By
Jon Gilbert
Published 55 minutes ago
Jon has been an author at Android Police since 2021. He primarily writes features and editorials covering the latest Android news, but occasionally reviews hardware and Android apps. His favorite Android device was the Pixel 2 XL, and he regards the three months when he owned an iPhone as a time of the utmost shame. Jon graduated with a History degree in 2018, but quickly realized his writing skills were better put to use writing about tech rather than essays. He started writing and editing for startups shortly after graduating, where he did everything from writing website copy to managing and editing for a group of writers. When he's not sitting at his computer, you can find him working at Warhammer World, reading sci-fi, or turning his speakers up to 11.
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I've never enjoyed juggling devices, but recently I've found that two devices have formed the foundation for my digital life.
My Google Pixel 10 Pro and Boox Palma 2 Pro are always on hand, and I can't imagine getting rid of either.
I tend to use them for different purposes, and they complement each other perfectly, with one exception.
I take a lot of notes on my phone. From shopping lists to idle thoughts, I'm constantly jotting things down.
When I only used my Pixel 10 Pro for notes, the Bundled Notes app was a reliable companion. The app made recording and organizing thoughts easy, but I ran into problems when I tried using it with my e-reader's stylus.
So I went on a quest to find the perfect note-taking device for all devices.
The problems with my favorite note-taking apps
E-ink compatibility is poor across the board
I cheerfully replaced Google Keep with Bundled Notes months ago and never looked back.
However, the latter's lack of handwritten note support caused problems. Typing notes is fine, but jotting down annotations or sketches on my e-reader is incredibly useful.
Google Keep supports handwritten notes, but its poor organizational features are frustrating.
The reality is that most note-taking apps fall into one of two categories.
The first group is composed of apps like Google Keep, which are great for jotting down quick notes, however you want, but terrible for organizing related notes and projects.
The second group includes apps like Bundled Notes or Obsidian, which are great for organizing thoughts, but they aren't as versatile as the former group.
I needed something that fell into both camps.
To find the perfect app for all my devices, I established a few criteria that it must follow. My new app must:
- Be comfortable to use on an e-ink display (for example, no complex animations).
- Support handwritten notes.
- Have organizational features on par with Bundled Notes.
- Allow document and photo importing.
I was helped in this search by a 2021 update to Boox's firmware. This update improved compatibility for third-party apps, and the release notes suggested the best apps to try.
After some more searching, I came up with a shortlist:
- OneNote
- Evernote
- Joplin
- Squid
- Google Keep (mostly as a baseline to compare others against)
I quickly eliminated the worst apps
Most note-taking apps are great at one thing, not everything
The first and most important criterion was each app's compatibility with e-ink displays. If I couldn't comfortably use it on my e-reader, then it wasn't useful.
The first app I tested was Squid. I used this app on my Chromebook during my university career, and it was brilliant throughout for annotating and taking notes.
Unfortunately, it crashed whenever I opened a note on my Palma 2 Pro. Too bad.
Evernote was swiftly eliminated by the second criterion as it does not support handwritten notes.
This is also where I had to say goodbye to Joplin.
Close
Shoddy handwriting aside, it's clear Joplin isn't a good app for e-ink devices.
A big problem with note-taking apps that support handwritten notes is their incompatibility with e-ink displays.
The notes I took with Joplin were laggy and angular. If I were writing in Nordic runes, I could manage, but for me, it was unusable.
After the first two criteria, I was whittled down to two: Microsoft OneNote and Google Keep. The latter's poor organizational tools barely passed the third criterion, and the app completely failed the fourth.
Thus, I was left with a clear winner, Microsoft OneNote.
OneNote is the best note-taking app for tablets, phones, and e-ink displays
Its e-ink compatibility is beyond impressive
We've raved about OneNote before on Android Police for good reason. It's a phenomenal note-taking app, and I was well aware of its excellence before I started this experiment.
However, it was its performance on my Palma 2 Pro that blew me away.
Whether I was importing photos or documents, jotting down handwritten notes, or recording a voice memo, OneNote didn't fail me once.
Standard advice for taking notes on e-ink devices is to use the default app, but OneNote is just as good as the Boox default app for handwriting. It's fast, responsive, and plays well with other elements of the app (such as imported images).
One of the issues I had with Evernote during my experimentation was the number of menus and screens I had to switch between.
The fewer refreshes, the better for e-ink devices, and Evernote drove me crazy with the number of hoops I had to jump through to take a simple note.
OneNote, on the other hand, requires a single tap to start jotting down notes.
Its minimalist layout looks good on my low-resolution display, and the color features of my Palma 2 Pro look great. But most importantly, it is equally great across all my devices.
Microsoft knocks it out of the park yet again
I should have known OneNote would come out on top in my experiment, as it's long been one of our favorite note-taking apps.
But I want to reiterate how surprised I was with its performance on an e-ink display. So if you want a note-taking app that works equally well on your desktop, tablet, phone, and e-ink device, use OneNote.
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Google Pixel 10 Pro
SoC
Google Tensor G5
RAM
16GB
Storage
128 GB / 256 GB / 512 GB with Zoned UFS / 1 TB with Zoned UFS
Battery
4870mAh
Operating System
Android 16
Front camera
42 MP Dual PD selfie camera
Google's latest Pro Pixel packs a faster yet efficient Tensor G5 chip, an upgraded ISP, and a brighter display. Plus, an array of new AI features that make it one of the best Android phones to launch in 2025.
$999 at Amazon $999 at Best Buy Expand Collapse -
Boox Palma 2 Pro
Resolution
B/W: 1648 x 824 (300ppi), Color: 412 x 824 (150ppi)
Storage
128GB
Screen Size
6.13"
Processor
Snapdragon 750G
RAM
8GB
Audio
Stereo Speaker
$400 at Boox
$400 at Amazon
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