22 ms·

The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

522 points by curtis 9y ago

klunger 9y ago
My friend has one and I got to try it a couple weeks ago. The writing experience is as fantastic as the article describes. But, the rendering of screens is slow and you have to look at bizarro artifacts for a second or two before a new screen is shown. This is... not great. But, I am guessing this can be improved on in future versions. I am waiting for a better/cheaper model to come out, but fully intend to get one when it does. edit: clarity
- mattmanser 9y ago
  I can see that disappearing quickly as it did between 1st and 2nd gen kindle. On my paperwhite it's now completely un-noticeable most of the time, there's only a few operations that have some lag. I'm tempted to buy one, but know how frustrated I get with bad UIs, so might hold off until the next gen.
  - thaumaturgy 9y ago
    FWIW I'm a fellow UI-grouch, but haven't hated anything about it enough to outweigh everything else I love about it. The funky screen redraw is just a brief thing and doesn't really get in my way. The only UI thing that makes me scowl so far is that sometimes my pen settings inexplicably get reset.
    - mattmanser 9y ago
      I am very tempted then, presently I have 5 different notebooks for different things and doing a couple of courses which I've started to study like I did at university and take written notes instead of just passively consuming. The general consensus is that you learn better if you write but it's frustrating to not have the notes digitized and backed up. It sounds like it might be good.
jonnybgood 9y ago
> the reMarkable tablet definitely has the potential to make paper notebooks obsolete. Nope. Maybe the later generations of the device and competitors entering the market forcing a lower price will, though. I’d pay 300 tops for it.
- simonbarker87 9y ago
  Perhaps that’s why the article used the word “potential”? As in: not now but maybe in the future... like, later generations perhaps?
  - jonnybgood 9y ago
    Or it can be a competitor that does it better. As it stands now I don’t see remarkable making notebooks obsolete. It’s a pretty bold statement.
  - klibertp 9y ago
    No, the quote specifically says "the reMarkable tablet", meaning the one under review right now. jonnybgood notes that this particular version doesn't have the potential to replace paper because it is too expensive, and I happen to agree.
devwinportable 9y ago
from my experience, "apple pencil" is a piece of crap (too slippary, too heavy, requires charging thru the ipad's port ...wtf?) Surface Pro / Galaxy Notebooks(wacom-based) with "a layer of finely textured acrylic glass" will be a much better comparison. > but it comes at the cost of not being able to flip through documents using finger swipes or taps so no multi-finger zoom gestures
- tlrobinson 9y ago
  > requires charging thru the ipad's port ...wtf It comes with an adapter so you can charge it with same Lightning charger you use to charge the iPad itself. I almost accidentally threw it out with the packaging. They should have incorporated into the cap so you'd always have it with you. Also it's kind of silly they didn't make that end (where an eraser usually is) function as an eraser.
  - devwinportable 9y ago
    but why not just put a female-end of lightning port? (not on top but somewhere near middle - I agree with your eraser function) having a cap to protect its manliness is so... stupid
    - tlrobinson 9y ago
      It’s nice being able to charge directly from the iPad in a pinch. Supposedly 15 seconds of charging gives you 30 minutes of use. I’ve just been using the female-female adapter as a cap, but it doesn’t look as nice. It’s more oval than round and has the exposed port. I’m kind of surprised no one has made a nicer female-female adapter with matching male cap.
    - djrogers 9y ago
      > why not just put a female-end of lightning port Because when I'm out and about, I don't want to stop somewhere to charge my pencil. This way, you plug it in to the iPad, and in less than a minute you can work with it for any hour or more - no need to hunt for a wall plug or bring along a cable.
ReaderReader 9y ago
I'm looking towards the Sony DPT-RP1, but it's not cheap and PDF only, so I hesitate.
- sriram_malhar 9y ago
  I own the earlier Sony DPT, and I love writing on it. The only problem with its e-ink display is the really slow page refresh rate.
hartator 9y ago
Ars Technica review: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/remarkable-tablet-review-the-high-price-of-getting-that-paper-feeling/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/remarkable-tablet-re...
lrem 9y ago
Reading this got me somewhat hyped for the 2nd or maybe 3rd version...
- dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
  I feel the same. Let someone else pay for the development of this technology and I'll use it once it's stable.
jakozaur 9y ago
I used to have Kindle DX, but today there is no bigger sized Kindle. I wonder why. Feels like regression to me. Remarkable got huge potential, but needs better integration with ebook stores (e.g. Amazon), OCR and Apps. Price is excusable for 1st gen, but probably too high for mass market.
- ppod 9y ago
  I got the Kobo Aura One which is 7.8 inch. Kobo has nice integration with the Pocket bookmarking app. Does anyone else have the Kobo Aura One and have opinions on it? I'm happy enough with it so far but not sure if it was quite value for money.
  - deng 9y ago
    The Kobo Aura One is a bit on the expensive side, but the display is excellent (300dpi), so in the end I think it's worth it, especially if you also care about the waterproofing. I also happen to like the "natural light" very much, as I'm often reading in the dark, although it's a bit uneven at the edges. I'm not very happy with the default software ("Nickel"), but fortunately the device is very hack-friendly (no jailbreaking needed), so you can easily install Dropbear (=ssh server) and KoReader, which IMHO is the real killer app for any E-Reader. I would never buy any e-ink device which does not run KoReader.
nudpiedo 9y ago
It looks promising, I hope it will be the begin of a new era of gadgets with less cognitive load... Does anyone know whether the software is user friendly? E.g. cloud integration, doesn't require to install shitty software, can email documents, etc... Is it hacker friendly? And perhaps write a small app for it (terminal viewer). I wish I could try it in Europe (Germany, Spain or France...)
- hueving 9y ago
  I want the opposite. No cloud dependencies. Always-connected is a plague on modern computing that has ruined the experience for anyone with slow computers and/or unreliable networks. If you proposed a 3MB web page with 300ms API calls for every action and called that a replacement for an app for anyone with an unreliable/heavily metered connection you would be laughed out of the room. Yet that's the status quo of 'modern stacks'. It's eye-opening how useless a $1000 smartphone is in the middle of the outback, in the Yukon, etc. We've regressed to dumb terminals with the cost of decentralized computers.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    There a difference though, shinny Web UIs instead of green phosphor character based terminals. :)
  - blub 9y ago
    The Sony DPT-RP1 is a large e-ink reading device that works offline, but it's not available in Europe, just Japan and US. And of course they're getting some poor reviews for not having some bullshit cloud sync. Edit: I've heard Sony takes some privacy liberties with their EULA, so check that and maybe block their desktop app from connecting to the internet.
    - PeCaN 9y ago
      As of a few years ago the DPT-RP1 isn't even available in the US anymore, only Japan.
  - dalbasal 9y ago
collyw 9y ago
We have almost reached pen and paper functionality and usability for a mere $600.
- guywhocodes 9y ago
  We are just a few hundred million from making it fold now!
- TuringTest 9y ago
  Call me when your pen and paper supports layers, copy/paste, drag & rotate and zooming.
  - collyw 9y ago
    Take a photo of it on the phone and it does those.
    - cdancette 9y ago
      and how much is your phone worth ?
      - collyw 9y ago
        160 euros new. So maybe half of that after 6 months of use.
- pweissbrod 9y ago
  sarcasm aside this is a good point. there are a handul of features this tablet has above and beyond, say, a cheap notebook and kindle. it is a fair question to ask whom the difference in features (plus the extra hassle) is worth the difference in price
dalbasal 9y ago
Nice. I'd like to see e-ink continue to develop. What I want is an e-ink laptop with simple but good word processing, coding, text-mostly browsing, emails and such. I like my reader. It doesn't feel like "device" and I'm much more relaxed using it. Im on my third one and all three were on airplane mode since the day I bought them. Reading on tablet/phone triggers my hyperactive "device mode". Checking emails, hn, tinder, contol-tab, notifications, Twitter, youtube... Not good before bed. e-ink just lends to relaxed focus, for me. The battery life also helps me forget it's a device. An e-ink laptop built for working on stuff with fewer distractions, 20+ hrs battery life, decent text editing and word processing, emails... I want.
- notemaker 9y ago
  Dasung and Boox are working on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj2Lvuc28k0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj2Lvuc28k0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pw-oCItgx8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pw-oCItgx8
- geokon 9y ago
  Feels like Emacs would be perfect for e-ink since by default it doesn't really do any scrolling or "dynamic"/moving-across-screen stuff
  - dalbasal 9y ago
    Yup. A lot of old timey UIs could work well.
- isolli 9y ago
  Out of curiosity, what brand of reader do you use?
  - dalbasal 9y ago
    Atm, a Kindle paperwhite. I also had two Kobos previously. Honestly, any small ereader is as good as the next one, for me. All I need it to do is turn pages. A backlight is sometimes nice, but not essential.
nicolashahn 9y ago
Is this currently my best option for reading black and white PDFs that are formatted for 8.5"x11" paper?
- ReaderReader 9y ago
  What do you think about the Sony DPT-RP1?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - jmiserez 9y ago
    I have the DPT-RP1, and it's fantastic for reading things in A4 or letter format like articles and papers. The best things about it are the large size and the extremely light weight, which makes it both easy to read and hold. Highlighting works great as it detects lines of text and can select even over multiple lines (the Remarkable doesn't do that). Writing quick annotations/notes with the pen works fine, but it's not pressure sensitive and the writing looks quite bad compared to real paper. Long PDFs or books are hit and miss: There is no table of contents view and no support for anything besides PDFs. So you can't put e-books on it without converting to PDF first, and if you need to jump around in a (technical) book the lack of a table of contents or overview is very inconvenient. If you read through from A-Z then it's ok. All in all it works great in replacing printer paper, but not so much in replacing your paper notepad. There's no actual official announcement, but the lack of table of contents and a few small other things will probably be fixed by the upcoming firmware update, once it's actually released. The DPT-RP1 really shines as a paper/article-reading and annotating device, but I wouldn't recommend it outside of that use case.
- sytelus 9y ago
  I'm wondering as well. How does Sony DPT-RP1 compare?
  - amiga-workbench 9y ago
    I would be all over a RP1 if I could get it to sync with a NAS over webDAV like its predecessor, but only the Japanese model has that feature.
chx 9y ago
I had a CrossPad twenty years ago. And it feels like this device has improved extremely little from it. The CrossPad was recording what you wrote in a notepad placed on top of it, it had a little radio in the pen, and later you could download what you did, if I remember, in a vector format so it was better than a scanner. The ReMarkable on the other hand, records what you are writing on a screen and later you can download what you did because it seems the device is not capable of doing a thing with it. In twenty years, we got... nowhere. Now you can wipe the writing surface with a button press instead of turning a page. Twenty. years.
- WillReplyfFood 9y ago
  Well, at least its not recording your every stroke, to sell that as "mind-reading" info to advertisers. How, should we call it when software regresses. Its not bloat- its worser.
  - MrMorden 9y ago
    Updegrade?
    - WillReplyfFood 9y ago
      Will call it that from now on.. this is awesome
- majjam 9y ago
  I was hoping the ReMarkable would be cheaper than the CrossPad, but this (https://web.archive.org/web/19991201033034/http://cfonews.com/atxa/d092898z.txt.html https://web.archive.org/web/19991201033034/http://cfonews.co...) indicates it was $399 at launch which equates to $572 in today's money (http://stats.areppim.com/calc/calc_usdlrxdeflator.php http://stats.areppim.com/calc/calc_usdlrxdeflator.php) which is still cheaper than the ReMarkable's $600 launch price.
  - chx 9y ago
    Just a small note: that's the CrossPad XP but the original was also $399. https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/2731.wss https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/2731.wss
Tepix 9y ago
It has been discussed here previously. I'm waiting for a 2nd generation device with backlight.
chaz6 9y ago
I am so happy I pre-ordered one of these. It is by far the best e-ink tablet I have used for handwriting, and it is light enough to take with me everywhere.
nicodjimenez 9y ago
Paper is just one of those things where everyone thinks they know what they want to use instead, but who really knows! Maybe what we all want is smart glasses to record and transcribe everything we write onto physical paper / surfaces. I can also see the appeal of a device that facilitates both writing and reading, but the issue is that computers (desktops / laptops) are already so damn good at this.
igorkraw 9y ago
I have this device, and for hackers, this review misses some stuff: * the company behind it is based in norway, so you can be pretty sure the techies got treated well * they abide by the GPL very well * by connecting via USB and flicking a switch in the options menu, you get SSH access, as well as a REST endpoint where you can upload your files via curl. So if you don't like their cloud offering, you can turn of wifi and be sure your data is local * I really hope they start a good opensource community program. There are already efforts underway for hacking on this, and in theory making custom applications for this could be very fun * last I saw, some of the developers are active on reddit and HN, so I hope they comment on the last point
- moon4u 9y ago
  Is the response time really that fast? On my e-reader, it takes solid 1 second in the best case (and sometimes more than 3s worst) to switch a page. This device looks really fast. But maybe it's just updating small region and that's why it's so fast?
  - rtpg 9y ago
    I've seen the Sony offering of this, and it's incredibly fast. But also super expensive
  - rhaps0dy 9y ago
    >But maybe it's just updating small region and that's why it's so fast? Exactly. I have one and I think writing has really short latency. My friend says it's slightly slower than an iPad but I haven't tried that so I don't know, in any case it's still very good. The only really bad thing about the reMarkable is that the software still sometimes crashes, leaving you for ~20 seconds with a notebook that you can't write on.
    - igorkraw 9y ago
      >The only really bad thing about the reMarkable is that the software still sometimes crashes, leaving you for ~20 seconds with a notebook that you can't write on. Interesting, in 3 months I haven't had a single crash
singularity2001 9y ago
This summer I'm planning to code outside. Is the 13' Dasung for $1400 really the best/biggest/'cheapest' the market can offer?? https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Ink-Paperlike-13-3-Monitor/dp/B075FL8DKV https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Ink-Paperlike-13-3-Monitor/dp/... @notemaker Boox Max2 Pro looks better, thanks. Pretty small display, but it's a start.
- book_mentioned 9y ago
  Bargain basement & barely usable: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=olpc https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=olpc
radarsat1 9y ago
I hope this is good, or that they are working on making it better. I love e-ink, far prefer it to reading on my phone, but the last 2 devices I've had have had terrible software, eventually been discontinued, and in any case, the screens have broken. I get the impression e-ink is much more fragile than an LCD, but maybe it's just a question of the build. I've dropped my Huawei many times without breaking it, and although I've seen many iPhones with broken glass, the display and touch input generally remains usable.. on my e-ink devices, in one case a bit of water completely destroyed it, in the other case, I don't know what happened but I took it out of my backpack and it was busted, so it must have been a small shock, as I didn't drop the bag or anything. I'd buy another e-ink device in a heartbeat, but it had better be solid because they aren't cheap.
tzs 9y ago
I wish that people who reviewed devices with handwriting support would include some pictures showing math writing. Throw in an electronics schematic diagram or two, also. I want to know how well the thing works as a STEM writing scratchpad. If it can handle math and electronics reasonably well, that should be sufficient for most STEM.
- notahacker 9y ago
  I own one. It's OK for handwriting but not perfect. Easy enough to draw and redraw schematic diagrams (and regular shaped objects) if you're not too worried about them being a bit fuzzy at the edges. Think it's better suited to doodling using the larger pencil setting though.
- bjourne 9y ago
  Same here. I asked about exactly that a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15544996 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15544996 Math writing needs a much higher resolution than ordinary text. For example if you are writing 2^2^2 the last 2 is really small. You also need a larger surface area so that you can draw diagrams and layout your calculations exactly as you want. I haven't tried ReMarkable myself, but from what I've heard, for math it is not quite there yet.
  - tzs 9y ago
    I've been reasonably happy with my Surface Pro 4 for math, using OneNote. I do occasionally zoom in when writing something with more than one level of superscript or subscript, but it is responsive enough that zooming in or out is not overly annoying. I'd be happier with a lighter device, though.
Major_Grooves 9y ago
I've got one too. I take most of my notes in notebooks but would end up with loads of notes that I would never refer to again and I couldn't be bothered uploading to Evernote. I got this 100% in the assumption that hand-writing recognition will come eventually. Or maybe some kind of link to Evernote so they can do that bit. Funny the review mentions the battery life being good - it's really not as good as was expected, and is probably the #1 complaint on social media (man, I feel sorry for their social media team). Also the slow startup time is a bit irritating.
- dkarl 9y ago
  A good Evernote app would persuade me to buy this device. Otherwise I'd be more inclined to get a cheap Kindle and only use it as an e-reader.
effyx 9y ago
I have been using it since November (second preorder wave). Pros: The e-ink display is great, large enough to show one page of any pdf. The device is light. Taking notes feels good. Battery life is great for reading books, good for taking notes. Cons: Price. In-house cloud storage that you must use (there is a beta setting enabling some weird tunnel over usb, have not tried it yet ...). Apps you must use in order to transfer document onto device (Windows, iOS, Android only). All your documents are automatically backed up and synced once you are on a wi-fi, whether you like it or not. No apps ... there is not even a web browser and there is no way of installing anything. Because the controls are on the bottom, the reading experience is not as good as with Kindle. Round pencil tends to roll around. Many of the cons are software related and could be fixed. But there is no way of telling, whether they will be fixed. At the end of the day, I do not regret getting it.
- ptman 9y ago
  There is a linux app, but the link was taken away from https://remarkable.engineering/ https://remarkable.engineering/ . You can download it from https://remarkable.engineering/remarkable-linux-client-0.0.5-16-1408-g7eca2b66.tgz https://remarkable.engineering/remarkable-linux-client-0.0.5...
  - sdfojlkjaew 9y ago
    This client only works with some version of Debian. I am using flatpak https://flathub.org/apps/ https://flathub.org/apps/ and it works (flatpak run com.remarkable.reMarkable ) It takes about 400Mb since it downloads many libraries.
- beezle 9y ago
  Same group as you. I primarily use it for reading. Just want to group together a few response to you and others about my experience: -battery life has been fine, especially when used mostly as a reader. -no web browser/apps is actually a plus to many who are focused on reading or creative things as they are a distraction. LCD tablets fulfill that need fine. -no swiping on docs is ok by me - less marks from dirty paws -refresh rates in my use are not 'one or two seconds.' I think people tend to exaggerate wait times in general. A page flip is probably about half a second when reading Reviews of Modern Physics -I've only had one crash/reboot. -The latest software seems a bit snappier and has some improvements when it comes to pen use settings -No issues while annotating pdfs -its a little bit slow refreshing the document lists/library but we are talking a second, maybe second and half worst case -I understand why they are using cloud, though its not really important to me (syncing docs across multiple devices). Likewise, nothing I have is super confidential so that again is not (yet) a big concern to me -the zoom feature is a little bit clunky and can be improved -I would like a future iteration to include a backlight -Any future version should also be slightly larger, perhaps 1x1.5. This would likely enable viewing of letter size docs without the need to crop the margins. That said, its only a minor inconvenience to crop things like journals so they are viewable without the need to zoom -Some ask for handwriting recognition though I think first (and easier) would be some type of option to do version control on modified documents. -A fair price is probably closer to $450 but have to remember this is hardware version 1 All in all, I am pretty happy with the device and hope they continue to improve the software. Were a second generation to be released, I would consider upgrading if it had a backlight and faster cpu/memory combo. [edit for clarity]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
khougesen 9y ago
its a near copy of boox max from https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/13-3-inch-large-e-ink_60661942744.html?spm=a2700.7724838.2017115.2.48756a921fHBCb https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/13-3-inch-large-e-ink... probably boox who oem's it for them
- Tepix 9y ago
  That's a 13.3" Android device, the Remarkable is a 10.3" non-android device.
- maaaats 9y ago
  You're kidding, right?
jaclaz 9y ago
As a side-side note, and just for the record, in 1993 existed (I had one) the Compaq Concerto, using the Windows for Pen Computing (a spin-off of Windows 3.1): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto My model was a 486Sx 33 Mhz with a whopping 8 MB Ram (default was 4 MB) I could have written more or less the same review at the time, nice (doing what at the time was more like "magic" or "science fiction" than anything else) it would have needed a more powerful processor, need (better) character recognition, sold for a VERY steep price [1], etc. At least it needed not a stupid proprietary cloud, it was compatible with most if not all existing software, doubled as a "normal" laptop. [1] The cost was if I recall correctly around 4,000,000 Italian Lire, roughly 2,000 Euros which at the time was like 3 months salary of a worker. EDIT: Clear slip of the fingers, it was 8 MB and 4 MB, I wrote GB originally
- thirdsun 9y ago
  Of course you meant 8 MB of ram.
  - jaclaz 9y ago
    >Of course you meant 8 MB of ram. Oops, yes, of course (corrected the post), thanks.
- djrogers 9y ago
  > At least it needed not a stupid proprietary cloud, As has been pointed out many times here, this does not require a 'stupid proprietary cloud' either.
  - jaclaz 9y ago
    >As has been pointed out many times here, this does not require a 'stupid proprietary cloud' either. Let me rephrase "needed not" with "came not with a default", and allow me to doubt that a "common user" (or if you prefer "non-hacker" will be able to change the settings/whatever that this (otherwise nice) E-Ink device ships with.
book_mentioned 9y ago
If you need to digitize hand-written notes, check out the write-only(ish) Boogie Board Sync. I haven't Bluetooth'd yet, but plug it in and copy from its drive of single-page PDFs (with InkML?). https://amzn.com/B00E8CIGCA https://amzn.com/B00E8CIGCA $99.47
- aerique 9y ago
  I've tried the Boogie Board Sync in the past and it really is write-only. The price is nice and they're honest about its features. Still, I really missed not being able to page through earlier notes. Also, the feel of writing on it is okay but not good or great. Had it been able to show earlier notes I would have recommended it to everyone looking for a digital notebook.
k__ 9y ago
Is there a timeline on how fast e-ink got since its inception?
michaelmior 9y ago
My biggest pet peeve with the device is the software. What runs on the tablet is fine but the Android and Windows app have a pretty unattractive UI and there's a lot of things that are broken. I did some digging into the Android app and it looks like both that and the Windows app (and presumably Mac) are based on the same Qt interface. I'm hoping they'll work on native apps at some point in the future. A web app would be particularly nice too. I wrote a very brief review myself a few months ago[0]. [0] https://michael.mior.ca/blog/remarkable-review/ https://michael.mior.ca/blog/remarkable-review/
JepZ 9y ago
Sometimes I wonder what happened to the display class which was built into the Notion Ink Adam: Some kind of an LCD, e-ink hybrid. When the backlight was enabled it had colors and when you disabled it, it became an e-ink display of some sort. While the result was a display which neither had good colors nor a perfect e-ink experience, I found it had some practical advantages, as you never had problems using the display: In bright sun light you had the e-ink display and if you wanted to watch a movie in the dark you had the LCD. Overall the displays quality was far away from what we have today, but the tablet was released in early 2011 so quite some time ago in terms of display technology. At the time it was trying to compete with the iPad, but had several problems in the process which resulted in many dissatisfied customers.
- jecel 9y ago
  That display was originally created for the One Laptop Per Child project and then was sold commercially by a spin off company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi It got designed into a couple of product, like the Norton Ink, and was also sold as a replacement screen for existing laptops (you might still be able to buy a kit). Sadly, it was not successful enough to continue.
  - aembleton 9y ago
    Ah, so it can switch between transreflective and reflective. The Amazfit Pace (see my previous comment) is transreflective but it has a backlight which I guess might make it reflective.
- aembleton 9y ago
  I've just tried to do some research on the Notion Ink Adam, and found this archived features page [1]. On this features page, it says that it has a trans-reflective display. I have an Amazfit Pace [2] smartwatch that has a trans-reflective display so I know what these are like. They're actually LCD, but can stay on all of the time because they make use of the ambient light much like older LCDs did, more info here [3]. On my smartwatch, it is actually a colour display, but when it is powered down there are fewer colours and a lower resolution. From what I understand this is to save power in the GPU and enable a longer battery life. 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20130429100155/http://notionink.com/features.php https://web.archive.org/web/20130429100155/http://notionink.... 2. https://us.amazfit.com/shop/pace?variant=25112 https://us.amazfit.com/shop/pace?variant=25112 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid-crystal_display https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid-crystal_d...
lima 9y ago
Some cool facts about the device from a hacker point of view: - Main developer/CTO is a KDE dev and very open source-friendly. - You get root access to the device out of the box. - The device is running a mainline kernel with minimal patches, which have a good chance at being upstreamed[1]. - The toolchain is open[2]. They use vanilla QT/QML and people have already built simple example apps. - There's an unofficial Linux client which works just fine. - Desktop client and device run the same code, so you can just sync the files locally without connecting the device to the internet. Works both ways (it's the setup I use). [1]: https://github.com/reMarkable/linux https://github.com/reMarkable/linux [2]: https://remarkable.engineering https://remarkable.engineering Community: https://reddit.com/r/remarkabletablet https://reddit.com/r/remarkabletablet https://discordapp.com/channels/385916768696139794/385921743522627595 https://discordapp.com/channels/385916768696139794/385921743... https://github.com/reHackable https://github.com/reHackable
- reacweb 9y ago
  IMHO, these are important features. It seems it does not have Bluetooth (for a keyboard and/or headset to listen to mp3 while reading) and the battery can not be easily replaced.
  - jsiepkes 9y ago
    Because its meant as an pen and paper replacement. Nothing more, nothing less. Besides why would you want to listen to MP3s on such a device? Your smartphone with bluetooth and microphone jack is way better equiped for such a thing.
    - reacweb 9y ago
      you are totally right.
    - m-p-3 9y ago
      I still wish it was slightly more than that. If I could read my emails on that thing instead of my violet screen, I'd consider it for work.
xwvvvvwx 9y ago
I don't even want a stylus, I just want an A4 eink device that I can read A4 formatted PDFs on (papers / textbooks). This is pretty much the only thing I actually use my iPad for right now.
- _wmd 9y ago
  This was the only reason I bought an Aura HD, turns out it was nowhere nearly high enough res. I see this has a much larger screen but a corresponding drop in DPI. Anyone tried this with a typical 11pt font 2 column paper?
cousin_it 9y ago
I have a theory that media addictions happen in large part because screens are more shiny and colorful than reality. If that's true, e-ink only phones and laptops could be a big help against procrastination. (But also probably lead to fewer ad clicks, so beware of incentives for manufacturers!)
keehun 9y ago
I would buy this immediately if the screen were bigger. At least legal sized. (Am a musician, and our normal paper sizes in Orchestra are 9x12 or 10x12 inches.)
- jrimbault 9y ago
  I've been bothered by the piles of partition books stacked on top of my piano since I was a child. Same as you, I would want a large e ink tablet. Doesn't have to be responsive, just has to read pdfs, US legal size or A4.
- johnday 9y ago
  I agree that shrinking sheet music is a bit painful. But it does have in built page cropping, which I use a lot to fit A4 pages onto it.
asdfghj123 9y ago
Note that the stylus tips need to be replaced relatively frequently, but there are reports that less-paper-like tips from other manufacturers do work and last longer: http://remarkablewiki.com/index.php?title=List_of_compatible_Styli http://remarkablewiki.com/index.php?title=List_of_compatible...
dcchambers 9y ago
Really glad to see ReMarkable getting some love. E-ink is such a promising technology. I pre-ordered this and overall have been thrilled with it. I've loved my Kindle for years but had always wanted a device big enough to read full-size Magazines, textbooks, and letter-sized PDFs. This device allows me to do that. The hardware is fantastic, most of my complaints are on the software side of things. With how open-source friendly the company is I have confidence the software quirks will be fixed (either officially or unofficially). I didn't originally think I would write on it that much - but the writing experience is fantastic...far better than what you get on a glass screen (iPad, surface pro, etc). I hope this device continues to remind people that E-ink has a future. If the technology can continue to advance - I think someday we could have e-ink displays to use for software development/writing...which would be an absolute dream.
janus01 9y ago
So there are some positive and negative comments here, I'd like to throw in my opinion as someone who backed it and currently owns one. - Hardware is ok. Not super comfortable to hold. - Pen works alright, however my goal was to use it to annotate PDFs and software issues got in the way. - Software is absolutely awful. It's unstable, slow, and updates are slow to come. - Crashes regularly when reading and annotating PDFs. - Loading epubs is hit-and-miss. I have some that work alright, some that fail to load entirely. Changing pages is slow. - Frequently fails to save your place in a document when it goes to sleep. If you're able to get it working for a few hours reading session, you might come back later to find that your progress is gone. Getting back to where you were is painfully slow. - Support is not good. I submitted a ticket with my concerns in October, got response in January. Return period expired while I was waiting for a response. - Battery life is merely passable. edit: To conclude, I think that if I were to do this again I would either get an iPad or a Kindle Oasis (would have to try both to determine just how important e-ink is compared to a high dpi LCD). Either would be cheaper than the Remarkable, and you can buy a pretty sweet pen and a lifetime supply of paper with the remaining money. The iPad would probably be better for large-format PDFs, but since a lot of those have some pretty hefty margins I could probably preprocess PDFs with a script to trim them for better viewing on a Kindle.
seiferteric 9y ago
Hmm, I had been thinking about something very similar to this recently. I would love to have a e-ink replacement for those big desk calendars, where it's only purpose/function would be the calendar, note taking and reading documents and maybe email. This seems to be pretty close if not perfect for that.
some1else 9y ago
What author refers to as "stylus lag" is actually a limitation of the E-ink display.
- djrogers 9y ago
  No, there are clear differences in lag between the printing and doodling examples in the video - much more with printing than the big doodle/scribble below it.
zachruss92 9y ago
I purchased the remarkable and was really disappointed. I ended up returning it. Ultimately, if i'm spending $700 for a writing tablet (after accessories), it has to work as described. Some of the deal breaking issues: - Battery lasts for hours, not days. - Mobile apps are buggy, viewing notes caused them to crash - Randomly stops responding to pen - Randomly freezes up - Customer support takes weeks to respond - Ereader experience is horrible (no bookmarks, table of contents, etc) - UI really needs improvements (pen style settings aren't retained)
- seltzered_ 9y ago
  Interesting. I owned an onyx boox (android eink tablet) and the battery life goes down when trying to do hacks to increase response time (a2 refresh mode). This is probably the main reason more companies haven’t bothered with making a eink tablet focused on wiring or more animated interactions so far. I’m waiting for products based on different display tech to eventually arrive, there was a new startup presenting at SID last year ( http://www.clearinkdisplays.com http://www.clearinkdisplays.com )
- thaumaturgy 9y ago
  The only one of those I could corroborate is the pen style settings issue, which occasionally irritates me too. Price: I won't argue it's expensive and if it isn't scratching an itch you've had for a long time then it might not be worth it. Mine has provided that much value to me since I bought it, and I figure I'm paying a little extra for early access anyway (and hopefully supporting a technology that will stick around for a while). Battery: I can see it lasting for only hours under heavy, constant use, but I've found that I only need to charge mine about once a week and I use it daily. I'm just not drawing or doodling on it constantly, so mostly it sits idle next to me and is interrupted every once in a while for a quick note. Apps: I haven't used any of the mobile apps for it because that defeats its purpose (for me). Pen response: has been perfect for me so far. This makes me wonder if you had a glitchy or buggy device. Freezing up: I've seen this happen twice, I think, since November, and in my case the device locked up for several seconds and then rebooted itself, which I thought was pretty cool (a hell of a lot better job than KDE on Debian 9). I didn't lose any work, even though both times I was using it when it happened. Customer support: haven't had to deal with them, but I'm not surprised at the lack of response. That seems to be a trend over the last several years. Nobody does customer support anymore. Ereader: Ashamed to admit I haven't tried using this feature on it yet, just haven't got around to it.
perseusprime11 9y ago
Missed opportunity for Evernote!
perseusprime11 9y ago
What's the difference between this and boogie board? https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-eWriter-Gray-J31020001/dp/B010HWCEFY/ https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-eWriter-Gray-J31020001/d... $600 seems to much to me.
- scaryclam 9y ago
  That's not an eInk display...so...it's not really the same product.
summadat 9y ago
This is nice, but..the iPad Pro starts at $636, pencil is $99 extra, not much more than this $600 device.
- blairbeckwith 9y ago
  This is a completely different type of device. Do you question people spending $20k on a car when they can buy a pickup truck for the same price?
spiderfarmer 9y ago
I would love a large e-Ink screen that I can use with a raspberry to create a low power unobtrusive dashboard somewhere in my living room. But all I can find are < 5 inch screens.
doktrin 9y ago
I've tried one and was quite impressed, even though it's not a tool that I personally need.
falcolas 9y ago
If you're looking for a sub-$100 object with which to capture notes and pull them up later, might I suggest looking at the Boogie Board sync? It's not quite pencil-on-paper, but it's close enough that it doesn't bother me at all. It can't pull up notes on itself. The resolution is not as fine as a iPencil or ReMarkable. It will only ever display what you've written yourself. The wireless sync only works with its own software (which is, yes, a wtf), so you have to connect with a wire to pull down the files you make. But you can take notes and make drawings, save them, and download them as PDFs later.
CodeSheikh 9y ago
I can literally see that stylus lag just by looking at the GIF published in the article. The claim "An E Ink tablet that's more fun to write on than paper." can't be true if you are an avid note-taker or are somewhat fond of calligraphy. And $600 price tag is steep.
cmrdporcupine 9y ago
So I was pretty much set to buy one, thinking I'd replace my Kindle, too... I like the sound of it, but it sounds like they do not support the reading of any ePub documents with DRM, which means store purchases and library checkouts are out of the question. I'm not a huge lover of DRM, but that's a bit dissapointing.
dmix 9y ago
This sounds like the perfect GTD/TODO list device! > but what isn’t great is annotating an epub file and then changing its display font or font size. The text will automatically adjust its flow and move around to fit the screen, but your annotations won’t, leaving them misplaced and out of context. No way, that's such a big oversight. That said, I'm totally buying one of these when they do the next major version bump and hopefully address the above issue and ideally double CPU speeds, as the lag mentioned when writing non-cursive is equally an unacceptable UX IMO. I also absolutely love my Kindle's and have for years. I don't know how the author can have a preference for reading books on a bright iPad. It must not be something he does daily as I do. The other great benefit of the reMarkable is the support for ePub documents. This is the biggest annoyance with using the Kindle, I've had to convert hundreds of ePub->Kindle using Calibre over the years.
rocky1138 9y ago
The #1 reason I dislike pen and paper is that it's impossible to grep. Does this device solve this problem? Or is it simply moving pen and paper into the digital age?
Liblor 9y ago
I own a reMarkable Tablet, unfortunately its software has many teething troubles. For instance, the regular* eraser doesn't erase everything. I.e. on the tablet, it appears as it erases everything, but as soon as you export the page some fragments reappear. Also the percentage battery indicator is unreliable. Or was, they simply removed the indicator in an update. Now, you only have a approximated indicator, which is annoying (I hope the origin of the problem is not hardware related). If they keep on working on the software, it'll be an awesome device. I love that one has root access via SSH and the writing and reading experience is splendid. However, I have to add this is my first "e-reader", so for me missing features like a dictionary is no biggie. Someone who has owned a kindle might find the reading mode rather limited and thus unsatisfactory. * The one that emulates a pencil eraser
jay-anderson 9y ago
This looks good and feels like the larger screen e ink devices are getting better. Unfortunately I haven't found one which ticks the boxes I want (mostly to use for sheet music): - Hands free page turning (a bluetooth foot pedal would be idea) - Large size (at least as large as a4 paper). - Split screen page turn (That is do a page turn in two steps: (1) show the top of the next screen and the bottom of the current (2) show all of the next page) - Cross platform file transfer (I use linux and mac and would like to be able to transfer files from both) - No cloud services for document storage (I want to keep everything locally) This device is a bit smaller than I want. The Sony dpt-rp1 is close, but it doesn't support bluetooth foot pedals or cross platform file transfer (I'm not sure why they're crippling their devices).
- oever 9y ago
  Fellow musician here can confirm that two step page turns is very nice and easy to implement feature to have. The device seems great for adding notes to sheet music.
polskibus 9y ago
Has anyone held it in their hands? How does the screen compare to a 300dpi pearl eink like aura one or Oasis? I love my Kobo aura one, but I think one of the reasons it is so great is the 300dpi screen.
hardlianotion 9y ago
I have one of these. The writing surface is much better than I expected. The battery life is surprisingly poor though - not as good as an iPad, say. The interface has a few rough edges - you are limited to the size the pages presented to you and cannot scroll down for more real estate. On balance, I would say that I am broadly content with the device - I use it to replace the write-once notes, noodles and workings-out that I used to slay forests for. I did get it for the Kickstarter price, however. I would not pay a near iPad price for it.
asciimo 9y ago
I was considering this but opted for a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. The stylus is nice, and you can take quick notes directly on the lock screen. I'm writing this post with it and it's much nicer than a virtual keyboard.
funkaster 9y ago
I also own this (I got it in the second batch). So far I really like it. I use it to take notes in every meeting, I'm rsync-ing the device with my computer to keep backups. For me it solved the big problem of: quickly take notes and be able to access them later. I used to keep random pieces of paper here and there and notebooks that I just kept loosing. Using the laptop is a no-no for me in meetings (we're trying a no-devices in meetings) and this is basically just a notebook. For taking dev notes, I keep using orgmode. But for meetings and day-to-day notes, the remarkable is by far my favorite gadget. I would only change a few minor glitches with the UI, but so far I'm pleased with it.
ChuckMcM 9y ago
Back when the first Kindle came out I felt like this would be the future. I bought an iRex Illiad 2[1], it had really everything you wanted, open source, wacom stylus, and reasonable PPI (180). But it was expensive and it couldn't compete without decent software and its screen was pretty delicate (a lot of busted ones out there). I had hoped that the folks at Plastic Logic would fix that with their QUE Reader[2]but sadly it failed to materialize. Today I find the drawing experience on the Surface Pro 4 to be the best I've been able to find, rather than make the glass the answer they made the tip the answer (for writing/drawing feel). I rank the iPad Pro (current edition) second, and I'm not sure if I'm able to get past the frustration of the great platform/no software hump that I had on the Illiad to try the reMarkable tablet. About once every 3 months I look at it :-). What all of this has done for me is give me a tremendous amount of respect for the problem of simulating drawing. Even with a special ASIC in the SP4 it's not quite lag free. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILiad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILiad [2] http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/plastic-logic.html http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/plastic-logic.html
- pge 9y ago
  I also use a surface pro for note taking. The glass isnt the best writing surface, but it’s fine. What really sets it apart for me is the handwriting recognition. My handwriting is not super neat but the Microsft recognition software makes very few mistakes converting it to text. Being able to take notes with a stylus during a meeting and then converting to a searchable text is the beat of both worlds
tjoff 9y ago
That some people prefer an iPad to eink for reading absolutely blows my mind. I'm still annoyed that the iPad killed practically killed the eink market, such waste. If this thing is half as good as I hope it is I'm going to buy it, despite the quite hefty price. I still can't come up with a use-case for a tablet but this I'd use constantly.
amthewiz 9y ago
Most scientific research is still published as PDFs with small text at A4 size (approx 13inch diag). Anyone has experience reading such material on ReMarkable ~10inch screen?
- beezle 9y ago
  If you crop the margins on US based journals, you can read a full page. The type is slightly smaller than what it would be if printed on paper, but is more than legible with good eyes or those who wear glasses (me). A4 is close to letter sized so results should be similar. Note, you can find free software that will batch crop documents. Yes, its an inconvenience but a small one to no longer need to zoom/pan and/or use LCD based devices.
kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
> There’s no doubt a faster processor would vastly improve this tablet. 1 GHz is more than fast enough for a snappy bootup and responsive input. The devs just need to improve the firmware.
ncr100 9y ago
I have one and use it daily for notetaking at work, written > 200 pages with this kind of content: > Feb 7: Sync meeting with Bob and Carol > > [ ] Give Bob access to repo Yes software / power management issues, and yes slow update cycle. But YES it's a > lightweight < paper replacement! and it syncs! VERY useful for sketching out diagrams, and having other people sketch out their diagrams. Many people communicate better when they're writing. Whiteboards are not always available.
caoilte 9y ago
e-ink is remarkably endurable. I've had my Sony PRS-505 nearly ten years and it's still great.
whatever_dude 9y ago
Been using mine since the first batch went out and it's a great replacement for paper, for notes. The one thing that annoys me is the battery life (about 6 hours of more or less continuous use). So during a work day I end up having to keep it permanently connected while at my desk (easier than charging at odd times). I understand why it's not as energy cheap as just an e-ink reader, but what annoys me is that they obviously decided to sacrifice battery size to make it light. The result is that the device is almost _too_ light and thin. I'd take twice the weight for more battery life.
anotheryou 9y ago
Is there any hdmi e-ink screen? Preferably with the possibility to power from USB :)
- nkurz 9y ago
  I think the Onyx Boox Max2 PRO does this: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750544/onyx-boox-max-2-ereader-price-date https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750544/o... https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/onyx-boox-max2-pro-13-3-inch-e-reader-review https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/onyx-boox-ma...
  - anotheryou 9y ago
    thanks, looks good. But the price tag... hehe
adultSwim 9y ago
The authors prior opinions about e-ink displays are trash.

522 points by curtis 9y ago

My friend has one and I got to try it a couple weeks ago. The writing experience is as fantastic as the article describes. But, the rendering of screens is slow and you have to look at bizarro artifacts for a second or two before a new screen is shown. This is... not great. But, I am guessing this can be improved on in future versions. I am waiting for a better/cheaper model to come out, but fully intend to get one when it does. edit: clarity

mattmanser 9y ago
I can see that disappearing quickly as it did between 1st and 2nd gen kindle. On my paperwhite it's now completely un-noticeable most of the time, there's only a few operations that have some lag. I'm tempted to buy one, but know how frustrated I get with bad UIs, so might hold off until the next gen.
- thaumaturgy 9y ago
  FWIW I'm a fellow UI-grouch, but haven't hated anything about it enough to outweigh everything else I love about it. The funky screen redraw is just a brief thing and doesn't really get in my way. The only UI thing that makes me scowl so far is that sometimes my pen settings inexplicably get reset.
  - mattmanser 9y ago
    I am very tempted then, presently I have 5 different notebooks for different things and doing a couple of courses which I've started to study like I did at university and take written notes instead of just passively consuming. The general consensus is that you learn better if you write but it's frustrating to not have the notes digitized and backed up. It sounds like it might be good.

jonnybgood 9y ago

> the reMarkable tablet definitely has the potential to make paper notebooks obsolete. Nope. Maybe the later generations of the device and competitors entering the market forcing a lower price will, though. I’d pay 300 tops for it.

simonbarker87 9y ago
Perhaps that’s why the article used the word “potential”? As in: not now but maybe in the future... like, later generations perhaps?
- jonnybgood 9y ago
  Or it can be a competitor that does it better. As it stands now I don’t see remarkable making notebooks obsolete. It’s a pretty bold statement.
- klibertp 9y ago
  No, the quote specifically says "the reMarkable tablet", meaning the one under review right now. jonnybgood notes that this particular version doesn't have the potential to replace paper because it is too expensive, and I happen to agree.

devwinportable 9y ago

from my experience, "apple pencil" is a piece of crap (too slippary, too heavy, requires charging thru the ipad's port ...wtf?) Surface Pro / Galaxy Notebooks(wacom-based) with "a layer of finely textured acrylic glass" will be a much better comparison. > but it comes at the cost of not being able to flip through documents using finger swipes or taps so no multi-finger zoom gestures

tlrobinson 9y ago
> requires charging thru the ipad's port ...wtf It comes with an adapter so you can charge it with same Lightning charger you use to charge the iPad itself. I almost accidentally threw it out with the packaging. They should have incorporated into the cap so you'd always have it with you. Also it's kind of silly they didn't make that end (where an eraser usually is) function as an eraser.
- devwinportable 9y ago
  but why not just put a female-end of lightning port? (not on top but somewhere near middle - I agree with your eraser function) having a cap to protect its manliness is so... stupid
  - tlrobinson 9y ago
    It’s nice being able to charge directly from the iPad in a pinch. Supposedly 15 seconds of charging gives you 30 minutes of use. I’ve just been using the female-female adapter as a cap, but it doesn’t look as nice. It’s more oval than round and has the exposed port. I’m kind of surprised no one has made a nicer female-female adapter with matching male cap.
  - djrogers 9y ago
    > why not just put a female-end of lightning port Because when I'm out and about, I don't want to stop somewhere to charge my pencil. This way, you plug it in to the iPad, and in less than a minute you can work with it for any hour or more - no need to hunt for a wall plug or bring along a cable.

ReaderReader 9y ago

I'm looking towards the Sony DPT-RP1, but it's not cheap and PDF only, so I hesitate.

sriram_malhar 9y ago
I own the earlier Sony DPT, and I love writing on it. The only problem with its e-ink display is the really slow page refresh rate.

hartator 9y ago

Ars Technica review: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/remarkable-tablet-review-the-high-price-of-getting-that-paper-feeling/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/remarkable-tablet-re...

lrem 9y ago

Reading this got me somewhat hyped for the 2nd or maybe 3rd version...

dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
I feel the same. Let someone else pay for the development of this technology and I'll use it once it's stable.

jakozaur 9y ago

I used to have Kindle DX, but today there is no bigger sized Kindle. I wonder why. Feels like regression to me. Remarkable got huge potential, but needs better integration with ebook stores (e.g. Amazon), OCR and Apps. Price is excusable for 1st gen, but probably too high for mass market.

ppod 9y ago
I got the Kobo Aura One which is 7.8 inch. Kobo has nice integration with the Pocket bookmarking app. Does anyone else have the Kobo Aura One and have opinions on it? I'm happy enough with it so far but not sure if it was quite value for money.
- deng 9y ago
  The Kobo Aura One is a bit on the expensive side, but the display is excellent (300dpi), so in the end I think it's worth it, especially if you also care about the waterproofing. I also happen to like the "natural light" very much, as I'm often reading in the dark, although it's a bit uneven at the edges. I'm not very happy with the default software ("Nickel"), but fortunately the device is very hack-friendly (no jailbreaking needed), so you can easily install Dropbear (=ssh server) and KoReader, which IMHO is the real killer app for any E-Reader. I would never buy any e-ink device which does not run KoReader.

nudpiedo 9y ago

It looks promising, I hope it will be the begin of a new era of gadgets with less cognitive load... Does anyone know whether the software is user friendly? E.g. cloud integration, doesn't require to install shitty software, can email documents, etc... Is it hacker friendly? And perhaps write a small app for it (terminal viewer). I wish I could try it in Europe (Germany, Spain or France...)

hueving 9y ago
I want the opposite. No cloud dependencies. Always-connected is a plague on modern computing that has ruined the experience for anyone with slow computers and/or unreliable networks. If you proposed a 3MB web page with 300ms API calls for every action and called that a replacement for an app for anyone with an unreliable/heavily metered connection you would be laughed out of the room. Yet that's the status quo of 'modern stacks'. It's eye-opening how useless a $1000 smartphone is in the middle of the outback, in the Yukon, etc. We've regressed to dumb terminals with the cost of decentralized computers.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  There a difference though, shinny Web UIs instead of green phosphor character based terminals. :)
- blub 9y ago
  The Sony DPT-RP1 is a large e-ink reading device that works offline, but it's not available in Europe, just Japan and US. And of course they're getting some poor reviews for not having some bullshit cloud sync. Edit: I've heard Sony takes some privacy liberties with their EULA, so check that and maybe block their desktop app from connecting to the internet.
  - PeCaN 9y ago
    As of a few years ago the DPT-RP1 isn't even available in the US anymore, only Japan.
- dalbasal 9y ago

collyw 9y ago

We have almost reached pen and paper functionality and usability for a mere $600.

guywhocodes 9y ago
We are just a few hundred million from making it fold now!
TuringTest 9y ago
Call me when your pen and paper supports layers, copy/paste, drag & rotate and zooming.
- collyw 9y ago
  Take a photo of it on the phone and it does those.
  - cdancette 9y ago
    and how much is your phone worth ?
    - collyw 9y ago
      160 euros new. So maybe half of that after 6 months of use.
pweissbrod 9y ago
sarcasm aside this is a good point. there are a handul of features this tablet has above and beyond, say, a cheap notebook and kindle. it is a fair question to ask whom the difference in features (plus the extra hassle) is worth the difference in price

dalbasal 9y ago

Nice. I'd like to see e-ink continue to develop. What I want is an e-ink laptop with simple but good word processing, coding, text-mostly browsing, emails and such. I like my reader. It doesn't feel like "device" and I'm much more relaxed using it. Im on my third one and all three were on airplane mode since the day I bought them. Reading on tablet/phone triggers my hyperactive "device mode". Checking emails, hn, tinder, contol-tab, notifications, Twitter, youtube... Not good before bed. e-ink just lends to relaxed focus, for me. The battery life also helps me forget it's a device. An e-ink laptop built for working on stuff with fewer distractions, 20+ hrs battery life, decent text editing and word processing, emails... I want.

notemaker 9y ago
Dasung and Boox are working on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj2Lvuc28k0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj2Lvuc28k0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pw-oCItgx8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pw-oCItgx8
geokon 9y ago
Feels like Emacs would be perfect for e-ink since by default it doesn't really do any scrolling or "dynamic"/moving-across-screen stuff
- dalbasal 9y ago
  Yup. A lot of old timey UIs could work well.
isolli 9y ago
Out of curiosity, what brand of reader do you use?
- dalbasal 9y ago
  Atm, a Kindle paperwhite. I also had two Kobos previously. Honestly, any small ereader is as good as the next one, for me. All I need it to do is turn pages. A backlight is sometimes nice, but not essential.

nicolashahn 9y ago

Is this currently my best option for reading black and white PDFs that are formatted for 8.5"x11" paper?

ReaderReader 9y ago
What do you think about the Sony DPT-RP1?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jmiserez 9y ago
  I have the DPT-RP1, and it's fantastic for reading things in A4 or letter format like articles and papers. The best things about it are the large size and the extremely light weight, which makes it both easy to read and hold. Highlighting works great as it detects lines of text and can select even over multiple lines (the Remarkable doesn't do that). Writing quick annotations/notes with the pen works fine, but it's not pressure sensitive and the writing looks quite bad compared to real paper. Long PDFs or books are hit and miss: There is no table of contents view and no support for anything besides PDFs. So you can't put e-books on it without converting to PDF first, and if you need to jump around in a (technical) book the lack of a table of contents or overview is very inconvenient. If you read through from A-Z then it's ok. All in all it works great in replacing printer paper, but not so much in replacing your paper notepad. There's no actual official announcement, but the lack of table of contents and a few small other things will probably be fixed by the upcoming firmware update, once it's actually released. The DPT-RP1 really shines as a paper/article-reading and annotating device, but I wouldn't recommend it outside of that use case.
sytelus 9y ago
I'm wondering as well. How does Sony DPT-RP1 compare?
- amiga-workbench 9y ago
  I would be all over a RP1 if I could get it to sync with a NAS over webDAV like its predecessor, but only the Japanese model has that feature.

chx 9y ago

I had a CrossPad twenty years ago. And it feels like this device has improved extremely little from it. The CrossPad was recording what you wrote in a notepad placed on top of it, it had a little radio in the pen, and later you could download what you did, if I remember, in a vector format so it was better than a scanner. The ReMarkable on the other hand, records what you are writing on a screen and later you can download what you did because it seems the device is not capable of doing a thing with it. In twenty years, we got... nowhere. Now you can wipe the writing surface with a button press instead of turning a page. Twenty. years.

WillReplyfFood 9y ago
Well, at least its not recording your every stroke, to sell that as "mind-reading" info to advertisers. How, should we call it when software regresses. Its not bloat- its worser.
- MrMorden 9y ago
  Updegrade?
  - WillReplyfFood 9y ago
    Will call it that from now on.. this is awesome
majjam 9y ago
I was hoping the ReMarkable would be cheaper than the CrossPad, but this (https://web.archive.org/web/19991201033034/http://cfonews.com/atxa/d092898z.txt.html https://web.archive.org/web/19991201033034/http://cfonews.co...) indicates it was $399 at launch which equates to $572 in today's money (http://stats.areppim.com/calc/calc_usdlrxdeflator.php http://stats.areppim.com/calc/calc_usdlrxdeflator.php) which is still cheaper than the ReMarkable's $600 launch price.
- chx 9y ago
  Just a small note: that's the CrossPad XP but the original was also $399. https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/2731.wss https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/2731.wss

Tepix 9y ago

It has been discussed here previously. I'm waiting for a 2nd generation device with backlight.

chaz6 9y ago

I am so happy I pre-ordered one of these. It is by far the best e-ink tablet I have used for handwriting, and it is light enough to take with me everywhere.

nicodjimenez 9y ago

Paper is just one of those things where everyone thinks they know what they want to use instead, but who really knows! Maybe what we all want is smart glasses to record and transcribe everything we write onto physical paper / surfaces. I can also see the appeal of a device that facilitates both writing and reading, but the issue is that computers (desktops / laptops) are already so damn good at this.

igorkraw 9y ago

I have this device, and for hackers, this review misses some stuff: * the company behind it is based in norway, so you can be pretty sure the techies got treated well * they abide by the GPL very well * by connecting via USB and flicking a switch in the options menu, you get SSH access, as well as a REST endpoint where you can upload your files via curl. So if you don't like their cloud offering, you can turn of wifi and be sure your data is local * I really hope they start a good opensource community program. There are already efforts underway for hacking on this, and in theory making custom applications for this could be very fun * last I saw, some of the developers are active on reddit and HN, so I hope they comment on the last point

moon4u 9y ago
Is the response time really that fast? On my e-reader, it takes solid 1 second in the best case (and sometimes more than 3s worst) to switch a page. This device looks really fast. But maybe it's just updating small region and that's why it's so fast?
- rtpg 9y ago
  I've seen the Sony offering of this, and it's incredibly fast. But also super expensive
- rhaps0dy 9y ago
  >But maybe it's just updating small region and that's why it's so fast? Exactly. I have one and I think writing has really short latency. My friend says it's slightly slower than an iPad but I haven't tried that so I don't know, in any case it's still very good. The only really bad thing about the reMarkable is that the software still sometimes crashes, leaving you for ~20 seconds with a notebook that you can't write on.
  - igorkraw 9y ago
    >The only really bad thing about the reMarkable is that the software still sometimes crashes, leaving you for ~20 seconds with a notebook that you can't write on. Interesting, in 3 months I haven't had a single crash

singularity2001 9y ago

This summer I'm planning to code outside. Is the 13' Dasung for $1400 really the best/biggest/'cheapest' the market can offer?? https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Ink-Paperlike-13-3-Monitor/dp/B075FL8DKV https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Ink-Paperlike-13-3-Monitor/dp/... @notemaker Boox Max2 Pro looks better, thanks. Pretty small display, but it's a start.

book_mentioned 9y ago
Bargain basement & barely usable: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=olpc https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=olpc

radarsat1 9y ago

I hope this is good, or that they are working on making it better. I love e-ink, far prefer it to reading on my phone, but the last 2 devices I've had have had terrible software, eventually been discontinued, and in any case, the screens have broken. I get the impression e-ink is much more fragile than an LCD, but maybe it's just a question of the build. I've dropped my Huawei many times without breaking it, and although I've seen many iPhones with broken glass, the display and touch input generally remains usable.. on my e-ink devices, in one case a bit of water completely destroyed it, in the other case, I don't know what happened but I took it out of my backpack and it was busted, so it must have been a small shock, as I didn't drop the bag or anything. I'd buy another e-ink device in a heartbeat, but it had better be solid because they aren't cheap.

tzs 9y ago

I wish that people who reviewed devices with handwriting support would include some pictures showing math writing. Throw in an electronics schematic diagram or two, also. I want to know how well the thing works as a STEM writing scratchpad. If it can handle math and electronics reasonably well, that should be sufficient for most STEM.

notahacker 9y ago
I own one. It's OK for handwriting but not perfect. Easy enough to draw and redraw schematic diagrams (and regular shaped objects) if you're not too worried about them being a bit fuzzy at the edges. Think it's better suited to doodling using the larger pencil setting though.
bjourne 9y ago
Same here. I asked about exactly that a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15544996 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15544996 Math writing needs a much higher resolution than ordinary text. For example if you are writing 2^2^2 the last 2 is really small. You also need a larger surface area so that you can draw diagrams and layout your calculations exactly as you want. I haven't tried ReMarkable myself, but from what I've heard, for math it is not quite there yet.
- tzs 9y ago
  I've been reasonably happy with my Surface Pro 4 for math, using OneNote. I do occasionally zoom in when writing something with more than one level of superscript or subscript, but it is responsive enough that zooming in or out is not overly annoying. I'd be happier with a lighter device, though.

Major_Grooves 9y ago

I've got one too. I take most of my notes in notebooks but would end up with loads of notes that I would never refer to again and I couldn't be bothered uploading to Evernote. I got this 100% in the assumption that hand-writing recognition will come eventually. Or maybe some kind of link to Evernote so they can do that bit. Funny the review mentions the battery life being good - it's really not as good as was expected, and is probably the #1 complaint on social media (man, I feel sorry for their social media team). Also the slow startup time is a bit irritating.

dkarl 9y ago
A good Evernote app would persuade me to buy this device. Otherwise I'd be more inclined to get a cheap Kindle and only use it as an e-reader.

effyx 9y ago

I have been using it since November (second preorder wave). Pros: The e-ink display is great, large enough to show one page of any pdf. The device is light. Taking notes feels good. Battery life is great for reading books, good for taking notes. Cons: Price. In-house cloud storage that you must use (there is a beta setting enabling some weird tunnel over usb, have not tried it yet ...). Apps you must use in order to transfer document onto device (Windows, iOS, Android only). All your documents are automatically backed up and synced once you are on a wi-fi, whether you like it or not. No apps ... there is not even a web browser and there is no way of installing anything. Because the controls are on the bottom, the reading experience is not as good as with Kindle. Round pencil tends to roll around. Many of the cons are software related and could be fixed. But there is no way of telling, whether they will be fixed. At the end of the day, I do not regret getting it.

ptman 9y ago
There is a linux app, but the link was taken away from https://remarkable.engineering/ https://remarkable.engineering/ . You can download it from https://remarkable.engineering/remarkable-linux-client-0.0.5-16-1408-g7eca2b66.tgz https://remarkable.engineering/remarkable-linux-client-0.0.5...
- sdfojlkjaew 9y ago
  This client only works with some version of Debian. I am using flatpak https://flathub.org/apps/ https://flathub.org/apps/ and it works (flatpak run com.remarkable.reMarkable ) It takes about 400Mb since it downloads many libraries.
beezle 9y ago
Same group as you. I primarily use it for reading. Just want to group together a few response to you and others about my experience: -battery life has been fine, especially when used mostly as a reader. -no web browser/apps is actually a plus to many who are focused on reading or creative things as they are a distraction. LCD tablets fulfill that need fine. -no swiping on docs is ok by me - less marks from dirty paws -refresh rates in my use are not 'one or two seconds.' I think people tend to exaggerate wait times in general. A page flip is probably about half a second when reading Reviews of Modern Physics -I've only had one crash/reboot. -The latest software seems a bit snappier and has some improvements when it comes to pen use settings -No issues while annotating pdfs -its a little bit slow refreshing the document lists/library but we are talking a second, maybe second and half worst case -I understand why they are using cloud, though its not really important to me (syncing docs across multiple devices). Likewise, nothing I have is super confidential so that again is not (yet) a big concern to me -the zoom feature is a little bit clunky and can be improved -I would like a future iteration to include a backlight -Any future version should also be slightly larger, perhaps 1x1.5. This would likely enable viewing of letter size docs without the need to crop the margins. That said, its only a minor inconvenience to crop things like journals so they are viewable without the need to zoom -Some ask for handwriting recognition though I think first (and easier) would be some type of option to do version control on modified documents. -A fair price is probably closer to $450 but have to remember this is hardware version 1 All in all, I am pretty happy with the device and hope they continue to improve the software. Were a second generation to be released, I would consider upgrading if it had a backlight and faster cpu/memory combo. [edit for clarity]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

khougesen 9y ago

its a near copy of boox max from https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/13-3-inch-large-e-ink_60661942744.html?spm=a2700.7724838.2017115.2.48756a921fHBCb https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/13-3-inch-large-e-ink... probably boox who oem's it for them

Tepix 9y ago
That's a 13.3" Android device, the Remarkable is a 10.3" non-android device.
maaaats 9y ago
You're kidding, right?

jaclaz 9y ago

As a side-side note, and just for the record, in 1993 existed (I had one) the Compaq Concerto, using the Windows for Pen Computing (a spin-off of Windows 3.1): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto My model was a 486Sx 33 Mhz with a whopping 8 MB Ram (default was 4 MB) I could have written more or less the same review at the time, nice (doing what at the time was more like "magic" or "science fiction" than anything else) it would have needed a more powerful processor, need (better) character recognition, sold for a VERY steep price [1], etc. At least it needed not a stupid proprietary cloud, it was compatible with most if not all existing software, doubled as a "normal" laptop. [1] The cost was if I recall correctly around 4,000,000 Italian Lire, roughly 2,000 Euros which at the time was like 3 months salary of a worker. EDIT: Clear slip of the fingers, it was 8 MB and 4 MB, I wrote GB originally

thirdsun 9y ago
Of course you meant 8 MB of ram.
- jaclaz 9y ago
  >Of course you meant 8 MB of ram. Oops, yes, of course (corrected the post), thanks.
djrogers 9y ago
> At least it needed not a stupid proprietary cloud, As has been pointed out many times here, this does not require a 'stupid proprietary cloud' either.
- jaclaz 9y ago
  >As has been pointed out many times here, this does not require a 'stupid proprietary cloud' either. Let me rephrase "needed not" with "came not with a default", and allow me to doubt that a "common user" (or if you prefer "non-hacker" will be able to change the settings/whatever that this (otherwise nice) E-Ink device ships with.

book_mentioned 9y ago

If you need to digitize hand-written notes, check out the write-only(ish) Boogie Board Sync. I haven't Bluetooth'd yet, but plug it in and copy from its drive of single-page PDFs (with InkML?). https://amzn.com/B00E8CIGCA https://amzn.com/B00E8CIGCA $99.47

aerique 9y ago
I've tried the Boogie Board Sync in the past and it really is write-only. The price is nice and they're honest about its features. Still, I really missed not being able to page through earlier notes. Also, the feel of writing on it is okay but not good or great. Had it been able to show earlier notes I would have recommended it to everyone looking for a digital notebook.

k__ 9y ago

Is there a timeline on how fast e-ink got since its inception?

michaelmior 9y ago

My biggest pet peeve with the device is the software. What runs on the tablet is fine but the Android and Windows app have a pretty unattractive UI and there's a lot of things that are broken. I did some digging into the Android app and it looks like both that and the Windows app (and presumably Mac) are based on the same Qt interface. I'm hoping they'll work on native apps at some point in the future. A web app would be particularly nice too. I wrote a very brief review myself a few months ago[0]. [0] https://michael.mior.ca/blog/remarkable-review/ https://michael.mior.ca/blog/remarkable-review/

JepZ 9y ago

Sometimes I wonder what happened to the display class which was built into the Notion Ink Adam: Some kind of an LCD, e-ink hybrid. When the backlight was enabled it had colors and when you disabled it, it became an e-ink display of some sort. While the result was a display which neither had good colors nor a perfect e-ink experience, I found it had some practical advantages, as you never had problems using the display: In bright sun light you had the e-ink display and if you wanted to watch a movie in the dark you had the LCD. Overall the displays quality was far away from what we have today, but the tablet was released in early 2011 so quite some time ago in terms of display technology. At the time it was trying to compete with the iPad, but had several problems in the process which resulted in many dissatisfied customers.

jecel 9y ago
That display was originally created for the One Laptop Per Child project and then was sold commercially by a spin off company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi It got designed into a couple of product, like the Norton Ink, and was also sold as a replacement screen for existing laptops (you might still be able to buy a kit). Sadly, it was not successful enough to continue.
- aembleton 9y ago
  Ah, so it can switch between transreflective and reflective. The Amazfit Pace (see my previous comment) is transreflective but it has a backlight which I guess might make it reflective.
aembleton 9y ago
I've just tried to do some research on the Notion Ink Adam, and found this archived features page [1]. On this features page, it says that it has a trans-reflective display. I have an Amazfit Pace [2] smartwatch that has a trans-reflective display so I know what these are like. They're actually LCD, but can stay on all of the time because they make use of the ambient light much like older LCDs did, more info here [3]. On my smartwatch, it is actually a colour display, but when it is powered down there are fewer colours and a lower resolution. From what I understand this is to save power in the GPU and enable a longer battery life. 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20130429100155/http://notionink.com/features.php https://web.archive.org/web/20130429100155/http://notionink.... 2. https://us.amazfit.com/shop/pace?variant=25112 https://us.amazfit.com/shop/pace?variant=25112 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid-crystal_display https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid-crystal_d...

lima 9y ago

Some cool facts about the device from a hacker point of view: - Main developer/CTO is a KDE dev and very open source-friendly. - You get root access to the device out of the box. - The device is running a mainline kernel with minimal patches, which have a good chance at being upstreamed[1]. - The toolchain is open[2]. They use vanilla QT/QML and people have already built simple example apps. - There's an unofficial Linux client which works just fine. - Desktop client and device run the same code, so you can just sync the files locally without connecting the device to the internet. Works both ways (it's the setup I use). [1]: https://github.com/reMarkable/linux https://github.com/reMarkable/linux [2]: https://remarkable.engineering https://remarkable.engineering Community: https://reddit.com/r/remarkabletablet https://reddit.com/r/remarkabletablet https://discordapp.com/channels/385916768696139794/385921743522627595 https://discordapp.com/channels/385916768696139794/385921743... https://github.com/reHackable https://github.com/reHackable

reacweb 9y ago
IMHO, these are important features. It seems it does not have Bluetooth (for a keyboard and/or headset to listen to mp3 while reading) and the battery can not be easily replaced.
- jsiepkes 9y ago
  Because its meant as an pen and paper replacement. Nothing more, nothing less. Besides why would you want to listen to MP3s on such a device? Your smartphone with bluetooth and microphone jack is way better equiped for such a thing.
  - reacweb 9y ago
    you are totally right.
  - m-p-3 9y ago
    I still wish it was slightly more than that. If I could read my emails on that thing instead of my violet screen, I'd consider it for work.

xwvvvvwx 9y ago

I don't even want a stylus, I just want an A4 eink device that I can read A4 formatted PDFs on (papers / textbooks). This is pretty much the only thing I actually use my iPad for right now.

_wmd 9y ago
This was the only reason I bought an Aura HD, turns out it was nowhere nearly high enough res. I see this has a much larger screen but a corresponding drop in DPI. Anyone tried this with a typical 11pt font 2 column paper?

cousin_it 9y ago

I have a theory that media addictions happen in large part because screens are more shiny and colorful than reality. If that's true, e-ink only phones and laptops could be a big help against procrastination. (But also probably lead to fewer ad clicks, so beware of incentives for manufacturers!)

keehun 9y ago

I would buy this immediately if the screen were bigger. At least legal sized. (Am a musician, and our normal paper sizes in Orchestra are 9x12 or 10x12 inches.)

jrimbault 9y ago
I've been bothered by the piles of partition books stacked on top of my piano since I was a child. Same as you, I would want a large e ink tablet. Doesn't have to be responsive, just has to read pdfs, US legal size or A4.
johnday 9y ago
I agree that shrinking sheet music is a bit painful. But it does have in built page cropping, which I use a lot to fit A4 pages onto it.

asdfghj123 9y ago

Note that the stylus tips need to be replaced relatively frequently, but there are reports that less-paper-like tips from other manufacturers do work and last longer: http://remarkablewiki.com/index.php?title=List_of_compatible_Styli http://remarkablewiki.com/index.php?title=List_of_compatible...

dcchambers 9y ago

Really glad to see ReMarkable getting some love. E-ink is such a promising technology. I pre-ordered this and overall have been thrilled with it. I've loved my Kindle for years but had always wanted a device big enough to read full-size Magazines, textbooks, and letter-sized PDFs. This device allows me to do that. The hardware is fantastic, most of my complaints are on the software side of things. With how open-source friendly the company is I have confidence the software quirks will be fixed (either officially or unofficially). I didn't originally think I would write on it that much - but the writing experience is fantastic...far better than what you get on a glass screen (iPad, surface pro, etc). I hope this device continues to remind people that E-ink has a future. If the technology can continue to advance - I think someday we could have e-ink displays to use for software development/writing...which would be an absolute dream.

janus01 9y ago

So there are some positive and negative comments here, I'd like to throw in my opinion as someone who backed it and currently owns one. - Hardware is ok. Not super comfortable to hold. - Pen works alright, however my goal was to use it to annotate PDFs and software issues got in the way. - Software is absolutely awful. It's unstable, slow, and updates are slow to come. - Crashes regularly when reading and annotating PDFs. - Loading epubs is hit-and-miss. I have some that work alright, some that fail to load entirely. Changing pages is slow. - Frequently fails to save your place in a document when it goes to sleep. If you're able to get it working for a few hours reading session, you might come back later to find that your progress is gone. Getting back to where you were is painfully slow. - Support is not good. I submitted a ticket with my concerns in October, got response in January. Return period expired while I was waiting for a response. - Battery life is merely passable. edit: To conclude, I think that if I were to do this again I would either get an iPad or a Kindle Oasis (would have to try both to determine just how important e-ink is compared to a high dpi LCD). Either would be cheaper than the Remarkable, and you can buy a pretty sweet pen and a lifetime supply of paper with the remaining money. The iPad would probably be better for large-format PDFs, but since a lot of those have some pretty hefty margins I could probably preprocess PDFs with a script to trim them for better viewing on a Kindle.

seiferteric 9y ago

Hmm, I had been thinking about something very similar to this recently. I would love to have a e-ink replacement for those big desk calendars, where it's only purpose/function would be the calendar, note taking and reading documents and maybe email. This seems to be pretty close if not perfect for that.

some1else 9y ago

What author refers to as "stylus lag" is actually a limitation of the E-ink display.

djrogers 9y ago
No, there are clear differences in lag between the printing and doodling examples in the video - much more with printing than the big doodle/scribble below it.

zachruss92 9y ago

I purchased the remarkable and was really disappointed. I ended up returning it. Ultimately, if i'm spending $700 for a writing tablet (after accessories), it has to work as described. Some of the deal breaking issues: - Battery lasts for hours, not days. - Mobile apps are buggy, viewing notes caused them to crash - Randomly stops responding to pen - Randomly freezes up - Customer support takes weeks to respond - Ereader experience is horrible (no bookmarks, table of contents, etc) - UI really needs improvements (pen style settings aren't retained)

seltzered_ 9y ago
Interesting. I owned an onyx boox (android eink tablet) and the battery life goes down when trying to do hacks to increase response time (a2 refresh mode). This is probably the main reason more companies haven’t bothered with making a eink tablet focused on wiring or more animated interactions so far. I’m waiting for products based on different display tech to eventually arrive, there was a new startup presenting at SID last year ( http://www.clearinkdisplays.com http://www.clearinkdisplays.com )
thaumaturgy 9y ago
The only one of those I could corroborate is the pen style settings issue, which occasionally irritates me too. Price: I won't argue it's expensive and if it isn't scratching an itch you've had for a long time then it might not be worth it. Mine has provided that much value to me since I bought it, and I figure I'm paying a little extra for early access anyway (and hopefully supporting a technology that will stick around for a while). Battery: I can see it lasting for only hours under heavy, constant use, but I've found that I only need to charge mine about once a week and I use it daily. I'm just not drawing or doodling on it constantly, so mostly it sits idle next to me and is interrupted every once in a while for a quick note. Apps: I haven't used any of the mobile apps for it because that defeats its purpose (for me). Pen response: has been perfect for me so far. This makes me wonder if you had a glitchy or buggy device. Freezing up: I've seen this happen twice, I think, since November, and in my case the device locked up for several seconds and then rebooted itself, which I thought was pretty cool (a hell of a lot better job than KDE on Debian 9). I didn't lose any work, even though both times I was using it when it happened. Customer support: haven't had to deal with them, but I'm not surprised at the lack of response. That seems to be a trend over the last several years. Nobody does customer support anymore. Ereader: Ashamed to admit I haven't tried using this feature on it yet, just haven't got around to it.

perseusprime11 9y ago

Missed opportunity for Evernote!

perseusprime11 9y ago

What's the difference between this and boogie board? https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-eWriter-Gray-J31020001/dp/B010HWCEFY/ https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-eWriter-Gray-J31020001/d... $600 seems to much to me.

scaryclam 9y ago
That's not an eInk display...so...it's not really the same product.

summadat 9y ago

This is nice, but..the iPad Pro starts at $636, pencil is $99 extra, not much more than this $600 device.

blairbeckwith 9y ago
This is a completely different type of device. Do you question people spending $20k on a car when they can buy a pickup truck for the same price?

spiderfarmer 9y ago

I would love a large e-Ink screen that I can use with a raspberry to create a low power unobtrusive dashboard somewhere in my living room. But all I can find are < 5 inch screens.

doktrin 9y ago

I've tried one and was quite impressed, even though it's not a tool that I personally need.

falcolas 9y ago

If you're looking for a sub-$100 object with which to capture notes and pull them up later, might I suggest looking at the Boogie Board sync? It's not quite pencil-on-paper, but it's close enough that it doesn't bother me at all. It can't pull up notes on itself. The resolution is not as fine as a iPencil or ReMarkable. It will only ever display what you've written yourself. The wireless sync only works with its own software (which is, yes, a wtf), so you have to connect with a wire to pull down the files you make. But you can take notes and make drawings, save them, and download them as PDFs later.

CodeSheikh 9y ago

I can literally see that stylus lag just by looking at the GIF published in the article. The claim "An E Ink tablet that's more fun to write on than paper." can't be true if you are an avid note-taker or are somewhat fond of calligraphy. And $600 price tag is steep.

cmrdporcupine 9y ago

So I was pretty much set to buy one, thinking I'd replace my Kindle, too... I like the sound of it, but it sounds like they do not support the reading of any ePub documents with DRM, which means store purchases and library checkouts are out of the question. I'm not a huge lover of DRM, but that's a bit dissapointing.

dmix 9y ago

This sounds like the perfect GTD/TODO list device! > but what isn’t great is annotating an epub file and then changing its display font or font size. The text will automatically adjust its flow and move around to fit the screen, but your annotations won’t, leaving them misplaced and out of context. No way, that's such a big oversight. That said, I'm totally buying one of these when they do the next major version bump and hopefully address the above issue and ideally double CPU speeds, as the lag mentioned when writing non-cursive is equally an unacceptable UX IMO. I also absolutely love my Kindle's and have for years. I don't know how the author can have a preference for reading books on a bright iPad. It must not be something he does daily as I do. The other great benefit of the reMarkable is the support for ePub documents. This is the biggest annoyance with using the Kindle, I've had to convert hundreds of ePub->Kindle using Calibre over the years.

rocky1138 9y ago

The #1 reason I dislike pen and paper is that it's impossible to grep. Does this device solve this problem? Or is it simply moving pen and paper into the digital age?

Liblor 9y ago

I own a reMarkable Tablet, unfortunately its software has many teething troubles. For instance, the regular* eraser doesn't erase everything. I.e. on the tablet, it appears as it erases everything, but as soon as you export the page some fragments reappear. Also the percentage battery indicator is unreliable. Or was, they simply removed the indicator in an update. Now, you only have a approximated indicator, which is annoying (I hope the origin of the problem is not hardware related). If they keep on working on the software, it'll be an awesome device. I love that one has root access via SSH and the writing and reading experience is splendid. However, I have to add this is my first "e-reader", so for me missing features like a dictionary is no biggie. Someone who has owned a kindle might find the reading mode rather limited and thus unsatisfactory. * The one that emulates a pencil eraser

jay-anderson 9y ago

This looks good and feels like the larger screen e ink devices are getting better. Unfortunately I haven't found one which ticks the boxes I want (mostly to use for sheet music): - Hands free page turning (a bluetooth foot pedal would be idea) - Large size (at least as large as a4 paper). - Split screen page turn (That is do a page turn in two steps: (1) show the top of the next screen and the bottom of the current (2) show all of the next page) - Cross platform file transfer (I use linux and mac and would like to be able to transfer files from both) - No cloud services for document storage (I want to keep everything locally) This device is a bit smaller than I want. The Sony dpt-rp1 is close, but it doesn't support bluetooth foot pedals or cross platform file transfer (I'm not sure why they're crippling their devices).

oever 9y ago
Fellow musician here can confirm that two step page turns is very nice and easy to implement feature to have. The device seems great for adding notes to sheet music.

polskibus 9y ago

Has anyone held it in their hands? How does the screen compare to a 300dpi pearl eink like aura one or Oasis? I love my Kobo aura one, but I think one of the reasons it is so great is the 300dpi screen.

hardlianotion 9y ago

I have one of these. The writing surface is much better than I expected. The battery life is surprisingly poor though - not as good as an iPad, say. The interface has a few rough edges - you are limited to the size the pages presented to you and cannot scroll down for more real estate. On balance, I would say that I am broadly content with the device - I use it to replace the write-once notes, noodles and workings-out that I used to slay forests for. I did get it for the Kickstarter price, however. I would not pay a near iPad price for it.

asciimo 9y ago

I was considering this but opted for a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. The stylus is nice, and you can take quick notes directly on the lock screen. I'm writing this post with it and it's much nicer than a virtual keyboard.

funkaster 9y ago

I also own this (I got it in the second batch). So far I really like it. I use it to take notes in every meeting, I'm rsync-ing the device with my computer to keep backups. For me it solved the big problem of: quickly take notes and be able to access them later. I used to keep random pieces of paper here and there and notebooks that I just kept loosing. Using the laptop is a no-no for me in meetings (we're trying a no-devices in meetings) and this is basically just a notebook. For taking dev notes, I keep using orgmode. But for meetings and day-to-day notes, the remarkable is by far my favorite gadget. I would only change a few minor glitches with the UI, but so far I'm pleased with it.

ChuckMcM 9y ago

Back when the first Kindle came out I felt like this would be the future. I bought an iRex Illiad 2[1], it had really everything you wanted, open source, wacom stylus, and reasonable PPI (180). But it was expensive and it couldn't compete without decent software and its screen was pretty delicate (a lot of busted ones out there). I had hoped that the folks at Plastic Logic would fix that with their QUE Reader[2]but sadly it failed to materialize. Today I find the drawing experience on the Surface Pro 4 to be the best I've been able to find, rather than make the glass the answer they made the tip the answer (for writing/drawing feel). I rank the iPad Pro (current edition) second, and I'm not sure if I'm able to get past the frustration of the great platform/no software hump that I had on the Illiad to try the reMarkable tablet. About once every 3 months I look at it :-). What all of this has done for me is give me a tremendous amount of respect for the problem of simulating drawing. Even with a special ASIC in the SP4 it's not quite lag free. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILiad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILiad [2] http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/plastic-logic.html http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/plastic-logic.html

pge 9y ago
I also use a surface pro for note taking. The glass isnt the best writing surface, but it’s fine. What really sets it apart for me is the handwriting recognition. My handwriting is not super neat but the Microsft recognition software makes very few mistakes converting it to text. Being able to take notes with a stylus during a meeting and then converting to a searchable text is the beat of both worlds

tjoff 9y ago

That some people prefer an iPad to eink for reading absolutely blows my mind. I'm still annoyed that the iPad killed practically killed the eink market, such waste. If this thing is half as good as I hope it is I'm going to buy it, despite the quite hefty price. I still can't come up with a use-case for a tablet but this I'd use constantly.

amthewiz 9y ago

Most scientific research is still published as PDFs with small text at A4 size (approx 13inch diag). Anyone has experience reading such material on ReMarkable ~10inch screen?

beezle 9y ago
If you crop the margins on US based journals, you can read a full page. The type is slightly smaller than what it would be if printed on paper, but is more than legible with good eyes or those who wear glasses (me). A4 is close to letter sized so results should be similar. Note, you can find free software that will batch crop documents. Yes, its an inconvenience but a small one to no longer need to zoom/pan and/or use LCD based devices.

kevin_thibedeau 9y ago

> There’s no doubt a faster processor would vastly improve this tablet. 1 GHz is more than fast enough for a snappy bootup and responsive input. The devs just need to improve the firmware.

ncr100 9y ago

I have one and use it daily for notetaking at work, written > 200 pages with this kind of content: > Feb 7: Sync meeting with Bob and Carol > > [ ] Give Bob access to repo Yes software / power management issues, and yes slow update cycle. But YES it's a > lightweight < paper replacement! and it syncs! VERY useful for sketching out diagrams, and having other people sketch out their diagrams. Many people communicate better when they're writing. Whiteboards are not always available.

caoilte 9y ago

e-ink is remarkably endurable. I've had my Sony PRS-505 nearly ten years and it's still great.

whatever_dude 9y ago

Been using mine since the first batch went out and it's a great replacement for paper, for notes. The one thing that annoys me is the battery life (about 6 hours of more or less continuous use). So during a work day I end up having to keep it permanently connected while at my desk (easier than charging at odd times). I understand why it's not as energy cheap as just an e-ink reader, but what annoys me is that they obviously decided to sacrifice battery size to make it light. The result is that the device is almost _too_ light and thin. I'd take twice the weight for more battery life.

anotheryou 9y ago

Is there any hdmi e-ink screen? Preferably with the possibility to power from USB :)

nkurz 9y ago
I think the Onyx Boox Max2 PRO does this: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750544/onyx-boox-max-2-ereader-price-date https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750544/o... https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/onyx-boox-max2-pro-13-3-inch-e-reader-review https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/onyx-boox-ma...
- anotheryou 9y ago
  thanks, looks good. But the price tag... hehe

adultSwim 9y ago

The authors prior opinions about e-ink displays are trash.