I have had RM2 for almost 4 years and I am using it as a scratchpad every day. But I won't be jumping to RMPP, it moves in the wrong direction. I needed decent text recognition and search, better scrolling, better sync. Not larger size and colors.
When I bought the RM2 it was without subscription. I dislike their cloud pricing and the lack of any features in the web UI.
Ideally I would like to have LLM integration, they can send a screenshot of the scratchpad to the model as context, it would be able to parse text and mind-maps from image.
I dislike the subscription too, I also purchased my RM2 before that came into effect. I purchased an RMPP and my “feature license” for lack of a better term did carry through.
I tried RMPP for a weekend and decided not to stick with it. Honestly, it doesn't even come close to how good my Note Air 3C* is. Being an Android device allows you to perform customization especially regarding setting accessibility features beyond the basics.
* I understand that some people have concerns about the brand's security practices and affiliations, but I went further and completely locked it down from public cloud features.
I think the remarkable is better because it's not a full tablet.
It's an incredibly good scratchpad and is fine for reading papers. The epub reflow and layout is incredibly slow though, and PDFs suck because you can't resize them.
If I didn't have kids/made more money I'd probably buy the Pro but that's not my life now.
My experience largely mirrors the OP's. I find reading and writing in darkness to be very pleasant with the new backlight, but YMMV. Lack of backwards compatibility with my existing RM2 styli is somewhat annoying, but I'll deal. The RM2 was a huge improvement over the original Remarkable; the RMPP is a smaller, but still substantial, improvement over the RM2. If you can afford it, I recommend it.
While I really like the color, and IMHO the back-light works quite well in my eyes, there are a couple of shortcomings of the RMPP and reMarkable in general which are barely mentioned, but which you should know if you consider buying one:
- while the total resolution is slightly higher on the RMPP (229 PPI) compared to RM 1/2 (226 PPI), the effective resolution is lower, especially for ebooks/PDFs. When you have text on say grey background you can barely read the text on the RMPP while there is no problem on RM 1/2.
- starting with RMPP there is coil whining (not loud but you hear it in quite settings)
- while the advertising sais "Can render 20,000 colors", you have actually a very limited number of colors when it comes to one pixel. Colorful images or highlighted text is being rendered quite coarsly as on those cheap 7-color e-ink devices (but faster and with higher resolution)
- you can't use the (quiet expensive) pen which works for RM 1/2
- the software feels quite unfinished in a lot of aspects. This is hard to summarize of course but includes very slow processing of and poor interaction with ebooks/pdfs or the close to non-existing integration of typed text.
- without the cloud it's hard to get documents on your device. The web interface is fiddly and for some documents it simply doesn't work.
On the plus side you get root access on a relatively native Linux system and there is a community providing cool stuff [0]
As someone trying to move away from dead tree paper and towards digital (but hasn't quite found a cozy spot with those e-readers like kindle). What is so good about ReMarkable? I would never use it for writing only reading white and black text with no images
IMHO the best thing about the ReMarkable is that it's an "open" device rather than a locked-down uber proprietary system like Kindle. They give you the root password to the device and you can use or write third-party tools if you don't want to pay for their cloud subscription. They have a browser extension that makes it super easy to send articles/web pages to the Remarkable for later reading, and it has built-in integration with Google Drive (which doesn't require the subscription!) so it's pretty easy to get content off and on to the device. I also use rcu[1].
I love using my Remarkable as an e-reader. I've never been one to "write in the margins" because I like to keep my books clean, but this has been a surprising great feature of the Remarkable to me. I can write all over the PDF or epub and it saves as a copy (instead of overwriting the original).
If you're only going to read on it, and only white and black text, I'd recommend a Remarkable 2 instead as it's much cheaper.
An important caveat: I refuse to buy DRMed media, so all my e-books work on any device. They are almost entirely epubs or PDFs. If you buy stuff from the Kindle store then you won't be able to read them on the ReMarkable unless you strip the DRM.
For what it's worth, Kobo is similarly open with tons of hacks and add-ons for their devices. They do have a store but you can just not use it and even sync books from your own server running Calibre-Web if you want.
Before I got my rM2, I carried two paper notebooks with me everywhere - one for work and one for everything else. I also carried a nice fountain pen in a sleeve for note-taking.
After getting the rM2, I carried it. All of my notes are there, they're sharable from "the cloud", and I screen-share with it on Zoom calls for work when there's a need to diagram.
> What is so good about ReMarkable?
All of their products are, first and foremost, an "electronic paper notebook". They're designed to replace physical pen/pencil-and-paper. If that's what you want to use it for, you'll be happy with it.
> I would never use it for writing only reading white and black text with no images
I'd steer you toward an rM2 then, unless you absolutely need the backlight. They seem to be going for about $300 in like-new condition on the used market, so now is a good time to buy.
As for using it as an eReader, they work well in some cases and adequately in others.
PDF support is excellent - >90% of my eBook collection is uploaded to my reMarkable account in PDF format. It looks exactly the same on the device as it does printed, navigation works, and documents are easy to "mark up" using the pen.
EPUB support is... well, adequate. I think it's running a script in the backend the first time you open an EPUB file that converts it to PDF. Changing the font size does the same. For the rM2, this process could take a second or so for most documents and up to about 15 seconds for 500-ish page books. I've not empirically tested this, but the RPP seems to be much faster in this regard.
Note that DRM is not supported. That means you'll have to do the import/strip/export dance with Calibre if you have a collection of Kindle books to transfer.
There are also no integrated "stores", so you'll have to acquire your files elsewhere. I use Kobo for a lot of things. If Kobo doesn't have it - or if they don't have it DRM-free - I try to buy directly from the author. Failing that, I'll buy it on Kobo or Amazon then go download a PDF from libgen or similar.
The main advantage is just focus. ReMarkable is an eInk tablet that's only really good at writing and passable at reading so you're not going to wander off to the web or something. This model has some uniqueness from the kind of color eInk display it has but if you don't care about that you're probably better off with a Kobo Elispa, some model of Boox or the Kindle Scribe.
But for READING I would not go for a ReMarkable. They can't do Adobe DRM'd ePubs, they can't do library books and ePub support in general seems really subpar. Makes way more sense to get an Elispa or Boox model.
My understanding is that it is excellent for handwriting notes, which feels like writing on paper (and not like on glass). I read books on my Kindle because RM is too expensive for me and I don't like the idea of having to pay their subscription fees.
I have been really interested in this device, but the proprietary stylus really turned me off. In addition to not working on any other e-ink reader/notepad, it is a mystery to me why they went with a stylus technology that requires charging.
I think you've been misinformed - ReMarkable pens have replaceable nibs (tips), because they get worn away as you use them, but they are not powered at all (unless there's a new aspect to the Pro's market that I'm not aware of?)
For what it's worth: the reason it needs those tips is they are what helps it feel like writing on paper, but the tips can be put into third-party stylos - if you search Reddit or elsewhere you'll find plenty of people discussing alternatives.
I am aware of the replaceable nibs, and I don’t have a problem with those. I have a Remarkable 2 and I use it practically every day. I replaced the nib with a titanium one and it feels very similar to a ballpoint pen writing on a clipboard.
The new marker requires charging. It is not compatible with the Remarkable 2 or other e-ink tablets like the Kindle Scribe. Look at the features on the store page, both the Marker and Marker+ talk about wireless charging.
Also, from their FAQ about the Marker:
Will other digital pens work on reMarkable Paper Pro?
No. The new Markers have been custom-built for reMarkable Paper Pro’s Canvas Color display. Other digital pens, such as the Markers for reMarkable 2 or those developed by third parties, aren’t compatible with reMarkable Paper Pro. For more details, see our compatibility guide.
One of the author's primary complaints about their prior ReMarkable was the poor pressure sensitivity while sketching. So there's an argument to be made that switching tech to make it better for sketching is worthwhile. The argument would land better if they actually succeeded at the goal -- the reviewer found an improvement, but not a great improvement.
My understanding is that the company is saying they went with the new stylus technology because the old tech was wacom and if they had stuck with that, as well as adding in front light, the pen-to-screen distance would have increased past where it is on the rm2. With the current tech they have made it essentially the same (maybe slightly smaller I believe), and since they heavily lean on the writing experience for these tablets I am guessing that distance was a deal-breaker with regard to sticking with wacom. Now is that the whole truth? I can't say as I don't have a full understanding of the engineering involved in these touch layers, but it at least sounds plausible to me.
Microsoft did a similar switch with their surface tablets, which were initially wacom based, and switched to a different tech that also required batteries in their pens, so this isn't without precedence.
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When I bought the RM2 it was without subscription. I dislike their cloud pricing and the lack of any features in the web UI.
Ideally I would like to have LLM integration, they can send a screenshot of the scratchpad to the model as context, it would be able to parse text and mind-maps from image.
* I understand that some people have concerns about the brand's security practices and affiliations, but I went further and completely locked it down from public cloud features.
How hacker-friendly is the Note Air? Is it heavily locked-down or is it more on the open side?
It's an incredibly good scratchpad and is fine for reading papers. The epub reflow and layout is incredibly slow though, and PDFs suck because you can't resize them.
If I didn't have kids/made more money I'd probably buy the Pro but that's not my life now.
- while the total resolution is slightly higher on the RMPP (229 PPI) compared to RM 1/2 (226 PPI), the effective resolution is lower, especially for ebooks/PDFs. When you have text on say grey background you can barely read the text on the RMPP while there is no problem on RM 1/2.
- starting with RMPP there is coil whining (not loud but you hear it in quite settings)
- while the advertising sais "Can render 20,000 colors", you have actually a very limited number of colors when it comes to one pixel. Colorful images or highlighted text is being rendered quite coarsly as on those cheap 7-color e-ink devices (but faster and with higher resolution)
- you can't use the (quiet expensive) pen which works for RM 1/2
- the software feels quite unfinished in a lot of aspects. This is hard to summarize of course but includes very slow processing of and poor interaction with ebooks/pdfs or the close to non-existing integration of typed text.
- without the cloud it's hard to get documents on your device. The web interface is fiddly and for some documents it simply doesn't work.
On the plus side you get root access on a relatively native Linux system and there is a community providing cool stuff [0]
[0]: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
Deleted Comment
I love using my Remarkable as an e-reader. I've never been one to "write in the margins" because I like to keep my books clean, but this has been a surprising great feature of the Remarkable to me. I can write all over the PDF or epub and it saves as a copy (instead of overwriting the original).
If you're only going to read on it, and only white and black text, I'd recommend a Remarkable 2 instead as it's much cheaper.
An important caveat: I refuse to buy DRMed media, so all my e-books work on any device. They are almost entirely epubs or PDFs. If you buy stuff from the Kindle store then you won't be able to read them on the ReMarkable unless you strip the DRM.
[1]: https://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
After getting the rM2, I carried it. All of my notes are there, they're sharable from "the cloud", and I screen-share with it on Zoom calls for work when there's a need to diagram.
> What is so good about ReMarkable?
All of their products are, first and foremost, an "electronic paper notebook". They're designed to replace physical pen/pencil-and-paper. If that's what you want to use it for, you'll be happy with it.
> I would never use it for writing only reading white and black text with no images
I'd steer you toward an rM2 then, unless you absolutely need the backlight. They seem to be going for about $300 in like-new condition on the used market, so now is a good time to buy.
As for using it as an eReader, they work well in some cases and adequately in others.
PDF support is excellent - >90% of my eBook collection is uploaded to my reMarkable account in PDF format. It looks exactly the same on the device as it does printed, navigation works, and documents are easy to "mark up" using the pen.
EPUB support is... well, adequate. I think it's running a script in the backend the first time you open an EPUB file that converts it to PDF. Changing the font size does the same. For the rM2, this process could take a second or so for most documents and up to about 15 seconds for 500-ish page books. I've not empirically tested this, but the RPP seems to be much faster in this regard.
Note that DRM is not supported. That means you'll have to do the import/strip/export dance with Calibre if you have a collection of Kindle books to transfer.
There are also no integrated "stores", so you'll have to acquire your files elsewhere. I use Kobo for a lot of things. If Kobo doesn't have it - or if they don't have it DRM-free - I try to buy directly from the author. Failing that, I'll buy it on Kobo or Amazon then go download a PDF from libgen or similar.
I agree I think this is what it's doing behind the scenes. If you use the pen to mark up the book, it will be also saved as a PDF.
But for READING I would not go for a ReMarkable. They can't do Adobe DRM'd ePubs, they can't do library books and ePub support in general seems really subpar. Makes way more sense to get an Elispa or Boox model.
Deleted Comment
and USI seems to be about interoperability https://universalstylus.org/ , at least within that ecosystem.
For what it's worth: the reason it needs those tips is they are what helps it feel like writing on paper, but the tips can be put into third-party stylos - if you search Reddit or elsewhere you'll find plenty of people discussing alternatives.
The new marker requires charging. It is not compatible with the Remarkable 2 or other e-ink tablets like the Kindle Scribe. Look at the features on the store page, both the Marker and Marker+ talk about wireless charging.
Also, from their FAQ about the Marker:
Will other digital pens work on reMarkable Paper Pro? No. The new Markers have been custom-built for reMarkable Paper Pro’s Canvas Color display. Other digital pens, such as the Markers for reMarkable 2 or those developed by third parties, aren’t compatible with reMarkable Paper Pro. For more details, see our compatibility guide.
They have introduced a new, proprietary stylus that requires charging. And it’s incompatible with any other device, including previous ReMarkables.
Microsoft did a similar switch with their surface tablets, which were initially wacom based, and switched to a different tech that also required batteries in their pens, so this isn't without precedence.