I have been using an Echo for almost two years now – not sure what problems you are running into getting it to pick up your writing. The pen picks up writing even when not using ink. I have some of the sloppiest handwriting I know and it has always picked it up correctly – no matter how careless I am. Just wanted to add this to your review as from someone who has used it I have not had any problems of the pen not capturing my writing.

The integration with Evernote is a great feature as well, though like the last commenter the OCR is not the greatest with sloppy writing. The Livescribe Desktop software seems to do a better OCR job with handwriting.