Doesn't the handwriting recognition improve over time?, as you write and correct the translation mistakes? Maybe that's why the store model seemed less accurate? I'll have to look more into that.
What i can say for sure is, i've been handwriting notes in OneNote for 6 years and across 3 OSs (XP, Vista, Win7) and at least 3 different devices with pen input (
as well as iOS apps... but those don't really count). I've given up on handwriting recognition every time. I had a chance to play with an SP3 at Best Buy this weekend for about 20 minutes and was amazed how well it did... and i was purposefully trying to be sloppy in my handwriting. I'm not sure whether it's the pen/tablet/8.1/OneNote or what. Of course i hardly gave it a thorough test but i'm definitely excited
I'm a huge OneNote fan as are most of the people in my office (except one EverNote user with an iPad that we can't budge :wink
.
As far as OneNote being able to index handwriting that IS NOT converted to text, i've never heard of that and it sounds too good to be true. I do know OneNote will recognize and index text in pictures, imported pdfs, etc..., so it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.