The TCL Note A1 is a kinder, gentler tablet

Without thinking, I scribbled complete what I’d conscionable written.

It’s what I would person done if I was penning pinch pen and paper. But I didn’t person a pen successful my hand; my canvas was an LCD and the letters connected my page were conscionable pixels. Score 1 constituent to the TCL Note A1.

TCL’s Note A1 Nxtpaper tablet (its afloat authorities name) is expected to make you hide that you’re utilizing a tablet. It has 1 of the company’s signature low-glare matte displays and ships pinch a stylus. The pen’s haptics moreover mimic the scratching of a pencil connected paper.

On the package side, the A1 takes a batch of cues from the Remarkable tablet. Instead of a emblematic Android location screen, you get a page pinch shortcuts to caller notes and a snapshot of the day’s almanac events. You tin download immoderate app you want from the Google Play Store, but that would spoil what I deliberation is the A1’s nicest feature: the expertise to instrumentality you into forgetting that you’re utilizing a gadget astatine all.

The Note A1 occupies the abstraction betwixt a full-fledged tablet and a low-distraction E-Ink instrumentality for illustration the Remarkable Pro. It has a afloat colour LCD surface pinch a 120Hz refresh rate. You tin watch videos and scroll a website arsenic you usually would — thing that conscionable doesn’t activity connected E-Ink tablets. But the A1 is simply a note-taking instrumentality first and foremost, shipping pinch a pressure-sensitive stylus pinch adjustable haptics to mimic the scratchy emotion of penning connected paper. It’s not like, “I can’t judge it’s not existent paper” levels of convincing, but it’s bully capable that you tin suffer yourself successful the enactment of writing. I did, astatine least, capable to hide astir the “eraser” connected the different extremity of the stylus.

Unfortunately, the Note A1 falls into the classical trap of trying to connection the champion of some worlds: it ends up emotion for illustration it’s not rather present nor there.

As a tablet, it’s conscionable okay. Its 8GB of RAM are capable to thief it chew done a media-dense web page pinch a small juddering. The LCD is honestly nicer than I expected, pinch generous viewing angles and vivid colors. But its blacks aren’t arsenic rich | arsenic an OLED’s, and a small dimming successful 1 area of my reappraisal portion gives it away. The built-in speakers are good successful a pinch but sound tinny, and location are nary beingness measurement buttons, which is simply a bizarre point to omit.

As an e-reader and note-taking device, it does the occupation but lacks the precision of a purpose-built instrumentality for illustration the Remarkable. The location surface looks for illustration a generic notes app’s main screen, positive a collapsible broadside sheet wherever you tin entree different apps and strategy settings. I emotion a minimalist location surface arsenic overmuch arsenic the adjacent overstimulated millennial, but I wish it was much customizable. You tin hide the 2 widgets astatine the apical of the screen, including the “Inspiration Space” (more connected that later) and alteration really your assortment of statement collections appear, but you can’t do overmuch much than that. Neither tin you create your ain screen creation for your statement collections — you’re stuck pinch immoderate bland options that person TCL branding connected them.

TCL’s Max Ink Mode besides would person been a bully summation here. The company’s different Nxtpaper tablets and phones connection this monochrome mode to simulate much of an e-reader acquisition and widen artillery life by a lot. I’m amazed it’s missing.

I besides had problem while penning retired a statement and kept accidentally triggering the “back” navigation motion astatine the broadside of the surface while penning this review. (Spoiler alert: I wrote my full first draught connected the tablet itself. Please applaud.) TCL doesn’t connection a measurement to disable this while writing, and though the notes app ever saved my activity earlier exiting, it was jarring.

Still, the A1 has immoderate standout strengths. It comes pinch a monolithic 8,000mAh artillery and will easy clasp up to a mates of days of continuous use. There’s a toggle successful speedy settings to move connected an oculus comfortableness mode to trim down connected bluish light, and you tin set the colour somesthesia warmth to your liking. The stylus’ unit sensitivity feels restrained yet responsive. I had the champion clip pinch the A1 erstwhile I forgot each astir its tablet-ness and conscionable embraced it arsenic a canvas for doodles and writings.

The A1 has a suite of AI features that each sound beautiful acquainted by now. With a dedicated fastener connected the stylus you tin item matter and images to adhd to the “Inspiration Space,” a repository for things you mightiness different support successful a 1000 idle Chrome tabs. You tin group these clippings, on pinch your notes and doodles, into collections. Reminiscent of Pixel Screenshots, it uses AI to analyse and tag the items you adhd truthful you tin cross-reference them and find it each later.

I gave it an honorable effort and utilized it to shape immoderate accusation and #inspo for my endless gait project. I recorded audio of a telephone pinch our scenery designer, moving the transcript connected 1 broadside of the surface and hand-writing notes connected the other. This is precisely the benignant of script tech companies emotion to transportation for devices for illustration this, and yeah, it was neat. The sound transcription was very good, and an AI-generated summary of the telephone caught each the main takeaways.

I had a harder clip getting useful study from the AI successful the Inspiration Space. I put the telephone transcript and each my related doodles and screenshots into a folder, reasoning I’d beryllium capable to pat the ever-present “Ask AI” spot for immoderate high-level analysis. It grounded to place the images I’d added and played dumb erstwhile I asked it questions it could person recovered answers to successful the transcript. Bummer.

Aside from my disappointment pinch AI features — not for the first aliases past time! — I had a bully clip pinch the Note A1. I wish it came pinch Max Ink Mode. It’s not your champion prime for a tablet-first, note-taking-second device. There’s an iPad for that. And Remarkable offers a amended penning and note-keeping acquisition for purists. But if you’re aft a decent integer penning acquisition and still want tablet features connected the side, the A1 does the job. Certainly for a batch little money than an iPad Air aliases Pro pinch an Apple Pencil Pro — that combo will commencement conscionable nether $900 and only goes up from there.

I deliberation the champion endorsement I tin springiness of the Note A1 is that I enjoyed it capable to constitute retired my full reappraisal connected it by hand. I deliberation it will besides beryllium the last blog I constitute retired by hand, but it was beautiful satisfying. You conscionable don’t get the aforesaid effect pinch a Google Doc.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge