I tend to take a lot of notes at work, and also as I am working on side projects and one day I took a step back and looked at my desk and said "Is it really 2013 and I am pretty much scraping away at dead trees with a piece of metal dipped in ink like a caveman!?". I had notes spread out over dozens of binders, notebooks, engineering pads, etc, etc. How is this still a thing?! I also lost a bunch of notes from my schooling simply because the box they were in got lost. It felt to me like the equivalent of conducting all of my correspondence via paper letters, and keeping them in boxes in the basement. Of course, instead I do it through email, all nicely searchable at the drop of a hat.
So the first thing I will say is that OneNote and the pen are a great writing experience. I do kind of miss the feedback of a pen against paper, but the "inking" in OneNote is top-notch, somehow looking even better than my regular writing. The response is really quick as well, which makes a big difference in feeling like you are actually writing instead of watching a line chase your pen around the screen. I've tried the Galaxy Note 10.1's stylus and S-Note and it is nowhere near as good. Syncing my notes to the Microsoft cloud is of course an added bonus for easy backup.
That said, the widescreen aspect ratio was pretty dumb, especially for something billed as a device for being productive. I really can't understand it from any direction, I mean writing a document will be worse, editing photos is probably worse, I guess maybe people editing video will be happy? A better, wider aspect ratio closer to paper would be a serious improvement.
At the end of the day however, I am able to take notes and do sketches, designs, etc, in a way that has a great writing "feel", offers search via really good text recognition, and offers seamless backup. I got mine discounted at a conference, so I can't say if I'd pay $900 for the ability to do this, but if I was back in University it would be an absolute no brainer. You probably won't find a better "writing" experience on the market, and if you do a lot of that then I recommend it.
I'm the opposite. I love tech but I have an a4 sized sketchpad and a good pencil I take everywhere with me. I use it for everything from meeting notes to drawings/ideas. I'll use it to demonstrate ideas/concepts to a client or just to hlep me work out something (I'm very visual)
I can't see myself ever parting with it. I love the feel - there's something about using real pencil and paper digital can never replace, and I have a draw full of old notbooks I can look back through which is kind of nice.
As far as search/organisation etc well... a notepad's not so good for that but my drawings tend to be write-only. I use them as a tool to help me think and to clarify ideas.
Because the alternative costs $900 and doesn't fit in your pocket. Oh, I get what you're saying, I loved OneNote back when I had the old TabletPC. It's the best thing going, IMO. But I'm not spending that kind of money to run an OS I have no other use for, just to take notes. Make a $300 machine with a good digitizer that runs nothing but OneNote and I'd buy two.
Unfortunately, they never released it in the US, dropped Evernote support a while back, and have completely discontinued it. Did I mention that importing from China through a reseller and with shipping included it only cost $250?
And dammit, that looks perfect for notetaking/sketching/etc. :(
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 [1]
I have to physically restrain myself from buying one of these just about every time I walk into the local electronics stores. Samsung has actually done a really nice job, it has a Maths mode that recognises handwriting as formulas which insanely actually works ...
[1] http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote/note8.0/
I definitely view it as an ultrabook replacement. My only major gripe is that it's not a comfortable machine for on the lap work compared to a proper laptop.
Also because of it's width I feel like I need to sit with my knees together to try and balance it, trying on one leg feels stupidly awkward.
When my daughter uses my Surface, she uses it as a WACOM replacement, so she needs (and finds) the stylus.