9 Best Digital Notebooks, Tablets, and Smart Pens (2025)
Kobo makes some of our favorite e-readers, and the Kobo Libra Color takes its e-reader software and not only adds digital notebooks, but color annotating too. You can write in the margins and underline your favorite quotes using eight different colors (plus black and gray, giving you 10 choices total); hold down the button on the Stylus 2 ($70) to enter highlight mode. You can only highlight books in yellow, but there are four highlighter colors in notebook mode. The Stylus 2 also has an eraser on the back that works as an object eraser, so one tap to the highlighted area or on-page doodle and the whole thing will vanish from your book's page.
The Libra also has a separate notebook section, where you can create different digital notebook pages. You can choose from a variety of layouts for each page (click the three dots and choose “change page background”) in a notebook, plus three different pen styles, a highlighter, and a paintbrush to use with the eight colors and two neutrals in the Libra's digital palette. It is a small size, so good for taking quick notes but not ideal for, say, writing down everything from an intense lecture. But if you're more of a fun to-do list kind of person and want a digital notebook and excellent e-reader all in one, the Libra Color is the way to go.
★ Larger, but no color: We previously recommended the Kobo Elipsa 2E ($400) for readers, and while it's still a great device, I think it's just a little too large for frequent readers (I much prefer the smaller Libra to bring books with me on the go), and missing out on color is a huge bummer. But I prefer both Kobos to the Kindle Scribe, and the Elipsa and Scribe are the same size.
If you really prefer the paper experience and don't want something you need to charge, then Rocketbook is for you. Rocketbook makes several reusable notebooks, planners, and accessories like index cards. I like the Rocketbook Fusion Plus since it comes with a ton of different template styles, from your classic monthly and weekly pages to project management layouts and meeting notes, making it feel closer to the variety a digital notebook can offer you. Take notes with an erasable Pilot Frixion Pen (one comes with whichever item you buy), scan photos of the pages into the Rocketbook app, and erase the whole thing with the damp microfiber cloth (also included). The app is designed to keep everything organized and easily send things off to Google Drive, Slack, Trello, OneNote, and a handful of other options.
The pages feel like something in between laminated paper and an extra-slim whiteboard. I found it easy to write on with the Frixion pen, and easy enough to erase. It was harder to erase, say, one word rather than an entire section of notes though. Rocketbook also makes the Rocketbook Pro 2.0 ($60), which has a more professional folio look to it, and I also really liked the reusable Sticky Notes ($24) since I tend to write a lot of quick lists and ideas down on anything nearby that's hand. I also like that you can get a colorful expansion pack ($14) that the Rocketbook app will recognize and upload to the right spot (email to your work address, add to a Trello board, etc.) based on the color.
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