They allow you to give this tablet a try for 100 days, which might be one of the biggest draws for me.

Table of contents

The Why

I can’t prove it, but speaking as someone who uses paper notebooks and enjoy scribbling down ideas, notes and random thoughts, I think half of us are quietly intrigued by the idea of e-ink devices (though of course actual paper is still the best!) and discretely on the lookout for one that elevates (“elevates”, aka “give me a reason to waste money” 🫨)our workflow without disrespecting our tomoe rivers and midori MDs.

There are a few options out there. Eventually, and this is after a lot of binge-watching of YouTube reviews, I decided to give Viwoods a try. Among the devices I was eyeing, Viwoods perhaps strikes the balance between enough note-taking features and sufficient reading experience the best, if I think about my personal habit and the workflow I have.

The First 2 Weeks

The Good ✨

The build (and the writing feel)

Build feels really nice. Being held up close, the paper-like texture of the display is, at moments, strikingly pleasing. It is light and sleek but feels sturdy. The pictures below do not do it justice in terms of showing how NOT like glass it feels. The gap between the screen and the bezel is quite small, the texts feel like they are right on the surface and almost flowing over the edge of the screen, which I really enjoy.

The back

The front

…which contributes to a nice writing experience overall. I say that, even though when I take a pen to it, there is more of a “scribbling on glass/whiteboard” feel than I would have wanted, but part of it I felt is due to the pen that comes with it (which I will get to later). I tried writing with the pen that comes with Kindle Scribe, and I enjoy it so. much. more. So now I have “replacing the pen” on my wishlist.)

I am finally able to use WeRead! (but more importantly KOReader is there. “It fixes all my reading problems 🤗!” — a reader)

This font looks really great with e-ink

THOUGH…I doubt that I would use WeRead much because, KOReader? But I just always felt so left out by WeRead. Not that it is so great or FOMO is real, but having the option is not … bad? Plus they have some great fonts. Reading is as much intellectual as visceral and fonts are important. (btw, Viwoods need to let us import our own fonts, please)

The modules and compatibility with my daily workflow

This device comes with an opinionated system where they organize features into modules. I don’t think it works for everyone, but it works for me. Some parts of it does feel rigid or redundant, but I am not against this separation of concerns.

For example, I always start with the Daily module to lay out my tasks for the day. This is also where I jot down the highlights of anything I read or studied at the end of the day. From the same place, I get links to the learning materials I used, meeting notes I took, and the pickings (basically screenshots) I made. It feels natural to me. I do think the UI design does not reflect how the modules play together very well though.

The 100-day return policy (yes you are not reading it wrong)

I am looking at you, Boox. At one point I was really struggling to decide between Boox and Viwoods, but eventually I backed away from Boox for how difficult returning sounds like if I went with that option. 100 days are also a perfect amount to figure out whether the device works for my workflow or not.

The Less Ideal 💭

The use of AI

Yes, despite that fact that this tablet is called “AI Paper”, initially they almost lost me at “AI”. I did end up giving it a try for everything else that it offers, and even if I shield off my personal bias, the AI features in this device feel monotone - you ask question, get answer. On top of how monotone it is, they over-zealously apply this pattern everywhere they can think of, which feels like a waste of resources and, often times, does not really yield better result. True, they can be useful when I need to look up something quickly, but why do I need AI to tell me what a word means (and burns down a tree somewhere) when a built-in dictionary can serve the purpose extremely well? Also, on that note, why is there no dictionary in the first place for an e-ink tablet that is supposed to be used…you know, for reading at all?

The pen

Compared to the build, this pen has a cheapened feel to it. It makes sounds when I write, and the way it glides on the screen is almost too smooth to my liking. The side button as eraser is very awkward for me to press, but I also have to use it because the top “eraser” portion of the pen feels very scratchy and I want it nowhere near that screen.

I do enjoy writing on this thing overall, but the pen will probably get replaced the moment I see something better on sale.

There are bugs. Some quite disruptive

Loading files in Learning module can get stuck out of nowhere. Memos and daily notes that I just put in disappears without warning. Annotations I already deleted / erased come back to haunt me on the side panel over and over. PDF went back to the first page when I was hoping to continue reading from where I left off. All these bugs happened more than once to me, and if it happens when I’m in my focus mode, it is quite disruptive. But where there are bugs, there are (devs working overtime to fix them) updates, so I am quite hopeful that these would get fixed soon.

There are also some missing features here and there that I don’t understand how they justified not having in the versions before - like “go to page X” in learning module - you can work around this by using the bookmarks, but still, it felt like such a basic reading feature that it should have been there from the start.

The Potential Deal-breakers ❌

Search feature

There is no searching for handwritten notes. Let that sink in for a second. I don’t know if other devices have it (it sounds like no one does it truly, or does it well), but from where I am standing, there is something so fundamentally illogical/wrong with a note-taking device that does not allow you to search your handwritten notes. It sounds like Viwoods will work on some solution for this, but how come it is not among the first priority features is beyond me.

Conclusion

July update will be one of the crucial variants for me to make the decision on keeping it or not, but honestly, I am already getting used to carrying it everywhere (even to the office), and I half got into the habit of organizing my tasks and studying with it. I find myself picking it up all the time to note down stuff, and not once did I think “I have to do so because otherwise it would be a waste of money”, which is a sign that the device actually can organically fit into my day-to-day.

Definitely not a perfect device, and I would not have any second thoughts if they can just drop the name “AI Paper” and find something that does not make me CRINGE every time someone asks me what it is. Just drop it already dang it!