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Tablets have the potential to make notepads obsolete, especially with stylus technology getting better all the time. But let's face it: Some people still prefer the feeling of pen on paper. If that's you, HP's Pro Slate 8 might be of interest. The 8-inch Android tablet uses ultrasonic sound waves to capture handwriting on ordinary paper, instantly creating a digital copy. That means you can take notes the old-fashioned way, and still wind up with a digital backup in the end.
The Pro Slate 8 also gives you good security, long battery with like Toshiba PA2445UR Battery, Toshiba PA2445U Battery, Toshiba PA3832U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3929U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3930U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PABAS250 Battery, Toshiba Dynabook RX3W Battery, Toshiba Portege R830 Battery, Toshiba Satellite R630 Battery, Toshiba Tecra R840 Battery, Toshiba PABAS112 Battery, Toshiba PA3593U-1BRS Batterylife, solid performance and a compact design that won't weigh you down on your daily commute. But it's pricey for an 8-inch tablet, especially when you include the folio case that's practically required to use the ink-on-paper functionality.
So is that functionality just a gimmick, or does it justify the Pro Slate 8's premium $450 price?
Packed in alongside the Pro Slate 8 is a special stylus that HP calls the Duet Pen. As its name implies, there are two different ways to use it.
The first way is to use it as a conventional stylus, writing directly on the tablet's display. Unlike a typical capacitive stylus – the kind you'd buy for your iPad, for example – this stylus offers full-pressure sensitivity. In other words, it can detect how hard you're pressing down, letting you feather your lines and vary your line weight, just like you would with a regular old ink pen.
Writing on the Pro Slate 8 feels pretty good, even if it's not quite as smooth as writing on the Surface Pro 3. The above example shows that HP's pen produces lines with a slight wobble, while writing on the Surface 3 is silky smooth. Wacom pens like the one that come with the Encore 2 Write also feel a bit better than the Duet Pen.
The second way to use the Duet Pen is where the magic really happens, though. The plastic stylus nib at the end of the pen can actually be removed and flipped around to reveal a regular ballpoint-ink pen tip. When you write on a paper pad placed next to the tablet, your marks will be mirrored onto the tablet's display in real time.
So how does it work? The Pro Slate 8 has four microphones that can detect inaudible, ultrasonic waves emitted by the pen, and it uses that information to detect the Duet Pen's precise location in space.
The amazing thing is that it actually works very well. Almost every mark I made was replicated precisely on the tablet screen, almost perfectly in sync with my own pen strokes. The tablet did fail to translate the occasional stroke, but that occurrence was surprisingly rare, and happened mostly while writing near the edges of my paper pad.
(The above video demonstrates how the Duet Pen works on the HP Pro Slate 12; the functionality is the same on the Pro Slate 8.)
More concerning was that the tablet had trouble reliably converting my handwriting into digital text when I was writing on paper with the ink tip, unless I made a conscious effort to write slowly and neatly. It's concerning because handwriting recognition is one of the main perks of digital note-taking in the first place, since it makes your notes fully searchable later on. The feature works much better when writing directly on the tablet screen.
I can think of a couple of other good reasons that you'd want a digital copy of your analog notes, though. For starters, digital notes can be backed up to the cloud, so they're safe and accessible from anywhere. Plus, they're easy to share with others via email, with no scanners or copy machines required.
Still, I have to ask: Why bother with physical ink when inking digitally, directly on the HP Pro Slate's display, already feels so good? I suspect that only pen-and-paper diehards will want to bother with the Duet Pen's unique capabilities.
Also, note that the tablet's sensors can't pick up feathered lines or varied line weight when you're writing on paper. Instead, your strokes are transferred to the tablet as fully opaque lines. That's fine for note-taking, but makes the pen-on-paper functionality less useful for sketches and artwork.