Apex Digital, a subsidiary of the Apex Group is making a name for itself in the Nepali market because of its smart store. The store has opened up various branches all over Nepal in a very short time. It has started to shine because of the on-hand experience with smartphones of various brands that it offers to its customers. And while Apex Digital has been working with smartphones for some time now, the store has recently introduced a new self-designed diary-cum-gadget into the Nepali tech market.
Named ‘Smart Diary’, the diary does justice to its name. It comes with a power bank, few charging cables, a flash drive, and more importantly, papers for writing. It allows three options in terms of colors: black, green and pink, and each color has a different texture on its cover. The black one I got to use has a smooth covering, the green one has a rough texture and the pink one has a mixture of both textures. Apex Digital has priced the Smart Diary at Rs. 3,999.
The smart diary is clothed by a leather-like material on the outside with padding on the inside, which makes it comfortable to hold and carry around. It can be opened with a magnetic clip that has a flash drive which slides out easily.
The interior, however, is not very different from a normal diary. The first few pages consist of personal memoranda, emergency numbers, and a calendar for the year 2017. This is followed by normal diary pages.
It is the final page of the diary that one encounters the genuinely ‘smart’ aspect of it and brings us to the major feature of the Smart Diary. Inside the outer covering is a power bank of capacity 10,000 mAh. Three cables, one for power input interface, another for a microUSB cable and a thunderbolt cable sit comfortably on the outer covering of the power bank. The battery life of the power bank is indicated by four LED lights present on the inner covering. These lights are accompanied by a power switch.
Using the microUSB cable, I had no issues with the battery pack. However, when I tried to charge the iPhone 6 Plus through the thunderbolt cable, I couldn’t really juice up its battery. Instead, the charge of the device actually started to decrease.
The diary’s flash drive is of 8 GB. It works without any hiccups and I liked the fact that Apex Digital has cleverly kept the drive inside the diary’s magnetic clip. But since the flash drive is surrounded by magnets on all sides, what if it stops working? Since I got to use the Smart Diary only for a short time, I couldn’t find any conclusive answers to the question.
Cons
Well, like I already mentioned, the major con of the Smart Diary is the fact that the flash drive could get damaged because of the magnet. Also, what’s the use of having a power bank and a thunderbolt cable if you can’t really charge an iPhone?
The Smart Diary also lacks a USB Type-C connector. And with more and more phones coming out with the feature, Apex Digital should have included the connector.
Who is it for?
No doubt the Smart Diary features some neatly included individual gadgets and pieces of technology. But is it for everyone? Perhaps not.
So who is it really for? If you work and carry around individual cables and power bank, then this is a perfect diary for you as it was for me.When I used the device, I didn’t have to carry around any other cables and power banks which, for me, were always annoying. Furthermore, I also didn’t have to carry an extra notebook. Oh, and Apex Digital will refill the papers if you fill it all up, but after you pay for it, of course.
