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Digital notepads with E Ink displays have, slowly but surely, become a bit of a thing over the past couple of years or so. First championed by companies such as Remarkable and Boox, then jumped on by Amazon with its Scribe, the sector is gaining such momentum that traditional tablet manufacturers are starting to rebrand their products in similar ways. The TCL Note A1 Nxtpaper is one such device.
Despite the Note-taker branding, it doesn’t have an E Ink display like the Kindle Scribe. Instead, an LCD screen produces the visuals – and this is, presumably, just as power hungry as most other LCDs.
But it is designed to look and feel more like paper than a regular tablet, as well as being easier on the eye. Specifically, this is a “Nxtpaper Pure” screen that refreshes at 120Hz and has an anti-reflective layer applied to it that reduces reflections and glare significantly versus glossy screens.
Importantly, according to TCL, that anti-reflective matte finish gives the surface of the screen a more paper-like texture, making jotting notes and sketching with the included T-Pen Pro more natural feeling. It’ s much like the Huawei MatePad 11.5 (2025) in that respect.
The difference, being, of course, that although the Note A1 runs a heavily modified version of the Android Open Source software, you can install Google apps on it, specifically YouTube, without jumping through hoops or using a third party app store.
Otherwise, this tablet looks pretty slick. In appearance, it takes on the typical digital notepad look, with a thicker bezel down the left side making it easier to grip without activating the touchscreen. It’s a mere 5.5mm thin, weighs 500g and comes with 256GB of storage.
The T-Pen Pro, meanwhile, is equipped with haptic feedback motors that change the way they buzz, depending on the writing implement you have selected. There are some nice ideas on the software front, too. Naturally, there’s the ability to sync content with other devices via TCL’s Toolbox app and, according to TCL, there’s no subscription needed to keep using the app: a sly dig at Remarkable, who does charge for the same service.
And the tablet’s “Inspiration space” tool, for instance, allows you to circle anything on screen and capture it to the tool with a tap. This lets you gather fragments of information together from disparate places and because it retains links back to the original source, you can revisit and re-explore as you see fit.
The TCL Note A1 will cost 549 euros with pre-orders beginning in January and availability in late February. It launches alongside the new TCL Nxtpaper 70 Pro smartphone, the RayNeo X3 Pro Google Gemini-powered AR smart glasses, the LinkHub WR5360 mesh router and Linkzone MW517 mobile 5G router.
