Penstar eNote2 Review

Design & build

The PenStar eNote2 presents itself as an idiosyncratic amalgamation of brushed metal and plastic, a juxtaposition that initially appears somewhat utilitarian but gradually reveals a quiet, understated charm.

The rear panel is composed of a brushed metal surface finished in a muted blue-grey tone. It feels immediately cool to the touch and exudes a reassuring rigidity. This metallic expanse occupies the majority of the back, bordered on three sides by thinner plastic edging that slopes outward until it meets the thicker metal plane. The edges themselves are only about 3.5 mm in thickness at the outer perimeter but expand as they approach the metal rear, which measures roughly 5.3 mm. This sloped geometry has a surprisingly practical consequence – because the borders are thinner, it becomes markedly easier to slide one’s fingers beneath the device when it is lying flat on a desk. It lifts cleanly and naturally, without that awkward fingertip-scrabble common to tablets with uniformly flat backs.

The left edge stands apart from the others – significantly thicker and fully flush with the metal rear. This segment forms the structural anchor for the front-facing control bar. The plastic from the perimeter wraps around to the front, where it expands into a vertical panel housing an array of physical buttons. The layout consists of a circular button in the centre flanked by two banks of four square buttons positioned above and below it, respectively. These controls, evocative of pre-capacitive-era electronics, feel remarkably solid. They are spring-loaded and entirely devoid of rattle, offering a crisp tactile response accompanied by an audible click. I found the actuation unexpectedly gratifying – almost retro in the best sense. On a device that lacks a touch-sensitive screen, their presence is not only justified but essential, and I will explore their practical implications later in the review.

Running alongside the button column is a slim vertical band that appears to house the speaker and microphone. This alignment continues along the top edge, where the power button sits unobtrusively, while the bottom edge hosts the USB-C port. The left edge also includes two recessed rectangular notches used for attaching the half-folio cover magnetically.

As a physical object, the eNote2 feels robust and coherent. There is no creaking under torsion, no gaps in the seams, and no sense of fragility. It is not, by any means, the sleekest or most aesthetically refined e-ink tablet I have reviewed, but there is an undeniable personality to it. I found the overall design strangely endearing. Perhaps it is the nostalgic implication of those mechanical buttons, reminiscent of handheld devices from the 1980s and 1990s before touchscreens colonised every square inch of technological real estate. Or perhaps it is simply the novelty of encountering something that diverges from the increasingly homogenised design language of modern e-ink hardware. Whatever the reason, I found myself unexpectedly fond of it.

Hardware specs

Internally, the PenStar eNote2 is equipped with a Rockchip RK3066 octa-core processor clocked at 2.2 GHz, supported by 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. On paper, this constellation of components places the device squarely in the upper-mid range of contemporary e-ink tablets. It is not intended to be a computational juggernaut, nor does it masquerade as one, but the specifications are sufficiently modern to avoid feeling antiquated.

To quantify its performance more rigorously, I ran Geekbench 6 on three occasions and calculated the mean average. The eNote2 achieved a single-core score of 373 and a multi-core score of 1393. These metrics, while not competitive with mainstream tablets using LCD or OLED displays, compare favourably with many e-ink devices in its class (the upper side of average). In practical terms, the scores translate into a level of performance that feels competent, steady, and generally responsive.

During normal use, I experienced no perceptible lag when navigating the interface, adjusting system settings, or operating the native applications. The device behaves with a certain unhurried confidence, never blisteringly fast but rarely stumbling. As always with e-ink hardware – particularly those lacking proprietary super-fast refresh systems – the limitations arise not from computational horsepower but from the innate characteristics of e-ink displays. Third-party applications are therefore something of a mixed bag.

PenStar does at least provide a reasonably sophisticated suite of refresh controls to mediate this. Five primary refresh modes are available:

• Normal – prioritises fidelity at the expense of marginally slower response times; suitable for text and images.
• Clearness – minimises ghosting while maintaining good visual clarity.
• Quick – strikes a middle ground between speed and detail, best for text-centric tasks.
• High-speed – switches to black-and-white with reduced flicker for faster interactions.
• Fast – optimised for continuous motion such as scrolling images, long webpages, or video (with predictable compromises).

These are supplemented by several granular parameters: adjustable contrast and blacken-level controls, optional 256-grayscale smoothing, automatic full-page refresh, and ‘Applied Bleaching‘ which appears to mitigate residual artefacts. Crucially, all of these settings can be saved on a per-app basis, meaning one does not have to constantly reconfigure the device when switching between tasks.

With these tools in place, I found low-intensity activities – web browsing, email, reference apps – to be reasonably serviceable, though naturally constrained by the slower refresh kinetics of e-ink. The eNote2 is neither the smoothest nor the most laboured performer among its peers; it sits comfortably in the middle, edging towards the better side of average when properly configured. But as with all e-ink tablets, it is unwise to rely heavily on third-party Android applications for anything demanding fluid motion or rich UI animation. Within the reasonable expectations of the medium, however, the eNote2 performs well.

Screen

When I first unboxed the eNote2, I was immediately struck by the quality of its 10.3-inch monochrome display. My initial assumption was that this impression stemmed solely from the unusually white background- whiter, certainly, than many e-ink tablets I have used. However, after subsequently reviewing the iFLYTEK AINote 2, which possesses an even whiter substrate, I realised that the eNote2’s appeal was attributable to something more nuanced. The tablet combines very white “paper” with conspicuously dark “ink,” producing a level of contrast that is, frankly, exceptional. Over time, this high contrast became increasingly evident and increasingly appreciated.

This was particularly noticeable in my living room, where the ambient lighting tends to be quite dim in the evenings. When seated on my bean bag at night, many non-frontlit tablets become borderline unusable without additional external lighting, such as a clip-on lamp. The eNote2, however, belongs to a small handful of devices that remain genuinely readable in such conditions. Its optical clarity is unusually resilient to low lighting, and I found myself reaching for it far more often than expected simply because I could read on it comfortably without straining.

As mentioned earlier, the eNote2 does not include a touchscreen layer. All interaction must occur either through the physical buttons or the EMR stylus. At first, I found this peculiarity difficult to acclimate to. Even now, I occasionally tap the screen out of sheer muscle memory before remembering that nothing will happen. This is, of course, partly my fault – every other e-ink tablet I use accepts taps, swipes, and gestures without complaint – but it does impose a mild cognitive adjustment.

That said, abandoning the touchscreen does confer several advantages. Foremost among them is the complete elimination of accidental screen taps or page turns. Even devices with exemplary palm rejection are occasionally susceptible to unintentional input when my hand rests on the screen during writing tasks. More subtly, I realised that on most e-ink tablets I habitually grip the device in awkward, fingertip-only positions around the bezel simply to avoid touching the screen making accidental gestures. With the eNote2, I found myself gradually relaxing my grip, letting my fingers stray naturally across the display without consequence. Similarly, whenever a speck of dust or an eyelash rested upon the screen, I could just brush it off with the back of my hand without worrying about inadvertently triggering something in the software. This proved unexpectedly liberating.

However, the absence of touch also means the stylus becomes a near-constant companion. You must keep it close at hand not only for writing but for basic navigation. With other tablets, I only reach for the stylus when I intend to write; here, it is something of an ever-present tool. This persistent dependence can become mentally fatiguing at times.

The array of physical buttons helps mitigate this. Several functions – Home, Back, Refresh, New Notebook, Bookshelf, Zoom In/Out – can be triggered directly, and there are options to customise their actions. The most indispensable among them are the Next and Previous page buttons (regular readers will know I much prefer a clicky button as opposed to swipes or taps). Still, while these controls reduce friction, they cannot wholly supplant the stylus – you can flick through the pages of a book with the buttons, but if you need to look up a word or highlight a passage of text, you have to revert back to the stylus. For truly efficient navigation, the stylus remains essential.

There is no frontlight on the eNote2, and this does impose limitations. In darkness or heavily dim environments, the device becomes impractical without auxiliary lighting. Yet the very absence of a frontlight and capacitive touch layer is probably what allows the screen to look as rich and crisp as it does (penstar market this configuration as PureView technology). Without these intermediary layers, the ink appears closer to the surface. This enhances perceived sharpness and contributes to an nice writing experience – a slight surface texture combined with EMR input makes writing feel pleasantly grounded, though I will expand upon this more fully in the next section.

Overall, the screen is one of the eNote2’s great strengths. Its contrast, clarity, and immediacy lend it a distinctive and compelling character.

Writing feel

The writing feel on the eNote2 is, in a word, gratifying. There is a respectable degree of friction between the nib and the display – enough to ground each stroke and prevent that disconcerting, ice-rink smoothness that plagues some tablets. Personally, I tend to favour slightly more resistance than this provides, but I would not characterise the surface as slippery. The texture strikes a comfortable middle ground.

The screen surface offers just enough tactile rasp to create a faint audible scratch, lending the act of writing a pleasant analogue quality. Again, my own preferences incline toward marginally more texture, but this is very much a matter of taste rather than a genuine shortcoming.

The nib of the stylus is rigid and does not flex, yet its felt-like material softens the impact so there are no harsh taps when it meets the screen. There is a small amount of free play within the stylus barrel, allowing the nib to shift minutely when pressed. While I did notice this movement, it didn’t became a source of irritation or distraction during regular writing.

Performance-wise, the stylus input is remarkably responsive. Strokes appear almost instantaneously, with negligible perceptible lag, and the pressure sensitivity is impressively nuanced. The system supports up to 8192 levels of pressure, double that of conventional EMR implementations typically found on other e-ink tablets. This expanded range gives the line output a pleasing dynamism, particularly when sketching or varying stroke weight. That said, tilt sensitivity appears absent; none of the brushes reacted to angled input during my testing.

It is worth pausing to highlight a critical detail: although the eNote2 uses EMR technology, it is not compatible with standard EMR pens, nor will the PenStar stylus function on other (regular) EMR-based devices. PenStar’s implementation deviates sufficiently from the norm to form its own small ecosystem. The principal benefit of this divergence seems to be the enhanced pressure granularity, though it does come at the cost of cross-device interoperability.

Overall, I found the writing experience to be really good – precise, responsive, and satisfyingly tactile. My desire for a fractionally rougher surface is a personal quirk rather than a substantive criticism. For most users, I expect the balance PenStar has struck will feel both natural and enjoyable.

Hardware features

In terms of connectivity, the eNote2 provides both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, covering the essentials without unnecessary embellishment. Many Android-based e-ink tablets struggle to connect to the Wi-Fi network in my office (I believe due to security certificate peculiarities) but the eNote2 connected immediately and without complaint. It also paired successfully with several other networks I tested. Bluetooth performance was similarly uneventful: I had no difficulty connecting both headphones and an external keyboard.

The device includes a small speaker for audio output and a microphone for voice input. Neither is exemplary, but both are entirely adequate for an e-ink tablet of this category. Their presence expands the functional envelope in modest but practical ways. I should note, however, that the preinstalled voice-to-text app imposes a limitation: it provides only eight hours of transcription before requiring the purchase of additional “minutes”. There is no integrated dictation option in the on-screen keyboard, and I could not switch the keyboard to Gboard. Fortunately, this can likely be remedied by installing a third-party voice-transcription application, though this is a workaround rather than a built-in solution. (Note: it is possible to record audio/voice within the note-taking app, but it does not transcribe into text).

The tablet also includes a G-sensor to automatically rotate the screen between portrait and landscape orientations. It works competently in most applications, though landscape mode is notably unsupported within the notebook app – a constraint worth keeping in mind for users who prefer horizontal writing layouts.

One of the more distinctive features of the eNote2 – particularly for a 10.3-inch e-ink tablet – is its set of physical buttons, which can be assigned to trigger various actions. I have always been partial to mechanical buttons for their clarity, tactility, and audible feedback, and here they prove genuinely useful. They function as efficient shortcuts for navigation, reducing dependency on stylus-based input and offering a welcome alternative to touchscreen-centric interaction paradigms.

Taken as a whole, the additional hardware features constitute a reasonably well-rounded toolkit. Bluetooth audio allows you to listen to music or podcasts while working; the internal speaker is serviceable for audio content; and the configurable buttons provide a form of physical ergonomics increasingly rare in modern devices. And the microphone offers an additional dimension of note-taking (voice input).

Other e-ink tablets do offer a more elaborate hardware suite – cameras, fingerprint readers, microSD expansion, SIM slots, and so forth – but the eNote2 is by no means deficient. Its feature set is modest but functional, and in some respects refreshingly straightforward.

Battery

The eNote2 houses a notably large 6500 mAh battery, significantly more capacious than those found in many similarly sized e-ink tablets. On paper, this should have positioned it comfortably at the top of my battery performance table. In practice, it performed exceedingly well, but not quite well enough to claim the absolute top spot. Curiously, a handful of devices with smaller batteries still managed to outperform it under my testing conditions.

The table below shows how much battery is depleted by performing certain operations for an hour.

Test (1hr)	eNote 2 (% battery used)
Note-taking	5%
Reading	0.5%
Wifi On	+1%

In the native note-taking app, the eNote2 consumed roughly 5% per hour, while the reading application used a far more economical 0.5% per hour. Enabling Wi-Fi added approximately 1% per hour to the overall drain. These figures align with what I would expect from a device of this size and architecture – efficient, though not anomalously so.

I calculate projected daily usage on the basis of three hours of note-taking and three hours of reading per day. Under this model, the tablet would expend around 16.5% of its battery each day, yielding an estimated 6.1 days between charges. This situates it comfortably within the ‘very good‘ tier of e-ink tablet battery consumption.

A caveat is warranted: the devices that outperform it on my chart were tested more than a year ago, and their relative placements may no longer be accurate. Firmware updates – beneficial or detrimental – can have a profound effect on power efficiency. I intend to re-evaluate them eventually, though the battery-testing process is laborious and time-intensive.

Nonetheless, judged on its own merits, the eNote2 delivers consistently strong battery life. It may not be the undisputed champion in my historical data, but it is unequivocally reliable and more than capable of supporting extended work sessions without anxiety.

Accessories

Along with the tablet itself, the Penstar bundle also included two styluses, 20 spare nibs and the half-folio.

Stylus

As mentioned earlier, the PenStar stylus employs a proprietary variant of EMR technology. This has a significant implication: it is not compatible with other EMR-based e-ink tablets, nor will standard EMR pens function on the eNote2. The proprietary approach does confer advantages – chief among them doubled pressure sensitivity – but it also isolates the device within its own small ecosystem.

To mitigate this limitation, PenStar ships the eNote2 with not one, but two styluses, along with twenty replacement nibs. In practical terms, this means that although you are effectively tethered to PenStar’s input technology, you are unlikely to exhaust your nib supply quickly or find yourself suddenly penless – even if one stylus breaks, there is an immediate fallback.

The stylus itself is constructed from a dark silver plastic that is slightly more grippy than the images would suggest. Its plastic barrel keeps the weight low, making it comfortable for extended writing sessions. There is a simple plastic clip used to secure the pen to the loop on the half-folio cover; it is not magnetic and does not attach to the side of the tablet.

At the rear end of the pen is a spring-loaded eraser, while a side button – defaulting to an eraser function but with a limited set of customisable options – sits lower on the barrel. The top eraser housing is robust enough to avoid any internal rattle when shaken. As I have expressed in previous reviews, I am not especially fond of side buttons: my writing grip is on the heavier side, and I tend to trigger them inadvertently. That said, many users appreciate having one, and its presence here is unlikely to be an issue for most.

One of the cleverer design touches is the nib-storage compartment hidden within the upper half of the stylus. By twisting off the top, you reveal space (three tiny holes) for spare nibs. This is genuinely practical – particularly for those who travel or take notes on the move – eliminating the need to remember spare pen tips. Crucially, PenStar has executed this concept far better than some competing designs. The upper section requires deliberate effort to unscrew, preventing accidental detachment, and the nibs sit securely within their housing rather than rattling loosely or falling out when inverted. Extracting them requires a modest amount of force, which I consider a positive attribute.

As already discussed in the writing-feel section, the pen performs admirably on the screen, offering a pleasant tactile experience. Overall, it is a well-designed stylus – thoughtful, lightweight, functional, and nice to use. It is simply a pity that its proprietary nature prevents it from integrating into the broader ecosystem of EMR-based tablets I own.

Half-folio

Most e-ink tablets adopt a traditional two-panel folio that encloses both the front and rear surfaces, forming a kind of protective clamshell. The PenStar eNote2, by contrast, employs a half-folio design: a single protective flap that covers only the screen and attaches along the tablet’s left edge via a hinged strip. The only other device I’ve used with a comparable approach is the Supernote Manta, and – speaking personally – I have always been rather fond of the concept. It is, however, a polarising design choice.

For my part, the benefits of the half-folio are clear. The combined tablet-and-cover remains thinner, lighter, and less cumbersome than a full folio would allow. The screen is invariably the most vulnerable part of any e-ink device, and this is the component that truly requires shielding. Protecting only the front therefore feels like a logical, minimalist approach: safeguard the fragile portion and avoid unnecessary bulk everywhere else.

The opposing viewpoint is equally reasonable. With the rear panel exposed, scuffs, scratches, and general wear become inevitable over time – issues that full folios largely prevent. There is also a psychological component: some users feel uneasy carrying a device that is only partially encased, as though the tablet remains perpetually in a halfway state of vulnerability. I understand this concern completely, even if I don’t personally share it. My Supernote Manta has accompanied me nearly every day for a year, and although its rear has indeed accumulated marks, discoloration, and assorted scrapes, I find these more endearing than problematic. They give the device a sort of patina (though I appreciate that this is a highly subjective sentiment).

It is worth noting, however, that the Manta’s durability feels inherently higher due to its plastic chassis and flexible Mobius Carta display. The eNote2, with its metal rear and glass e-ink panel, could potentially be structurally less forgiving. This does somewhat amplify the stakes of accidental drops.

The connection mechanism between folio and tablet also differs markedly. The Manta uses metal clips that lock the half-folio in place so securely that even vigorous shaking cannot dislodge it. The eNote2’s approach is far more delicate: two rectangular magnetic blocks slot into recessed cavities on the tablet’s left edge. The connection is serviceable but fairly weak, detaching with only a little force. This makes removal quick and convenient – which might appeal to some users – but it also introduces a persistent anxiety. If you happen to grab the folio absent-mindedly without supporting the tablet itself, the device will almost certainly detach and fall. Aligning the magnets during attachment is also slightly fiddly, requiring a bit of dexterity.

The folio’s interior and exterior both share a blue-grey finish with a subtle faux-leather texture. The front flap is understated, interrupted only by a modest PenStar logo in the bottom-right corner. One aspect I genuinely appreciate is the pen loop: it is longer than most (around 8cm), holding the stylus firmly in line with the tablet rather than letting it wobble or flap during transport. However, when the panel is folded back with the stylus held within the loop, it does lift the unit off the surface, which feels a bit awkward.

Overall, I do like the eNote2’s half-folio. It is functional, lightweight, visually coherent with the tablet, and pleasant to handle. But I harbour a small, persistent apprehension about the magnetic attachment system. With careful handling it should be perfectly adequate, yet I cannot help but feel that a more secure locking mechanism – something closer to the Manta’s implementation – would have improved both confidence and practicality.

Software

My review of this tablet should be read in conjunction with my review of the current firmware (see table below), which includes aspects such as the Operating System, User Interface, and Native Apps.

The hardware and software reviews have been separated because the firmware used at the time that this review was written may not be the same firmware being used currently. This could result in the review quickly becoming outdated. Also, as several tablets may use the same firmware, this would mean going back and updating every single tablet review from a particular manufacturer to account for the new firmware. By splitting them up, if there is a firmware update, I am able to make the updates on a single page.

Current versions of this brand’s firmware are shown in the table below, along with the tablets running them.

My rating	Firmware version	Tablets using this firmware
	2.0 (current version) Aug 2025	Penstar eNote 2
	1.0 (current version) Aug 2024	Penstar eNote
Older Penstar firmware versions may be found here

Brand

For some people, it is also worth considering the brand as whole, including aspects like customer service, ecosystem, values, and criticisms.

My full overview of the Penstar brand can be found here, but I have provided a summary below.

Final verdict

The PenStar eNote2 is an intriguing device – one that, despite its modest origins and unassuming aesthetics, reveals a quiet distinctiveness the longer you use it. It is not the most stylish or elegantly sculpted e-ink tablet on the market, yet it possesses a unique visual appeal, a kind of retro-industrial charm that differentiates it from the polished homogeneity of its contemporaries. Its physicality – the brushed metal rear, the blue-grey accents, the unapologetically tactile buttons – gives it personality.

Its greatest strength, however, is unequivocally the screen. The contrast is exceptional: the whites are notably luminous, the blacks unusually deep, and together they produce a richness rare among contemporary e-ink tablets. The absence of a capacitive touchscreen layer contributes to this clarity, allowing the “ink” to feel tantalisingly close to the surface. This design choice imposes a brief acclimatisation period – navigation must be performed via stylus or buttons – but once accustomed, the interaction becomes surprisingly pleasant. The physical buttons are gratifyingly clicky, and the stylus-led interface feels decisive and controlled. It is a different mode of operation, but one that grows on you.

The writing experience is similarly gratifying. The surface texture, friction profile, and responsive latency combine to produce a tactile experience that is both grounded and refined. The stylus itself is perfectly adequate – lightweight, comfortable, and thoughtfully designed – and the inclusion of two styluses and twenty spare nibs in the box is a generous and commendable gesture. The native note-taking and reading applications are feature-rich, well organised, and surprisingly mature, offering a breadth of capabilities that comfortably rival more established ecosystems. I particularly enjoyed reading Great Expectations on this device; the clarity of the screen gave Dickens’ prose a kind of understated luminosity.

The half-folio is good, though not exceptional. It is lightweight and practical, with an excellent pen loop, but the magnetic attachment is less secure than ideal. With mindful handling, it functions perfectly well, but a locking mechanism would have elevated confidence considerably.

Where the eNote2 falters is in interoperability. The absence of Google Play certification introduces friction: some apps refuse to run, cloud-drive integration is unreliable, and the Companion App lacks the robustness needed for seamless workflow synchronisation. These shortcomings do not undermine the core experience, but they do situate the device as a primarily self-contained system. But these weaknesses could be eliminated as the firmware matures.

Yet judged on its strengths – reading, writing, clarity, contrast, and tactile precision – the eNote2 is a compelling proposition. At approximately $320, it occupies the budget tier of the market while offering an experience that often feels far more premium. It is best approached as a focused, dedicated tool for annotation, study, and immersive reading rather than as a general-purpose Android e-ink tablet. Used within those parameters, it is not merely competent but genuinely delightful.

And, personally, I found it to work really well as a larger-screened ebook reader because of the screen clarity and physical page-turn buttons.

In sum: a distinctive tablet with an exceptional screen, an enjoyable writing feel, and mature native software – held back only by limited interoperability. For those seeking a high-contrast, distraction-free environment for reading and handwriting, the PenStar eNote2 is a surprisingly strong contender.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to give the Penstar eNote such a good review, but I have genuinely enjoyed using it over the past couple of weeks. And whilst it will not be replacing my daily driver, I think I might go back to it very soon to read another ebook, because I found the experience so pleasurable (and the fact that it comes preinstalled with so many excellent classics means I’m spoiled for choice for what to read).

Buying options

Penstar devices can be purchased from:

• Penstar (direct)*
• Amazon*

Technical Specs