Neo Smartpen N2 Bluetooth Digital Pen Compatible with iOS, Android, Smartphones, Tablets, and Windows PC with Neo Studio Companion App - Silver White

I bought this pen a couple weeks ago and use it every day for approximately 1-2 hours. I did a lot of research between this smartpen and a Lifescribe smartpen--and I'm so glad I chose the Neo brand. This pen isn't bulky or uncomfortable to use at all and even though it's triangular (which I thought might be an issue for long-term use) it's very comfortable to hold and I really can't tell a difference between writing with this pen and writing with a traditional round pen.I bought this solely to transcribe my written text into editable text on my computer/tablet; I have tested out the audio recording feature and the playback was clear (it will obviously pick up surface noise so if you're going to use it in a classroom or office setting, I would suggest you sit as close as possible to the speaker).As for transcribing my handwriting, it works amazingly well. I have very neat handwriting most of the time, but when I write extremely fast, it does tend to get a little messy; but this pen accurately transcribes 95% of all my handwriting correctly. The 5% it doesn't work well really pertains to punctuation--it does fine with question marks and exclamation marks, but it seems to have a hard time transcribing commas, periods, and quotation marks.There are a couple features I'm not crazy about and there wasn't very much information out there about the issues while I was researching the product:1) you can only have the app installed on one device. I had originally planned to have the app downloaded on my phone and my tablet but there was a lot of issues with this so I ended up leaving the app only on my phone.2) The Neosmart Pen website leads you to believe that you can assign any notebook with a custom cover within their app. I planned on using the heck out of this feature because I have 10+ projects going at the same time and I needed to keep them visually and physically organized. What they don't tell you is that you can only give a custom cover to an online notebook (which I had no intention of ever using). This was very disappointing and I wish there was some way to work around it. You can assign any note or notebook with a custom name, but the image cannot be changed.3) On the second day I used the pen, it took a firmware update when I plugged it into my laptop and it wiped out all my data without saving any of it. I lost two pages worth of writing--which wasn't a major time consuming problem, but it was still disappointing.4) when it transcribes your handwriting to editable text, it keeps the format of your handwriting instead of converting the paragraphs and line spacing to an unbroken line of textFor example, when you writeand transcribe your textit will have a lot of line breakslike thisinstead of being one single, unbroken line of text like this. It just means that when you go to put it in a word document, you will either need to reformat it yourself or use a free online tool that will get rid of all the line breaks (I use the online tool and it's a fast, problem-free solution).Even with these issues, I love the pen and have no regret paying ~$150 for it. I did print out my own paper for free using the Ncode PDF and it works great. I also bought some medium sized notebooks off ebay for a little less than $4 per notebook. When you buy the pen, it does come packaged with a small pocket-sized notebook so I recommend testing the pen out first before you spend even more money buying notebooks and ink replacements; the pen's success depends mainly on your handwriting. My boyfriend has terrible, *terrible* handwriting and it only picked up about one out of every three words for him. I can't really blame the pen, it's difficult for me to read his writing--so don't expect miracles.

TL;DR: In a nutshell, the pen itself is wonderful, and if you just need handwriting capture there shouldn't be a problem (if you can deal with the app's obscurity). But if you need the voice recording, and can't afford to lose every two or three sessions without warning, I highly suggest looking elsewhere.I'll preface this by saying that mechanically/aesthetically, the pen itself is beautiful. It is surprisingly easy to write with, despite feeling a bit weird at first (and my tiny hands). The silver body feels very good, and the indicator light is just bright enough to see in a bright classroom, but not so bright that it is distracting. The tip (at least for the ink it came with) wasn't nearly as "wobbly" as Livescribe pens I've had in the past which allowed for much smaller (and precise) writing.If I was just buying this as a 'stupid' pen, there would be no problem at all. However, the entire reason to buy a smart pen is for functionality more advanced than just a Bic pen and tape recorder. So as you can probably guess, my problem was with the app itself. I purchased this pen for one particular class I'm taking. Our (crazy) professor 1. Writes very information/detail dense powerpoint lectures, and goes through them so quickly that it is impossible to take down all the names, dates, cases, etc. 2. Doesn't post the lecture slides until two to three weeks later. 3. Doesn't allow ANY technology with screens, even though a computer would allow us to keep up. So, this seemed a perfect solution!When the app worked how it was supposed to (about half the time) I'd give it about a 3.5/5. It was....adequate. The most frustrating thing was the lack of instructions. There is a short blurb you get with the pen about how to synch it, however it didn't work, and I had to explore the bowels of the internet to figure out how to fix it. The app isn't particularly intuitive, so this happened pretty frequently. But I'm fluent in Google searches, so if these were the only issues I would have grit my teeth and wait for the company to update it.The reason I ended up returning it was because of a more critical issue. About half the time I would turn on the pen, open up the app, wait for the pen to be recognized, write a bit so there was an 'active' page, navigate to that page, then click "record" (a bit of a hassle, but not deal breaking). I'd then take notes for the duration of the lecture - happy that I could actually listen and write key words (and listen is later if I missed something) rather than furiously scribble down lecture slides. Once class ended, I would open up my phone and try to click "stop record", but about half the time the app would freeze, and then proceed to "unexpectedly quit" (Android). Upon reopening the app, the handwriting would eventually sync, but the audio would be nowhere to be found!! I couldn't afford to trust my academic success to the required app, so unfortunately the pen was a glorified scanner, and I had to return it.Random Thoughts/Tips:- Neo smartpen N2 hardware + Livescribe software would be magical- If using on multiple devices: On the most recently used device, upload whatever notebook you will be using to Google Drive. On the new device, delete the old version of the notebook, then download the newly uploaded one from Drive. (** You must do this each time you switch from, say, your phone to tablet and back. Otherwise you may lose information!!)- After syncing with Google Drive, you will see a folder created. If you move/edit/rename this folder, you're SOL. Also, you cannot listen to audio on the uploaded files.- Easiest way to save things to Drive that you CAN mess with, is to use the corner check-mark auto email thing, then in your Gmail create a filter which automatically tags those emails with "Neo pen" or something similar. Then, use IFTTT and create a recipe so that "IF receive email with "Neo Pen" label, THEN save attachments to Drive folder."

Works as advertised. I was a bit worried after reading some of the other negative comments. This is an excellent pen to have at the bedside or purse to quickly jot thoughts down for easy retrieval.Update, one year later: While I've not used the pen as much as I anticipated, I was pleasantly surprised when I charged it back up that I could sync with Windows laptop/desktop computer. Now I can easily copy my handwritten text (which is often very sloppy) paste in Word and edit at my leisure.I find that many people are finding that easy access to digital devices causes temporary attention deficit, and its much easier to carry a pad and pen than a laptop in certain situations.I've been eyeing the Remarkable tablet but I can't justify the cost when the Neo Pen meets all my needs. I'm surprised by the many negative comments. At this price point, its worth giving it a try.