For years, the central ethos of reMarkable has been to get you away from screens and create an experience that emulates the feeling of writing with pen and paper. With its new device, the reMarkable Paper Pure, the company continues the trend of creating a device counter-positioned against phones, iPads, and laptops. As it lacks notifications and multitasking apps, the Paper Pure aims to attract writers, designers, and researchers looking for reading and writing without any distractions.
When reviewing devices, I typically write down or record notes in different forms, across different apps, and, at times, on different devices. But since this device is meant for writing, I thought it would be fitting to write the review itself on the new reMarkable Paper Pure. I have written this whole review on the tablet using its handwriting conversion feature and edited it on WordPress.
The new $399 reMarkable Paper Pure tablet is the successor to the reMarkable 2, which was released six years ago. In the meantime, the company decided to release the $499 Paper Pro with a color screen and a smaller Paper Pro Move with
better portability.
The Paper Pure goes back to basics with a monochrome display in notebook size. It has a 10.3-inch
screen — the same size as the reMarkable 2. But the company flipped the resolution to make the display both wider and shorter. This means more text fits on the horizontal line, both when reading and writing. I’ve tried the reMarkable 2 in the past, and with the new tablet, the writing experience is crisper.
Apart from the hardware revamp, the company included software features that make it easier for you to access content outside of the tablet. It also improved its handwriting search to let you search across notes.
One neat new feature is that you can now sync your calendar to the tablet. This allows you to access meeting details from the calendar icon on the device and then start taking notes within that particular meeting block.
When you’re done, you can convert handwritten notes and share them with one tap. You’ll get a link in your email to access these notes and share them with others. When I use meeting note-takers for transcriptions, I find it helpful to look back on my notes so I can add additional thoughts or follow-up questions to ask later.
You can also share your other notes the same way to access them through email, or access them using reMarkable’s new web app.
reMarkable has worked on improving the outside reading experience with the release of Paper Pure. Now, you can send an article as a native notebook to the tablet, which makes it easier for you to highlight portions, add notes, and send it to the web app. (I wish the company would send articles to a separate folder by default, however.)
The device has improved its performance when working with different documents. You can easily integrate Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive to import and export documents. The documents are imported as a notebook where you can work on them.
The device still doesn’t handle PDFs in an ideal way. When I imported Paper Plane’s review guide, the edges were cut off. While reMarkable supports ePUB, the reading experience is nowhere near that of a dedicated e-reader like Kindle.
reMarkable’s positioning is clear: it’s largely a work device for note-taking, sketching ideas, and reading articles or documents. This device won’t act as an all-in-one gadget for both reading books and taking notes.
I understand reMarkable’s position as an augmentative device with minimal distracting technology. I also see the appeal of just sitting with a device and jotting down ideas. But once I have taken those notes, I might want to easily sync them with my other notes and search across them. reMarkable doesn’t need to add extra AI features to the device, but it would be interesting to see how the company approaches integration with other AI tools after you export the notes.
At $399, the device is not cheap. But the core promise of distraction-free writing works. When I am writing on my MacBook, I admittedly get distracted by apps or by my open new tabs, as if I am opening my refrigerator for snacks. In the past, I would go to a cafe to think about some story ideas, but using an internet-connected device didn’t work. As I used reMarkable Paper Pure more, I became comfortable carrying just that to jot down ideas or start rough drafts, and got more confident that its software could convert my crappy handwriting well, too.
The Paper Pure’s base $399 model comes bundled with a stylus. There is also a $449 bundle, which includes a Marker Plus stylus with an eraser function, along with a sleeve folio in various colors.
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