Boogie Board Jot

The Boogie Board Jot is an electronic blackboard.

Well, a small blackboard — it’s only 8.5 inches. Still, it’s got some use. At minimum you can use it instead of sticky notes, and there’s a magnet on the back so you can stick it to the fridge, or the side of your PC case, or wherever.

At one point it dropped to $21 on Amazon US, which comes to about 160 RMB shipped, but the price went up — now it’s $29. There’s a 180 RMB listing on eBay, and that’s the one I bought.

Once it arrived I realized this thing is a ~100 RMB item at heart. The packaging is the plainest kind, and there’s no point babying it — just unbox and use it. To write you only need pressure; no special stylus required, though the included one feels right. And you don’t have to worry about palm rejection, since only sharp pressure registers — a normal resting hand is fine.

Functionally it writes, and there’s a button to clear the screen. That’s it. It can’t save anything, but it sits there without needing power anyway.

The writing feel is decent, there’s some line variation, but since it isn’t paper the surface is a bit slippery. Not a big deal.

The Boogie Board line also has Bluetooth-syncing models. Based on how this one feels, though, the ~100 RMB version is the sweet spot — anything pricier isn’t worth it. For note-taking I’d recommend Sharp’s N20 series electronic notebook. Word is the N30 is about to launch, so I’ll keep an eye on that.