22 ms·

Huawei MatePad Paper – eInk Tablet

287 points by gadders 5y ago

rich_sasha 5y ago
Phenomenal news. I’m hoping competition drives prices down. Remarkable 2 looks neat but so expensive. Now there’s choice.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  Most of the expense on these e-ink tablets comes from the huge cost of that screen, so unless Huawei is willing to subsidize this product and monetize your private data instead, I doubt this will be significantly cheaper than the competition. Regardless of price though, I'm not willing to out my private data on Huawei devices.
  - CommanderData 5y ago
    Are there no other companies apart from e-ink?
    - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
      There is no "other company". E-ink owns the parents, the fabs and the secret sauce to profitably producing quality e-ink film in good yelds. Even without the parents, building fabs and the film profitably without their secret sauce would be impossible. It's kind of like the early days of OLED when Samsung was the only one who could fab the tech profitably.
      - criddell 5y ago
        There are other companies now. Plastic Logic and OED are two I know of.
        ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        I checked them out and as far as I could tell, both are making displays based on E-ink's film. E-ink is also a major shareholder of Plastic Logic. As I was saying, E-ink is the only game in town making the film. All the others are making displays based on it.
        robinsoh 5y ago
        > both are making displays based on E-ink's film Jesus H Christ. Sigh... Just have a google again on OED and at least read the first page of their website properly. It is clear to me the level of confidence in your claims corresponds inversely with the level of accuracy of the facts.
        ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        You really have no idea what you're talking about. Please read E-ink's website before spreading more disinformation.
        robinsoh 5y ago
        You claimed OED buys E-Ink films. Please prove that with some evidence. Go ahead and google your heart out. You don't work in the display industry which is why you don't know the well known fact that OED is a competitor of E-Ink. They both produce electrophoretic films. What you said is literally the equivalent of saying Coca Cola buys its secret syrup from Pepsi. It is so ridiculous. And yet HN is filled with your level of comments on electrophoretics.
      - robinsoh 5y ago
        > E-ink owns the parents, the fabs and the secret sauce to profitably producing quality e-ink film in good yelds. fabs? Jesus H Christ. Based on just that one sentence, I can guarantee you have 0 experience and 0 direct knowledge of the display industry. Your statement is the equivalent to saying "Microsoft owns the parents (sp), the fabs and the secret sauce to profitably producing quality operating systems in good yelds (sp).
        ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        Would be nice if you also had an argument with your statement and not just mockery, to prove me wrong.
        robinsoh 5y ago
        > Would be nice if you also had an argument with your statement and not just mockery, to prove me wrong. So you make a massive unsubstantiated claim and I have to prove you wrong? I see the way your logic works. Lets see. You've made the claim that "E-ink owns the parents, the fabs and the secret sauce to profitably producing quality e-ink film in good yelds.". So let me ask a simple question. Since you say E-ink owns all the fabs, can you show me the location of even one E-ink fab? Here's a hint for the answer. E-Ink is a fabless company. That may confuse you so lets make it clearer. It means they don't have ANY fabs. In fact, I don't even know of even one electrophoretic material producer who has a fab. Would you like to try again and provide a more accurate statement that reflects your level of ACTUAL knowledge of the display industry?
        ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        Mate, you're going completely off the rails and I'm not sure if you're actively trolling or are misinformed and in denial. E-ink is a manufacturer of the E-ink pigment particles and the EPD film that's then sold to various display manufacturers where it gets sandwiched between glass, an ITO top electrode and a TFT bottom layer connected to a CoG (chip on glass), basically like any other LCD TFT display but instead of liquid crystal you have the famous patented E-ink pigment. Those EPD display manufacturers all depend on buying the e-ink film manufactured by E-ink, at their fab in ... drum-roll ... Taiwan (big surprise). None of these EPD display company could make displays by themselves without the film they buy from E-ink. Just read their website [1] and article [2] before spewing more nonsense [1] "E Ink manufacturers a number of EPD films, with different attributes depending on application needs" [1] https://www.eink.com/e-ink-film.html https://www.eink.com/e-ink-film.html [2] " As part of E Ink’s manufacturing process, microcapsules of ink coat plastic film. The film is then dried, inspected, rerolled, and sent on for further processing." [2] https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-e-ink-developed-full-color-epaper https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-e-ink-developed-full-color-epa...
    - goosedragons 5y ago
      Not really. I'm pretty sure e-ink tech is still patented. There are some similar options like DES used in the maybe vaporware Reinkstone.
  - 2Gkashmiri 5y ago
    not to sound cynical but you are willing to draw the line with an american company, say google but not an openly chinese company like huawei. cool. what about all the chinese people then? why would they want to use a google device over a huawei device? shouldnt the discussion be about no company being able to harvest data in the first place, then we wouldnt be having this discussion about nationalities of the overlords
    - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
      You're making a lot of claims about me and about Chinese people, which are not true, based on stuff you made up.
      - 2Gkashmiri 5y ago
        made up what? i am not in the US or china and i already know xiaomi and google is harvesting data and selling ads as a form of extra revenue and they even make that as a selling point (ads help us subsidize cost of product) and other non-sense. does it matter that now huawei is doing the same? if i, as a user is having no issues with xiaomi or google or facebook harvesting and selling data to the highest bidder, how is huawei any "more" wrong or bad?
    - Ancapistani 5y ago
      For context, I own a Huawei Matebook D and multiple "smart" devices by Apple and Samsung. I'm hesitant to buy a Huawei device because of issues with support and build quality. My Matebook D is down at the moment due to an issue with the USB-C port, which also supplies power. I've owned many devices at this point that use USB-C, and the Huawei is the only one that has ever failed for this reason. To be fair I can't 100% lay the blame on "poor build quality", as my kids were the primary users and my youngest is hell on cables. What I can say is that getting parts or support for it seems basically impossible. Understanding that that's because of the US government doesn't make it better. I'm hoping I'll be able to reflow the jack on the motherboard and get it to work again, but if not, I'll end up having to source a pulled motherboard from eBay - there's no other way for me to get parts, and as far as I can tell, no way for me to send it to the manufacturer for repair, even on my dime. Between Apple, Samsung, and Google... My experience with Samsung devices tells me that longevity isn't their strong suit. I'll never buy another Samsung TV again, and am very unlikely to buy another Samsung appliance. I might be willing to buy a phone or laptop, but only if there is adequate insurance or a service plan included in the price. I don't trust Google. I try to keep as much of my data out of their hands as possible. I know that's a losing proposition - both because it may actually be impossible and because I'm not willing or able to completely cut Google services out of my life. I _really_ don't want an Android device if I can help it. I don't exactly trust Apple, either, but at least it seems like they have a slightly more conservative corporate policy when it comes to sharing the data they've collected on my identity and usage. They're known to push back against "mass" warrants, and I've not seen anything that would lead me to believe that they have or plan to sell those data to a third party. They collect it, archive it, and use it for their own purposes, though. I wouldn't call that "good", but it's better than the alternatives.
- ericcholis 5y ago
  Supernote seems to be a popular alternative.
  - Buxato 5y ago
    I didn't knew that one, thanks!
    - gadders 5y ago
      Someone else has mentioned the Boox Note Air. I'm kind of hoping Amazon create one, and use ebook sales to subsidise the hardware cost.
      - goosedragons 5y ago
        Kobo has a 10.3" reader, it's a bit cheaper than competitors but it's also not as good. Amazon doesn't really seem to subsidize ereader hardware except maybe in countries where they are "losing" like Canada. Like compare what you get with a Boox Leaf or Boyue P78 for the price of a Kindle Oasis.
        flatiron 5y ago
        My kindle is “ad supported” which I always took as they subsidized it. That being said at least a year ago you can hack it and install ko reader and set the ad directory to read only and you got yourself a darn good Ereader with no ads.
        goosedragons 5y ago
        It is or at least was cheaper to buy a Kindle Paperwhite in Canada with no ads than one in the U.S with ads. Even after taxes and conversion. It's really really unusual for an electronic product to be cheaper in Canada than the U.S. Usually a comparable Kobo or Pocketbook is within spitting distance if not cheaper. The 6.8" Paperwhite somewhat upset the balance as they don't have a direct response to it right now. A Kobo Libra 2 is 90% of what an Oasis is for 2/3rds the cost. And no ads.
- Buxato 5y ago
  Soon: https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ Also I want to recommend this one: Onyx Boox Nova3 Not so wallet gardened, and with a modern Android (so you could use google maps, openstreet maps or whatever among many other things)
  - squarefoot 5y ago
    > Soon: https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ Eagerly waiting for it to become stable enough, and possibly the announcement of a bigger screen version. I'm not a mole, although I wear glasses, but books with diagrams and schematics need bigger screens not to be forced to zoom back and forth. I would also like a cheaper and bigger reader-only version, that is with no hardware/software to take notes, reduced eMMC storage in favor of external uSD cards, and good network integration supporting both NFS and CIFS. It would be nice for users who either bring their books on a uSD card, or would use the reader in a lab where most documentation files are already shared via local WiFi network.
  - rich_sasha 5y ago
    I’d be keen, except I have no time to tinker. As far as I can tell, PinePhones are still very much DIY, might work etc.
  - aidenn0 5y ago
    As soon as that is able to reliably show PDFs and ePUBs with decent battery life, I'll probably get one. My phone is too small for some reading content, and the remarkable tablets lack a frontlight.
  - pedalpete 5y ago
    I hadn't see this. I've got a Boox Nova3, and though I like it in theory, the UX isn't great. That's the reason I'd consider the Huawei. But also, how long until Amazon makes a kindle that lets me take notes both in the book I'm reading, but also as just a blank notebook....please please...
- goosedragons 5y ago
  There's already been choice in the 10.3" eInk note pad segment, Kobo Elipsa, Fujitsu Quaderno, Boox Note and Note Air, Likebook P10W, Supernote A5X, etc. It's just such a niche thing combined with most of the devices being Asian focused and remarkable heavy online marketing that makes them seem like the only option.
  - hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
    They are still relatively expensive in relation to kindles. I really hope the prices get below $200 one day.
    - einpoklum 5y ago
      Whatever Amazon sells you, you're probably paying for it indirectly some other way.
      - netizen-936824 5y ago
        I agree. This is a poor comparison. A product that's subsidized will always win the price war with one that's not
        hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
        Well, the difference between Kindle Paperwhite and Oasis is just one inch - but you need to pay twice as much. You could say only the former is subsidized - but wouldn't it be in Amazon's best interest to make reading experience more comfortable?
        netizen-936824 5y ago
        Its in Amazon's best interest to offer either convenience or lower price, which is what they do at the cost of treating labor poorly and harvesting usage data. It's comfort and convenience subsidized through suffering
- ksec 5y ago
  >Remarkable 2 looks neat but so expensive. Now there’s choice. R2 is $399, judging from the EUR retail price of €499 inc. VAT this will likely retail at $499 in US. It is not cheaper than R2.
  - chrismorgan 5y ago
    The prices reMarkable advertise are deceptive to the point where I reckon they’re probably illegal under at least Australian advertising law: that price doesn’t include a marker, which is almost essential to the deliberately expressed purpose of the device; so add on another 20%. Most people will also want some kind of cover, which is another 20% for the cheapest reMarkable sells. You’ve got to be careful about this when comparing prices of different products, because they include different things. It sounds like Huawei’s will include a stylus and cover for that price, which does make it a little cheaper than reMarkable’s equivalent bundle.
    - smilespray 5y ago
      Also, if you want basic features like cloud sync and handwriting conversion, you have to sign up for the $8/mo subscription. Which is why hell will freeze over before I purchase a reMarkable. Incidentally, the free plan offers something called "50-day sync", which is described like this: "Without a subscription, you can still use the cloud to store and sync your notes. However, files will stop syncing to the mobile and desktop apps if they haven’t been opened in the last 50 days. They’ll still be automatically stored on your paper tablet." Just to be clear: This is a feature designed for the marketing department, not for users. The marketing people get to say that "we offer free cloud sync", while reducing users' trust in the cloud sync significantly enough that they feel obliged to sign up for the paid subscription. It's infuriating.
      - robga 5y ago
        > if you want basic features like cloud sync and handwriting conversion, you have to sign up for the $8/mo subscription. You don't "have to" for cloud sync. Remarkable is a fairly open platform and there is a vibrant open source community surrounding it. You can use a tool like the Remote Connection Utility [0], with support for $12pa. "RCU ensures the user's data is never out of their control, completely unshackled from the manufacturer's proprietary cloud.". There are other tools. I can't speak to handwriting conversion as I don't use it, but I suspect they don't have any secret sauce and that any 3rd party recognition app can deal with the content if provided in a standard format. I sure wouldn't be wanting boox or Huawei clouds to scan my raw text. [0] http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/ http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
- d4rkp4ttern 5y ago
  It all comes down to the paper like writing feel + latency. Several contenders have been compared to RM2, but RM2 has consistently won out. Curious how this one does.
  - Loic 5y ago
    The A5X from Supernote is now to the point that I personally have the feeling it writes as fast as paper[0]. [0]: https://old.reddit.com/r/Supernote/comments/rkw00t/a5x_chauvet_216_latency_wow/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Supernote/comments/rkw00t/a5x_chauv...
- lhl 5y ago
  I've been using a Onyx Boox Note 3 for a couple years now (I previously had a Remarkable 1 but it didn't stick for me) - it has Android 10 (w/ Google Play support) and even an SDK for responsive writing for 3rd party apps. It's been great for taking notes, and adequate for reading books and papers (although even a single color for highlighting would be a huge improvement). Note, that Onyx is notorious for violating the GPL (it doesn't release kernel sources), while reMarkable is not only compliant, but much more hacker friendly in general: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable But there are also other companies/products Boyue Likebook, Ratta Supernote, Quirklogic Papyr, Fujitsu Quaderno that compete in the e-ink notepad space as well. I'm keeping an eye on the Bigme Carve Color personally, which basically has all the hardware specs you'd want and color (Kaleido 2) to boot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydo5FtSt_qQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydo5FtSt_qQ For those looking at color, it might be worth waiting a few months to see if 1) if the Reinkstone R1 is actually vaporware or not (it has an alternative DES that looks like it provides better looking color, but is being developed by a questionable Chinese company that's been best by delays) and if eInk's Kaleido 3 is a significant improvement. For those interested in the relatively niche world of e-ink devices, I highly recommend MyDeepGuide as a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/c/MyDeepGuide/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/MyDeepGuide/videos
  - DenisM 5y ago
    Which one has the best DPI?
    - leemailll 5y ago
      Sony
    - lhl 5y ago
      Almost all of them use the same E Ink displays and have the same resolution/density. The newest ones use the Carta 1200 panel which improves response/updates, not resolution. Here's a reasonable chart of pixel density: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink#Comparison_of_E_Ink_displays https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink#Comparison_of_E_Ink_disp...
- chrisweekly 5y ago
  Choice is good! But while ofc YMMV, IME the ReMarkable2 is priced very reasonably; it immediately became part of my daily workflow and has had big ROI for me.
morsch 5y ago
RRP €499 (around $558) according to https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/28/22954498/huawei-matepad-paper-e-reader-e-ink-price-news-features-m-pencil-stylus https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/28/22954498/huawei-matepad-p...
- DocTomoe 5y ago
  Hm, is that really a competitive price these days? That's more than 130 Euros more than an entry-level iPad... which has a long and good track record.
  - can16358p 5y ago
    It's not the same thing. I think the target use cases are different. The e-ink and pen input combination is really trying to create a paper-like experience (which's great for reading and taking notes). On the other hand iPad is more general-purpose powerhouse for pretty much anything, but if I'm between this and iPad for reading some books I'd prefer this. And I use/love an iPad Pro+Apple Pencil. Still would consider this for my long book/blog/paper reads.
  - mellosouls 5y ago
    The Matepad seems expensive though is comparable to other large eInk readers, but the iPad certainly doesn't have a track record as a dedicated (eInk) e-reader. Two very different things here.
  - rjsw 5y ago
    Similar price and specs to the PineNote.
  - dspillett 5y ago
    The iPad probably moves a lot more units though due to more general appeal. There are economies of scale that e-ink devices don't currently benefit from. Also if you try buy an e-ink screen as a part for a project you'll see a difference in price, which will no doubt be a factor too (though the difference you or I pay for a single unit might not be entire indicative of what is paid for bulk/regular orders by manufacturers).
TekMol 5y ago
Will it have a browser? It would be great for reading HN, coding, writing if I could use it with a browser. I do all these in the browser and I only need black and white and no fancy tools. So even if the browser is much slower than on a desktop, it would still be great.
- martin_a 5y ago
  People usually recommend the "Boox" devices for that. As they are running on Android you can therefore, after activating it, access the Play Store to get a browser running... Maybe that's the way to go.
  - goosedragons 5y ago
    You don't even need to activate the Play Store. They include a browser out of the box.
  - tluyben2 5y ago
    Second the Boox; unfortunately there are gpl violations which is a shame, but I got an A4 sized one before I knew that and I use Pocket to read online stuff offline and use the built in reader to read books and work on papers (the dual note/read view is lovely).
    - martin_a 5y ago
      Don't you find the A4 ones to large? I've been looking into these devices to replace my handwritten notebook but also for reading and so on. I think 10.3 inch might be better suited, what's your take on that?
      - tluyben2 5y ago
        I really like big screen because I read mostly papers. And I need to write in the margin for that.
  - schwartzworld 5y ago
pastrami_panda 5y ago
With all the events happening right now I find it really hard to justify buying products made in China/Russia/Belarus. This product looks great, but I'll never have a clean conscious knowing my money is by extension financing terrorists.
- sofixa 5y ago
  Why are you lumping China with the actual invaders? There's the Taiwan mess, and China don't participate in the sanctions regime, but it's not the same thing as actively invading. ( For the record, i think that sanctioning Russia is the morally correct thing to do)
  - pastrami_panda 5y ago
    It's simply because it's way overdue. China does countless things I can't support and for me this was the stick that broke the camel's back.
  - dspillett 5y ago
    While not on top of the news cycle, the continuing un-freeing of Hong Kong, the treatment of the Uyghur population, and likely a number of other things, qualify for pastrami_pasta's “happening right now” description.
  - intricatedetail 5y ago
    They are committing genocide, run concentration camps and forced labour. They actively threat Taiwan. That's more than enough to justify avoiding them.
    - mcdonje 5y ago
      They are not committing genocide. https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/A/HRC/41/G/17 https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/A/HRC/41/G/17
      - SamBam 5y ago
brk 5y ago
Will this product be affected by the US bans on Huawei?
- e-clinton 5y ago
  Highly likely, but remember those bans affect the government, not private citizens. You’re free to buy Huawei products.
  - mtmail 5y ago
    And government contractors. We got a questionnaire asking if we use any Huawei products at our company.
intricatedetail 5y ago
The last thing I want is CPC reading my notes. Unless device can be loaded with trusted OS and air gapped I wouldn't take it even if they paid me.
- murat124 5y ago
  You mean CCP (Chinese Communist Party). Edit: Turns out officially it is CPC. English abbreviation is CCP.
coliveira 5y ago
Finally a company cracks this market. This is a beautiful device, I'll get one as soon as it is available.
talkingtab 5y ago
- CyanBird 5y ago
  So this should be the bar for all inqtel funded startups now?
phantom_oracle 5y ago
I wanted to build my own e-ink tablet as I prefer OSS. The issue that makes e-ink tablets not worth building? The expensive displays that cost between $150-$300 for 7-8 inch screens, excluding shipping.
- jll29 5y ago
  I would like to have an e-Ink notebook for professional reading/writing/editing (no video/games). ARM, 8 GB RAM, 64 GB persistent storage (SSD or SD card. 10" or 11" e-ink screen, good-quality physical keyboard, light, rugged, portable). Should be OSS powered, of course (Linux preferred).
murat124 5y ago
Looks great but I have trust issues. I would consider if it didn't have microphone (it has 4) and if it supported working offline.
- Demcox 5y ago
  > it has 4 A freaking eInk tablet with microphones what the hell lol edit formatting...
  - npteljes 5y ago
    They have a function for it. From TFA: "Capture detail in every meeting with audio recording and notes. Make a mark on your recording while taking notes, then tap on the mark to play the exact audio clip. Review your content more clearly and efficiently."
    - SamBam 5y ago
      This is pretty clever. If I recall, the LiveScribe Smart Pen had/has this feature. You just draw some symbol and tap it, and it inserts a voice recording at that spot. Surprised this isn't standard on these products now.
      - rjzzleep 5y ago
        I have a hisense eink pocket reader(5.84") and it has an eink refresh button. It's hisense's degoogled android(only support chinese and english and some menus have weird grammar). But what's interesting is that if you hold the extra button it launches into a notes app which has dictation and unlike googles own dictation it does a pretty good job at capturing both chinese and english without needing to switch. I didn't try it for longer than a couple of sentences, but in general it's an interesting idea. It does have a lot of very nice eink optimizations that other devices don't have. Contrary to huawei however this device has a snapdragon and allows unlocking the bootloader. There is however no dev community around this device and I don't feel like fixing the headphone amp. https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/hisense-touch-music-player-hands-on-review https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/hisense-touch-music-pla...
sentrysapper 5y ago
Under specs it lists 2 speakers and 4 microphones.
gbraad 5y ago
The OS looks similar to Onyx Boox's. Wouldn't be amazed if it a collab.
achow 5y ago
I wish Amazon had released one in this size. This goes onto to show how bad monopoly of Amazon is for e-reader category.
AcerbicZero 5y ago
I wouldn’t buy Huawei toilet paper let alone a tablet I might write something on. I made the awful mistake of buying one of their phones back when they partnered with Google for one of the nexus phones. Horrible device, and probably full of communism too.
Loic 5y ago
As an alternative, I am extremely satisfied with the A5X from Ratta Supernote. The latency when writing is as good as the RM2. [0]: https://supernote.com/ https://supernote.com/
- dddw 5y ago
  Looks nice. Is there a way to use your own sync instead of theirs?
  - Loic 5y ago
    I am using it totally offline, I just plug it with the USB cable in my laptop (running Linux) and have a full access on the content to sync as I wish and need. I haven't used their cloud offering.
  - Zircom 5y ago
    They support Dropbox syncing and they're working on Google drive support at the moment.
    - TheFreim 5y ago
      They've also stated multiple times that they're working on getting a public developer api, I think it's on their current road map found on reddit.
- dotancohen 5y ago
  You're satisfied with a device that is accepting pre-orders and hasn't shipped yet?
  - Loic 5y ago
    It is my daily driver, I bought and received my A5X early October 2021. I am surprised with your question.
    - dotancohen 5y ago
calrain 5y ago
- Shadonototra 5y ago
  microsoft windows and apple are also spyware, what is your point?
  - pinephoneguy 5y ago
    Stay away from them too.
    - bsd44 5y ago
      I would if Pinephone was able to make phone calls or Librem 5 ever shipped...
      - GrigoriyMikh 5y ago
        As a person who is totally unaware of anything going with Pinephone and other Linux phones, i'm asking -- are they really unable to make phone calls? Or only in some specific cases?
        lvass 5y ago
        You can't make phone calls in case you only want open source software. GSM Baseband software is notoriously closed and that's practically enforced by law.
- sdevonoes 5y ago
  Please, it's 2022: anything that is not open source is suspicious of being spyware. We don't even trust our own governments, how on earth are we going to trust any private company (Huawei, Google, Apple, etc.)?
  - throwoutway 5y ago
Shadonototra 5y ago
Their own OS, their own hardware, their own brands, their own factories Thanks to our dumb politicians, we produced dumb citizens, with a dumb education
thomasfl 5y ago
Truly ReMarkable. (Pun intended.)
yesbut 5y ago
As an American, I'd rather have a foreign actor spying on me than my own government. The foreign actor has no jurisdiction over me.
- xamolxix 5y ago
  > The foreign actor has no jurisdiction over me. You can be subjected to blackmail and/or other hostile actions from a foreign jurisdiction.
  - thih9 5y ago
    Is that more likely than blackmail and/or hostile actions from home jurisdiction?
    - xamolxix 5y ago
      I don't know what the likelihoods of either are but if I had to guess I would say that yes, hostile third countries are more dangerous than my own country. Also, I consider that I would have more recourse against an actor from my own jurisdiction, I think you have pretty much zero recourse against the government of a hostile third country.
  - yesbut 5y ago
    I don't trust even my own government. I'm not *more* worried about China messing with me. The NSA has more info on me that could potentially be used against me than Huawei. And I've never once seen a situation where the NSA digs data out of their vault to help exonerate an American on trial.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- zikduruqe 5y ago
  Foreign actor doesn't have to abide by the Fourth Amendment either. They can just show the US whatever they want without a warrant.
parski 5y ago
Chindle
youhavetosayit 5y ago
Remarkable 2 is better, because of the features it doesn't have. The best feature of Remarkable 2 is how quiet it is, it doesn't do anything except for Book reading and note taking. No notifications, no messaging, no email, quiet tech.
- wraptile 5y ago
  You can turn these all off. Lack of features is not a feature imho - no mather how hard people try to sell this.
  - m12k 5y ago
    Twitter exists because you can't write long posts. Snapchat exists because you can't view past messages. Tinder exists because you can't just talk to anyone unless they are interested in you too. Limitations and missing "features" absolutely can be an asset to a platform.
    - dahfizz 5y ago
      To a platform, sure. Limiting what other people can do can shape how a social platform works. For a piece of hardware, not so much.
    - wraptile 5y ago
      You're comparing apples to oranges - those are social networks where multiple people have to come to some sort of consensus, having rules over that consensus sure, can be a feature. I don't need anyone to agree with me to turn off notifications.
      - m12k 5y ago
        Devices with notifications are little skinner boxes for our brains. There's perfectly valid reasons for people to want a device where notifications are not even an option, just like there's valid reasons for alcoholics to not want booze in the house. If that's not an issue for you - congratulations, those devices are not designed for you. But please don't deny others them, just because you don't think they should exist - they absolutely should.
bitL 5y ago
10.3" is too small for a paper replacement - writing notes on such devices is too imprecise if one e.g. annotates PDFs etc. I got the latest Onyx A4 and that's the size that can be finally used to replace paper for all types of documents.
- pantulis 5y ago
  Is it the Boox Max Lumi 2? I'm considering getting one, any observations?
  - bitL 5y ago
    I use it only for reading PDFs, annotating them, writing notes and reading newspapers - for that it's a pretty good device. There might be some warts in a bit non-standard Android interface and also MS Office doesn't work without license (13" is too large for free versions), but overall I am happy.
    - pantulis 5y ago
      Well my use case would basically be reading PDFs and sheet music, not really considering it to take notes. For that it's a bit expensive.
pastaking 5y ago
Good for Huawei. Finally, an affordable alternative to Remarkable.
fluidcruft 5y ago
The screenshot of Home where they're showcasing widgets otherwise looks almost exactly like Boox. Other interactions also look like the Boox software. Not to mention the device looks like an update Boox Air. Are Boox and Huawei related?
SilentM68 5y ago
This could be an alternative to LiveScribe Smart Pen, in a classroom setting, which records audio as you write with it and then allows for immediate audio playback by tapping the section of the written notes that one needs to listen to again. Only difference between tablet and the pen is that the pen requires physical paper notebooks to be purchased once the old notebook is used up. With improved battery life, it'd make a very useful assistive technology in a classroom setting.
macco 5y ago
I am really not an Apple fan, but this website is borderline plagiarism. I would really love if the immense investments of Huawei would bring something genuine to light.
- mardifoufs 5y ago
  If anything imo it's much closer to the Samsung website than apple's
- pphysch 5y ago
  ...It's a minimal, responsive, functional page for selling a product. Apple didn't invent this any more than they invented the PC or smartphone.
jll29 5y ago
Waiting for the next move, an e-ink sub-notebook.
nemacol 5y ago
>MEMORY ROM:64 GB *The available internal storage may be smaller as part of the internal storage is occupied by software. Memory, ROM(??), RAM all the same thing? Am I misunderstanding or is this not the full picture?
- renewiltord 5y ago
  4 GiB RAM. Oddly it’s on the features page.
  - nemacol 5y ago
    Thank you.
ljf 5y ago
Doesn't it seem odd in the pictures and video the model is holding the pen/stylus as a rather unnatural angle. No shots where the models hand is touching the screen at the same time as the pen. I'd have thought that would be a feature they would want to promote (and would be shocked if this device does not have it), just seems odd.
turtlebits 5y ago
The hardware is a dime a dozen now, what differentiates all these products is the software. I'm pretty skeptical on hardware companies making their own software interfaces. I tried the Boox and while having Android is compelling, the writing experience kinda sucks. I prefer the Remarkable for having fewer but more polished features.
- 01100011 5y ago
  Doesn't the HW have something to do with the responsiveness? Hasn't that been a significant issue with eInk devices in the past, or is that resolved now? In any case, the atrocities being committed in Ukraine have finally convinced me it is long past time to divest myself from Chinese slaveware. I have nothing but kindness for the people of Russia and China but will no longer voluntarily support companies in those countries with my business.
  - Groxx 5y ago
    eink responsiveness itself: it's "slow", but much of it is in software. the remarkable demonstrates that pretty well - pen-to-display updates in ~20ms, which is more than fast enough. for further evidence, dasung's eink monitors are stunningly fast because of good software (and surrounding hardware that can drive it all) - they use the same panels as others AFAICT. (i.e. they're using the standard high-end e-reader panels. there are dramatically slower and more limited panels designed for signage, I think we can ignore those - many don't even have partial update support in their hardware) The caveat there is that those fast updates are for black to white or white to black - gray to gray is slower, and accumulates error if you keep doing it (ghosting). remarkable has built their entire UI around this limitation: all UI is black/white, no grays. All tools (except the highlighters) draw black/white, no grays - all the texture is just black/white pixellation patterns. a lot of care has gone into working with the hardware's limitations at every level.... which is something android will never do. other causes of latency often include stuff like aggressive CPU sleeping to make the batteries last weeks. if you get rid of that, and pre-render the next screen, changing screens is something like 100ms or less. in the end you have a pile of tradeoffs that generally mean worse user experience when poking the device to get better user experience somewhere else. which is true of everything.
coolso 5y ago
What’s with all the CCP defenders and shills mass-downvoting and flagging every critical comment in this thread? What are you trying to hide? Instead of downvoting into oblivion Reddit/China-style, why not engage in healthy debate? The tides have turned, the US is finally standing up to China (Biden is following in Trump’s footsteps though not as much as he should) and it’s only going to continue.
GaylordTuring 5y ago
Would it be too much to ask for Hacker News to not promote products made in and benefiting evil regimes such as China and Russia? You wouldn’t allow The Nazipad 2000 to be showen here; what’s the difference?
- jklein11 5y ago
  Wouldn't it be better for the community to moderate this sort of thing? You can always downvote post. Or even better, you could engage in discourse on how this product is benefiting evil regimes. I'm not sure promoting censorship is the answer here.
- advisedwang 5y ago
  A huge fraction of consumer electronics are made in China, so they shouldn't be listed here? iPhone is out of scope for HN? Not to mention questions about who gets to decide...
amiga1200 5y ago
Serious question, as I am interested in this device. Huawei has lately been in the news as a security threat. How can I justify using this device, to myself and my company, given the security threat Huawei supposedly represents? No trolls or shills need reply.
- deepspace 5y ago
  I have had the same question about Huawei products, and have never received any answer that would justify the risk of using one of their devices.
rg111 5y ago
I will not touch anything Huawei with a ten-foot pole. Thanks. But I also hope this will drive down prices.

287 points by gadders 5y ago

Phenomenal news. I’m hoping competition drives prices down. Remarkable 2 looks neat but so expensive. Now there’s choice.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
Most of the expense on these e-ink tablets comes from the huge cost of that screen, so unless Huawei is willing to subsidize this product and monetize your private data instead, I doubt this will be significantly cheaper than the competition. Regardless of price though, I'm not willing to out my private data on Huawei devices.
- CommanderData 5y ago
  Are there no other companies apart from e-ink?
  - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
    There is no "other company". E-ink owns the parents, the fabs and the secret sauce to profitably producing quality e-ink film in good yelds. Even without the parents, building fabs and the film profitably without their secret sauce would be impossible. It's kind of like the early days of OLED when Samsung was the only one who could fab the tech profitably.
    - criddell 5y ago
      There are other companies now. Plastic Logic and OED are two I know of.
      - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        I checked them out and as far as I could tell, both are making displays based on E-ink's film. E-ink is also a major shareholder of Plastic Logic. As I was saying, E-ink is the only game in town making the film. All the others are making displays based on it.
        robinsoh 5y ago
        > both are making displays based on E-ink's film Jesus H Christ. Sigh... Just have a google again on OED and at least read the first page of their website properly. It is clear to me the level of confidence in your claims corresponds inversely with the level of accuracy of the facts.
        ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        You really have no idea what you're talking about. Please read E-ink's website before spreading more disinformation.
        robinsoh 5y ago
        You claimed OED buys E-Ink films. Please prove that with some evidence. Go ahead and google your heart out. You don't work in the display industry which is why you don't know the well known fact that OED is a competitor of E-Ink. They both produce electrophoretic films. What you said is literally the equivalent of saying Coca Cola buys its secret syrup from Pepsi. It is so ridiculous. And yet HN is filled with your level of comments on electrophoretics.
    - robinsoh 5y ago
      > E-ink owns the parents, the fabs and the secret sauce to profitably producing quality e-ink film in good yelds. fabs? Jesus H Christ. Based on just that one sentence, I can guarantee you have 0 experience and 0 direct knowledge of the display industry. Your statement is the equivalent to saying "Microsoft owns the parents (sp), the fabs and the secret sauce to profitably producing quality operating systems in good yelds (sp).
      - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        Would be nice if you also had an argument with your statement and not just mockery, to prove me wrong.
        robinsoh 5y ago
        > Would be nice if you also had an argument with your statement and not just mockery, to prove me wrong. So you make a massive unsubstantiated claim and I have to prove you wrong? I see the way your logic works. Lets see. You've made the claim that "E-ink owns the parents, the fabs and the secret sauce to profitably producing quality e-ink film in good yelds.". So let me ask a simple question. Since you say E-ink owns all the fabs, can you show me the location of even one E-ink fab? Here's a hint for the answer. E-Ink is a fabless company. That may confuse you so lets make it clearer. It means they don't have ANY fabs. In fact, I don't even know of even one electrophoretic material producer who has a fab. Would you like to try again and provide a more accurate statement that reflects your level of ACTUAL knowledge of the display industry?
        ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        Mate, you're going completely off the rails and I'm not sure if you're actively trolling or are misinformed and in denial. E-ink is a manufacturer of the E-ink pigment particles and the EPD film that's then sold to various display manufacturers where it gets sandwiched between glass, an ITO top electrode and a TFT bottom layer connected to a CoG (chip on glass), basically like any other LCD TFT display but instead of liquid crystal you have the famous patented E-ink pigment. Those EPD display manufacturers all depend on buying the e-ink film manufactured by E-ink, at their fab in ... drum-roll ... Taiwan (big surprise). None of these EPD display company could make displays by themselves without the film they buy from E-ink. Just read their website [1] and article [2] before spewing more nonsense [1] "E Ink manufacturers a number of EPD films, with different attributes depending on application needs" [1] https://www.eink.com/e-ink-film.html https://www.eink.com/e-ink-film.html [2] " As part of E Ink’s manufacturing process, microcapsules of ink coat plastic film. The film is then dried, inspected, rerolled, and sent on for further processing." [2] https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-e-ink-developed-full-color-epaper https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-e-ink-developed-full-color-epa...
  - goosedragons 5y ago
    Not really. I'm pretty sure e-ink tech is still patented. There are some similar options like DES used in the maybe vaporware Reinkstone.
- 2Gkashmiri 5y ago
  not to sound cynical but you are willing to draw the line with an american company, say google but not an openly chinese company like huawei. cool. what about all the chinese people then? why would they want to use a google device over a huawei device? shouldnt the discussion be about no company being able to harvest data in the first place, then we wouldnt be having this discussion about nationalities of the overlords
  - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
    You're making a lot of claims about me and about Chinese people, which are not true, based on stuff you made up.
    - 2Gkashmiri 5y ago
      made up what? i am not in the US or china and i already know xiaomi and google is harvesting data and selling ads as a form of extra revenue and they even make that as a selling point (ads help us subsidize cost of product) and other non-sense. does it matter that now huawei is doing the same? if i, as a user is having no issues with xiaomi or google or facebook harvesting and selling data to the highest bidder, how is huawei any "more" wrong or bad?
  - Ancapistani 5y ago
    For context, I own a Huawei Matebook D and multiple "smart" devices by Apple and Samsung. I'm hesitant to buy a Huawei device because of issues with support and build quality. My Matebook D is down at the moment due to an issue with the USB-C port, which also supplies power. I've owned many devices at this point that use USB-C, and the Huawei is the only one that has ever failed for this reason. To be fair I can't 100% lay the blame on "poor build quality", as my kids were the primary users and my youngest is hell on cables. What I can say is that getting parts or support for it seems basically impossible. Understanding that that's because of the US government doesn't make it better. I'm hoping I'll be able to reflow the jack on the motherboard and get it to work again, but if not, I'll end up having to source a pulled motherboard from eBay - there's no other way for me to get parts, and as far as I can tell, no way for me to send it to the manufacturer for repair, even on my dime. Between Apple, Samsung, and Google... My experience with Samsung devices tells me that longevity isn't their strong suit. I'll never buy another Samsung TV again, and am very unlikely to buy another Samsung appliance. I might be willing to buy a phone or laptop, but only if there is adequate insurance or a service plan included in the price. I don't trust Google. I try to keep as much of my data out of their hands as possible. I know that's a losing proposition - both because it may actually be impossible and because I'm not willing or able to completely cut Google services out of my life. I _really_ don't want an Android device if I can help it. I don't exactly trust Apple, either, but at least it seems like they have a slightly more conservative corporate policy when it comes to sharing the data they've collected on my identity and usage. They're known to push back against "mass" warrants, and I've not seen anything that would lead me to believe that they have or plan to sell those data to a third party. They collect it, archive it, and use it for their own purposes, though. I wouldn't call that "good", but it's better than the alternatives.
ericcholis 5y ago
Supernote seems to be a popular alternative.
- Buxato 5y ago
  I didn't knew that one, thanks!
  - gadders 5y ago
    Someone else has mentioned the Boox Note Air. I'm kind of hoping Amazon create one, and use ebook sales to subsidise the hardware cost.
    - goosedragons 5y ago
      Kobo has a 10.3" reader, it's a bit cheaper than competitors but it's also not as good. Amazon doesn't really seem to subsidize ereader hardware except maybe in countries where they are "losing" like Canada. Like compare what you get with a Boox Leaf or Boyue P78 for the price of a Kindle Oasis.
      - flatiron 5y ago
        My kindle is “ad supported” which I always took as they subsidized it. That being said at least a year ago you can hack it and install ko reader and set the ad directory to read only and you got yourself a darn good Ereader with no ads.
        goosedragons 5y ago
        It is or at least was cheaper to buy a Kindle Paperwhite in Canada with no ads than one in the U.S with ads. Even after taxes and conversion. It's really really unusual for an electronic product to be cheaper in Canada than the U.S. Usually a comparable Kobo or Pocketbook is within spitting distance if not cheaper. The 6.8" Paperwhite somewhat upset the balance as they don't have a direct response to it right now. A Kobo Libra 2 is 90% of what an Oasis is for 2/3rds the cost. And no ads.
Buxato 5y ago
Soon: https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ Also I want to recommend this one: Onyx Boox Nova3 Not so wallet gardened, and with a modern Android (so you could use google maps, openstreet maps or whatever among many other things)
- squarefoot 5y ago
  > Soon: https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ Eagerly waiting for it to become stable enough, and possibly the announcement of a bigger screen version. I'm not a mole, although I wear glasses, but books with diagrams and schematics need bigger screens not to be forced to zoom back and forth. I would also like a cheaper and bigger reader-only version, that is with no hardware/software to take notes, reduced eMMC storage in favor of external uSD cards, and good network integration supporting both NFS and CIFS. It would be nice for users who either bring their books on a uSD card, or would use the reader in a lab where most documentation files are already shared via local WiFi network.
- rich_sasha 5y ago
  I’d be keen, except I have no time to tinker. As far as I can tell, PinePhones are still very much DIY, might work etc.
- aidenn0 5y ago
  As soon as that is able to reliably show PDFs and ePUBs with decent battery life, I'll probably get one. My phone is too small for some reading content, and the remarkable tablets lack a frontlight.
- pedalpete 5y ago
  I hadn't see this. I've got a Boox Nova3, and though I like it in theory, the UX isn't great. That's the reason I'd consider the Huawei. But also, how long until Amazon makes a kindle that lets me take notes both in the book I'm reading, but also as just a blank notebook....please please...
goosedragons 5y ago
There's already been choice in the 10.3" eInk note pad segment, Kobo Elipsa, Fujitsu Quaderno, Boox Note and Note Air, Likebook P10W, Supernote A5X, etc. It's just such a niche thing combined with most of the devices being Asian focused and remarkable heavy online marketing that makes them seem like the only option.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  They are still relatively expensive in relation to kindles. I really hope the prices get below $200 one day.
  - einpoklum 5y ago
    Whatever Amazon sells you, you're probably paying for it indirectly some other way.
    - netizen-936824 5y ago
      I agree. This is a poor comparison. A product that's subsidized will always win the price war with one that's not
      - hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
        Well, the difference between Kindle Paperwhite and Oasis is just one inch - but you need to pay twice as much. You could say only the former is subsidized - but wouldn't it be in Amazon's best interest to make reading experience more comfortable?
        netizen-936824 5y ago
        Its in Amazon's best interest to offer either convenience or lower price, which is what they do at the cost of treating labor poorly and harvesting usage data. It's comfort and convenience subsidized through suffering
ksec 5y ago
>Remarkable 2 looks neat but so expensive. Now there’s choice. R2 is $399, judging from the EUR retail price of €499 inc. VAT this will likely retail at $499 in US. It is not cheaper than R2.
- chrismorgan 5y ago
  The prices reMarkable advertise are deceptive to the point where I reckon they’re probably illegal under at least Australian advertising law: that price doesn’t include a marker, which is almost essential to the deliberately expressed purpose of the device; so add on another 20%. Most people will also want some kind of cover, which is another 20% for the cheapest reMarkable sells. You’ve got to be careful about this when comparing prices of different products, because they include different things. It sounds like Huawei’s will include a stylus and cover for that price, which does make it a little cheaper than reMarkable’s equivalent bundle.
  - smilespray 5y ago
    Also, if you want basic features like cloud sync and handwriting conversion, you have to sign up for the $8/mo subscription. Which is why hell will freeze over before I purchase a reMarkable. Incidentally, the free plan offers something called "50-day sync", which is described like this: "Without a subscription, you can still use the cloud to store and sync your notes. However, files will stop syncing to the mobile and desktop apps if they haven’t been opened in the last 50 days. They’ll still be automatically stored on your paper tablet." Just to be clear: This is a feature designed for the marketing department, not for users. The marketing people get to say that "we offer free cloud sync", while reducing users' trust in the cloud sync significantly enough that they feel obliged to sign up for the paid subscription. It's infuriating.
    - robga 5y ago
      > if you want basic features like cloud sync and handwriting conversion, you have to sign up for the $8/mo subscription. You don't "have to" for cloud sync. Remarkable is a fairly open platform and there is a vibrant open source community surrounding it. You can use a tool like the Remote Connection Utility [0], with support for $12pa. "RCU ensures the user's data is never out of their control, completely unshackled from the manufacturer's proprietary cloud.". There are other tools. I can't speak to handwriting conversion as I don't use it, but I suspect they don't have any secret sauce and that any 3rd party recognition app can deal with the content if provided in a standard format. I sure wouldn't be wanting boox or Huawei clouds to scan my raw text. [0] http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/ http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
d4rkp4ttern 5y ago
It all comes down to the paper like writing feel + latency. Several contenders have been compared to RM2, but RM2 has consistently won out. Curious how this one does.
- Loic 5y ago
  The A5X from Supernote is now to the point that I personally have the feeling it writes as fast as paper[0]. [0]: https://old.reddit.com/r/Supernote/comments/rkw00t/a5x_chauvet_216_latency_wow/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Supernote/comments/rkw00t/a5x_chauv...
lhl 5y ago
I've been using a Onyx Boox Note 3 for a couple years now (I previously had a Remarkable 1 but it didn't stick for me) - it has Android 10 (w/ Google Play support) and even an SDK for responsive writing for 3rd party apps. It's been great for taking notes, and adequate for reading books and papers (although even a single color for highlighting would be a huge improvement). Note, that Onyx is notorious for violating the GPL (it doesn't release kernel sources), while reMarkable is not only compliant, but much more hacker friendly in general: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable But there are also other companies/products Boyue Likebook, Ratta Supernote, Quirklogic Papyr, Fujitsu Quaderno that compete in the e-ink notepad space as well. I'm keeping an eye on the Bigme Carve Color personally, which basically has all the hardware specs you'd want and color (Kaleido 2) to boot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydo5FtSt_qQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydo5FtSt_qQ For those looking at color, it might be worth waiting a few months to see if 1) if the Reinkstone R1 is actually vaporware or not (it has an alternative DES that looks like it provides better looking color, but is being developed by a questionable Chinese company that's been best by delays) and if eInk's Kaleido 3 is a significant improvement. For those interested in the relatively niche world of e-ink devices, I highly recommend MyDeepGuide as a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/c/MyDeepGuide/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/MyDeepGuide/videos
- DenisM 5y ago
  Which one has the best DPI?
  - leemailll 5y ago
    Sony
  - lhl 5y ago
    Almost all of them use the same E Ink displays and have the same resolution/density. The newest ones use the Carta 1200 panel which improves response/updates, not resolution. Here's a reasonable chart of pixel density: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink#Comparison_of_E_Ink_displays https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink#Comparison_of_E_Ink_disp...
chrisweekly 5y ago
Choice is good! But while ofc YMMV, IME the ReMarkable2 is priced very reasonably; it immediately became part of my daily workflow and has had big ROI for me.

morsch 5y ago

RRP €499 (around $558) according to https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/28/22954498/huawei-matepad-paper-e-reader-e-ink-price-news-features-m-pencil-stylus https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/28/22954498/huawei-matepad-p...

DocTomoe 5y ago
Hm, is that really a competitive price these days? That's more than 130 Euros more than an entry-level iPad... which has a long and good track record.
- can16358p 5y ago
  It's not the same thing. I think the target use cases are different. The e-ink and pen input combination is really trying to create a paper-like experience (which's great for reading and taking notes). On the other hand iPad is more general-purpose powerhouse for pretty much anything, but if I'm between this and iPad for reading some books I'd prefer this. And I use/love an iPad Pro+Apple Pencil. Still would consider this for my long book/blog/paper reads.
- mellosouls 5y ago
  The Matepad seems expensive though is comparable to other large eInk readers, but the iPad certainly doesn't have a track record as a dedicated (eInk) e-reader. Two very different things here.
- rjsw 5y ago
  Similar price and specs to the PineNote.
- dspillett 5y ago
  The iPad probably moves a lot more units though due to more general appeal. There are economies of scale that e-ink devices don't currently benefit from. Also if you try buy an e-ink screen as a part for a project you'll see a difference in price, which will no doubt be a factor too (though the difference you or I pay for a single unit might not be entire indicative of what is paid for bulk/regular orders by manufacturers).

TekMol 5y ago

Will it have a browser? It would be great for reading HN, coding, writing if I could use it with a browser. I do all these in the browser and I only need black and white and no fancy tools. So even if the browser is much slower than on a desktop, it would still be great.

martin_a 5y ago
People usually recommend the "Boox" devices for that. As they are running on Android you can therefore, after activating it, access the Play Store to get a browser running... Maybe that's the way to go.
- goosedragons 5y ago
  You don't even need to activate the Play Store. They include a browser out of the box.
- tluyben2 5y ago
  Second the Boox; unfortunately there are gpl violations which is a shame, but I got an A4 sized one before I knew that and I use Pocket to read online stuff offline and use the built in reader to read books and work on papers (the dual note/read view is lovely).
  - martin_a 5y ago
    Don't you find the A4 ones to large? I've been looking into these devices to replace my handwritten notebook but also for reading and so on. I think 10.3 inch might be better suited, what's your take on that?
    - tluyben2 5y ago
      I really like big screen because I read mostly papers. And I need to write in the margin for that.
- schwartzworld 5y ago

pastrami_panda 5y ago

With all the events happening right now I find it really hard to justify buying products made in China/Russia/Belarus. This product looks great, but I'll never have a clean conscious knowing my money is by extension financing terrorists.

sofixa 5y ago
Why are you lumping China with the actual invaders? There's the Taiwan mess, and China don't participate in the sanctions regime, but it's not the same thing as actively invading. ( For the record, i think that sanctioning Russia is the morally correct thing to do)
- pastrami_panda 5y ago
  It's simply because it's way overdue. China does countless things I can't support and for me this was the stick that broke the camel's back.
- dspillett 5y ago
  While not on top of the news cycle, the continuing un-freeing of Hong Kong, the treatment of the Uyghur population, and likely a number of other things, qualify for pastrami_pasta's “happening right now” description.
- intricatedetail 5y ago
  They are committing genocide, run concentration camps and forced labour. They actively threat Taiwan. That's more than enough to justify avoiding them.
  - mcdonje 5y ago
    They are not committing genocide. https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/A/HRC/41/G/17 https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/A/HRC/41/G/17
    - SamBam 5y ago

brk 5y ago

Will this product be affected by the US bans on Huawei?

e-clinton 5y ago
Highly likely, but remember those bans affect the government, not private citizens. You’re free to buy Huawei products.
- mtmail 5y ago
  And government contractors. We got a questionnaire asking if we use any Huawei products at our company.

intricatedetail 5y ago

The last thing I want is CPC reading my notes. Unless device can be loaded with trusted OS and air gapped I wouldn't take it even if they paid me.

murat124 5y ago
You mean CCP (Chinese Communist Party). Edit: Turns out officially it is CPC. English abbreviation is CCP.

coliveira 5y ago

Finally a company cracks this market. This is a beautiful device, I'll get one as soon as it is available.

talkingtab 5y ago

CyanBird 5y ago
So this should be the bar for all inqtel funded startups now?

phantom_oracle 5y ago

I wanted to build my own e-ink tablet as I prefer OSS. The issue that makes e-ink tablets not worth building? The expensive displays that cost between $150-$300 for 7-8 inch screens, excluding shipping.

jll29 5y ago
I would like to have an e-Ink notebook for professional reading/writing/editing (no video/games). ARM, 8 GB RAM, 64 GB persistent storage (SSD or SD card. 10" or 11" e-ink screen, good-quality physical keyboard, light, rugged, portable). Should be OSS powered, of course (Linux preferred).

murat124 5y ago

Looks great but I have trust issues. I would consider if it didn't have microphone (it has 4) and if it supported working offline.

Demcox 5y ago
> it has 4 A freaking eInk tablet with microphones what the hell lol edit formatting...
- npteljes 5y ago
  They have a function for it. From TFA: "Capture detail in every meeting with audio recording and notes. Make a mark on your recording while taking notes, then tap on the mark to play the exact audio clip. Review your content more clearly and efficiently."
  - SamBam 5y ago
    This is pretty clever. If I recall, the LiveScribe Smart Pen had/has this feature. You just draw some symbol and tap it, and it inserts a voice recording at that spot. Surprised this isn't standard on these products now.
    - rjzzleep 5y ago
      I have a hisense eink pocket reader(5.84") and it has an eink refresh button. It's hisense's degoogled android(only support chinese and english and some menus have weird grammar). But what's interesting is that if you hold the extra button it launches into a notes app which has dictation and unlike googles own dictation it does a pretty good job at capturing both chinese and english without needing to switch. I didn't try it for longer than a couple of sentences, but in general it's an interesting idea. It does have a lot of very nice eink optimizations that other devices don't have. Contrary to huawei however this device has a snapdragon and allows unlocking the bootloader. There is however no dev community around this device and I don't feel like fixing the headphone amp. https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/hisense-touch-music-player-hands-on-review https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/hisense-touch-music-pla...

sentrysapper 5y ago

Under specs it lists 2 speakers and 4 microphones.

gbraad 5y ago

The OS looks similar to Onyx Boox's. Wouldn't be amazed if it a collab.

achow 5y ago

I wish Amazon had released one in this size. This goes onto to show how bad monopoly of Amazon is for e-reader category.

AcerbicZero 5y ago

I wouldn’t buy Huawei toilet paper let alone a tablet I might write something on. I made the awful mistake of buying one of their phones back when they partnered with Google for one of the nexus phones. Horrible device, and probably full of communism too.

Loic 5y ago

As an alternative, I am extremely satisfied with the A5X from Ratta Supernote. The latency when writing is as good as the RM2. [0]: https://supernote.com/ https://supernote.com/

dddw 5y ago
Looks nice. Is there a way to use your own sync instead of theirs?
- Loic 5y ago
  I am using it totally offline, I just plug it with the USB cable in my laptop (running Linux) and have a full access on the content to sync as I wish and need. I haven't used their cloud offering.
- Zircom 5y ago
  They support Dropbox syncing and they're working on Google drive support at the moment.
  - TheFreim 5y ago
    They've also stated multiple times that they're working on getting a public developer api, I think it's on their current road map found on reddit.
dotancohen 5y ago
You're satisfied with a device that is accepting pre-orders and hasn't shipped yet?
- Loic 5y ago
  It is my daily driver, I bought and received my A5X early October 2021. I am surprised with your question.
  - dotancohen 5y ago

calrain 5y ago

Shadonototra 5y ago
microsoft windows and apple are also spyware, what is your point?
- pinephoneguy 5y ago
  Stay away from them too.
  - bsd44 5y ago
    I would if Pinephone was able to make phone calls or Librem 5 ever shipped...
    - GrigoriyMikh 5y ago
      As a person who is totally unaware of anything going with Pinephone and other Linux phones, i'm asking -- are they really unable to make phone calls? Or only in some specific cases?
      - lvass 5y ago
        You can't make phone calls in case you only want open source software. GSM Baseband software is notoriously closed and that's practically enforced by law.
sdevonoes 5y ago
Please, it's 2022: anything that is not open source is suspicious of being spyware. We don't even trust our own governments, how on earth are we going to trust any private company (Huawei, Google, Apple, etc.)?
- throwoutway 5y ago

Shadonototra 5y ago

Their own OS, their own hardware, their own brands, their own factories Thanks to our dumb politicians, we produced dumb citizens, with a dumb education

thomasfl 5y ago

Truly ReMarkable. (Pun intended.)

yesbut 5y ago

As an American, I'd rather have a foreign actor spying on me than my own government. The foreign actor has no jurisdiction over me.

xamolxix 5y ago
> The foreign actor has no jurisdiction over me. You can be subjected to blackmail and/or other hostile actions from a foreign jurisdiction.
- thih9 5y ago
  Is that more likely than blackmail and/or hostile actions from home jurisdiction?
  - xamolxix 5y ago
    I don't know what the likelihoods of either are but if I had to guess I would say that yes, hostile third countries are more dangerous than my own country. Also, I consider that I would have more recourse against an actor from my own jurisdiction, I think you have pretty much zero recourse against the government of a hostile third country.
- yesbut 5y ago
  I don't trust even my own government. I'm not *more* worried about China messing with me. The NSA has more info on me that could potentially be used against me than Huawei. And I've never once seen a situation where the NSA digs data out of their vault to help exonerate an American on trial.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
zikduruqe 5y ago
Foreign actor doesn't have to abide by the Fourth Amendment either. They can just show the US whatever they want without a warrant.

parski 5y ago

Chindle

youhavetosayit 5y ago

Remarkable 2 is better, because of the features it doesn't have. The best feature of Remarkable 2 is how quiet it is, it doesn't do anything except for Book reading and note taking. No notifications, no messaging, no email, quiet tech.

wraptile 5y ago
You can turn these all off. Lack of features is not a feature imho - no mather how hard people try to sell this.
- m12k 5y ago
  Twitter exists because you can't write long posts. Snapchat exists because you can't view past messages. Tinder exists because you can't just talk to anyone unless they are interested in you too. Limitations and missing "features" absolutely can be an asset to a platform.
  - dahfizz 5y ago
    To a platform, sure. Limiting what other people can do can shape how a social platform works. For a piece of hardware, not so much.
  - wraptile 5y ago
    You're comparing apples to oranges - those are social networks where multiple people have to come to some sort of consensus, having rules over that consensus sure, can be a feature. I don't need anyone to agree with me to turn off notifications.
    - m12k 5y ago
      Devices with notifications are little skinner boxes for our brains. There's perfectly valid reasons for people to want a device where notifications are not even an option, just like there's valid reasons for alcoholics to not want booze in the house. If that's not an issue for you - congratulations, those devices are not designed for you. But please don't deny others them, just because you don't think they should exist - they absolutely should.

bitL 5y ago

10.3" is too small for a paper replacement - writing notes on such devices is too imprecise if one e.g. annotates PDFs etc. I got the latest Onyx A4 and that's the size that can be finally used to replace paper for all types of documents.

pantulis 5y ago
Is it the Boox Max Lumi 2? I'm considering getting one, any observations?
- bitL 5y ago
  I use it only for reading PDFs, annotating them, writing notes and reading newspapers - for that it's a pretty good device. There might be some warts in a bit non-standard Android interface and also MS Office doesn't work without license (13" is too large for free versions), but overall I am happy.
  - pantulis 5y ago
    Well my use case would basically be reading PDFs and sheet music, not really considering it to take notes. For that it's a bit expensive.

pastaking 5y ago

Good for Huawei. Finally, an affordable alternative to Remarkable.

fluidcruft 5y ago

The screenshot of Home where they're showcasing widgets otherwise looks almost exactly like Boox. Other interactions also look like the Boox software. Not to mention the device looks like an update Boox Air. Are Boox and Huawei related?

SilentM68 5y ago

This could be an alternative to LiveScribe Smart Pen, in a classroom setting, which records audio as you write with it and then allows for immediate audio playback by tapping the section of the written notes that one needs to listen to again. Only difference between tablet and the pen is that the pen requires physical paper notebooks to be purchased once the old notebook is used up. With improved battery life, it'd make a very useful assistive technology in a classroom setting.

macco 5y ago

I am really not an Apple fan, but this website is borderline plagiarism. I would really love if the immense investments of Huawei would bring something genuine to light.

mardifoufs 5y ago
If anything imo it's much closer to the Samsung website than apple's
pphysch 5y ago
...It's a minimal, responsive, functional page for selling a product. Apple didn't invent this any more than they invented the PC or smartphone.

jll29 5y ago

Waiting for the next move, an e-ink sub-notebook.

nemacol 5y ago

>MEMORY ROM:64 GB *The available internal storage may be smaller as part of the internal storage is occupied by software. Memory, ROM(??), RAM all the same thing? Am I misunderstanding or is this not the full picture?

renewiltord 5y ago
4 GiB RAM. Oddly it’s on the features page.
- nemacol 5y ago
  Thank you.

ljf 5y ago

Doesn't it seem odd in the pictures and video the model is holding the pen/stylus as a rather unnatural angle. No shots where the models hand is touching the screen at the same time as the pen. I'd have thought that would be a feature they would want to promote (and would be shocked if this device does not have it), just seems odd.

turtlebits 5y ago

The hardware is a dime a dozen now, what differentiates all these products is the software. I'm pretty skeptical on hardware companies making their own software interfaces. I tried the Boox and while having Android is compelling, the writing experience kinda sucks. I prefer the Remarkable for having fewer but more polished features.

01100011 5y ago
Doesn't the HW have something to do with the responsiveness? Hasn't that been a significant issue with eInk devices in the past, or is that resolved now? In any case, the atrocities being committed in Ukraine have finally convinced me it is long past time to divest myself from Chinese slaveware. I have nothing but kindness for the people of Russia and China but will no longer voluntarily support companies in those countries with my business.
- Groxx 5y ago
  eink responsiveness itself: it's "slow", but much of it is in software. the remarkable demonstrates that pretty well - pen-to-display updates in ~20ms, which is more than fast enough. for further evidence, dasung's eink monitors are stunningly fast because of good software (and surrounding hardware that can drive it all) - they use the same panels as others AFAICT. (i.e. they're using the standard high-end e-reader panels. there are dramatically slower and more limited panels designed for signage, I think we can ignore those - many don't even have partial update support in their hardware) The caveat there is that those fast updates are for black to white or white to black - gray to gray is slower, and accumulates error if you keep doing it (ghosting). remarkable has built their entire UI around this limitation: all UI is black/white, no grays. All tools (except the highlighters) draw black/white, no grays - all the texture is just black/white pixellation patterns. a lot of care has gone into working with the hardware's limitations at every level.... which is something android will never do. other causes of latency often include stuff like aggressive CPU sleeping to make the batteries last weeks. if you get rid of that, and pre-render the next screen, changing screens is something like 100ms or less. in the end you have a pile of tradeoffs that generally mean worse user experience when poking the device to get better user experience somewhere else. which is true of everything.

coolso 5y ago

What’s with all the CCP defenders and shills mass-downvoting and flagging every critical comment in this thread? What are you trying to hide? Instead of downvoting into oblivion Reddit/China-style, why not engage in healthy debate? The tides have turned, the US is finally standing up to China (Biden is following in Trump’s footsteps though not as much as he should) and it’s only going to continue.

GaylordTuring 5y ago

Would it be too much to ask for Hacker News to not promote products made in and benefiting evil regimes such as China and Russia? You wouldn’t allow The Nazipad 2000 to be showen here; what’s the difference?

jklein11 5y ago
Wouldn't it be better for the community to moderate this sort of thing? You can always downvote post. Or even better, you could engage in discourse on how this product is benefiting evil regimes. I'm not sure promoting censorship is the answer here.
advisedwang 5y ago
A huge fraction of consumer electronics are made in China, so they shouldn't be listed here? iPhone is out of scope for HN? Not to mention questions about who gets to decide...

amiga1200 5y ago

Serious question, as I am interested in this device. Huawei has lately been in the news as a security threat. How can I justify using this device, to myself and my company, given the security threat Huawei supposedly represents? No trolls or shills need reply.

deepspace 5y ago
I have had the same question about Huawei products, and have never received any answer that would justify the risk of using one of their devices.

rg111 5y ago

I will not touch anything Huawei with a ten-foot pole. Thanks. But I also hope this will drive down prices.