Reusable, sustainability and less wastage are a big thing these days, whether its just sorting your household rubbish and putting it into the correct bins or being more careful about the products that you buy. But what about the humble notebook? You could buy ones made of recycled paper but why not go further and use a reusable notebook. Yes, I said reusable notebook and that doesn’t mean lightly writing on the paper in pencil and using an eraser when you want to reuse that page. The new Rocketbook Pro is much more hi-tech than that!
The new Rocketbook Pro is a reusable cloud-connected smart notebook that has no paper pages (saves trees from having to be cut down). It is a notebook that you can write in, scan any pages you want to save using the phone app and store your notes digitally in your favourite cloud destination, and then wipe clean the pages and reuse! A great way to take notes using a pen on a page in a book and having the luxury of having access to those important notes on your phone – never lose any important notes again! And even though it is hi-tech device, it requires no power – no need to charge/re-charge, no batteries to replace.
Write, Scan, Erase and Re-use
The New Rocketbook Pro is an ultramodern, tech-savvy reusable notebook built for the professional who likes to stay organized and on-trend. Not only is its hardcover vegan leather cover scratch resistant, an embedded NFC hotspot can be customized with most phone apps. Plus, Pro Pages are erasable with a touch of water and Page Packs can be swapped in-and-out to make your Pro a notebook, planner, and beyond.
I am always writing notes and prefer to use a pen and paper notebook rather than taking notes by typing on to a screen. With the Rocketbook reusable notebook I can still have the pen and paper experience of using a pen to write on a page in a notebook with the added bonus of storing my notes in a cloud storage service or sending the notes to my email. And then when I no longer need the notes that I have written I can just wipe the page clean with a damp cloth and start again – safe in the knowledge that I still have access to the digital handwritten notes in the future. No need for various notebooks filled with handwritten notes, no trees need to be cut down to keep me supplied in paper.
Contents:
- Vegan Leather Notebook Hardcover
- Removeable/Swappable Page Pack
- Microfibre Cleaning Towel
- Pilot FriXion Erasable Pen
- User Guide
The New Rocketbook Pro reusable notebook comes in two sizes: Executive A5 and Letter A4. There is a choice of three colour options; Black, Coast Blue or Sage Green. It is supplied with a hardcover vegan leather scratch resistant cover with embedded NFC spot on the inside cover (opens the Rocketbook app when you touch your phone to it). It has a 40 page removable reusable page pack of lined paper (you can purchase other page packs from £22 to £25; Monthly/Weekly Planner (Letter A4 only), Daily/To-do, Dot Grid, Meeting Notes and Lined). It is also supplied with a Pilot FriXion erasable pen (you can’t use just any pen with the Rocketbook) and a microfibre towel to clean the pages.
Whilst you can start writing in the notebook straight out of the packet, to get the full use out of it you need to download the free Rocketbook app for iOS or Android. Once you have downloaded the app you are able to scan your pages and store the data in your favourite cloud storage.
- iOS supports: Google Drive, Evernote, Slack, Dropbox, Box, OneNote, OneDrive, iMessage, iCloud, Trello and email.
- Android supports: Google Drive, Evernote, Slack, Dropbox, Box, OneNote, OneDrive, Google Photos, Trello and email.
Overall, I think that the new Rocketbook Pro reusable notebook is excellent. It really does cut down on paper use, mistakes can be easily erased, and I love that you can save the handwritten notes, doodles and drawings as PDF files for digital storage and easy retrieval.
The notebook doesn’t have quite the same feel as paper, the pages are very smooth, but it is just as easy to write on, but you need to give it a few seconds to dry for the ink to be smudge free. The supplied Pilot FriXion pen is comfortable to hold and glides across the pages smoothly. The only real downside is that you can’t just use any pen but as long as you use the correct pen it is a joy to use.
With a pen and paper notebook use you can store the notebooks for future reference. Depending on your outlook this could be a good or bad thing. Whilst you may think that having your old notebooks to go back to when you need to is a good thing, you can’t do this with the Rocketbook as you can’t store notes permanently on the pages – it is recommended that you clean the pages at least once a month as ink left on a page for longer than this could leave a residue and make it look grubby. But you do have what I think are better advantages over paper notebooks – digital files that you can access from anywhere, so you always have access to your notes and notebooks (as long as you have remembered to scan them with your phone). Plus, it also has the massive advantage of no waste paper being produced. Another disadvantage is that is doesn’t like excess heat (direct sunlight or placing next to a radiator that is in use for example) as it can cause the ink to fade or disappear, leaving you with a blank page – although if you are unfortunate enough for this to happen, there is a magical cure – you can recover your notes by putting the Rocketbook in a freezer for 20 minutes and the ink will magically reappear.
The Rocketbook is a reusable notebook. This means that once you written down your notes, appointments, shopping lists etc. you can use the phone app to scan the page(s) and save them to your favourite Cloud storage or send them to your email address. Once this is done, cleaning the pages is very easy so that you can reuse the page(s). Just add a drop of water to a cloth and wipe the pages clean to remove all the ink and then wipe over with the supplied microfibre cloth. You will be left with nice clean, blank pages again and ready to start writing more. The pen itself also has an eraser on it for erasing simple mistakes whilst you are writing before they dry on the page.
I love the Rocketbook Pro, especially with the extremely easy to remove or replace page packs – this makes the Rocketbook more versatile. It is an excellent notebook that helps to reduce paper waste and is so easy to create digital copies of notes to store or share (scanned notes/pages can even be bundled together). It is so easy to use and has the advantages of handwritten notes with the durability and longevity of digital storage and the ability to share notes easily.
The quality of the cover feels very good quality and is scratch-resistant vegan leather. The pages of the notebook feel very durable, and I really like that the pages don’t get scrunched up when I throw the notebook in my backpack.
The only thing missing from the Rocketbook Pro is somewhere to store the pen – although you can purchase a Pen Station Pen Holder separately. I would have preferred this to already be part of the cover.
I love tech and gadgets and love the Rocketbook Pro. The reusable pages reduce wastage and I love that I can always have access to my notes. The pages are easily erasable, and the data is so simple to save and store digitally. If looked after properly (pages regularly cleaned) it should give years of use. Being able to easily digitally store any notes or information that you have written in the Rocketbook means that you should never lose your important notes (well, as long as you remember to scan and save them with the app of course).
I also love the versatility of the removeable page packs so that I can have different uses for the Rocketbook, making it a very modular system. The page packs are a lot cheaper than buying a different Rocketbooks for different occasions. The page packs are so simple to add or remove and seem very secure – to be honest, when I first opened the package, I couldn’t see how the page pack would firmly stay in, but it does (even after trying to shake it out).
The new RocketBook Pro is like have a dry erase board in your bag, and it is just as simple to use and as it reusable time and time again, the amount of paper it saves going into my recycling bin is excellent. Obviously it is more expensive than a standard paper notebook, but the quality is excellent, over the long run it should pay for itself in the amount of paper notebooks you won’t have to purchase, and it saves on wastage.
I think the new Rocketbook Pro is nearly perfect. It offers nearly the same convenience as writing on paper (with paper you can use any pen or pencil, the Rocketbook needs its own specific pen), but you can easily digitally store your handwritten pages for future use and there is no waste paper generated so is better for the environment (even if you do recycle your paper). For me, I would have liked to see the pen holder supplied with it to just make it complete.
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: £60 (Executive A5) / £70 (Letter A4)
For more information or buy, visit getrocketbook.co.uk.
