The toughest decision I have taken in the past two weeks involves trading in the traditional single-lined yellow notepad on which I jot down notes and thoughts, for the reMarkable 2 writing tablet. It appeared fancy till the moment I began using it. The microwave appeared a luxury till the moment I began using one of those big black machines. With reMarkable 2, the feeling is (almost) the same.
I scribble and I write. All day. My average screen time per day is easily an unhealthy 10 hours to the point of irritating the house cat to walk away. To have a device on which I can only write is refreshing. No social media. No YouTube. No distracting videos of McDreamy head of hair for a slow-ageing, fast-balding man. You get the point.
No glare or backlight
There are several different ink options
reMarkable 2 has been specifically designed to replace paper notes. It’s a new device for the Indian market though the world woke up to its benefits years ago. The device is designed for note-taking and sketching. Combining the traditional feel of pen-and-paper with modern technology, it’s perfect for anyone who has had enough of unnecessary screen-on time.
You may say that this too is a screen. Yes, it is but this is a 10.3-inch monochrome digital paper display that doesn’t hurt the eye and it’s unlike the screen on the laptop or smartphone.
First, a brief overview of the device and what it can do. A notepad is portable and so is the reMarkable 2, which has an incredibly thin and lightweight profile. We are talking about 4.7mm thickness. Portability is, in fact, key, as this tablet can easily be carried through a busy day. It’s almost the same weight as a single paper notebook. I’ve been using it with a cover which offers protection from any accidental drops and scratches.
One of its most striking features is definitely the minimalist, colourless low-latency CANVAS display, partially powered by E Ink Carta technology. Unlike a traditional tablet, there is no glare or backlight and is perfectly readable under sunlight. The screen is designed to mimic the feel of writing on paper.
There is a pen that’s highly responsive and Marker tips are easily available.
Simplicity is key
The idea behind the table is to swap pen and paper for E Ink
Talking about the specs would be doing injustice to what you can achieve with the device. After turning on the reMarkable 2, it takes four-five minutes to finish the setup. Working on this powerful machine is free of pings, dings and browser tabs, right from get-go.
You can simply start an individual page to jot down notes or create a proper folder system to store everything you write down. It’s exactly like you would do if you were to file your notes. You can’t get notifications on it and there’s no app store, making it distraction-free.
This is not Kindle where you read books. But Kindle has its audience despite the presence of the iPad — book lovers who want to do nothing else but read. Similarly, this is for those who want to write.
The importance of writing notes cannot be overstated. Powerpoint presentations are meant to confuse the audience — a bar graph here, an arrow there, a few points somewhere around the screen… corporate hoo-ha. Any organisation that wants to get work done, asks employees to write or type their proposals on an A4-size paper, which is passed around at meetings. Everyone reads to get a fair sense of what needs to be done. One’s thoughts are better marshalled this way. The device thinks beyond what one has been taught to expect of a tablet or phone.
You can attach an optional keyboard
I’m impressed with reMarkable’s accurate and lag-free stylus; it’s the most responsive one I’ve encountered on an E Ink tablet. There is none of that lag or skid found on rival E Ink tablets. It closely mimics the feeling of writing on paper, be it grip or texture.
Consider the many use cases. Usually, I take down plenty of notes, which is possible here. There are moments I need to create storyboards with weird illustrations, which too is possible here. I like to make a flowchart of events… reMarkable accommodates that easily. And it’s always nice to plan on paper.
reMarkable 2 is as slim as a stack of paper
In terms of writing tools, it offers various options to choose from, such as marker, pencil, paintbrush and calligraphy pen, which is turning out to be my favourite because it makes my handwriting look much better. There is also the option to change the thickness of the nib. Since my talent for drawing or painting is close to zilch, I haven’t used this feature much. Whenever a mistake is made while writing, use the other end of the pen to erase (like those school pencils). Since the display uses a different technology, it takes a couple of seconds for what you erase to disappear. Another feature worth highlighting is the ability to convert handwritten notes to editable text. This makes it easy to share your notes with others. Even if you have bad handwriting like me, you can still convert it to readable text. This is a feature that makes text easily searchable. You can add tags to all your notes to make searching easy. It’s an important element if you have thousands of notes saved on the device.
An added layer of convenience is the way the device syncs all the work to the Cloud. This integration keeps your data both safe and accessible on multiple devices. You no longer will lose or misplace your notes. There are integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. So you can smoothly move your notes and PDF files between devices and annotate them on the go.
Things that can improve
No device is perfect and there are a few quibbles rather than disadvantages. Only after using it for a week or so, I realised that the option to have spell-check would have been great but, more importantly, word count because I need to keep notes tight and there are times when this feature is very important. I don’t care much about having too many fonts, so that’s fine.
The optional cover feels quite premium
Combining handwriting with typing can be helpful. The company has thought it through with an optional keyboard (needs to be purchased separately). It’s as spacious as the Magic Keyboard Apple offers for its iPad Pro. It’s clicky, there is good key travel. There’s no trackpad, so you have to use your finger or the stylus, which can be slightly irritating if the note is long and one has to make edits often. I mean, you have to move the cursor manually.
Has life changed?
I have done quite a few hours of writing over a week which would have otherwise taken at least 15-20 days. reMarkable 2 is not a replacement for the laptop or the smartphone or the tablet.
There are times when I get away from everything simply to focus on writing but when the smartphone is around and there is a ding or a tring for emails or messages, I usually end up spending 45 minutes going through my social media feeds after replying to the email with a sentence or two. That’s a waste of time.
The tablet is slim and can be used anywhere
At a cafe, I buy a coffee or two to write and that money shouldn’t be for social media browsing. This is the device that helps in such situations. When I want to move my writing to the laptop, I use reMarkable’s syncing service. Think of the Kindle — it lets you read books and nothing else. And after all these years, it remains the favourite device for many, despite the abundance of tablets around us. reMarkable 2 is following a similar trajectory.
Is it for you?
The answer is remarkably simple. If your workflow doesn’t involve any writing or note-taking, this device is obviously not for you. But there is a large pool of audience who would like to channel their thoughts, make each day productive. The choices I make will not affect the world at large but it certainly will be crucial for my family members and the team I closely work with in office. When I use those memorable yellow pads, I always list possible outcomes in one column, and my estimates of the probabilities associated with those outcomes in another column. The yellow pad allows me to have a questioning mindset. The same is possible here.
Yes, it’s expensive to own a device like reMarkable 2 but there is an audience for it. If budget permits, this is a helpful device to have. In a world packed with distractions and group chats, it’s a pleasure to see a device minus bells and whistles. It offers the golden hour — all day long — for writing.