I’ve just started using a Rocketbook Everlast Mini, Rocketbook Beacons, and the required iOS app. I’m not into product reviews, but wanted to make a post because I can already see how these products will definitely be part of my work productivity, especially the Beacons.
I chose the Mini mostly for personal use and used my own money to buy one. I didn’t want to spend a lot and thought the smaller form factor would be fine and perhaps suit my needs even better. So far, I’m happy.
Mini Pros
- ∞ use? seems durable, but there appears to be minor etching on the page surface, not sure that will make a difference
- encourages creativity: when the ink is your only consumable, I feel much more free to write down any little thought or sketch
- cleans easily with only water: it’s not really a pain to have to wipe down each page, it’s actually cathartic in a weird way
- back to analog! I’m always typing on a keyboard it seems and it’s nice to get back to pen on “paper”
- there are other pen types in the Frixion line of pens, not just limited to the “ball point pen” experience of the pen that came with the Mini
Mini Cons
- “odd” writing feel, no pencil-like experience
- ink drying is longer than expected: they claim you need up to 15 seconds, but I’ve noticed it can take up to over a minute depending upon how much ink you’re using – when I’m sketching, I’m using much more ink than when I’m writing
- no edge bleeds: it makes scanning more difficult
- weather sensitive? not sure, but it doesn’t take much moisture to smudge the ink; scan your work often if you don’t want to lose your work
The Rocketbook Beacons are an interesting idea. Basically, these four stickers allow you to capture or broadcast any whiteboard space. Of course your need a smartphone running their app, but the app seems to work very well and is easy to use. I used to use my whiteboard all the time to brainstorm ideas or processes, but capturing them was always an issue. I used to use an app called CamScan, but saw an article saying I should avoid that app. Anyhow, Beacons definitely inspire me to pick up the whiteboard markers again!
Rocketbook App
- Nice design
- Free Rocketbook pages which you can print out, a feature that puzzles me since the whole mission of Rocketbook is to reduce the amount of paper we use
- Flexible Destinations feature, but I don’t have access to store things in my various O365 Teams, I have to upload it to my OneDrive folder and then move it to a team location
- Share with anyone is possible, but you have to make an extra click to access the “Share” option
- Auto-rotation often does not rotate pages correctly – I thought it just used the QR code to determine orientation, but that is not the case; you can use the app to rotate the pages, but the QR code remains on the scan
- No way to combine separate files into a single file without the use of 3rd party software