Moleskine Smart Writing Set Analysis

With the App Store and Apple devices, millions of people have gone on to use less and less paper. They are completely dispensed with, while others keep alive the spirit of the pencil, the agenda and the notepad. For the latter, Moleskine has created the Smart Writing Set, a combination of paper, pen and app that unite the two worlds forever.

A smart pen

Moleskine is a brand that need not be presented. Known for his beloved notebooks and paper agendas, this Italian manufacturer founded in 1997 regained the style of French notebooks from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

That same spirit that pushed Maria Sebregondi to recover the story of the hard and smooth cover notebooks is found in the Moleskine Smart Writing Set. Composed of a black Moleskine notebook and a matching pen, that’s all you need to get started. If it wasn’t for one detail.

-In the same product we have two centuries of technology: notebooks inspired by the nineteenth century and a smart pen of the 21st century-

The Smart Writing Set needs a crucial component to function, as essential as the other two. Your iPhone with the Moleskine app installed and configured. Together, we have a system to take notes and notes as well as make sketches or schematics that you can take anywhere.

The pen is the center of Moleskine’s Smart Writing Set. It connects and syncs via bluetooth to your iPhone through its app and has an infrared camera that records all its movements. Therefore, it is important to hold the pen always the way shown in the video in the next section.

This smart pen will be able to continue taking notes and recording our activity without having the iPhone nearby. Once you reconnect, you’ll update our annotations in the app.

Digital and paper together

Annotations made in the Moleskine notebook (it’s a special one, with dots that help in stroke detection) appear in near real time on the iPhone. Detect every letter, dot or detail perfectly. So much so that one gets to wonder if there’s any kind of magic or spell behind this pen.

Perhaps best of all, you can edit the stroke, width and color at all times using a menu as shown in the video. In the app you can see your black annotations, color drawings and underlines while in your notebook you will always see the only color that the pen has: black. This increases that feeling of being faced with a special and unique product.

-Moleskine has created the perfect tool for those who continue to love paper and want to take advantage of apps-

The Smart Writing Set is designed for those who have always enjoyed writing with paper and pen. People who see the digital world, iPhones and iPads in addition to apps as something positive, but who don’t finish convincing them when it comes to making annotations. They trust the paper more. That’s why Moleskine wanted to combine the best of both worlds. The eternity of paper with the ubiquity of digital.

As it is a physical product, it suffers wear and tear and we must renew it. Moleskine’s notebook will sell out and you’ll need a new one that, as we said, should be specific to the Smart Writing Set (around 28 euros). As for the pen, the tip you draw in the notebook can be exchanged for another one purchased in any stationery for 1 or 2 euros. In the box we’ll find a spare.

Without a doubt, the negative aspect is taken by the translation made to the Moleskine app. For some strange reason, the Spanish version is full of abbreviated words without thinking that it makes it difficult to understand how it works. Its price is somewhat high, but if you’re used to Moleskine notebooks and value writing on paper, it shouldn’t be a problem.