Manufacturer | Anoto Korea |
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Brand | Livescribe |
Item Weight | 0.001 ounces |
Product Dimensions | 5.91 x 0.46 x 0.46 inches |
Item model number | APX-00040 |
Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
Color | Silver, Black |
Material Type | Paper |
Number of Items | 1 |
Size | Symhony Smartpen Combo |
Manufacturer Part Number | APX-00040 |
Livescribe Symphony Smartpen Digital Pen – Compatible with iOS, Android, Smartphones, Tablets (Latest Version), Black
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Color | Silver, Black |
Brand | Livescribe |
Material | Paper |
Number of Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
Item Weight | 0.03 Grams |
Compatible Devices | Smartphone |
Item Dimensions LxWxH | 5.91 x 0.46 x 0.46 inches |
Are Batteries Included | Yes |
Batteries Required? | Yes |
About this item
- Capture Everything You Hear, Write, And Draw On Livescribe Paper Directly To Your Smartphone, Tablet, Or Computer – Allowing You The Ease Of Writing On Paper With The Mobility Of Having A Digital Copy
- Simultaneously Record Audio While Writing With The Livescribe+ App To Add Voice To Your School Or Meeting Notes. Tap Anywhere On Your Notes To Play Back Audio From That Exact Moment In Time, As Many Times As You Need To Hear It
- Convert Your Handwriting Into Text And Make Your Handwritten Notes Searchable With The Livescribe+ App, Which Currently Recognizes Up To 28 Languages. Students Can Share Handwritten Notes Or Assignments Directly From Paper With Friends Or Teachers. Professionals Can Share Ideas And Collaborate With Colleagues Or Clients
- Access Notes From Mobile (Ios/ Android) Or Desktop (Windows/ Macos), Share As Text, Pdf, Image, Or Word Doc, Or Automatically Sync Them With The Cloud (Dropbox / Google Drive / Ms Onenote / Evernote). Perfect For Storing Your Zoom Call Notes In The Cloud For Easy Access And Recall
- Recommended to charge before use
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From the manufacturer
Livescribe Smartpen Features
Add the benefits of digital to the pen-and-paper experience:
- Capture everything you write, hear, and draw
- Record audio with the mobile app and sync with your handwritten notes
- Do more with just pen and paper
- Recommended to charge before use
How it works?
Simply write with a Livescribe Smartpen on any Livescribe notebook and watch all your handwritten thoughts, ideas, and notes get an instant digital makeover using the free Livescribe+ App (available for mobile and desktops).
Never Miss a Word with Livescribe Smartpens
Taking notes while face to face with a client, patient, or colleague is a sign of attentiveness - no one wonders if you’re catching up on email/ messaging about dinner plans.
Livescribe Smartpens elegantly deliver the traditional benefits of pen and paper along with the augmented value of an instant backup, easily shareable content, and handwriting transcription to turn notes into searchable copy.
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Your handwriting is searchable like everything else in life. Use the App to quickly access, archive and search through your handwritten notes |
Record audio with your smartphone microphone while you take notes and create pencasts that help you recreate key moments |
Write on paper and watch your notebooks be synced and available across the cloud services of your choice. |
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Your work is the sum of your interactions. Every meeting, every conference and every call shapes the strides you take. Keeping your head in the game and participating in these interactions is as crucial as what you take away from them. Livescribe Smartpens and the feature-rich Livescribe+ app helps you be more productive and efficient, to be the star in your team. |
Livescribe Smartpens read the controls that are printed on Livescribe dot paper notebooks. Simply tap on them with the pen to carry out preset actions like managing recording controls, quick-send controls, device pairing, and tagging controls. Livescribe notebooks are available in multiple sizes and configurations. Pick what’s just right for your style. Leather journals. Pocket-sized notepads. College-ruled notebooks. You’ve got options. |
In combination with its cross-platform applications, Livescribe Smartpens help to overcome traditional challenges by instantly digitizing handwritten notes and making them available across multiple devices. Livescribe+ Applications empower users to instantly save, search, organize, and easily share them in multiple formats. |
Compare with similar items
This Item Livescribe Symphony Smartpen Digital Pen – Compatible with iOS, Android, Smartphones, Tablets (Latest Version), Black | Recommendations | dummy | dummy | dummy | dummy | |
Try again! Added to Cart Add to Cart | Try again! Added to Cart Add to Cart | Try again! Added to Cart Add to Cart | Try again! Added to Cart Add to Cart | Try again! Added to Cart Add to Cart | Try again! Added to Cart Add to Cart | |
Price | $152.04$152.04 | -12% $119.95$119.95 List: $137.00 | -13% $34.99$34.99 List: $39.99 | $34.99$34.99 | -13% $8.69$8.69 List: $9.99 | $20.99$20.99 |
Delivery | Get it as soon as Sunday, Mar 31 | Get it as soon as Sunday, Mar 31 | Get it as soon as Sunday, Mar 31 | Get it as soon as Sunday, Mar 31 | Get it as soon as Sunday, Mar 31 | Get it as soon as Monday, Apr 1 |
Customer Ratings | ||||||
Easy to hold | 4.1 | — | 4.2 | — | 4.6 | 4.4 |
Battery life | 3.7 | — | — | — | 4.4 | 4.4 |
Accuracy | 3.5 | — | 4.0 | — | 4.4 | — |
Touch Screen | — | — | 4.1 | — | 4.5 | 4.4 |
Sold By | Amazon Warehouse | Afaya | Amazon.com | SyPen Inc. | Redvolts | SyPen Inc. |
compatible devices | Smartphone | — | Laptop | Tablet | Tablet | Tablet |
model number | APX-00040 | — | GX81J19850 | SY-90-12PACK | Mixoo-1SPD-SGrey-New | — |
material | Paper | — | Plastic | Metal | Aluminum,Stainless Steel,Silicon,Plastic,Rubber | Plastic |
battery quantity | 1 lithium ion | 1 lithium ion | 1 aaaa | 3 lr44 | — | 3 product specific |
batteries included | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
batteries required | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
weight | 0.03 grams | 2.49 pounds | 17.3 grams | — | 60 grams | — |
Looking for specific info?
Product information
Technical Details
Additional Information
ASIN | B087CLF1SL |
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Customer Reviews |
3.9 out of 5 stars |
Best Sellers Rank | #78 in Digital Pens |
Date First Available | May 8, 2020 |
Warranty & Support
Feedback
Product Description
Never miss a word. Livescribe Smartpens elegantly deliver the traditional benefits of pen and paper along with the augmented value of an instant backup, easily shareable content, and handwriting transcription to turn notes into searchable copy.Simply write with a Livescribe Smartpen on any Livescribe notebook and capture everything you write, hear or draw. All your handwritten thoughts, ideas, and notes get an instant digital makeover using the free Livescribe+ app. Record audio with your smartphone microphone while you take notes and you can create pencasts, or add voice to your notes. Perfect for students, teachers, and professionals.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers are not happy with the performance and battery life of the pen. They mention that it cracked with weekday daily use, is not dependable, and has a fragile body. They also say that the battery doesn't last for even few hours and that it stopped holding a charge. Customers also dislike the cap. Opinions are mixed on quality, sound quality, connectivity, weight, and ease of use.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers are mixed about the quality of the pen. Some mention it works great at recording their handwriting, while others say it's far less functional than their original pen and the battery dies within 1 year.
"...My thought is these devices did not make them enough profit and rather than abandoning the entire project they are trying to hold on and squeeze as..." Read more
"Outstanding product! I've been using it daily for a year, and it connects seamlessly to both my laptop and mobile phone...." Read more
"...App still crashes regularly, but you are able to load all your notebooks (doesn't hang like it used to, but this might be a software fix) and now..." Read more
"...familiar with Livescribe and how the system works, this is a very solid upgrade over the Echo pens I've been using-until-breaking for a decade, and..." Read more
Customers are mixed about the connectivity of the pen. Some mention that it connects quickly, syncing to their iPhone is simple, and everything syncs seamlessly. However, others say that they have had problems with pairing their phone consistently, it beeps continuously as it’s trying to pair, and that it didn't pair on the first try.
"...Do note the following limitation:- Cloud sync does not keep pages in sync on *other* devices, i.e. if I sync on phone, it doesn't update..." Read more
"Outstanding product! I've been using it daily for a year, and it connects seamlessly to both my laptop and mobile phone...." Read more
"...Pairing sometimes a chore. Never once had problem with my Livescribe 3+, which didn't need location running on my phone or tablet...." Read more
"...It paired with my iPhone quickly and easily, found and installed a firmware update, and transferred my writings to the Livescribe+ app...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the ease of use of the pen. Some mention it's easy to use, lightweight, and simple to connect to the desktop and phone apps. However, others say that it'd be better if the included instructions were clearer and the tutorial on the app was more detailed.
"...It was simple … click a “button” on the notepad and you were capturing sound on the pen...." Read more
"...The options are in lines, no lines or just dots. No calendar set up no notes or task set up projects etc. just hard to find paper." Read more
"...features: you could write while the pen was charging, it was easy to connect the pen to the desktop and phone apps, and the pen actually worked with..." Read more
"...The included instructions were confusing and didn't seem to match the pen itself, which added to the frustration...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the sound quality of the pen. Some mention that the sound is awesome and the ability to record sound with their original pen was fantastic. However, others say that the audio never worked, digital handwriting recognition doesn't work, and the echo is impossible to get.
"...The sound recorder was also an added benefit as I could certainly talk (or listen) faster then I wrote...." Read more
"...of problems with the syncing, not actually uploading the text, losing the audio files. It's basically an expensive paperweight...." Read more
"...The sound quality was awesome and it seemed to work much better at recording my handwriting. Not to mention the ability to plug in headphones...." Read more
"...because I recommend the pen to my customers and it seems the echo is impossible to get. I used the symphony during a webinar...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the weight of the pen. Some mention it's lightweight and easy to hold, while others say it'll top heavy and is not quite as light as the specs indicate.
"...Really the only drawback was the size and weight of the pen...." Read more
"...It actually has a pen clip and actually fits in a pocket or pen slot in a briefcase/backpack..." Read more
"So, love the pen. Works great, handles a little chunky, but every pen is a little different...." Read more
"This is slimmer and doesn’t hurt as much when I wrote for a long time. Nice and light." Read more
Customers are dissatisfied with the battery life of the pen. They mention that it doesn't last for even few hours, it stopped holding a charge, and it won't recharge. Some customers also report that the pen doesn''t connect to their phone and fails to connect when needed during lectures.
"...sensor not working (only half of strokes captured) and claims of horrid battery life..." Read more
"...long to load notebooks I have to leave overnight, but this causes pen battery to go dead..." Read more
"...Most recently, my pen stopped holding a charge even though it was connected with the intermittent amber light...." Read more
"...The battery life is exceptional, and it connects quickly. It's always reliable. I couldn't ask for more." Read more
Customers are dissatisfied with the performance of the pen. They mention that it cracks easily, is not dependable, and has a fragile body. Some say that the product is not maintained and has bugs.
"...Echo pens: Somewhat easier to hold, screens still died, more fragile body (owned 3 of these, too)-..." Read more
"...THIS pen (see pics) cracked with weekday daily use for just over six months. Aug 15, 2020 to Jan. 28, 2021...." Read more
"...the pen is made entirely of plastic which is now starting to crack after only 6 months even though I always keep it in a pen case when I'm not..." Read more
"...will connect on the rare occasion but it isn’t worth the money it’s unreliable and fails to connect when needed during lectures." Read more
Customers are dissatisfied with the cap of the pen. They mention that it does not stay on, is frustrating, and useless without it. Customers also say that the company producing the pen does not replace the cap.
"...The pen no longer goes off by itself when I put the cap on...." Read more
"...The cap is frustrating. Initially I had to press really hard to get the cap to stay on, but with regular use that seems to have loosened up a bit...." Read more
"...I found out the company producing the pen does not replace the cap. I spent a lot of money on this pen and it’s useless without the cap...." Read more
"The pen cap does NOT stay on the back of the pen so you have to put it down while in use...." Read more
Reviews with images
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Bought in, used it, and like all Livescribe customers, I've been *struggling* through Livescribe equipment since, because I need the functionality.
- Pulse pens: Massive, hard to hold, screens died quickly (owned 3, each died after about 1 year)
- Echo pens: Somewhat easier to hold, screens still died, more fragile body (owned 3 of these, too)
- Paper: Lots of choices, but also they replace paper formats frequently, meaning you have to keep switching
I did not try the Livescribe 3 pen because during that period, they switched to the mobile app and had no desktop support at first (there was lots of anger about this on their user forum, which they quickly killed off entirely and removed from their website to stop the complaining), and that did not work for me. I didn't try the Aegir because the user reviews were flat-out terrible and I was scared off, especially by claims of the writing sensor not working (only half of strokes captured) and claims of horrid battery life (half a day on a charge, just a day or two of standby, etc.)
My use case:
- I need to write reliably with a pen on paper, a lot
- I need an archived digital copy to be saved as a PDF afterward for distribution and storage
- I need to be able to do this using a desktop computer
- I need to be able to write/capture *without* having to have a mobile device paired and nearby
That's it. That's all. The most basic use case. Write-capture-share with a computer. With my sixth Livescribe pen (a 4GB Echo) finally dead once again, I decided it was time to either try one of the newer Livescribe models or head for another solution (something like a fountain pen, regular paper, and a camera phone, page by page).
So, after much thought, I ordered a Symphony because its claims seemed designed to fix the big problems users had with Aegir.
Here's my experience:
- The pen is actually pen sized and shaped, finally, and handles very well
- The lid does in fact stay put if you push it on all the way (will snap into place, on both ends)
- There is an LED that indicates status (blue = trying to pair, green = on, red/yellow = firmware update)
- When you take cap off, pen turns on; when you put cap back on, pen turns off
- You can in fact write/capture without pairing with a mobile device, no problem
- You can plug via USB into a desktop and sync notes to your desktop
- The Livescribe+ app isn't as nice as the old Livescribe desktop app, but it's usable
- The app now syncs to cloud storage and will automatically dump PDFs of your pages there as you go
- It does support the full set of old Livescribe papers as far as I can tell, even the ones not made any longer
I also tried, with some worry about screwing things up, pairing with a mobile phone as well, just to test it out. It works, and better than that, there appears to be no penalty for doing so, i.e. you can sync with two different devices and the data will just be imported to both of them.
For regular use, however, I will not be pairing—I will just be using it like a pen and plugging in daily to the desktop computer to sync notes to the app, and (nice touch that's new) have the PDFs of these notes automatically updated in my Dropbox rather than having to manually export to PDF.
Do note the following limitation:
- Cloud sync does not keep pages in sync on *other* devices, i.e. if I sync on phone, it doesn't update on desktop
- To have an updated copy of your pen data on several devices, you must connect/pair to each of them in turn
Infuriatingly, NONE of this is spelled out on the Livescribe website, which is why I almost didn't buy the Symphony pen. They don't clearly spell out:
- Whether you can turn it off
- Whether you can sync the data passively (i.e. write without pairing to capture data and sync later)
- Whether you can use the desktop app on a standalone basis, without syncing to mobile
- Whether there's an on-pen indicator for pen status, so that you know capture is occurring
- etc.
We'll see about longevity, but so far:
- The pen works just as well as Pulse/Echo in capturing handwriting
- It appears to be well-made
- It's FAR easier to write with than other Livescribe pens
- I don't miss the screen thanks to the LED indicator
- It actually has a pen clip and actually fits in a pocket or pen slot in a briefcase/backpack
In short, Symphony feels like they *finally* have fixed all the problems and arrived at a smartpen that actually works well, is compatible with many things, and is not a terrible device to write with. Assuming it lasts ok (I have learned not to have super high hopes from Livescribe, but 1-2y will be adequate) it's the best Livescribe pen ever, and probably the best smart pen ever, given the handling and the range of Livescribe paper available.
Editorial note: I think Livescribe will continue to suffer by being opaque about things. They're trying to appeal to the luddite-ish "I hate technology, don't tell me about tech, I just want a pen" demographic, and so they won't describe things, won't document things, etc. But like it or not this is a TECH product. It will never be "just a pen" or that easy to use, because it's not just a pen. i.e. it matters that you can *tell* that it's currently capturing because a green LED will be lit; it matters that you can sync directly to a Mac OS application without a phone as an intermediary. They should be clear. Yes, they might lose a couple anti-technology people ("OMG complicated!"), but those people don't seem to be having a good experience anyway, and they'd gain some professionals (like me) that rely on the technology for work and will thus buy in long term.
They should be a lot more transparent about specifications, compatibilities, ideal use cases, methods of troubleshooting when things go wrong, etc. I almost didn't buy this pen because their product page literally tells you nothing about how it works, and I couldn't find the information anywhere. It was only due to my longtime buy-in to the Livescribe ecosystem and my decent stock of unused Livescribe paper that I decided to buy.
So far, glad I did. As someone that is very familiar with Livescribe and how the system works, this is a very solid upgrade over the Echo pens I've been using-until-breaking for a decade, and is a million miles ahead of the old Pulse pens, which were basically like writing with flagpoles.
One key note, related to previous thoughts: Do not buy if you're not technical. Because Livescribe does not provide support. As a company, they *suck* at support. The will tell you nothing, will not help, and will not replace products that break, even under warranty. If you are the sort of person that often needs tech support, you will *hate* this product family. But if you just need a tool to do a job and the price works for you, this is a good product, very fit for purpose.
Hopefully this review helps someone.
--- UPDATE LIKE A WEEK LATER ---
Well, Livescribe's build quality and/or quality control prove to be the same as ever.
The pen no longer goes off by itself when I put the cap on. Instead, the pen now stays on unless I shake it and/or rotate the cap a few times after putting it on.
The cap has a magnet inside that seems as though it activates a switch inside the pen to switch off when the cap is placed on the pen tip. And of course, that magnetic switch has already started to wear out—and so some fudging and fidgeting is required to shift the magnetic field and/or internal bits of the switch around.
*sigh*
But with manipulation, I can still get it to go off, so I'll hang on to it—since replacing the pen means fragmenting the data stored in notebooks (old livescribe problem—replace a pen, replace all your notebooks, they have no way around this still to this day).
I'll be generous and just remove one star, since in concept the pen is great and it's still their best pen ever, even with this flaw.
But BOY is Livescribe a company you love to hate. They just never quite seem to get to "satisfied customer," only to "dependent customers."
So, instead of using this fantastic tool as the basis for a re-design, the company goes in an entirely different direction by offering “wifi” pens, direct to device pens, pens with no sound recording capability, etc. I understand that by removing the sound recording feature they were able to make the devices smaller but not by enough to make that much of a difference. And, I’m sure they removed the screen because of the defect rate, but I find it hard to believe that with every other electronic device getting smaller, faster, lighter, there was no way for them to design a better product. My thought is these devices did not make them enough profit and rather than abandoning the entire project they are trying to hold on and squeeze as much as they can out of an antiquated product. But I digress.
So, with all my “company beefs” out of the way let’s get into a review of the actual product. The pen is by far the sleekest of their offerings. It is comfortable to hold and does a fine job at “writing”. It paired with my iPhone quickly and easily, found and installed a firmware update, and transferred my writings to the Livescribe+ app. It automatically recognized the type of notebook I wrote in and what page I wrote on. Great. Now I had a “picture” of what I wrote in a “notebook” and was able to act on the writings. So, attempt to act on them I did. It takes the words I wrote and attempts to create snippets called “feeds” that you can swipe and turn into typed text. The problem is it created several of these snips for the same paragraph and did a terrible job OCR’ing that to text. I then exported a PDF of what I wrote. That worked fine but was a convoluted process whereby you clicked on the “share” icon but then needed to select “Open In” to get to the PDF (and others) option. The app is also slow and sluggish and this was on an iPhone 11 so it isn’t the phone. Clicking different items sometimes worked sometime didn’t. Click, Click, Click, oh there it goes.
Next, I moved on to some recordings. This is also convoluted as you need to have the app open on the phone for it to work. No longer can you just grab a pen and notebook and click a button. Now you need to grab the pen, grab your phone, open an app, grab the notebook, start recording. Once that was accomplished it acted the same way as what I was used to with the Echo. Any text written while recording was green and once transferred to the phone you could click on it and hear what was said. So now I wanted to transfer everything to the computer. Certainly, on the desktop things would be better than in the app, right? Well, NO, not really. You can’t transfer the recordings. All that transfers is the writing. I guess this was to be expected since the recordings are not on the pen but certainly there must be a way to get those recordings into the desktop program. Right? NOPE! The only way to have a sound recording that corresponded to the written word was to create this wonderful thing called a “Pencast PDF”. And no these are not really wonderful. In fact, they are useless. This is basically a PDF with the sound somehow embedded in them. There is no program to open them (native adobe does not play the recordings) but instead you open a webpage and drag/drop the PDF onto a box to listen to it. I highly want to stress that this webpage is NOT SECURE. It uses the basic http protocol. The fact is this didn’t even work for me as all my browsers are set to strictly use https. Once I saw this and figured out these “PDF’s” could not be imported into the actual desktop program, I was done. I’m not going to store single PDF’s (not even in a notebook or in the program) on my computer only to find out several years from now when this company is defunct and their website converter is dead, that I can no longer hear what was spoken while I was taking notes. I should also note that the program used by this pen is entirely different from the one I was using with the Echo. One is Echo desktop and the other is Livescribe+ Desktop. So now I have all my old notebooks in one program and all the new ones in another. Ridiculous!!!
Perhaps as I said in the opening this functionality is something that people want, and if so, maybe this device would be a good tool, but I am not one of those people. As other reviewers have said, if you want a digital pen get the Echo but keep in mind the screen will probably die at some point which will make using it exceedingly difficult. I cannot find anywhere that Livescibe (Anoto) admitted this issue with the Echo screens but have read several bloggers saying they did and now offer a 3-year warrantee. This is NOT written anywhere on their website and I have not been able to determine when the “new” Echo’s began production or any indication that the screen has been improved. From what I can tell the newer units ship in a white box whereas the older ones were in yellow plastic packaging. In any case I’m not chancing it and will be moving on to a different solution. Specifically, an iPad mini with a paper-like screen protector and the Apple pencil. It won’t be the same as writing on actual paper but at least I won’t have to buy special paper and will be able to store and retrieve my “notes” as needed. Good-bye Livescribe. You had a great start but have since failed miserably.
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in Canada on April 12, 2023
you write on proper paper (livescribe) with a livescribe pen and Bluetooth and save.
I am on my perhaps, fifth set of 4 books and they just keep going. Logbooks, notes, surveys, does the lot.
When technology get closer, i might review my position. but, until then.....
return was easy