ReMarkable 2 Review: No-frills productivity and creativity without distractions
The ReMarkable is a tablet and e-reader designed by a Norweigian company of the same name, designed to emulate paper and pencil-based functionality for notetaking, writing, editing, and sketching.
According to the ReMarkable website, founder Markus Wagner set out in 2013, "to create a device that would offer a pure, paper-like experience, but be connected and limitless."
The result is the ReMarkable, which has now been iterated on a few times to result in the ReMarkable 2, a monochrome tablet that excels at taking and organising handwritten notes, even if it doesn't do much else.
The device comes with the marker and 10 replacement tips, which is good because the tips do wear down relatively quickly. ReMarkable states they last around three months, and although I can't say definitely that this isn't the case, I did see noticeable wear during just two weeks of use on the marker tip
The ReMarkable 2 is a device designed to help you unplug from modern-day digital distractions so you can focus on your workflow (ReMarkable)It boasts the second-generation CANVAS display, which ReMarkable claims is designed from the ground up to feel as close to real paper as possible. In truth, it does a good job - it sports natural Paper-like surface friction, and palm rejection, and is partially powered by E-ink technology.
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The screen is 10.3", with an 1872 x 1404 resolution at 226 DPI. It's readable in sunlight, but it doesn't have much in the way of brightness, making it great to use in bright rooms or outside in the sunshine, but difficult in low-light conditions. This is a frustration, but is also true of pen and paper - so I suppose you can't fault ReMarkable for failing to commit to the tenets of their design.
Writing on the tablet feels just like paper, and the interface is sensible and easy to use. From the main screen, you can add folders, notebooks, and quick sheets, as well as search and sort your current documents.
Documents can easily be tagged and moved by long pressing on them to reveal a menu, and a small menu on the side lets you access filters, favourites, and settings.
Writing on the ReMarkable feels exactly like writing on paper (ReMarkable)When in a document, things are equally straightforward. A menu on the side lets you change between writing, erasing, and selecting, and although it's only a centimetre or so wide, a button shrinks the menu should you want that extra bit of space for writing.
You can select between writing in black, grey, or white, and you can also change the export colour to red or blue, although they won't show up as such on the screen.
When it comes to different strokes, you have a few options - you can use a ballpoint pen, a fineliner, a marker, a pencil or mechanical pencil, a paintbrush, a highlighter or a calligraphy pen. All of these are pressure and tilt-sensitive where applicable.
This makes it great for a multitude of different things, including sketching, painting, or even just making your notes more interesting. The eraser is also intuitive, letting you choose a standard eraser, a selection eraser, or an "erase all" button. The standard eraser acts like a real-life rubber, it's pressure sensitive and can be used to soften dark strokes.
The ReMarkable 2 is thin and lightweight, making it very easy to carry around with you day-to-day (ReMarkable)You can also select things to move them around, copy and paste, and change to standard font text with a keyboard. It has different stroke sizes, and the latency is very low - ReMarkable claims it's a "record-breaking" 21ms.
When it comes to writing on the ReMarkable, it's relatively flawless. It feels just like paper, and the pencils and pens act like you'd expect them to. It's generally a pleasure to use, even if it is a little minimal and fiddly at times, for example, the "select" tool doesn't appear to work on typed text - moving this is a little temperamental.
Because of the type of screen it uses, it needs to periodically refresh in order to stay blank. If you write something and rub it out, it remains there faintly until the next refresh. Because of this, it refreshes fairly often, and this can be a little annoying at times.
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The device has a 3000mAh battery, which initially seemed a little small, however, you absolutely cannot fault the battery life. When in standby mode, it uses virtually nothing - draining around 1% a day. In use, it will last for hours and hours - easily managing upwards of two weeks with relatively moderate usage.
The ReMarkable 2 can also be used as an e-reader, and even lets you annotate documents and PDFs (ReMarkable)The ReMarkable 2 runs a 1.2GHz dual-core ARM processor, with 1 GB of ram and 8 GB of storage. While the hard drive space is ample for this kind of device, the processing is where it falls a little flat, with the device being clunky and laggy when opening menus, entering wifi passwords or inputting text using the keyboard.
In addition, it offers nothing in the way of official third-party app features. This is by design since it's supposed to help you unplug from the digital distractions that we've grown so dependent on, but at times it feels like it's missing core features, particularly when it comes to e-reading, which is minimal and clunky at best.
Despite this, the device looks great and is easily portable, measuring just 187mm x 246mm, and coming in at just 4.7mm thick.
It's light too, weighing just over 400g. There's also an optional Connect subscription, which lets you sync your notes across devices.
ReMarkable 2 Verdict: 3/5
The ReMarkable has been designed with a specific purpose in mind - replacing the inconveniences of pen or pencil and paper, without losing the things that make paper so great. It definitely fits well into its niche, but with the price point being as high as it is it's hard to say exactly where that niche lies.
It promises to be distraction-free, and it is - although a more cynical person might argue that this is just a more marketable way of saying that it lacks much in the way of features. It's also a bit clunky and falls flat in terms of the responsiveness of the operating system.
That being said, it does what it does well. It's flawless to write on, and the screen and marker are well-designed. The only issue is that outside of what it does well, it doesn't really do much at all, especially when compared to devices many people already own, like Kindles, Ipads, and other devices in a similar price bracket.
I can see it being perfect for scribbling notes, whether it be in a meeting or a personal brainstorming session for an artist or writer. I'm not convinced the device would be perfect for writing study notes though since the monochrome screen doesn't lead to particularly eye-catching visuals.
The ReMarkable 2 is available from ReMarkable's website for £279.00
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