7 Best Smart Pens for 2022

A widely circulated 2014 study showed that taking notes by hand helps the notetaker remember the material more easily and understand it more deeply. That’s useful information whether you’re in the classroom or a meeting room. But it’s 2021, and we all want to be able to search our notes as we would online. There are productivity apps that include note-taking options that provide the digital aspect. Plus, there are smart notebooks that allow you to capture notes and sketches.

But students, workers and artists alike might prefer a smart pen, which allows you to take notes and draw the old-fashioned way and then digitize your work to access on your tablet or smartphone via an app. Some even record audio so you can play back critical moments to refresh your memory. These features make the pens a helpful assistant to students with learning disabilities.

What are smart pens for?

Smart pens capture what you’ve written by hand and transform it into digital form. They do this via a few methods: Some require special paper or a tablet that provides a grid that functions as a sort of GPS for your pen, so it can translate the path of the pen into marks you can read as language. Others work via your smartphone’s camera, requiring you to photograph your page to capture the information. Some also store information on the pen itself for transfer to a device or to the cloud later. Many transfer the data via Bluetooth, but some require plugging into a USB cord to connect and transfer.

How we test smart pens

The Good Housekeeping Institute looks at a range of smart products, from smart speakers to smart water bottles. For all products, our experts evaluate how easy they are to use, how well constructed and durable they are and what type of value they offer to the user. For smart pens in particular, we looked at how ergonomic they are to hold, how smoothly they write, whether or not they smear and what additional features they offer (such as audio recording). Our team of engineers and tech pros have reviewed many of the smart pens included on this list, looking specifically at how easy each is to operate, how long the battery lasts and how seamless it is to sync with computers, tablets and/or phones.

Our recommendations include past top-tested pens as well as some recent releases from brands we love. For newer units we haven’t seen, we reviewed specs and functionality to make the picks. Here are the best smart pens you can buy in 2021:

• Best Overall Smart Pen: Livescribe Symphony Smartpen
• Best Value Smart Pen: Rocketbook Core Digital Reusable Notebook with Pilot Frixion Pen
• Best Smart Pen for Windows Users: Wacom Bamboo Ink 2nd Generation
• Best Smart Pen for Social Media Files: Neo Smartpen N2
• Best Smart Pen for Apple iPad Users: Apple Pencil 2nd Generation
• Best Smart Pen for Drawing: Moleskine Pen+ Ellipse
• Best Smart Pen for Playback: NEWYES Smartpen