Author - Jerry Paxton

Improv Electronics has released their highly talked-about Boogie Board Rip LCD eWriter. Retailing between $100 and $130 dollars depending on the e-tailer, the Boogie Board Rip promises to allow users to take down and store quick notes, epiphanies, or any other thing one might jot down on a piece of scratch paper. Measuring about the size of an Apple iPad, the Boogie Board Rip has a body made from solid gray plastic and a large writing surface to take notes down on. The stylus is fairly generic in appearance – however is very comfortable to write with. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a “scratchy” spot on its very tip which I was afraid would scratch into the screen if I held it a certain way. Most of my note-taking, however, went well enough and I was pleased with how responsive the screen was to the swipes of the stylus. Using some free software, you can attach the Boogie Board Rip to your PC and save your current drawing or note into a PDF format. The software is also compatible with popular note software, EverNote. The PDFs were usually accurate, however every so often I would find a missing line or swipe. Apparently I did not fully contact the screen to register it – but it was enough to make a mark on the screen itself. The battery life is really long, with a standby time of two months. With normal usage, the estimate is about a week between charges.

Unfortunately, the Boogie Board Rip has its share of issues. First, is the price. Depending on where you purchase the device, $130 dollars could be put towards a far more powerful Android or Apple tablet – especially with the lower cost models out there. Another HUGE issue is the inability to erase sections of the screen. You only have the option to clear out the entire screen, which means that you cannot correct spelling errors or erase doodles while jotting things down. Additionally, the device cannot recall past notes without hooking it up to a PC. Event then, you only see PDF versions of past notes and cannot re-create them on the device itself. I would have loved to see the Boogie Board Rip recall at least my immediately-last note on the screen so I could continue where I left off.

Overall, the Boogie Board Rip is a useful, yet imperfect device that will allow you to quickly take down notes and to-do lists. It has long battery life and a responsive writing system. Just know its limitations prior to purchasing – you may just decide to go with a more robust Android or Apple tablet. If you only need to write notes or to-do lists on your refrigerator and don’t need to save or recall them, this device is right up your alley. For people needing a more capable writing pad, the Boogie Board Rip feels like a device that, in one or two more iterations would easily earn a 5 out of 5. Right now, however, there are still a lot of things that need to be corrected that would make me choose it over a tablet for taking notes.

[wpcol_1half id=”” class=”” style=””]Pros

• Lightweight
• Long battery life
• Easy to jot stuff down quickly

[/wpcol_1half] [wpcol_1half_end id=”” class=”” style=””]Cons

• Can’t erase small portions of the screen
• PDFs sometimes don’t reflect everything written or drawn
• Can’t navigate through past notes
• Scratchy stylus

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[easyreview title=”Boogie Board Rip LCD Writing eWriter Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″] Our Rating Scores Explained