Every morning is a struggle for me. I know I need to write and as I start typing there is an alert on the phone or the laptop that diverts my attention, often to something silly. Before I know it, I have lost many minutes just scrolling through screens that add no value to my life. Interestingly, research shows that an average user today is distracted every 47 seconds and once distracted it takes them over 23 minutes to come back to what they were doing. And it is exactly this that the new Remarkable 2 is fighting.
It is easy to call the Remarkable 2 a tablet with a stylus, but that would be oversimplifying what it actually is — digital paper. Yes, this gadget is paper in its soul and essence. So you write and doodle on it and maybe even use the keyboard to type. And though connected to the web via Wi-Fi to sync and save your files, Remarkable 2 does not have any apps or features that might distract you. Its core mission is to offer you a place where you can collect your thoughts and work without anything else coming in the way. It is this mission the product chases with all earnestness.
So what exactly is Remarkable 2?
The device comes with a detachable keyboard (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Well, it is a thin tablet with an e-ink screen like you would find on a Kindle (review). It comes with a stylus that lets you write on it and a fabric folio that protects the screen. The device is thin and easily slips in along with your other files, folios, and laptop in the messenger bag. There is a keyboard folio too which you need to buy additionally in case you are better off typing your thoughts instead of jotting them down. There is just one button on top to wake up the device and a USB-C port at the bottom to charge, which anyway you will do maybe twice a month. That is pretty much it. This device is as uncomplicated as our lives used to be a few decades back.
Once turned on, you can use the stylus or your finger to create new quick sheets, notebooks or folders. You can start scribbling on the quick sheet right away and select the exact pen style you need. I ended up using the fine liner with a medium tip most of the time along with the highlighter. Interestingly, though Remarkable is all black and white, if you use a colour highlighter, the same shows up in the connected app as well as if you export a PDF of your pages.
The display feels just like paper (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Remarkable 2 does remarkably well in its mission of being digital paper. The feel is exactly like that of pen on paper and soon you start enjoying. However, like paper, you need light to work on the Remarkable. I understand this, but there are times at night when I need to work on something on the bed and it would have been great to have a backlight option for such occasions.
For me, the realisation soon dawned on how bad my handwriting had become over the years. But I doubt I will be able to revive that using the Remarkable and I feel this device will actually get me using real pen and paper a lot more too. There is a significant advantage over pen and paper though. I, for instance, am good at jotting down thoughts in notebooks, but bad at keeping tabs of those notebooks later. But with the Remarkable, all your notes are in one place, organised into books and folders.
It is easy to create new pages and scroll up as you run out of space. I liked how I could select different types of page templates to resemble the kind of notebooks you would buy in real life. You can also use the select text option to move a block of text around or use AI to convert it into typed text with a reasonable amount of accuracy. Once you are done with a page you can mail it to someone or just download it as a PDF from the Remarkable app on your phone or the web. You can use the app to also upload PDFs you would like to work on. You can add more pages, books and folders as you deem fit, though the navigation back to the menu from a page can at times be frustrating making you look for the convenience of an escape button.
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The pen magnetically attaches to the tablet (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
The keyboard works well, but I found the experience a bit slow as you are typing on an e-ink display which has a native latency. So for a fast typist like me, it is a wait for each word to appear after your fingers have left the keys. This is not a great experience for someone used to the speed of a laptop, but I am sure there will be those who won’t mind and find the pace of the Remarkable perfect. Talking about latency there are other times too when this becomes apparent, like when you are moving a selected text around the screen… you can see the block leave a trail. But then this is what you get with an e-ink display.
I used the Remarkable 2 at least two conferences where I was copiously taking notes and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. And a week later, I know exactly where those notes are. And between these two conferences, a week apart, I did not have to charge the tablet even once. It still has about 20% juice left despite this.
However, I did abandon the keyboard after the first week, even though I really loved the folio mechanism which is quite unique. I switched to the fabric cover, which also made the device an easy choice to pack for a week-long trip to New York, where again I used it for a lot of note-taking and ideating.
A distraction free tablet for writers (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
At Rs 43,999 for a bundle with the stylus and basic folio, the Remarkable 2 does not come cheap. However, for those who value the focus a device like this can bring to your life and thoughts this is a small price to pay. With the keyboard cover the cost goes up to Rs 53,799, though I am not convinced this is an accessory that makes sense for a lot of people — it certainly did not for me. Anyway, the pleasure of using this Remarkable 2 is in its pen-on-paper feel and that is what you should relish.
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I recommend this for senior executives, serious students and even writers who are looking to collect their notes as well as their thoughts. This is one of the most innovative products I have used in ages and that is an ode to its minimalistic simplicity.
