reMarkable 2

I have owned remarkable from the first release date and since then have owned the next generation release, we use them at work and I would say we all love using them, the fact that it syncs with all our devices is a great advantage many time I would take note at the office and had left my remarkable on my desk but still have access to the… Read more

information on my remarkable at home or on my mobile phone it's a life saver when you need that info. And the biggest credit is their service and the backing of the product it truly is very unique over many years of using this for both personal and business I only had an issue twice and the service team could not do enough, within days I had new pen delivered and all was sorted. For business users, this is a massive benefit. The team at the office all love it.

ReMarkable Pro stopped working – I purchased a reMarkable Pro a week ago, and while I was happy with the device, it stopped working yesterday. The screen froze and I am unable to reset/restart it. The customer support team initially asked me to charge it for 1 hour and try again, and have now asked me to try charging it for 12-24 hours. I am frustrated that the device is clearly… Read more

not working. I am trying to contact the customer service line - but they only have a chatbot available, which is unable to deal with this problem.

Pretty good - but not worth replacing your ipad with this device – I bought the R2 on an impuluse, having used an ipad pro and apple pencil for years. I enjoyed tactile experience, i liked the simple way it organised notes, and the online portal was useful The erase function was not great however, and it was clunky to add pages to a note book, and move between pages Ultimately I came to the conclusion that it… Read more

wasn't materially better than my ipad so returned it

I also think its too expensive for what it is. The advanced marker and the cases are also very poor value for money also.

There is no reason why simple tech like this should be any more than $500 all in with case and pen

One thing to be aware of - it will take you at least 3-4 weeks to get a refund!! This is unacceptable - and very unusual in Australia to take so long to process a refund for an online purchase. For this reason alone I would strongly recommend against buying this product

Go in with your eyes open – This is an electronic piece of paper. No internet bar your wifi hotspot or connection at home and it has definate ways to do things that take some getting used to. As a free form device or blank peice of paper it is excellent. The company continues to post updates that many others would have used as exceuse to launch another peice of Hardware… Read more

instead taking something that is really well built and adding functionality as they go.

This isnt for everyone but I am incredibly impressed with the build and feel. In the year that i have owned it now i have seen a number of improvements role through that has made this part of my go to work kit each day.

If there is a complaint it is that the covers and add ons cost nearly as much as the unit however i believe that as the following grows the prices should become better. The unit price itself is excellent.

Ok device, but beware of red tape with this company – I purchased a Remarkable 2 and used for about 5 months, at which point the screen broke unexplainably. I reported this to Remarkable and requested a refund (you are entitled to this in Australia if a product has a major failure within its expected lifespan (see ACCC publications)). Remarkable repeatedly refused to provide a refund, and I ended up… Read more

helplessly unable to pursue my case as the company is Norwegian.

My experience while the product was functional:

* Feels nice to write on etc. They get a 5/5 for aesthetics. * The OS is a little glitchy though, and editing quite clunky, zooming in/out is difficult, navigating the file system is ok but immature. I'd give it 3/5 for OS design. * It is very clunky transferring files to/from other platforms. 1/5 for OS integration. * They claim to now have a more user-friendly integration platform now, *BUT* it is proprietary, with continuous monthly payment model. Yuk.

Why didn't they just adapt an existing version of a lightweight Android platform? They have tried to reinvent the wheel on the OS, and done quite a poor job.

very useful device but there may be similar device with better functions out there – I had remarkable 2 since about August 2020. There are many things to like about remarkable 2. Let me start off with something I do not like first. The repairability of this product is almost nil. You can’t go to any random shop to try to have it repaired. There are discussions from different places about how you can go about repairing it but it… Read more

seems most of them will let you end up with a remarkable that’s full of scratches at any spot you tried to handle/fix.

I dropped the remarkable 2 times before. Once, the power button went in and got stuck. Used a very sticky tape to stick it and pull it out. Phew.

2nd time I drop it though, nothing I did got it out. The only solution to this other than using any sort of seemingly complicated process you can find online? It is to send it back to remarkable and forfeit your original product and get a refurbished one for about two hundred dollars.

Just for a stuck button. Two hundred ish dollars is really steep.

So all in all, you really need to give this device the most protection you can give.

The second thing I do not like is the nibs. While the writing experience is so good it is almost therapeutic, the durability is poop. The fastest I ever need to change my nib is within a few hours. Most of the time it lasted me a good week or so with reasonable amount of use. I must add though, my kids use them for their writing practice, and they are age 4 and 8. That may have contributed to the fast wear and tear. Still, to change a nib within a few hours is still too much even with kids though that only ever happen once or twice within this 1 year plus of usage. The nibs are an ongoing expenses though there are also things to like about it. More information below.

Thirdly. The screen is not multi marker usable. In other words. I bought another marker so I can write on remarkable at the same time as my kids. It does not work. It only senses one marker at any point of time. Once the first marker lands on the screen, it does not register the second marker. So with 2 markers, you will still have to take turn writing on remarkable. It’s not an extreme deal breaker but it is kind of a nuisance.

Fourthly. Any magnet behind the remarkable will causes that spot on the screen to be unwritable until the magnet is removed. So please get a case without magnet.

Now, for the things I love about remarkable 2.

I know some people don’t like that it does not have backlight. I love it this way.

I can’t emphasize enough how good the writing sensation is for a digital paper. I am wondering if the soft ridiculous durability of the nib plays a part. If the softness of the nib is a big part of the reason the writing sensation is this good, I am honestly kinda willing to pay for it. There is no comparison there when I use a stylus to write on a glass screen. Remarkable wins the writing sensation by far.

The options for type of writing style is also enough ( pencil , brush, calligraphy etc) I dont have other digital paper to compare to so I can't say if its more than others.

In terms of functionality. I got this device because my family lives in a very small home. I needed to declutter a lot. I don’t want all my kids drawing ( usually they draw with pencil in a book or paper ) to be everywhere. With kid’s drawing too, they always want you to keep it because it is so beautiful right? In the end we have to take photo of those physical drawings and tell them this is how we are keeping it. Then throw the books and paper away. Now though, their drawing is kept in remarkable device. They just swipe to draw in the next page, next and next. No paper and books to keep or reluctantly throw etc. You can view all their drawings in your phone.

Other than leisurely drawing for both kids and adults. I also use the device for writing practise for my kids. Her homework is there. Her school work ( home base learning ) is there, all in one device, instead of a few different books for different purposes and filling up a couple sets through the year, then thinking whether to throw or to keep the cute little kids work efforts for memories. With this device, it is all there. With writing practise especially. If you just have an original file kept somewhere. As long as they finish the set of writing practise, you can just delete it and paste the original file back again for them to re do the practise if they need to. No more set of 100 page book to print just to be use once and thrown.

When I was away. I could upload pdf files to the remarkable app on my phone, for my kids at home to use. My husband needs to make sure the files are synced of coz.

I sometimes have trouble finding books with preferred width between lines or square sizes etc. In this device they have plenty different templates for you to create a notebook file with. It has really been quite convenient.

It is nice to know that I have saved so much space from would be books and papers all in that device. For such enduring time, where there is so much home base learning. This device has really been useful. Also, the drawings my kids left in the device can easily kept for memory’s sake without any effort on my part too. I find it sweet that sometimes I can just go into the app on my phone and see what my kids have been drawing. Occasionally seeing some things that brings a smile to my face. When they draw anything related to my extended family, a screenshot is easily taken and shared to them too.

Other than all the different reasons for writing on it. I like how I can read pdf documents/books/recipes on it. Recipe by itself can be a bit tricky. I digitized some recipe off the magazines and due to the coloured background of the magazine. It does not always look great on the e Ink. In terms of books though, I have not read an epub format yet. On pdf format however, I love it that I can write notes down on the empty spaces of the book.

Look at your shelves. All the manuals you kept for different electronics you have all over your home. Proof of purchases, family medical history files, old school notes kept as refresher, important letters and documents etc. All can be just digitized and kept in remarkable. The whole shelf will be empty, and you just have this one thin device sitting there for anyone at home who wants to access the documents.

I don’t think I use the device how most people would have. It is still already now, to me something I think I would feel weird to not have around.

Unintuitive – I had expected this product to have at least minimal intuitive user interfaces. It doesn't. Its clunky, cumbersome, awkward and basic. The sales materials espouse much that isn't delivered (in my view). For the price it should be heads and shoulders above a tablet. Its simply not even up to a tablets standard. Show details

Remarkable! (See what I did there?) Replaced all my notepads and made me more organised – I'll be frank up front here...I absolutely love this device for two reasons: 1. It's forced me to be better organised and more efficient; and 2. I got rid of all those notepads I used to keep notes/minutes/thoughts/scratchings, etc... So what is the ReMarkable 2? Basically it is an electronic notepad. If you're familiar with a Kindle or… Read more

eReader, then this device uses the same screen technology; eink or electronic ink. This means that unlike the LCD screens in a tablet (an iPad for example) or a laptop, the screen on the ReMarkable has no backlight, in is not colour and refreshes slower than an LCD screen. But this works in it's favour. This is because these screens use minimal power, so the battery lasts for up to two weeks between charges, are very easy on the eye as they do not emit light, but rather rely on the brightness of the room around you and in fact are great outdoors in bright sunlight. Because the device has no back-lighting, it can be mad every thin, thinner than an iPad or any other tablet on the market today.

The ReMarkable is designed to replace a paper notepad so using the device also has the same feel of writing on paper. Unlike typical tablets, the screen has a slight textured feel. It uses a capacitive pen that has replaceable pen tips that give a remarkable (get it!) sensation of writing on paper. The pen tips wear down over time and how often you have to replace the tips will depend on your writing style and individual usage. I've had my ReMarkable 2 for 8 months now and use it daily, and I am on my second pen tip. (The pen comes with a pen tip and another nine replacement tips.) I have heard of some users replacing their tips every few weeks! The pen itself is the size of an ordinary pencil but slightly heavier and feels very balanced, to me it's nicely weighted. I mentioned it's a capacitive pen and this is because internal electronics in the pen guide the device to recognise where the pen tip is in relation to the screen. So depending on the pen type you've chosen, you can angle the pen to shade your drawing for example. I don't know exactly how all this magic works and it doesn't even require batteries. The pen also attaches magnetically to the right-hand side of the ReMarkable. It's quite strong too and I've never had a problem with it falling off, of being knocked off.

The ReMarkable 2 is a very elegant looking device. Its very minimalist in design, with an aluminium frame and no physical buttons apart from the on-off button at the top. The screen is smaller than an A4 piece of paper. There are two types of pens available from ReMarkable for their tablet. The standard white pen or a black one. The only difference being, the black one has a built-in eraser, so like a pencil, you flip the pen around and 'rub-out' what you want to erase. The pen with the built-in eraser is $90!!! more expensive than the standard pen so I kept the standard one. Erasing words using the standard pen is just a matter of selecting the erase tool from the menu, and scribbling over what you want to erase. Not too hard really.

When you're spending money on devices such as this, you want to protect it too so a case is a neccessity. ReMarkable offer two types of cases from their website, and there are third-party sleeves that also fit. The cheaper option is the folio sleeve with is basically a fabric sleeve with a side holder for the pen. An upgrade to the Folio is the Book Folio. This attaches magnetically to the ReMarkable, and the cover folds back behind the ReMarkable - like a book cover. It's available with a rigid fabric cover (which I purchased) or a leather cover. The leather book folio covers are again, quite an expensive upgrade. I really like the fabric book folio as I flip it open like a book and the cover folds behind the ReMarkable nice and flat too.

This is a writing device, and that is all it does. You can't load additional programs on it, there's no web browser and it is not designed for this purpose. While you can read documents such as PDF's that you can upload, including non-DRM protected ebooks, it doesn't have the tools such as dictionaries, etc that dedicated ereaders have such as a Kindle. It does have built-in wifi for downloading software updates and also syncing your ReMarkable with your PC and phone (Android or iPhone). There are eight pen styles (ballpoint, fineliner, marker, pencil, etc) to choose from and three pen widths. There many different templates you can choose from depending on what you're doing (lined template with margin for notes, checklists, story boards, etc) an also the ability to add layers. The menu includes a select tool so you can cut and paste a selection with a notebook or other notebooks.

The software is easy to use and the file structure is folders and notepads. How you structure this is up to you and typically folders contain notepads, or even other folders. It's a good idea to think about how you want to organise your notepads and setup a folder structure that reflects this. I also numbered the folders as this lets me determine the order the folders appear; for example:

1. Work 2. Personal 3. Documents 4. Read on ReMarkable 5. ePubs

Then in each of those folders, I have sub-folders for example 1. Clients, and then under the clients folder I created a folder for each client, and then in each client folder, a sub-folder for the project. I also kept a consistent naming convention for naming notepads; for example when I create a notepad for minutes of a meeting, I name the folder with the date; eg; '2021-08-12 Meeting Notes'. This way they sort in date order. You can see how the ReMarkable has not only made me more organised, but I can easily find what I'm look for because I have a folder structure where I file all my notes. The other thing you can do is search your folders for a notepad. (Unfortunately you can't search within a notepad - that would be great) I believe this is on the wishlist!

The desktop software for PC's and mobile devices allows you to view the contents of your ReMarkable, re-arrnage notebooks and folders and upload documents. The Remarkable automatically syncs with the cloud so all your documents are synced to the cloud and when you open the desktop app, are visible there as well. You can't edit your documents in the desktop however.

There is a plug-in for Chrome and Chrome-based browsers such as Edge called 'Read on ReMarkable' that will push a web-page to your ReMarkable for reading later. Quite a handy tool for downloading an reading articles on the web later on the train-ride home. And lastly, your notepads can be sent via email either as is or converted to text. The writing to text conversion is pretty good, but really depends on the neatness of your hand writing. It's purely a writing to text conversion tool so it ignores drawings and sketches for example. But it's a handy way of starting a document that you can then convert to text for editing in Word later.

As I said in my introduction, I really love my ReMarkable because it has improved my organisation skills and means all my business notes, etc are easy to find. It really does feel like I am writing on paper and because it sits next to me on my desk all the time, I can quickly start a new notebook when I need to, then file that away in it's folder. Then why didn't I give it five stars? Probably for two reasons; firstly it's not cheap. While the device is around $AUD679, you need to buy the pen and you must but a protective cover. By the time you add these in, it's getting close to $AUD900. Now you could buy an iPad or other tablet for around same price, however you will not get the same writing experience from these devices. The other issue is the software needs some polish. The ability to search within a notebook, not just folders would be fantastic and the text conversion does require neat writing for the best result. So I would have knocked half a star for these downsides but I can only do one star, hence the four star rating.

In summary, if your work requires writing without distraction using a device that has the feel of paper, then I would highly recommend the ReMarkable 2.