Remarkable e-ink tablet for deep work

Hardware
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While back I posted negative experience of Kindle Scribe; very good reader but terrible software for note taking. Sold Scribe, started researching, took my time to find friends with e-ink tablets to experience writing on different devices to compare.

Won’t go into detailed pros & cons of different e-Ink tablets, lots of reviews can be found online. Most important criteria to me:

  • security & privacy laws
  • quality build, beautiful design and light weight
  • price

Settled for reMarkable and been using it extensively for 10 days, absolutely love it.

  • quality of device is amazing. Beautiful design, premium look and feel, solid glass and aluminum, thin and light
  • based out of Norway (EU security & privacy). I’m concerned about other brands based outside EU/USA in terms of how seriously they cater for privacy & security laws
  • relatively cheap price. Do these to save more
    • discount code I used for US$40 discount: Home | reMarkable
    • bought Lamy EMR pen which is better yet cheaper than pens sold by Remarkable. Much cheaper pens such as Wacom One, Staedtler digital also work
    • sleeve from Amazon instead of expensive ones form Remarkable. Amazon also sells folios

Amazingly, Remarkable offers full refund within 100 days if not satisfied. I’m NOT returning this!

Best tool I have for deep work, 1 of my best productivity device. I did so much deep thinking and was fully focused, distraction free, doesn’t strain eyes, doesn’t heat up, battery lasts for ages, pen doesn’t need charging or pairing. Love the “pencil scratchy feel” when writing - if you prefer a smoother ink feel then get Wacom One nibs (they are cheap) which also fit in Lamy EMR, even in Remarkable pens.

Replaces all my post-it, Moleskine planners & journals, lose paper. My desk is clean now; haven’t seen my desk tidy before! Another unexpected outcome is that it’s a great conversation starter in meetings, helps me to break the ice early with new customers.

I don’t use book folio, similar to all my Apple devices, I prefer iPhone/iPads/Remarkable to retain their design beauty instead of covered up by cases & folios. Sleeves to transport only.

Get an iPad for emails/calendars/apps/speed/… Only buy Remarkable or whatever e-ink device you prefer as a replacement for paper notebooks and you need a productivity tool for deep work, distraction free, love to think on paper (ability to undo/redo/move with digital paper), love to hand write your notes & ideas. I use Remarkable as a complementary tool to my Mac & iPads. Remarkable is amazing, productive and price that won’t break your wallet; follow what I mention above to save more $. Good luck in your productivity journey.

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I’m loving my scribe. I find that I’m reading a lot more long-form stuff, especially pdfs and non-fiction kindle books. The software still needs a lot of updates to make it properly useful for taking hand-scrawled notes on the documents and books, but I’m sure it will keep getting better and better.

The big screen helps.
And, not being able to swipe left or tight to a more exciting app helped even more.

I can understand why you’d like the remarkable, though. You’re using it for different things to me. My handwriting will never be good enough for me to take handwritten notes. I envy you!

That said, I love that I’m reading more, especially my big expensive kindle books.

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Thanks! I just pulled the trigger !

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Interesting – could you expand on this. Which Lamy EMR model do you use? Is there any hack needed to get it to work with reMarkable?

Katie

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Happy you like Scribe , no doubt it’s a great reader, I did like the screen & speed, but it’s heavier & bulkier. PDF annotation is another major issue with Scribe, have to import PDF a certain way, lack of tools & pen variety, folders, ability to insert pages anywhere within PDF for notes, etc makes it a no-go for me. Just not the right productivity tool, but I’m sure it suits prolific readers very well.

Irony is that since notes are saved electronically, I’m actually improving my penmanship to avoid notes looking like sh** :joy:, ability to undo/erase/inserting pages unlike physical paper helps.

You’ll love it. Hope discount code above works for you.

Lamy Al Star EMR works right out of the box; no hack needed. If you want to use side button to invoke tools then you need this hack if not wrong. Good thing about Remarkable running on Linux and has a lot of hacks available on GitHub.

I bought mine from local Lamy shop. Lamy online and Amazon should have them. Personally prefer Remarkable nibs, then Lamy or Wacom One nibs. All those nibs work on Lamy. They actually feel like writing on paper, SO much better than iPads (even with Paperlike layer).

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What stopped me from getting one is the need of an infinite canvas to process ideas, I know some companies have tried to implement it but because of the limitations of e-ink technology it doesn’t work as smooth as lcd screens. Although, next time I think I’ll get an iPad mini, which is far more comfortable to carry around and quickly jot things.

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iPad is best all round tablet, I have both iPad Mini and iPad Pro. Infinite canvas is great on them. If one only wants 1 tablet then should go for iPad, e-ink tablets has limited features and slower than iPads.

I use Remarkable is a complementary device to MacBook and iPads as mentioned above. Like physical notebooks next to me all the time. Somehow I work better, more importantly think better, with physically writing rather than typing. Somehow physically writing activates the brain better, makes me think deeper, improve memory retention, etc. Instead of having multiple physical notebooks, I just use Remarkable with “commonplace notebook”, journals, meetings, projects and ideas folders. Just a great device to hand write notes and ideas, love the tactile feedback. Sometimes I email from Remarkable my handwritten meeting notes and assigning sections to team members to follow up.

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I wonder, who is linked with this Referral Code, and gets the 40$ for everybody who is using this code!?

https://support.remarkable.com/s/article/How-does-the-referral-program-work

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Since Remarkable recently stopped working on my company’s corporate network (a problem they are aware of and which they state there will be no quick fix), mine has become a costly paperweight!

Just a warning that they have stopped supporting certain types of WiFi used commonly in corporate environments, making the transcribe and email useless.

Back to iPad and Apple Pencil for me, which works great on the same WiFi!

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Aren’t referral links banned here.

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I gotten it from remarkable forum. Doesn’t bother who gets the rebate as long as I gotten my discount. You can go look for and use whatever code to get a discount, don’t have to use one above.

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Not aware of that. I’m no network admin, just a regular employee. I have no issue using wifi at work nor my regular customer’s network.

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Yes, to my knowledge, they are for good reasons.

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What exactly don’t they support? A certain type of authentication?

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I’ll need to read though this thread in detail. Just returned my reMarkable. Nothing wrong with it, I also have the Super Note and kept going back to that. Gave the reMarkable a full weekend and couldn’t fault it. Just prefer the Super Note.

Glad everyone is liking their tools. I might get the Scribe simply because it has a backlight. Other than that, Super Note is great.

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Having tried a Remarkable, I’d say it is very different from an iPad. It really lands with some people and not with others. I think that 100 day return policy is a good idea to get folks to try it out.

I am using a Kindle Scribe just because I wanted a bigger device to read Kindle books on more than a Remarkable-like device. :slight_smile:

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I’m not sure of the exact protocol. All I know is it stopped allowing me to connect (and all my colleagues with a Remarkable) after one of the updates. Our IT department contacted them and they said the only way to reconnect the devices is for us to change to a less secure protocol, which out IT department refused to do. They didn’t get more specific as it was a general email sent out to (mainly non-technical) employees. The only solution has been to use tethering, which is a complete pain.

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Looks like they don’t support WPA3. From the remarkable site:

  • Change the network security settings to WPA2, if you haven’t already. Try the other available settings.

That’s a pretty big issue.

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Lack of feature design / parity for left-handed people means it’s a nope from me :frowning: Even Amazon remembered to accommodate left-handed users with the Scribe.

I haven’t decided whether (in my opinion) they looked at 10% of potential users and decided it wasn’t worth the cost, or whether it just didn’t occur to them to make sure they tested their device with a diverse user base that included left-handed people (which makes you then wonder who else they didn’t include in their user testing :roll_eyes:).

Either way, it’s 2023 and a digital device that isn’t designed to flip (and maintain feature parity when it does so) doesn’t get my vote.

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I am left handed and have been using the reMarkable since it came out. It is an integral part of my life now. It does accommodate left handed people as you can switch the toolbar to the right side and it reverses the writing interface.

On the “Home Screen” the menu bar is on the left, which is actually closer for left handed people.

It is truly a distraction-free work environment and perfect for taking notes, and editing notes. It replaced that pad of paper that always sat to the left of my keyboard. Since I’ve had a reMarkable I have used less than on ream of paper since April 2021 and maybe 2 pads of paper. No sticky notes everywhere.

Another bonus is the companion apps for Desktop, iPad and iPhone. The ability to simply drag any PDF in to the desktop app and start taking notes within seconds is amazing. I use that when meeting wit clients. I drag in a PDF of proposals, reports, emails and reference or just mark em up right there in the meeting. And, on iPhone I can look up info I have taken notes on from anywhere.

It’s a life changer for me. No more sorting leafs of paper and things getting buried. I now have a super-clean desk. ALL of my notes are available when I need them. A person has to grasp the intention of this device and want that distraction-free experience. I can always hop over to my iPad or desktop if I need richer features.

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