TCL Note A1 Nxtpaper brings AI features to digital note-taking at $549

TCL's Note-Taking Tablet Is Here to Take on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft

TCL is introducing the Note A1 Nxtpaper, a digital note-taking tablet built for those who prefer taking meeting notes, study notes, to-do lists, and other spontaneous ideas on a paper-like device. It aims to provide a distraction-free writing or doodling experience while also giving users a set of nifty AI-powered features. Up front, you get an 11.5-inch anti-reflective display that is TUV-certified for eye comfort. The Nxtpaper Pure display supports a refresh rate of up to 120Hz and can show 16.7 million colors. The tablet has an aluminum unibody that's 5.5mm thick on the edges and weighs approximately 500 grams. TCL bundles the device with a T-Pen Pro stylus that offers a pencil-like feel while writing and attaches magnetically to the side of the tablet when not in use. The stylus supports 8,192 pressure levels and dual-tip use, and it has a latency of below 5ms. File formats supported by the Note A1 Nxtpaper include PDF, Word, PPT, PPTX, Excel, HTML, RTF, TXT, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, CHM, CBZ, and CBR. You can transfer books to the device using CloudSync, LAN, or by using a USB to install third-party apps like Kindle. Everything you create on the device can be synced via Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive for easier access. You can also cast from the tablet to a bigger screen. With the AI features, meanwhile, you can tap into audio-to-text transcription during a meeting or try out the real-time translation tool. You also get options to beautify your handwriting or just convert it to regular text. Additionally, the AI can recognize the mathematical formulas you jot down. Other features, such as writing assist and AI-powered rewrite or summarization, are also available. All of these AI features are built into the device and powered by Microsoft Copilot, TCL tells PCMag. To turn the tablet into a portable workstation, you can pair it with a keyboard case, the company says. With the tab's massive 8,000mAh battery, charging won't most likely be an issue. That said, TCL is yet to reveal the battery life of the Note A1 Nxtpaper. Its direct rival, Amazon's Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, can last up to two weeks, the company claims. The A1 Nxtpaper arrives just weeks after the Scribe Colorsoft began shipping to customers. While the 16GB Colorsoft starts at $629.99, the 256GB A1 Nxtpaper starts at $549. TCL's new e-note will be available in North America, Europe, and APAC beginning at the end of February, with early access via Kickstarter.

TCL reveals its Kindle Scribe competitor with a paper-like color screen

* Nxtpaper technology's matte LCD sort of looks like E Ink, but it also features a high refresh and low lag. * The Note A1 Nxtpaper features include real-time handwriting-to-text, translation, summarization, and "handwriting beautification." * Specs include an 11.5-inch 2,200 × 1,440 pixel resolution 120Hz display, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and an 8,000mAh battery. At this point, TCL's paper-like Nxtpaper display technology that applies a matte texture to a LCD screen has been around for a few years. It looks and feels pretty cool, and also reduces glare and blue light. Basically, it's a standard LCD screen that's a bit easier on the eyes and sort of looks like E Ink (but at the same time, not really). Since 2021, we've seen Nxtpaper make its way to TCL's phones and tablets, but the technology hasn't hit a dedicated notetaking device until now. This is where the Note A1 Nxtpaper comes in. You, too, can help back this e-ink display that runs for over a year on a single charge It has already blown past its original funding goal. Posts By Simon Batt Along with a Nxtpaper display, the Android-powered Note A1 is absolutely full of AI features, but unlike the functionality a lot of manufacturers have shoved into their devices, these AI-powered offerings might actually be useful. Since this is a notetaking tablet, these AI features might not suck The device aims to take on Amazon's, reMarkable's, and Boox's E Ink tablets There's a lot to unpack on the AI side of the Note A1 Nxtpaper. First, there's the ability to convert handwriting-to-text in real-time. You can also translate what you're writing, there are summarization options, and there's even a "handwriting beautification" feature I'd definitely take advantage of given my writing is pretty much only readable by me. In terms of specs, TCL says the Note A1 Nxtpaper features an 11.5-inch full-color 2,200 x 1,440 pixel resolution 120hz display, 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera for scanning documents, and a sizable 8,000 mAh battery. The tablet also includes TCL's Pen Pro stylus that offers roughly 5 milliseconds of latency, which means it should be speedy enough for sketching. Other features include an 8-microphone array with intelligent noise reduction and directional audio pickup. Finally, the Note A1 offers easy access to cloud storage platforms like Google Drive and Microsoft OneNote. One of the key questions surrounding the Note A1 Nxtpaper is if it will have full access to Google's Play Store, or if the tablet will be locked to an older version of Android and a specific TCL app marketplace. It's also important to point out that while the Note A1's display is easier on the eyes compared to a standard LCD or OLED screen, it's still not E Ink. On the plus side, TCL's tablet won't suffer from E Ink's limitations like low display refresh rates and stylus lag. The TCL Note A1 Nxtpaper is set to launch for $549 in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific at the end of February. Strangely, the tablet is launching first on Kickstarter with a special early price of $419. The Note A1 is likely just one of many announcements TCL has planned for CES 2026. Subscribe to our newsletter for smarter gadget insights Looking for deeper context on notetaking tablets and display tech? Subscribe to our newsletter to access detailed coverage, hands-on analysis, and direct comparisons of devices like TCL's Nxtpaper Note A1 and related AI features. Subscribe Subscribe to our newsletter for smarter gadget insights Looking for deeper context on notetaking tablets and display tech? Subscribe to our newsletter to access detailed coverage, hands-on analysis, and direct comparisons of devices like TCL's Nxtpaper Note A1 and related AI features. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. On a side note, I know it's common practice now for big companies to launch products on Kickstarter, but I miss the era when the platform's focus was on funding actual startups and not established players. You, too, can turn a USB port into an SNES cartridge reader with this cool dock It even comes with its own emulator, but you can use your own if you prefer. Posts By Simon Batt

TCL’s New Paper-Like Tablet Has a Bunch of AI in It

Sometimes you have to go high-tech to get that low-tech feel, and TCL's newest device is proof. The Note A1 Nxtpaper is TCL's latest tablet-like device to use the company's Nxtpaper technology. Nxtpaper, for the uninitiated, is TCL's paper-like display tech that applies a matte texture to an LCD screen, reducing glare and blue light. It's like a screen, but you know, slightly less obnoxious and easier on the eyes. While Nxtpaper has been around since 2021 and has made its way into TCL's phones and tablets, this is the first time that the company is bringing the tech to a dedicated notetaking device. With Nxtpaper's evolution, there are also a bunch of (drum roll) AI features. As tired as some of you may be of seeing AI features shoehorned into your favorite gadgets (seriously, like so many), TCL's AI offerings do seem pretty useful in the context of notetaking and the like. Among the features are potentially useful things like handwriting-to-text conversion or real-time transcription, which is helpful if you're using the Note A1 Nxtpaper in meetings. There's also an increasingly standard array of AI tools like translation, summarization, and writing assistance, as well as "handwriting beautification," which is a nice way of saying the notetaker will clean up your inscrutable chicken scratch. This last tool would be huge for me personally, since my handwriting tends to look caveman-like at best. There are also more advanced AI tools like "handwriting one-stroke formation," which TCL doesn't elaborate on, but I assume is some kind of shortcut mechanism for quickly jotting down words or phrases. There's also something called "inspiration AI," which I can only assume is some kind of generative AI feature for producing writing or pictures that I personally would want nothing to do with, but to each their own. Like every device with an E Ink or paper-like display, it's just as much about how things look and feel as it is about what the device does. On that front, TCL says its Note A1 Nxtpaper has a 120Hz display, shows full color, and comes with a stylus that TCL says has around 5 milliseconds of latency, making it (theoretically) suitable for sketching as well. One major advantage that the Note A1 Nxtpaper has over competitors is storage. TCL says its notetaker has 256GB of total storage compared to comparable tablets like the ReMarkable Paper Pro, which has 64GB. Are you going to need that much storage for taking notes? Probably not, but it's nice to have just in case. It also has an 8,000 mAh battery, but TCL doesn't say what that equates to in hours/days/weeks. If any of this sounds appealing to you, the TCL Note A1 Nxtpaper will retail for $549 and is slated to launch in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific at the end of February.

TCL Is Launching a Digital Notebook, and It's Like a Smoother Kindle Scribe Colorsoft

TCL is leaning on AI features like handwriting beautification to set this apart from its other NXTPAPER tablets. When it comes to digital note taking, you usually have two choices: Do you want E Ink, or do you want speed? Devices like the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and the Remarkable Paper Pro have shown there's definitely an appetite for E Ink note taking, even if it can be a bit laggy. But for the most responsive digital notebook possible, you usually have to settle for something like an iPad with a stylus. Now, TCL wants to change that. The budget-friendly tablet and TV company has finally announced its first full-fledged digital notebook: the TCL Note A1 NXTPAPER. Launching on Kickstarter soon and releasing sometime in February, the trick here is a clever one: Notes taken on this device should look like they're written on paper, but the screen is as fast as a gaming monitor. That's thanks to the company's NXTPAPER technology, which isn't exactly new, but has been positioned in the past more for media consumption than creation. Unlike E Ink, which uses physical ink capsules embedded in the display, NXTPAPER uses a standard LCD screen with a matte, glare-free coating and various levels of blue light and reflection-fighting software to simulate paper. The result -- which I can speak to, having gone hands-on with it over multiple CES showcases -- isn't exactly as easy on the eyes as E Ink, but it is convincing, and is far more usable for just about everything that isn't just reading plain text. Considering how slow E Ink updates and how limited it is in displaying colors, that's not a bad compromise. Plus, the matte layer also acts a bit like one of those special screen protectors artists will buy to make drawing on a tablet feel more like drawing on paper. It works well enough for my chicken scratch. The Note A1 NXTPAPER runs Android, has an 11.5-inch screen that's been TUV-certified for eye comfort, and can display 16.7 million colors and refresh at 120Hz (or up to 120 frames per second). Given that the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft can only display around 4,100 colors and has a 12-14 ms response time between inputs and updating the display, that's not bad. And since there's Android here, you get a few other bonuses as well, like the ability to cast your notes or Powerpoints to a digital whiteboard. TCL hasn't said if the Note A1 will be certified for the Play Store yet, but if so, it'll also be easy to download any note taking apps you want, as well as additional goodies like comic book apps. With the high refresh rate, you could even use this notebook to watch videos. As for what sets this apart from TCL's other NXTPAPER tablets, there's a stylus included, native support for file formats ranging from Word to PDF to Excel to EPUB, and connectivity for cloud storage services like Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. Plus, if you haven't guessed from the name, there are a bunch of AI features. Much like the Viwoods AIPaper, the Note A1 has AI transcription, translation, summarization, rewriting, and handwriting-to-text features built-in. TCL hasn't said how these will work yet, but a brief video of the device in action shows small glimpses. Personally, I'm most interested in the "handwriting beautification" feature, and I could see people who like doing math longhand appreciating the "handwritten formula recognition." The downside to all of this is that traditional screens don't tend to last nearly as long in between charges as E Ink ones, but with an 8,000mAh battery, TCL is hoping it can avoid that, even if it has yet to reveal official battery life numbers. When it launches, the TCL NXTPAPER will start at $549, as compared to the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft's and Remarkable Paper Pro's $630. That's a pretty significant savings, and seems worth considering, especially if you can't decide between E Ink and LCD. It won't be quite as easy on the eyes as a Kindle, but it could be far less frustrating for fast writers, while still feeling less computer-y than something like an iPad.