The Supernote Manta's Large Screen Is Worth the Higher Price
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The Good
- The best writing experience of any digital notebook I've tried
- Tons of storage space
- Great battery life
- Lots of export and cloud storage options
- New drawing pad app
The Bad- A bit slow when syncing documents or opening a large PDF
- Doesn't always play well with Macs (especially when sideloading apps)
- $160 more than the already pricey Supernote Nomad
Table of Contents
In the mid twenty-teens, I moved to New York to work in the corporate headquarters of a big bookstore chain. On my first day, one of my new co-workers pointed me to a huge pile of Moleskine notebooks in different colors and sizes, leftover in the office after a social media photoshoot. "Take what you want," she said.
At once, it felt like I had justified my post-relocation rent increase. (Given I was not the kind of person to drop $20 on a notebook, I had only admired those cute Moleskine Classics on store shelves.)
Writing in the Supernote Nomad—a 7.8-inch e-ink digital notebook from privately owned tech developer Ratta—gave me the same sort of buzz: It replicates the feel of writing on paper, but with all the convenience of editing, interlinking, portability, and storage a tablet computer can provide. I gave it a very good review.
It did feel a little small though.
Enter the Supernote Manta. It's the same device as the Nomad in virtually every way, but with a significantly larger 10.7-inch screen. (I've also put together a full comparison between the two.)
Do less
The Supernote Manta costs about the same as a mid-range iPad (starting at $459, before you purchase a stylus for another $75), but it does way, way less—by design. Though it's technically a computer, this is a single-purpose device. It is meant to be treated like a replacement for your notebook, and nothing more; it was designed for distraction-free writing (and drawing). "Dive into mind flow," reads the artsy screensaver image. Uh, sure.
That sounds a bit silly, but it's the same philosophy that drives people to buy an e-ink e-reader, whether a Kindle Colorsoft or a Boox Palma: Sure, you could read on your phone, but reading on your phone is filled with frustrations, and doesn't quite feel like reading. Yes, you can buy an Apple Pencil and write and draw on your iPad screen, but a stylus on glass can never replicate the experience of pen and paper, and you're always going to be battling distraction from other apps and messages.
Not everyone wants a pricey, distraction-free digital notebook, of course. But if the concept is compelling to you, the Manta is certainly a good choice.
Utility over specs
With every new iteration of the iPad, Apple boasts about its even-more-cutting-edge new processors. The Supernote Manta proudly uses a RK3566 Quad-Core 1.8 GHz, an entry level chip from 2020, and uses 4GB of RAM to run a heavily modified version of Android 11 (also from 2020), because it doesn't take more juice than that to run a capable notebook.
The 10.7 inch screen is a Carta 1300, which is the same one found on the Kindle Paperwhite (a fun secret of the e-ink world is that there's really only one company making the screen tech, so all devices use the same basic components). It has a 1920 × 2560 resolution (300 PPI), and displays both handwriting and printed text with clarity. Graphic-heavy PDFs are also generally quite legible, though obviously smaller text will prove more of a challenge to read, and zooming in will result in some loss of detail.
Size-wise, it feels a lot like an XL Moleskine notebook, measuring 9.9 inches by 7.2 inches, and about a quarter-inch thick at its thickest point. It weighs 375 grams, or a little over 13 ounces, so it's light enough to easily write in while standing, should the need arise.
There's no front light, which means you'll need to use it in direct light. This was an intentional tradeoff, as removing the lighting layer decreases the distance between the surface of the screen and the inner display, which makes the writing experience look and feel more natural.
As for that outer surface, it's made of a flexible plastic instead of glass, which makes it softer and more pliable, which also makes it feel more akin to paper. It's coated with Ratta's "FeelWrite 2 Self-recovery Soft Film" that, like paper, actually depresses slightly when written on with one of Supernote's styluses, which use hard, durable ceramic nibs instead of softer rubber, foam, or plastic.
According to a benchmarking test by tech YouTuber Jeffrey Moss, the 3600 mAh battery delivers about nine hours of continuous note-taking, which, in practical use, means if you take constant notes through a two-hour lecture, your battery level might dip by 15% or so. It's not the weeks-long performance of a read-only Kindle, but it will get you though a few days, and when you do have to charge it, I find it charges to full in less than an hour.
Though none of the native apps use it, the Manta has Bluetooth functionality, the option buried in Settings, under My Device. The menus indicate Bluetooth can be used to connect keyboards and audio playback devices. I don't have a Bluetooth keyboard on hand, but I was easily able to pair my Beats earbuds, so I'm all good if I can ever find a reason to use them with it.
Finally, there is 32GB of onboard storage, which will hold a lot of handwritten documents, as files sizes seem to average about 1MB per page, both according to members of the Supernote Reddit group and my own tests. (There's also a Micro SD card slot that can expand storage by up to 2TB.)
Make your handwritten notes more versatile
Lifehacker's resident study methods whisperer Lindsey Ellefson has written countless articles about the benefits of organizing your handwritten notes, and the Supernote Manta makes the process almost...fun?
The user interface is very simple: There's no home screen, just a sidebar you open by swiping down on the right-hand bezel. This gives you access to your files, to-do lists, and other functionality, but the main focus is putting your notes front and center.
The baked-in notes app includes three different virtual writing implements (a needlepoint pen, a ballpoint pen, and a marker) with multiple options for line thickness and saturation. There are 28 built-in templates, from blank, to college-ruled, to line and dot grids, to a musical staff, and you can customize or import your own variations and save them to your document library to use again.
The sidebar includes a number of options that make it easy to format your written work at a tap: Use the lasso tool to select text or a sketch and make it into a header, or move it around, or save it as a sticker that you can access later. The linking option allows you to create a tappable link to any other page, note, or website, so you can easily create a table of contents that spans multiple files.
You're given a great deal of flexibility to modify your notes as you see fit. For example, you can start a note in one template and change it up later (say, going from a lined sheet to a blank one) without the hassle of copying everything over. You can cut pages or insert new ones and copy entire pages to paste into a new note.
I've only been testing the device for a few weeks, but I've yet to run into anything I wanted to do that the Supernote software won't let me do.
Markup PDFs, EPUBs, and other file types
While you'll be doing most of your writing in the notes app, you can also open and markup other file types using a built-in reader, including EPUBs and PDFs. This can especially useful if you're using the device for work or studying, as you can link a particular section of a PDF to your notes and vice-versa.
Marked-up PDFs can be exported with your annotation intact, but unfortunately the same can't be said for notes or highlights made to an EPUB, so if you want to use the device for text editing you'll have to choose a different file type. Though I haven't tested every file type, Ratta says the Manta supports Note (.note), PDF, EPUB, Word, Text (.txt), PNG, JPG, WebP, CBZ, FB2 and XPS files.
Text recognition and exporting your notes
When exporting, you can choose to turn your notes into PNG, PDF, TXT, and DOCX files. Text recognition software turns your handwriting into text, with support for some 60 languages, and it works reasonably well—though results will vary based on how legibly you write.
Import and export files via the companion app
There are a few ways to get your exported files off the Supernote Manta, including email and cloud storage integrations (Dropbox, Google Drive, and One Drive). You'll also have access to Supernote Cloud, a native cloud sync option that stores all of your notes. You can access it by logging into your storage account using a QR code or the Supernote Partner app, available on Mac and Windows as well as iOS and Android.
From the app, you can search through and view your notes from anywhere, making it easy to get them where you need to to print them out or import them into a different app.
Sync your mail and calendar and build a to-do list
Beyond the notes app, the Supernote Manta has a few more useful workflow integrations. You can sync your Gmail or Outlook email and calendar to access your emails and send yourself files and to link your notes to a particular calendar event.
As a list-maker at heart, I love the functionality of the To-do app, which lets you create a list of tasks, sort them, and assign them due dates. Once you've finished something, you check it off with a little radio button, delivering yourself a nice hit of dopamine. (Or is that just me?)
More functionality with Supernote Apps
Though the Manta can't connect to the Google Play store, it does have access to a small library of Ratta-approved apps, including:
Atelier, which turns the device into a drawing pad with additional drawing implements and line thickness controls.
InkFlow, a recent addition that allows you to connect the Manta to your computer to use it as a sketch pad to draw and edit from within any app that works with external stylus input.
The Amazon Kindle app that allows you to use the device as an e-reader of sorts (note there is also a native EPUB reader if you want to sideload DRM-free books yourself).
A note on sideloading
While the Manta's settings include an option to allow you to sideload APK files by hooking the device up to your computer, it's not exactly the intended use, and Ratta doesn't guarantee that all apps will perform well. Unfortunately, sideloading on a Mac is a particular challenge, as it requires you to use Terminal commands. I wasn't able to try this out, as my work laptop's permissions don't allow me that functionality.
I'm of two minds about this. While on the one hand I admire that Ratta is allowing the functionality at all, you likely have another device that can better handle whatever apps you might load onto your Manta. This isn't a device that's trying to be a one-stop shop, so it doesn't make sense to treat it as one.
Future-proof (ish)
One of the things I like best about the Supernote is that Ratta seems most concerned with making its existing customers happy. Its website states that its company ethos is to prioritize retaining customers over attracting new ones, and that translates to frequent software updates (there have been two in the weeks I've been testing it, including the launch of the InkFlow app) and active involvement in online communities like the Supernote Reddit and Facebook group.
Moreover, the Manta itself has a modular design with a removable back panel that will theoretically allow you to swap out the battery and processor. You can't actually buy these parts straight from Ratta yet, but the company promises this is the eventual intent. At the very least, it's a far more consumer-friendly approach than, say, only allowing people to repair their own devices after you've been forced to by international law.
Go bigger
While I generally love a smaller profile device, the more I've used the Supernote Manta, the more I appreciate the extra room. It's nearly the same size as a full sheet of notebook paper, and it's nice to be able to fit an entire thought onto a line without writing super tiny.
Nearly 30% larger than the Supernote Nomad, the Manta's display is also a boon if you plan to work a lot with PDFs (especially if you'll be annotating them in the margins), draw in the Atelier art app, or plug the device into a computer to use it as a sketchpad.
The only real drawback is the matching 30% price increase. But if I was going to spend nearly $300 on a digital notebook, I'd probably spend $460 for the bigger one.
