- Montblanc is making a digital paper notebook
- It will cost $905 / £750 / AU$1,490
- It comes with 64GB of storage, and what looks like a 10.3-inch display
Montblanc, the German luxury goods maker, has decided to expand its high-end stationery range into the digital world with the new Montblanc Digital Paper. As you might expect, the E Ink tablet is suitably expensive.
According to Montblanc’s store page, the Digital Paper will set you back $905 / £750 / AU$1,490, and in exchange, you’ll get a black and white digital notepad and pen with 64GB of storage for your sketches and handwritten notes.
It supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity – though the latter is only for the pen – and it can link with the Montblanc Digital Paper companion app (which can be downloaded on both Android and iOS devices) to share your scribbles with your other tech.
Montblanc hasn’t revealed the screen size yet, but the website says the digital paper is “4.9 mm x 191 mm x 222 mm,” which would give us a maximum possible screen size of 11.5 inches. When you account for bezels, it’ll be less than this, so we’d guess around 10.3 inches, given that’s a common size for e-notebooks.
Notebooks such as the Amazon Kindle Scribe and Kobo Elipsa 2E, which notably cost considerably less than this Montblanc device – coming in at $449.99 / $429.99 / AU$729 or $399.99 / £349.99 / AU$629.95 respectively for their most expensive options – and boast very similar specs (though the Kobo comes with only 32GB of storage).
You can pick up the Montblanc Digital Paper in one of a trio of colors – Cool Grey, Mystery Black, Elixir Gold (which is a sort of mastic tan color) – and you can customize your digital notebook with one of a quartet of Folio covers – Ink Blue, Antarctica, Black, or Mastic – which will set you back $205 / £170 / AU$335 a pop.
You can also pick up a replacement pen for $275 / £230 / AU$450 as well as tip replacements, which come in boxes of eight for $40 / £34 / AU$70. There are linen, matte, and smooth tip options, with each offering different characteristics for how the tip glides over the digital paper to simulate the different tactile experiences you’d get from a proper pen and paper.
Now we haven’t reviewed the Montblanc tablet yet, but at twice the price (or close to double) of its similarly specced competitors, it’s unlikely it’ll win any awards for being excellent value for money.
However, if you’re in love with the Montblanc brand’s signature stylings, have long relied on its high-end stationery and want to enter the digital age with them, or have been after a digital paper slate with an elevated sophistication over what you can get from Kobo, Amazon, or the rest, then this could be the option for you.
