Livescribe 4 GB Echo Smartpen

Edited to add review on new power adaptor that I mentioned before.I am a writer and a student; both require a lot of writing. I prefer a pen and paper because I can take them anywhere. But then, having to type up what I have written is a pain. With the Livescribe Echo Smartpen, all of my problems are solved. I can write anywhere I want with the pen, upload and then convert my writing to text using MyScript and only have to do some minor editing.Price: I give this a 5/5 because $ 169.95 seems to be a very reasonable price to me. I only paid $140.30, but I was more than willing to pay the full price. Here's why: you get a pen with a 4 GB of memory which can capture what you write, and, if you want, record audio as you write which syncs the audio to what you are writing. The piano app (draw some lines, press the "keys" and music comes out of the pen) comes pre-installed. You get an 80 page A5 starter notebook. You also get two inks (one installed and an extra) and two pen caps (one on the pen and one extra). For what the pen does and what it comes with, this price seems reasonable to me. Note the fact that the lower end pen that is only a hundred bucks comes with just one ink and one cap.Getting Started: I give this a 4½/5. The pen comes with a guide called "Interactive Getting Started Guide" which instructs you on how to use the pen. The guide has eight simple steps to set up and teach you the basics of using the pen. The inside of the guide is dot paper so as you set up the pen, you write on the guide to do this, and it ends up in the active notebooks in the Livescribe Desktop. I took off half a point because there should have been more information on how to use Livescribe Desktop or where to find this information. I had to learn through trial and error and by going on the forums on the Livescribe website. Otherwise, this is very helpful.Livescribe Desktop: I give this a 4/5. Basically, it's a library for your notebooks that you download for free from the Livescribe website. You can rename the notebooks to whatever you want. You can create a custom notebook from pages of the notebooks. So, say you have a 3-subject notebook for school you can write so many pages for one class and then right after that for another class, and then you can drag them to their own custom notebooks. You can even mix pages from different notebooks of the same (A5 and A5) and different kind (A5 and 3 Subject). Then, once you fill you a notebook, you archive it and it removes the notebook from the pen to clear up space. One thing I would like is the ability to erase words or sentences within the notebook images before using MyScript for Livescribe for conversion in case you misspelled a word or whatever.Battery: I give this a 5/5. I use the pen for several hours a day over several days before charging it when only using the writing capturing part. In my two hour and forty-five minute class, while using the audio recording too, it drains about half the battery. I would estimate that it would take seven hours to drain the battery this way. Charging the battery takes an hour or more, depending on how drained the battery is. There is actually a warning sign that appears on the pen when it is almost empty of battery life, this is rather nice. I ran down to empty a few days ago, so this was a welcome surprise actually because it would have been really annoying if I had continued writing when the pen turned off.Power Adaptor: I have found on the Livescribe website a power adaptor charging option that is not available on Amazon. I give this a 4½/5. When I am away from my computer and my pen gets down to the warning sign, it is a nice way to charge the pen. I have found that using the adaptor instead of connecting to the computer that the pen charges faster. When I had drained my batter, in about two hours, the pen had charged to a little over 80%. It takes about two hours to charge from 50% to 100% via the computer, so this adaptor is very good. My only complaint is the shape of the thing which is why I took half a point off. This design looks nice, much nicer than the brick like chargers, but it is an awkward shape in that it is rounded on top so it is narrower width wise. This makes it thick enough that it is a little awkward to put into pockets in my small messenger bag. Overall, this is a great device that makes this pen much more versatile because it is no longer depending on the computer to be charged.Pen Design: I give this a 4/5 because I like the design. It's not very heavy. It's thinner than I thought it would be. At first, it was awkward and tiring to use the pen, but after a while, you'll get used to it. The flat bottom to keep the pen from rolling, only works if you set it down exactly right, otherwise, it will roll. The moment the pen starts to roll, the bottom does nothing to stop it.Cap: I give this a 2/5. The cap needs a total redesign. While it comes with two and they keep the ink from drying out, the cap is so hard to take off of the pen. The little ridges are barely any help. I also wish there was a way to put the cap into the top of the pen so that the cap won't be lost, like a regular pen.Ink: This earns a 5/5. I finally finished my first ink cartridge and it lasted 110 pages (A5: 66 pages, 3 Subject: 32 pages, Flip Note: 12 pages); however, I should warn you that I write pretty small, I cross things out heavily if I make a spelling mistake or I don't like what I wrote and sometimes I would leave the cap off for a while because I'd forget about it while doing research and such. So, I'd estimate it could last for several more pages, which for such a small ink container, that's pretty good. The ink dries instantaneously and size of the point does not come out too thin or thick. The one thing I wish was that the metal casing was plastic so I could see how much ink is left.Audio: This earns a 4/5. This semester in school I have a three hour linguistics class in which I am using the pen. The classroom is small, and the teacher walks back and forth, but he can be heard clearly on the pen. The pen does pick up your writing, papers moving, the people around you, but that does not take away from the teacher. However, the fact that you can hear the pen scratching on the paper can be annoying at times. The sound is louder on the computer, but the pen does produce a loud enough volume that I can hear it just fine when I am in a noisy area.Writing Capture: This gets a 5/5. You can write light or hard and the pen captures it. I have to confess there are times when I forget to turn on the pen and have written stuff. If you turn the pen on and write over what you have written before turning the pen on, it will capture the writing. The ink does not seem to block the camera ability to pick up new pen strokes. It works wonderfully.Writing/Audio Syncing: This earns a 5/5. When I first got the pen I used this feature when setting it up with the getting started guide. As you write, you can sync audio to what you have written. However, here is one caution. If you start speaking before you start writing, then what you have said before you began writing won't be synced to the text. You have to start writing before you begin speaking. Also, you do not have to keep writing for the audio to still record. On the third day of class all that was up were pictures, so I wrote out "writing systems" and put the pen down and then wrote "end" before pressing the stop button. I was able to look at the pictures and listen to the lecture without killing myself to write down what he was saying. However, if you are not a fast writer when taking notes, like me, then there may be times when what is being said may not link up to what you are writing if you still are on the previous point.4GB Storage: I have 110 pages and six hours, forty-three minutes and fifty-one seconds of audio on my pen. I have 3,148MB left (according to the pen and I have no idea why it's in MB and not GB), so a little over 3GBs is left on the pen. This pen can hold a lot.Dot Paper Notebooks: I wrote a review for the A-5 Single-Subject Notebook and will write reviews for the others when I get a chance. If you want a detailed review, go to my profile and look up my other Livescribe reviews. My mini review here: Each notebook is numbered because there are four notebooks (1, 2, 3, 4) for each kind of notebook (A5, 3 Subject, 1 Subject, Flip Note...). I don't know about the journals though, I think there is only one of them. When you finish book one of the A5 sized notebook series, you cannot buy a new book one and use it; you have to archive the book you finished to be able to use a new book one. I am writing in two of the 3 subjects, the starter notebook, two of the A5 notebooks and one of the flip notebooks. So, you can write in all four of one kind and have every kind in use too, so you can potentially have sixteen notebooks going at once, more if you get the journals or they make more.Apps: the pen comes with a piano app. I have played around with it and found that if you have already drawn the Piano, you can just use it over and over again. Overall, for the apps, it depends on what you want. I have no use for apps because I use the pen for school and writing. They'd just take up space and be a distraction I don't need.MyScript for Livescribe: This is a program you have to buy separately and from a different company for $30 for one computer. Basically, this program will take your handwritten pages from the Livescribe Desktop and converts it into text. This actually works fairly well. A few mistaken conversions pop up, but not a lot. I write pretty small and quite messy, and it can recognize about 95% of my writing. There are a couple of things to note. 1) Indents in the notebook will appear as spaces once converted. 2) The only thing you can do when you make an error is put a line in the middle of the word or words which will appear as an underline when converted, there is no way to delete something. However, I think it is totally worth it. If you want to be able to write anywhere and whenever without having to worry about typing it up, then this is the perfect program to compliment this pen.Overall, this pen is a great buy for a student, business person, a writer, a right handed person, or a left handed person. Not only will you have a notebook of your writing, but you will have them backed up on the computer as images and as text in a document if you get MyScript. This pen gets a 5/5 from me.

I bought this pen in 2012 because the display on the 1GB Pulse I had started going dark. I thought this would be a good upgrade, but boy was I wrong. I used it sporadically during 2012, and liked it. Then in 2013 I went to go use it after keeping it on my desk for all that time, and the display was very dim. I tried increasing the brightness and it stayed dim. Then today (10/2/14) I decided to try it again and now the display is completely blank. I tried resetting it with the desktop software to no avail. I can hear it click when I tap on the controls in the notebook, but the display stays dead. I did a quick Google search and found that this is a known issue; the display goes dead usually right after the warranty period ends. The same thing happened with my Pulse display, so I can only assume that Livescribe is selling very expensive pens that are designed to fail right after the warranty ends. For the price of these pens they should last at least five years, not barely one year. Don't buy these pens, I can only assume that this will happen with any of the Livescribe pens. I'm going to try using the Evernote moleskine notebook instead, that technology should be much more stable than this.UPDATE: I emailed Livescribe and was told my pen was out of warranty. They graciously offered me 20% off a new pen whose display will die right around when the warranty ends. I'm not going to throw my money away yet again. Please don't buy any pens from this company, they are knowingly selling defective items and not standing behind their product. I took a look at their "newest" offering: no display and it basically works by using your iPhone or iPad. So basically I have a pen that connects to my iOS device. Um, I can do that with a moleskine evernote notebook that is only a couple of dollars. Please check the forums if you want to purchase this pen, you will see the millions of complaints about these pens and no help whatsoever from the company.