Review: @NuNotebooks Nu: Elite A5 Multi-Event Journal - Black

ABOUT

Size: A5
Color: Black cover, off-white/cream paper.
Ruling: Business ruled, things to do, graph, and plain.
Sheet Count: 200 pages
Where to buy: Not yet available online.

APPEARANCE

The Nu: Elite multi-event journal looks professional. It has large metal coils and a black soft touch cover with rounded edges. Inside, all the lovely, heavy 120gsm pages are perforated. The first 40 pages are "Things to do today" pages. The next section is 100 business ruled pages, followed by 30 pages of graph ruled pages, and 30 plain pages. Each section is separated by a tabbed page marker.

At the back of the notebook, there is a pocket on the back cover. The paper is an off-white, leaning towards cream. It is easy on the eyes, not being bright white (don't get me wrong, I love bright white, but for a professional setting, off-white can be convenient). 

PERFORMANCE & FEEL

The notebook feels quite nice overall - it is quite solid and looks professional. The cover is soft touch and is flexible, which I like.The elastic is a little loose and I imagine it'll wear out over time after being stretched repeatedly. The pen loop is pretty great but that too will stretch over time, though this is natural for elastic.
The paper feels smooth but it is not outstandingly so, nor is it slick or coated.

 

The paper does just fine with pencils, ballpoint pens, rollerballs, and gel ink pens. There is no feathering or bleed through with these pens. 

At 120gsm, I was hoping this paper would be fountain pen friendly. It isn't too bad, but it isn't completely fountain pen friendly either. Ink dries quickly on this paper because it is slightly absorbent.

Unfortunately this means inks that display a sheen on coated paper do not display a sheen on this paper. This also means that wet applications of ink (such as with broad nibs or flex nibs) end up feathering. There is no bleed through or show through though, so that is pretty cool.

The cover is difficult to close unless it is perfectly aligned on the coils, and it's hard to close with from the middle of the journal.

PROS

• Good variety of paper rulings.
• Perforated pages.
• Elastic pen loop built in to notebook.
• Somewhat fountain pen friendly. 
• Fountain pen ink dries quickly.

CONS  

• Cover material scuffs easily.
• Difficult to close the cover unless it is perfectly aligned on the coils. 
• Wet ink/nibs feathers. 
• No sheen.

OVERALL 

This Nu: Elite multi-event journal is tasteful and nice with a very convenient variety of perforated pages built in. Overall, it is quite nice, and handles fountain pen ink relatively well, if you don't mind using finer nibs. So far, my favourite of the Nu notebooks remains the Nu: Elite Polypropylene notebook as the paper does the best with fountain pens. The multi-event journal is great for a work setting - meetings, notes, conferences, etc.

This notebook was provided to me for review by Nuco International, free of charge. I was not compensated monetarily. All opinions you read here are 100% my own!