One of the most divisive aspects of the E INK industry is two types of products, distraction-free or multimedia. The Remarkable 2, Freewrite typewriter, Pomera typewriter, and Fujitsu Quaderno are great examples of distraction-free experiences, where there are no notifications, popups or anything to get in the way of the core functionality. Whereas on the other side of the spectrum are multimedia-based e-readers and e-notes. These devices are heavily customizable and allow users to install apps, access email, and install cloud storage. Most have Google Play pre-installed to download millions of free and paid apps. Onyx Boox, Bigme, Hisense, Meebook and Hyread are great examples of letting users craft their own experiences. When it comes down to it, do you prefer a multimedia experience or something that is distraction-free?
Distraction-free is a new breed of E INK devices that have a singular purpose with nothing else getting the way. You will never see notifications, pop-ups from social media channels, or anything that will take you out of the zone. The Remarkable and Remarkable 2 were always appealing; each generation had a single product being sold, along with a host of accessories and styluses. This made marketing the Remarkable easy since all they had to do was hype up what it could do and how it could change your workflow. The Remarkable is a digital note-taking device or e-note. The stylus provides one of the best freehand drawing experiences in the game, allowing freehand drawing, taking notes, making do-to lists and even annotating PDF files. A rudimentary book-reading app can primarily handle DRM-Free EPUB files to consume your literary thirst.
The Fujitsu Quaderno is also a great example of a distraction-free experience. You can draw and edit PDF files, and that’s it. There is no book reader or cloud service of any kind. This makes it great for Luddites, that want to avoid modern technology at all costs. Many governments and businesses have policies on WIFI and Bluetooth, and Quaderno doesn’t use any of these other than to download the odd firmware update. Security PIN codes can lock and unlock the device. Fujitsu makes A4 and A5 screen sizes and has done two different generations.
A series of digital typewriters with full keyboards have an E INK screen and even fewer features than e-notes. Pomera and Freewrite have based their business around typewriters to write and that it. They appeal to authors and writers who want to avoid reporting on a computer and being inundated with emails, people responding to messages on social media channels or popups for new updates to software and everything else. Plenty of people write books, screenplays and other content on typewriters. There is a massive advantage to E INK typewriters, you can write outside with no screen glare, and the batteries last for over a month. Documents can be saved to your local storage, but they have WIFI to save to cloud storage, which is helpful if you want a backup.
On the other side of the spectrum, you have entirely multimedia E INK products that are more like tablets than e-readers. Due to the limitations of E INK, they can do everything your Samsung Galaxy Tab or iPad can do, just with fewer frames per second. However, unlike your iPad, multimedia devices with e-paper last weeks or months, not days. They can be used in the office, school or a professional setting. The average user can listen to audiobooks, play games, and read all sorts of content. Most of the E INK devices have note-taking functionality; even a few on the market employ colour e-paper, making comics, graphic novels and magazines pop.
Only a few companies provide a more multimedia-centric approach to consumer electronics. Onyx Boox and Bigme are the most prominent and have been around for over ten years. They have a strong track record of making devices and supporting them. They all run modern versions of the Google Android operating system, and it is mostly wide open; you can do most things on them, as you would on an iPad. You can use styluses on most products to draw, take notes, edit PDF files and read books. Most of their models have Google Play installed right out of the gates; you have to enter your email address, and you can install whatever you want. Examples? Libby for library books, Kindle, Kobo, manga apps, cloud storage providers, Microsoft Office and even alternative PDF or writing apps such as Evernote or Adobe Acrobat.
Onyx and Bigme both have E INK control centers where you can heavily influence the overall experience of the products. You can change the refresh rate, saturation, how dark you want the text to be, or even the system text size. This is just scratching the service; they all over very advanced settings if users wish to augment the core settings and make them their own.
There is a middle ground regarding e-readers and e-notes, which could be more distraction-free. Kobo e-readers do not have advertisements or any notifications that get in the way of the core experience. Their entire line of e-readers, such as the Libra, and Nia, are dedicated book readers. In contrast, the Sage and Elipsa 2 are digital note-taking devices that provide more functionality, such as freehand drawing, writing notes or doodling in books. They also have audiobook integration via Bluetooth so that users can buy and listen to audio content on the e-reader. Overdrive integration is also a huge selling book. However, you can only borrow ebooks from your local branch and not audiobooks. Pocket is a service where you can send blog articles and web-based content via browser-based plugins directly to your Kobo. As you can see, Kobo does offer many different services, but not everyone will use them all.
Amazon is an outlier regarding its line of e-readers and tablets. They do have an advertising platform called Special Offers, which blasts you with adverts when the e-reader is sleeping. The Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage, and Kindle Oasis are dedicated book readers that can access over a million paid and free ebooks. The company has Audible integration in select markets, where users can buy and listen to audio-based content on the Kindle with Bluetooth headphones. Amazon also has several services, such as Goodreads, a social network devoted to reading. There are also situational-based services such as translations, Wordwise, an entire line of Kid friendly experiences, and much more. In the United States, if your library uses Overdrive or the Libby app, it does have to Send to Kindle functionality, making borrowing free books from the library a real thing. The Kindle Scribe is a large-screen e-reader with 300 PPI. It was designed to access comics, manga, magazines, newspapers and drawings. Some people like a large screen to read books too. As you can see, Amazon does offer many services, but not everyone will use them all, but there are available.
Wrap Up
There are two extremes regarding E INK products—distraction Free and a multimedia approach. There are benefits to distraction-free since you can get in the zone and be productive, focusing on tasks at hand while not being susceptible to notifications of any kind. Multimedia tablets are the polar opposite; they allow users to craft their own experience, change the core functionality and install and use apps. The middle ground? It does exist, blending the two to create a unique value proposition.
Good e-Reader has been writing about the e-reader, e-note and anything to do with e-paper since 2008. Whenever we write a review or post a new video on our YouTube channel, whether it is an unboxing, review or comparison, there are always two camps, people who proclaim distraction-free is the way to go, and everyone else is wrong, or “it doesn’t have Google Play and a modern version of Android? Pass”
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
