tl;dr: reMarkable Paper Pro gets five stars, but it isn’t for me.
For several years I have been aware of reMarkable and their tablet. If you aren’t aware of them, the tablet promises a paper like writing experience and it has a limited set of features to help you stay focused on writing or consuming documents.
I resisted the urge to buy the reMarkable 2, but when I saw the announcement for their latest product, the Paper Pro, I decided to give it a try. The 100-day return policy made trying something complete new to me, risk free.
reMarkable has a very Apple-like out-of-box experience, in the best possible way. The boxes are easy to open with pull tabs, and the contents are nicely displayed. The tablet itself is remarkably (Ha!) thin and light. This was my first eInk device and I was impressed with the clarity of the screen and the ease of reading it. I can see why it may be easier on some people’s eyes, since there is no constant back light.
After opening the packaging I had the tablet, a base-level folio cover, the marker (with eraser), and a flat type-C power cord. Turning it on, attaching the marker and setting up a reMarkable account were quick and easy tasks.
Navigating the user interface did present a couple of small challenges. Taps needed to be a fraction longer than I expected. There is also a slight delay as the display refreshes. Not objectionable but noticeable coming from the land of iPads. Within a day I had several folders and a notebook or two in each.
Handwriting notes was a very nice experience. The textured surface of the screen combined with the nib on the tip of the marker really does emulate the feel of writing on paper with a pen or pencil. Discovering that the OS will automatically straighten a drawn line if you pause the marker briefly after sketching it was delightful. It will also make squares and triangles. I wasn’t able to product a circle.
I was able to add my Dropbox account as an integration, allowing me to transfer files via that service. In order to have some PDF content to consume, I have been hoarding some PDFs of web pages since I placed my order. Scaling them to the screen size requires some pinching and zooming. You can fit them to the screen based on height, or width, or set a custom size. The custom size is done with a pinch-and-zoom motion. The refresh lag while pinching does make getting the size right a bit tricky.
My use case, in broad terms, is to have one place for all my notes. I have tried paper notebooks many times in the past. They always start out purposefully but then I start doodling in the margins, or mixing work notes with personal. Then I am unhappy because the notebook is no longer “orderly”.
I can and do take notes on my computer. But I can’t easily draw or sketch ideas on the computer. I tend to use the back side of page-a-day calendars for note taking. My desk is littered with dozens of small pieces of paper. Some with doodles, others with important lists, some with sketches or ideas. Periodically I sift through and rewrite some to make them neater or to separate the note from doodles or to cull no longer needed notes.
The other use case that reMarkable touts is reading PDF files and marking them up. Turns out this use case isn’t one of my requirements. The friction required to convert a web page or other document to PDF format and then transfer it to the reMarkable, only then to have to fiddle with sizing it, meant I was happier reading the material in its raw format on my computer. I can easily see a lawyer, or researcher making excellent use of the PDF features.
There is nothing wrong with the reMarkable Paper Pro. It is a quality device made for very clear and specific purposes. They set out to fill a niche and I think they have completely succeeded. That niche isn’t one I need to scratch. I am very glad to have tried the Paper Pro–now I know what it is and what it isn’t. I have satisfied my curiosity about it.
Therefore I have returned it for a refund. I give it five stars, and would recommend it to anyone who had the very specific use cases it sets out to satisfy.