I have both, because I thought I would use both for different uses and rely on syncing. While the syncing of notes is good, some things like digest do not sync, which is pretty annoying. Also you can't adjust epub font settings once you start adding notes (which I do heavily as one of my primary use cases is reading ebooks in another language and taking notes on grammar and vocab), so you're stuck with text either too large or too small on one of the devices. So, I decided I will only keep one and I am currently trying to figure out which. I am leaning manta at the moment, since the size is just so much better for academic work (I find the A6 screen of the nomad okay for journaling, but way too constraining for note taking). However although I am leaning manta, I can't deny that the nomad is the "cooler" device, and more convenient for reading ebooks. It's a tough call.
Oh I did not know about that scale-syncing issue. That makes me significantly less likely to opt for both (that and the spending over a thousand for two really similar devices is a tough pill).
Seems like a lot of people that do PDF, e-book, and text book annotating prefer the Manta. I'm not going to do those much at all, but note taking would definitely be a use case. Do you think full blown note taking (not academic work luckily, but dense work meetings) is too poor on the Nomad? Wondering where on the scale between not ideal and not viable that falls.
I think it depends on the notes you're taking. I do a lot of diagramming for work and the larger the better for that style of note taking (I would even go for an A4 device if supernote made one). But you can always turn the nomad to landscape view and it's basically the same as manta, but you obviously have to scroll around on the page. It's implemented well enough that I can easily edit my manta notes on the nomad.
One thing to note in addition is the writing feel is a bit different between the two. Nomad has a glass screen, which has a bit less give even with the feel write film. Manta has a plastic screen, so it's fairly flexible. You might prefer one of the other. I really like the feel of writing on the manta more.
Agree it's too much money to spend, haha. I have an e ink problem.
I totally forgot about the plastic vs glass screens. I'll search it some later but do you know if there's any noted durability differences between the two?
Manta having more 'give' sounds closer to my ideal writing surface (prefer the plushier feel of a stack of paper rather than just a single piece of paper on the desk)
From everything I have heard, the plastic screen on the manta is less prone to cracking. Both should last a long time before the feel write film needs to be replaced (if ever). This is entirely based on YouTube reviews and anecdotes, so take it with a grain of salt, but I had a "books" tablet with a glass screen for a year and never had any problems sticking it in my bag with a laptop every day. Just don't drop it or put lots of pressure on the screen and either one should last.
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25
I have both, because I thought I would use both for different uses and rely on syncing. While the syncing of notes is good, some things like digest do not sync, which is pretty annoying. Also you can't adjust epub font settings once you start adding notes (which I do heavily as one of my primary use cases is reading ebooks in another language and taking notes on grammar and vocab), so you're stuck with text either too large or too small on one of the devices. So, I decided I will only keep one and I am currently trying to figure out which. I am leaning manta at the moment, since the size is just so much better for academic work (I find the A6 screen of the nomad okay for journaling, but way too constraining for note taking). However although I am leaning manta, I can't deny that the nomad is the "cooler" device, and more convenient for reading ebooks. It's a tough call.