Review: Close to perfect notebook!

This is a review for the SUNEE Graph Paper Notebook. Or as Amazon likes to call it (click for link): SUNEE Graph Paper Notebook – 300 Pages, 5 Subject, 8.2″x10.8″, 5 x 5mm Grid Lines Notebook with 5 Pocket Colored Dividers, 3-Hole Punched Quad Ruled Paper, Black Graphing Spiral Notebooks for Math, Engineering, Writing/Drawing Journals, Home & Office. Amazon has a beautiful way with words.

I debated giving this a 4 or 5 stars. It deserves 5 stars for being amazing but I half wanted to give it 4 for not being absolutely perfect. It’s so close though! The specs:

• Page Number: 150 Sheets/300 Pages
• Page Weight: 80g/m²–Ivory Color
• Metal wire-o twin loop wire binding
• Cover is waterproof frosted plastic
• Five movable subject dividers with pockets
• Perforated pages with three ring punched holes
• Available in graph paper or college ruled

So I needed a notebook for work. I was using a three ring binder but I quickly found out that it takes up too much room on a crowded table in meetings. So I needed a ringed notebook I could fold over. I prefer engineering graph paper. It’s super light colored so still easy to read over and gives you a million options for what you want to write, how large, drawing tables, endless possibilities. This came in graph paper so close enough. It’s also smaller than the average graph paper squares at 5 per inch so not too bad.

I also work on a lot of different projects. So I decided to look for something with multiple subject dividers. This not only has 5 subject dividers — they’re also movable and have pockets! Pockets are an obvious win for handouts and notes from meetings. And the movable dividers mean I can devote more of the notebook to larger projects. It also had something I didn’t realize I wanted: 3 hole punched pages. This means if I need to save something long term, I can pull it out and put it in my binder of things to keep for reference. Excellent addition.

When I received my notebook I was very pleased! The black plastic cover is understated enough to be professional without looking like you tried too hard. The subject dividers do not stick out past the book width as they do in the product photos which means it won’t get messed up when I toss it in my bag. I’m pleased with the thickness of the wire and the style of the double wired spiral. The first thing I did was stamp the front and back pages with a big “unclassified” stamp, as one does. I was sad to see that I could see the ink through the other side of the page. It didn’t bleed through completely, but it’s obvious that I won’t be writing double sided on this with my favorite gel ink pens. That said, if one were using regular cheap pens or pencil, this is certainly thick enough to work double sided in that case.

So for this to be the perfect notebook, I’d want it to be the engineering graph paper and thicker paper weight. Maybe an ostentatious cover as well. That said, however, it’s the best notebook I’ve ever found. I will most likely buy another when I need it. I also added it to my list of “Things I recommend 100%” (click for link).