Let me start this review by saying I’m tempted to call this new digital writing tablet remarkable. I must resist, hold me back. As a gadget guy, I know it’s special. And...splendid. Also, fantastic and innovative. I’m not sure what’s happening technically and to be honest Remarkable (e.g., the company that makes the tablet, which insists on spelling their name reMarkable) won’t budge on the details, but I can attest to the fact that writing on the Remarkable digital tablet actually feels like writing on paper.
OK, buy one. It’s amazing. Did I mention it feels like writing on paper?
Everything else is pretty easy to explain. The tablet costs $499-$598 and includes a stylus with eight replacement tips and a charging cable. When you write notes by hand, you can sync the notes to your smartphone. Click an icon, and the tablet will convert what you write to text. I tested multiple pages of notes and the text conversion worked perfectly.
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The tablet uses a well-known electronic display tech you’ll also find on many Amazon Kindle readers. Battery life is outstanding, lasting a few days. I love how light the tablet feels (at about 12 ounces), more like a legal pad than a digital tablet. A similar product from Sony called the Digital Paper DPT costs the same. You can easily organize all of your notes, and I liked how there’s even a desktop app for my Windows laptop.
I don’t know. I like how it writes, so I decided to go to a coffee-shop and simply use the product for a few hours. I sat my cup on the table and leaned over the device with the pen. I wrote out some plans for my week. I scratched out some diagrams, thinking about where I might make a garden plot in my yard next spring. I wrote the article you’re reading right now. I played a game of tic-tac-toe with the barista. She laughed.
It feels like the pen depresses slightly into the electronic display, although I’m guessing an engineer at Remarkable will read this and grimace. Ah, nope. There’s a tactile sensation that may or may not be all in my head. I can’t explain it. It feels right. I would choose this device over an actual legal pad, and -- that about says it all right there.
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