I purchased this Sensebook notebook several months ago, feeling very excited at the prospect of trying a new notebook brand with some features that set it apart. It’s from a German brand called Transotype that I’d never heard of, but interestingly, their parent company, Holtz, seems to be the makers of the very popular Copic markers.
Even at a quick glance, the Sensebook stands out by virtue of the color scheme and texture of the cover. At first you might think it was made of cork, but the cover is actually leather– I would guess that it’s some kind of recycled leather, though, as I’ve never seen anything with quite this texture. The overall effect is nice, though– it has a soft but firm feel, and that real leather smell.
The stitching around the edge is a pleasant accent, and the red ribbon and elastic contrast nicely. The elastic is a rounded one, and there are notches at the top and bottom of the front cover to hold it in place. The cover has a slight overhang from the page edges but it’s not overly wide, and it is even and square all the way around. The notebook has some bend to it, so it is a nice compromise between the flexibility of a softcover and the durability of a hardcover.
When compared to a pocket Moleskine, the Sensebook somehow gives the impression of being larger, but it is pretty close to the same size– the rounded spine makes it a little wider and the overhang makes it very slightly taller. It has fewer pages so is slightly thinner.
The only thing I don’t like about the exterior is the large double-loop tag. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be a pen loop– it’s too narrow to put most pens through, but it should accommodate the clip on a pen. But to me, actually attaching a pen that way is kind of awkward. Unfortunately, the tag seems to be attached via the stitching, which means it would be a little tricky to remove.
When you first open the notebook, you’ll immediately notice that the cover is quite stiff. It starts to ease up a bit with repeated use, but that also means the cover will stay slightly open unless it is pulled shut with the elastic. This is the only drawback to the way they’ve used a single layer of sturdy leather for the cover– the curve at the spine will stick out and prevent the notebook from lying as flat as it could. Over time, this will put some stress on the glue holding the book block into the cover– mine was already starting to pull away slightly in the back.
The inside front cover is blank. Inside the back cover is an expanding pocket with cloth sides. The first few pages of the notebook offer space to write your personal details as well as a few index pages. At the end of the notebook, there is a page with a ruler printed at the edge, centimeters on one side and inches on the other. I chose a squared notebook (blank and lined are also available)– the grid lines are very similar to what you get in a Moleskine, but they’ve boxed out a space for the page number in the bottom corner. A few pages in the back are perforated for easy removal. The paper works very nicely with almost all pens– fountain pens didn’t bleed or feather, and in general bleed-through and show-through were less than average.
This notebook might make it into my potential use pile if I can figure out how to cut that tag off, but I can see myself getting frustrated with the stiff cover. I hope there will be some future iteration that addresses that issue because it is otherwise a great little notebook!
I bought my Sensebook notebook at JetPens for $10. Amazon also has various styles and sizes, though this exact size no longer seems to be listed there, and at least as of this writing their prices seem kind of out of whack.