I should have reviewed this notebook ages ago. I bought it back in March 2025, and 10 months is not the longest I’ve gone before reviewing something, but unfortunately, it was long enough for this product to have sold out. But since there may still be items from this brand circulating on eBay or other resellers, let’s take a look anyway!

I think I spotted a mention of Jil Largean on Instagram, from someone who noted that they were available via AliExpress. I checked it out and the extremely low price raised my eyebrows, but I thought, “what the heck,” and ordered one. That first one I ordered is actually not the one I’m reviewing in this post. I had ordered a black notebook, but when it arrived, the leather had a powerful chemical odor, and the rings were a little gappy. I was able to return it, and decided to try again with a red one.

The red Jil Largean notebook did not have the chemical odor, happily! Once taking it out of the protective bag and box, I was quite happy with the red color– it’s a nice shade, bright but not too bright. I also like the smooth leather texture better than the pebbled texture that the black one had, which felt a bit cheap somehow.

The notebook measures approximately 100 mm x 137 mm x 17mm– pretty close to the size of the Filofax Lockwood Pocket Slim. It’s a bit shorter and wider and thicker than my MeePlus notebook, as shown below.

Inside, there are some handy pockets, potentially enough to turn it into a wallet depending on your personal preferences. There’s one small card pocket on the left, with a full height pocket behind it, and on the right, another full height pocket and a small rounded secretarial pocket. Also of note are the sewn-in ring protectors– a nice touch that I’ve otherwise only seen on higher-end organizers. The rings are 11mm, not made by Krause but they seem well-aligned and nicely snappy. The quality of the construction and materials actually seems quite good on this notebook, despite the issues I had with the previous one.

The Jil Largean notebook came with two packs of lined insert pages. I tested a few pens and founded that finer fountain pen nibs with certain inks worked quite well. Wetter fountain pens did have bleed-through and some feathering. Fine point gel pens worked great. But the insert paper isn’t really the point here, as the notebook has a standard 6-ring spacing that will work with your choice of inserts from Filofax, Plotter, or whoever.

I paid just under $32 for this Jil Largean notebook, including shipping. For the quality of this notebook, that seems shockingly low. However, about a month after I bought it was when the tariffs on China were increased dramatically. If I’d bought another one then, the cost would probably have doubled. I suspect that the tariffs may have killed off Jil Largean’s business, as they only have a few products left on AliExpress now. They are currently listing a smaller A8 size, 5-ring notebook for $38.19. Shipping is free, and the small print says import charges are included.

Back in April 2025 I saved a photo of a listing where that same item was only $24.96, but the small print notes that additional charges to cover the tariffs were estimated to be $44.43.

I am not advocating for cheap Chinese imports when there are viable domestic alternatives, but sometimes there aren’t any! I’ve seen plenty of made-in-the-USA leather travelers notebooks at prices higher than this, but those aren’t really comparable in terms of the comlexity of the construction. I’m sure something with the Jillargean notebook’s specs would cost at least 3 times as much if anyone was selling such a thing. But I think all the comparable leather ring binder notebooks I’ve seen are also made in Asia, despite big-name brands and prices that are often much higher. There may be other issues about labor and environmental practices that it’s hard to take into account without more transparency, but other than that, it was nice to see Jil Largean offering a decent quality Filofax alternative at a very accessible price while it lasted.