make sure the cleaning cloth (microfiber) will be damp enough to erase. It is not super easy to make small erases, and i usually end up having to rewrite the word, sometimes the entire sentence.

Erasing is not a quick fix. I usually have to wait 5 – 15 seconds for the page to dry off before i start to write were i had just erased.

Pro tips and ideas:
since hi-lighters are not an option, i was able to pick up some esoffice index tabs. They are translucent and work perfectly for a quick hi-light. You will have to play around with the colors for best scan results, but the black ink is very clear when using the blue and yellow tabs.

You don’t just have to write on these pages to scan things. The first thing i did was put the instruction card on the page and scan it. It worked perfect, and you can place objects on the page (as long as it fits within the page), helped out in my biology class/lab (just take off the color enhancer.)

again, take the ink out of the pilot frixion pens and put them into the pilot g2 pens. Using the eraser on the end of the frixion pen is not recommended anyways, and may wear out the protective coating on the pages.

It’s possible to print out/order more rocket book pages that can be scanned like the others. But, i’m tired of only having blank pages. This would be the ideal college notebook if we could do the following things:
1. Get lined lined paper (i see you have it for the rocket color book, i want to be able to buy it) while you are at it, how about graphing paper too?
2. 3 ring binder support. I’m disappointed in the lack of hole punches, being able to secure these pages in a binder would be a game changer.

Tests;
when they say only use frixion pens, they mean it! I ripped a page out and have tried every writing tool i could get my hands on such as: sharpie/permanent marker, highlighter, dry erase marker, gel pen, normal pen, pencil, and plan on trying a fountain pen soon. With the exception of the pencil, none of the writing tools were erasable with this book. While some were partly erasable, they were impossible to completely remove after just 30 seconds of letting them dry.