I typically discover it very onerous to write down on my pc. As quickly as I settle in and let these artistic juices movement … ding! In comes a Slack notification. OK, it’s going to take two seconds to deal with this primary. Minutes later, I will really feel the urge to verify my inbox. Oh wow, six pressing emails. Two hours later, I may need typed a single phrase on my web page. That often results in a late night time of writing. Rinse and repeat.
The ReMarkable 2 has been a salve on this course of. This e-paper pill with a snug stylus is a wonderful digital notepad—it mimics paper and pen much better than many different gadgets—and the keyboard attachment has turn into an effective way for me to kind up tales distraction-free. You’ll be able to write notes, draw sketches, mark up PDFs, and set up all of those paperwork into folders. 5 years after the discharge of that pill, the corporate is unveiling a brand new product known as the ReMarkable Paper Professional. It elevates the notepad expertise whereas nonetheless prioritizing that distraction-free ethos.
“We invented the class,” says Mats Herding Solberg, the pinnacle of product administration on the Norwegian firm. “We’re centered actually on focus and making a single product that is actually good on the verticals that we consider are vital. We do not wish to be the corporate that goes tremendous broad and tries so as to add too many bells and whistles.”
Paper Path
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
ReMarkable’s Paper Professional is not strictly a successor to the ReMarkable 2. Consider it like how the “Professional” version of the iPhone aligns to the usual mannequin. It has some good upgrades at a better worth beginning at $579, however you may follow the $399 older mannequin in case you do not want the brand new options; it isn’t going away anytime quickly.
So what’s new? The spotlight is colour. At CES 2024, E Ink—the corporate that produces lots of the electronic paper displays present in Kindles and the like—showed off extra gadgets than ever utilizing color E Ink technology. This checklist now consists of the brand new ReMarkable Paper Professional, although Solberg says ReMarkable has executed lots of work on prime of E Ink’s expertise to excellent the colour expertise. The customized “Canvas Coloration” show stack is comprised of bodily colour particles that transfer across the display screen to indicate particular colours, quite than a separate filter on prime of the black and white show. Solberg says this could higher replicate the precise feeling of “colour on paper.”
Do not anticipate vivid, vibrant colours such as you see in your smartphone’s display screen. These hues are nonetheless muted, and you’ll solely select from 9 colours (from magenta to cyan), however you may mix and layer them collectively, which may then create much more colour choices.
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
Additionally new is a front light system. It is totally different than the backlight typical of cellphone screens. As an alternative, a entrance gentle angles the sunshine supply down onto the pill’s display screen so it is mirrored up at your eyes. It is a design that is turn into fairly normal through the years on this planet of e-paper gadgets. The ReMarkable 2 solely displays ambient gentle, which makes it troublesome to see the display screen in a darkish room. This is not an issue with the Paper Professional. You’ll be able to alter the brightness of the sunshine, although it is nonetheless not going to get eye-searingly vibrant. Simply sufficient that you should utilize it in dim situations.
The Paper Professional has a bigger 11.8-inch show, which implies not one of the outdated equipment for the ReMarkable 2 will work on this unit. That is why there are an array of folio covers ($89 and up) at launch to help the brand new machine, together with a Sort Folio cowl ($229) that provides a keyboard. Even the stylus has been rebuilt. The Marker/Marker Plus are lively styli, in order that they have to be charged—simply pop ’em on the sting of the Paper Professional, the place they are going to magnetically connect and begin wirelessly charging.
