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July 28, 2020

Miliko Dot Grid Notebook Review (Including Pen Testing)

So many dot grid notebooks have boring, plain black covers. And if they have a pretty cover instead, it usually comes at the expense of the quality of the inside pages. So let’s see how the Milko notebook stacks up!

This is not a sponsored post. I purchased the notebook myself and all opinions are my own.

Quick facts

  • Size: Just under 5.75″ wide x 8.5″ high (14.5cm wide x 21.5cm high)
  • Hardcover
  • Sewn binding
  • 5mm dot grid
  • 100 GSM paper
  • 100 double dot grid sided pages (no pre-printed pages)
  • No page numbers

Price: I purchased this notebook on Amazon a while ago but they don’t appear to stock it anymore. If you live in the USA (where the company is based) they have their own website where the notebook is $11.50 USD with free shipping on USA orders over $20.

Let’s take a closer look!

To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).

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The Cover

I’ll be honest, the cover was the reason I purchased this notebook – finally a cover other than boring black!!

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_02

So I was very disappointed when I took it out of it’s packaging and there was a stain on the front cover 🙁 I got most of it off except for this bit

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_03

Approx 0.75″ thick

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_04

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_05

There are no pre-printed pages, the notebook has dot grid pages only.

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_06

5mm dot grid (same size as most dot grid notebooks)

I like the dot placement – none are cut off on the edges of the pages.

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_07

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_09

There’s a roomy pocket folder fixed to the back cover

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_08

Pen Testing

The paper is cream colored and only 100 GSM thick so I was sceptical about the company’s website raving about how great their paper was…

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_10

…And unfortunately I was right. It’s not able to withstand pens, highlighters or stamps without it showing through to the other side of the paper. 100 GSM is thin paper. If you want something that doesn’t show pen on the other side, look for 140 GSM thick (or thicker) paper.

Related post: Bullet Journal notebooks with the best paper (my top 7)

Miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing pretty sewn bound bujo classy white cover 5mm dot grid white amazon pen testing paper quality_11

Pros of the Notebook

  • Portable size
  • Lightweight
  • Pretty cover
  • Cheap
  • Cheap shipping (or free depending on how much you spend) if you buy via their website

Cons of the Planner

  • Cover arrived stained
  • Cream paper, not white
  • Paper is thin and prone to ghosting and bleed through
  • Only 1 ribbon bookmark
  • No page numbers

Would I use this notebook?

I was hoping this would be the dream combination: pretty cover and good quality paper that’s not prone to ghosting or bleed through but that didn’t end up being the case. I’ll be using this notebook for drafting spread ideas or brain dumping to do lists, not my actual bullet journal spreads.

If you don’t mind seeing ghosting / bleed through and a pretty cover is important to you, this is one of the nicer sewn bound hardcover notebooks I’ve come across (actually has a pattern not just plain in one color).

More dot grid notebook reviews:

  • Scribbles That Matter Notebook
  • Jumping Fox Designs Dot Grid Notebook
  • CEDON dot grid notebook

Bullet Journaling Tips:

  • 7 Tips to keep your bullet journal neat
  • 15 Quick and Simple Vertical Bullet Journal Weekly Spreads
  • 50 Themes for your planner or bullet journal spreads

Browse all posts

Found this post helpful? Pin it!

miliko dot grid notebook review pros and cons pen testing paper quality pretty cute sewn bound

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  • Clever Fox Dotted Notebook Comparison: Original versus 2.0 Journal – which is better?Clever Fox Dotted Notebook Comparison: Original versus 2.0 Journal – which is better?
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Posted In: Bullet Journal, Bullet Journal Reviews, Uncategorized · Tagged: best dot grid notebook, cheap dot grid notebook, dot grid notebook review, miliko dot grid notebook, miliko notebook review, miliko review, pretty dot grid notebook, usa dot grid notebook, usa notebook company

Comments

  1. Anna-Karin says

    August 1, 2020 at 01:41

    I love the clean look:)
    Beautiful!
    Good advice with the140 GSM paper.
    Thank you for great work!
    Regards from Swedish Bullet journal nerd!

  2. Chyanne Kitson says

    August 3, 2020 at 03:57

    Have you had a chance to try Law of Attraction Planners yet? There made by Freedom Mastery I do believe. I just got mine in the mail the other day and am super excited to get started with it. I think you would enjoy it as well! And I would really like to hear your thoughts on it as well and maybe see your review on it and how you went about setting it up. I’ve been following your work for a while now and came across this planner but haven’t seen any reviews from you on it or you mention it. Can you take a look at them by chance and let me know your thoughts and hopefully tips!!!

    **Also I’m in college and have been looking at a simple cheap planner for just my college/college life stuff. I found Mead planners at my local Walmart (I’m in the USA) and was wondering what your thoughts are of Mead’s academic planners.

    • Rachael says

      August 3, 2020 at 22:15

      Hi Chyanne,

      I did a review of the Law of Attraction planner here: https://allaboutplanners.com.au/law-of-attraction-weekly-planner-review-pros-cons-and-a-video-walkthrough/

      I’ve seen the Mead planners online but haven’t purchased as they have the same generic layouts that most planners have. Have you thought about getting the TUL student planner instead? It has a similar layout / style (minimalist black and white) but it’s discbound so you can add, remove and rearrange pages. You can resize printables, punch and add them to the planner too. I did a review in this post: https://allaboutplanners.com.au/tul-student-planner-discbound-notebook-review-pros-cons-video-walkthrough/

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