Amazon’sKindle Scribevalidated that E Ink tablets were becoming truly mainstream by offering one of the most premium reading and writing experiences possible, but it’s fair to say before it, reMarkable was the cutting edge. Well, now the company is taking back its crown with thereMarkable Paper Pro, a larger 11-inch tablet, with not only a custom color E Ink display, but front lights so that you may use it in the dark, too.
Devices that do less rather than more are in. Whether it’sLight’s take on the modern smartphoneor the variety of different sizes ofOnyx Boox devicesyou can buy, companies are exploring being more deliberate with the components they use and the features they include. In terms ofproductivity tools, reMarkable was early to the idea with its original reMarkable E Ink note-taking device, refined it with thereMarkable 2, and could very well have perfected it with the $579 reMarkable Paper Pro. Here’s how reMarkable’s new device stands out from the competition.
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Despite having many of the same features, these two devices couldn’t be more different. Here’s how they compare.
1The reMarkable Paper Pro has a larger, 11-inch display
Besides the design tweaks reMarkable made to the body of the reMarkable Paper Pro, increasing the tablet’s thickness to 0.2 inches and adding in ridges along the sides so that it looks like a stack of paper, the big difference is the screen. The Paper Pro has an 11.8-inch display that offers a bit more room to work than the 10.3-inch display on the reMarkable 2 or the 10.2-inch display on the Kindle Scribe. The screen also sits centered in the body of the Paper Pro rather than off to one side, with even bezels on the right and the left and a chin of sorts on the bottom.
One benefit of this change, according to reMarkable, is that you may view PDFs at full-size with wider margins for notes, something that wasn’t quite possible without zooming out and losing some clarity on reMarkable 2. Think of it like the shift from a piece of printer paper to a legal pad. If you’re a note-taker, first and foremost, you’ll have more room on a given page before you have to scroll or swipe to a new one.
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2You can finally view documents in color on the reMarkable Paper Pro
The tablet uses a modified color E Ink display
The standout feature of the reMarkable Paper Pro is its ability to display color text and images rather than the grays and blacks of the reMarkable 2 and other traditional E Ink devices. That’s thanks to a custom display reMakarble built on the back of E Ink’s Gallery 3 tech called Canvas Color. The new screen can display up to 20,000 colors thanks to the ability to layer and blend colors together, and the Paper Pro seems to handle color just as smoothly as normal grayscale doodles.
Gallery 3 is an unusual display pick for a consumer device.
Gallery 3 is an unusual display pick for a consumer device. So far, most color E Ink eReaders and tablets have used a display technology calledKaleido 3or it’s sibling, Kaleido Plus, because of their faster refresh rates.Gallery 3is technically able to reproduce brighter, more saturated colors, but at the cost of a much slower refresh rate. That means, for example, that the reMarkable Paper Pro should look better than the Kobo Libra Colour when it comes to displaying comics or PowerPoint slides. How reMarkable got around the limitations of Gallery 3 is likely one of the modifications the company made, but at first blush, based onThe Verge’s hands-on timewith the device, it sounds like it just refreshes the display more often.
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3The reMarkable Paper Pro is front lit so you can use it night or day
A different take on lighting E Ink
The reMarkable 2 was great to use in direct sunlight, but suffered any time you needed to use it in a dark or dimly lit space because it featured no backlights. If you needed to look at the screen, you needed a lamp. Amazon improved on that with the Kindle Scribe by including 12 front lights with adjustable color temperature, which instantly made the tablet more usable. With the Paper Pro, reMarkable is finally embracing front lights too, but with a twist.
ReMarkable’s justification for not including any kind of reading light on previous tablets was that it increased the distance between your stylus and whatever you were writing or drawing, so its new front lights are flexible and ultra-thin. They’re also not incredibly bright. ReMarkable claims they should put out three to four nits of brightness (compared to the thousands of nits from a smartphone), enough to illuminate what you’re writing on in a dark room, but not enough to shine on your face or anyone around you. Whether that’s enough for most people will require some testing, but it’s certainly unique.
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4Low latency gets lower on the reMarkable Paper Pro
The writing is still buttery smooth
The writing experience has always been dynamite on reMarkable’s devices, smooth, with just the right amount of friction on the front screen to feel like you’re writing on super rigid. Somehow, the reMarkable Paper Pro offers 40% lower latency than the reMarkable 2, meaning the writing experience should feel even more instantaneous than it did before.
That translates to a 12ms delay between your stylus moving across the reMarkable Paper Pro and a line appearing, no doubt helped by the texture of the glass display (previous models used a plastic film) and the new nibs reMarkable developed for its styli. In my experience, the Amazon Kindle Scribe and the Ratta Supernote Nomad got pretty close to being as satisfying to write on as the reMakrable 2, so it’ll be interesting to see if the improvements made with the Paper Pro will push things to the next level.
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5The reMarkable Paper Pro has a new keyboard and stylus
Accessories are getting slightly more premium
The reMarkable Paper Pro would be nothing without its accessories, and reMarkable did make a few tweaks. The Marker Plus, a stylus with an eraser on the end so you don’t have to go digging through menus, has a new finger grip, and more importantly, redesigned nibs that should last longer before they get worn down, one of the biggest annoyances of the reMarkable 2. The Folio case of the reMakrable Paper Pro also comes in more colors and materials, and can auto-wake or sleep or device with magnets, something glaringly missing from reMarkable’s past devices.
The best update might be to reMarkable’s Type Folio, another cover with auto-wake or sleep skills, this time with a built-in keyboard. In comparison to the older Type Folio reMarkable sold, the new Type Folio has roomier keys, with actual palm rests, and a much sturdier stand for adjusting the angle of the Paper Pro while you’re typing. It’s still price-y as ever at $229, but it seems like it’s gotten closer to being worth that price this go-around.
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The reMarkable Paper Pro could be your next and last notebook
There’s no denying that the reMarkable Paper Pro isn’t going to make sense for many people. At $579 with a basic Marker stylus, or $629 with the Marker Plus, the Paper Pro doesn’t compare favorably to most normal tablets. You’ll be able to do more on aniPad, and you might very well prefer how it displays color images. But like all other devices in the burgeoning “distraction-free focus” space, it’s really about what the Paper Pro can’t do and whether you’ll be better off doing less.
reMarkable Paper Pro
ReMarkable’s new Paper Pro brings color E Ink and front lighting to the company’s already excellent note-taking tablet experience. With a starting price of $579, it’s undeniably expensive, but you’re getting lower latency and an even bigger display.
The reMarkable Paper Pro is available to order now and, due to high demand, currently takes 10-21 business days to ship. If you’re looking for a new productivity tool you may have right now, there are plenty ofother note-taking tabletsto consider.
