The Remarkable 2 is one of the best pure note taking devices in the world. The E INK screen and almost 0 latency when drawing, really makes this a compelling product. Many people pre-ordered one and have already received it, while others got it as a Christmas gift. Here are the top things you need to know about the Remarkable 2.
Security – You can keep your writing slate secure from family members and other people who might pick it up. You can establish a numerical passcode to unlock it. In order to connect your Remarkable to your PC/MAC and transfer data, you need the Remarkable app. This ensures that nobody can plug it in and drag and drop your files with Windows Explorer. The company also offers a companion for Android and iOS, which does much of the same thing as the Desktop version.
Distraction Free – Remarkable bills it as distraction free and they are not overselling it. There are no notifications of any kind. Remarkable is purely geared towards reading ebooks, viewing and editing PDF files and freehand drawing. There are no apps, an internet browser or games. This ensures that it does what it was intended to do, without cutting any corners.
Excellent Drawing Experience – Remarkable has two products in their portfolio, the first generation and second generation that came out in 2020. They offer a stock stylus with no eraser and a premium one, with an eraser. Both pens are very high quality and have tilt recognition, which means you can tilt the pen on an angle, and shade. This is excellent for people who are doing character art, backgrounds or high quality industrial design. The pens have pressure sensitivity, so the harder you press, the thicker or thinner the lines become. Palm rejection is a big deal, so you can rest your palms on the screen and won’t be recognized as an errant touchscreen command. The screen has 21ms latency, which is very ideal.
Long Battery Life – The Remarkable 2 is running Linux, so there are no background processes like Android. You do not have a bunch of things that are constantly draining the battery, such as GPS notifications or opened apps all vying for processing power. This gives you around 3-4 weeks of usage, before having to recharge it. Linux is also very stable and secure, there is never any crashes or parsing errors when opening books, saving or exporting files.
Firmware Updates – Since Remarkable has two products, running the same OS and both having the same sized screen, it makes it really easy to keep everything fresh. The company pushes out updates via WIFI every month or two, constantly introducing new writing features, stability improvements and emphasizes the overall quality of life. Whenever a new update is available, they document all aspects via a blog post, full of animated gifs and a writeup on everything that is new. They also send out emails to everyone who purchased one, just so they know whats in store.
Google Chrome plugin – One of the more interesting things about this device is the Google Chrome plugin. You can save web articles and send them to your Remarkable 2. This is similar to Pocket, on the Kobo line of e-readers. With the extension, you can send articles in a simplified text format (EPUB) with a single click. You can adjust text settings on the device to customize your reading experience, and it goes without saying you can annotate your chosen articles. You can also send content as a PDF, if you’d like to see more visuals or crop, so you can write in the margins. To use Read on reMarkable, all you need is the Google Chrome browser and a remarkable account. You can find more details and specific instructions on setting up Read on reMarkable, in the Chrome Web Store.
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.
