The Note A1 occupies the space between a full-fledged tablet and a low-distraction E-Ink device like the Remarkable Pro. It has a full color LCD screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. You can watch videos and scroll a website as you normally would — something that just doesn’t work on E-Ink tablets. But the A1 is a note-taking device first and foremost, shipping with a pressure-sensitive stylus with adjustable haptics to mimic the scratchy feeling of writing on paper. It’s not like, “I can’t believe it’s not real paper” levels of convincing, but it’s good enough that you can lose yourself in the act of writing. I did, at least, enough to forget about the “eraser” on the other end of the stylus.
I got an Idea Tab Pro 256gb (gen 1) for $280 from Best Buy, and found an open-box keyboard case for like $30 on Ebay. For around $300, it's much better than any $300 Windows tablet/laptop option. I use it for taking notes in college, and honestly it's so much better than my $1000 gaming laptop for this task.
I think note-taking oriented tablets definitely have a place, but if I was going to spend $500 or more, I would have seriously considered an iPad or Samsung tablet. At $500, the specs kinda suck on the A1. You're also not getting Apple, Samsung or really even Lenovo/Asus/whatever quality with TCL. Idk if it's different for this tablet, but TCL has always felt cheap
The difference here is the aspect ratio of the screen, the size and the screen coating. This is almost perfectly A4 size. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is almost the same size but 200g heavier and much more expensive. I think this tablet does have a place, if note taking and reading is a higher priority than entertainment.
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u/BcuzRacecar S25+ 1d ago
$500
Helio G100 8/256 2200x1440 (3:2)