I bought this to finally deal with all the paper I use for note taking. I take notes while I work, many of which are just to jot something down so I can type it later into a spreadsheet or other document. Often I jot down responses to questions so I can have the notes in front of me while I answer. Lastly I take notes as a record of business conversations.
I’ve tried various ways of dealing with the paper – using scrap paper from other projects, legal pads, notebooks, the RocketBook (a book of laminated pages that can be washed off and reused), or a stylus on a tablet. The problem with all of that is there is no organization. I can scan things with my phone to keep them, but that’s a chore and won’t get done.
I find it difficult to find things I’ve worked on previously, so having a digital notebook would be fantastic. I’d be able to find whatever I was looking for, keep all my notes in one place and have a simple device to bring to meetings or have at hand while I am working.
I’ve tried OneNote with a writing tablet but that was awful. The RocketBook gets full quickly and washing it off requires a water source, plus a wait while it dries. It’s a silly solution, although an inexpensive one.
But there are a world of other options, all of which are very expensive. The Remarkable 2 (RM2) costs about $450 without a case. So does the Boox Note 2 Air Plus. The Ipad Air costs $450 without a case or a pencil. The Kindle Scribe costs about the same as well.
I opted to avoid the Ipad because I don’t like writing on glass. There are workarounds for it, but they all cost even more money. I have no need for an Ipad otherwise.
Between the RM2 and the Boox, the RM2 was touted to have the most paper-like feel, so I bought one. It came bundled with a case and their upgraded stylus for $600. !!! I am going back and forth over whether I should return it.
The writing feel of the RM2 is excellent. It’s not paper-like or pen-like. But it’s nice. It feels like writing with a felt marker on a smooth surface. It’s designed as a note-taking device, and you can opt the stylus to mimic the writing style of different pens (ballpoint, fountain pen, fineliner, etc.) in different thicknesses. It’s not a book reading device that also does note-taking, like the Kindle Scribe. It’s not a do-it-all, but most of it badly, device like the Boox.
The RM2 is for note taking. You can do some rudimentary sketching if you like, but that’s not what it’s for, despite what their ads may show.
Does it do it well? Sort of.
- It’s slow. That’s likely due to the E-Ink technology it uses, but no matter why it’s slow, it’s slow.
- It doesn’t perform like a premium product. Sometimes it doesn’t respond to touch, sometimes there is a lag in displaying what you wrote. The device can’t scroll without refreshing the screen. Each time you scroll it up to reveal more writing space the device will show the ghost of your writing in the new space and then a few seconds later it refreshes to remove the ghost images. So, in other words – not paper-like at all.
- The user interface is bare bones and reminds me of monochrome GUI software I bought for my first PC in 1991. It’s hard to do basic things like move files from one notebook to another. There are icons on the note pages that show a set of other features when tapped, but the features aren’t necessarily related to each other. For example one icon when tapped shows icons for settings, search, landscape mode, and “add a page”. In other words the icon contains 4 additional icons that have nothing to do with one another.
- There is a subscription service, which costs $3 a month, or you can save 2 months by paying a single annual charge. The service gives you long-term online storage and lets you take notes on your other electronic devices via their apps. If you pay for the service you get up to 3 years of warranty instead of the 1 year that comes with the RM2.
So it’s a lot of money to spend on a low tech device. But …. there’s nothing else that matches it for less money. There are other devices that provide more features: the Kindle Scribe is connected to the Kindle Library, the Boox has a browser and many more graphic artist features, the Ipad is a jack-of-all trades and a master of many of them (just not note taking).
But I don’t need the device to do anything else. I have other electronics to browse the web or run apps. I don’t need the notebook to do any of that. I just need it to keep my notes organized and provide a nice way to write them. The RM2 does that.
But is it worth $600, including the case??? Just because something is useful, or even the best of its kind, does that justify any price tag? Bread is good, so should a baker charge $100 a loaf?
I really don’t want to go back to rifling through miscellaneous papers. I love writing on it, I love how easy it is to erase something. This shouldn’t be such a big deal – of course you can delete digital text. But the notepad makes writing feel so much like writing with a pen that it’s amazing to me to see my pen marks disappear when I erase them.
So. Bottom line, I like the thing. So will probably keep it.
Changed my mind. The more I used the RM2 the more it bothered me that it costs so much and delivers so little. The device alone, no pen or case costs $300. As a bundle with the case and pen it costs $600. Would you pay $800 for a Galaxy Note and another $800 for a case and stylus? No one would.
If the overall package was a premium experience maybe I wouldn’t feel so ripped off, but it’s not.
The feel of writing on it is very nice. But that’s the only thing it does well.
I returned it and got an ipad 10th gen. The writing experience is not as nice and the battery life is only a day instead of 4/5 days with the RM2. But it’s so much faster, and does every other thing better (importing pdfs from other docs, copy/paste text from emails or the web, attaching notes to imessage, search not only text but my handwritten notes too, integrating easily with my other devices, and on and on). Plus the ipad, pen and a case cost $120 less than the RM2.
I’m glad I got to try the RM2 so I won’t feel like I am missing anything.
I’ve been using the Ipad to take notes for a couple of months, using the Goodnotes 6 app. Could not be happier. The overall experience is so much better than RM2. Faster, in color, more modern, more useful. Even when I use other apps I can still use the Apple Pen, so I can take notes on Excel spreadsheets on the go, easily upload and email or text notes, or just use the Ipad as a mobile device for other purposes.
I stopped being angry at the cost of the RM2 vs. the low tech nature of the product, because I never think about the RM2 at all. The feel of writing on the RM2 was superior to the Ipad, but everything else is so much better on the Ipad that I have not regretting returning it, ever.
And the feel of writing on the Ipad isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I don’t use any special nibs or screen protectors, I just use the Apple Pencil (1st gen) on the factory Ipad screen.
I have one regret though. I bought the Ipad 10th gen for $350 rather than the Ipad Air 5th gen, which is often on sale for $500. A big difference in price, 33% more with essentially no additional benefit for my use case. Except … the Apple Pencil (2nd gen) works with the Ipad Air, but not with the Ipad 10th gen. It charges and pairs magnetically, when it’s up against the Ipad Air. That’s a huge benefit vs. the Ipad 10th gen, which requires a ridiculous collection of adapters and cables. I expect to have the Ipad for a long time, and it might have been worth spending another $150 for the ability to use the magnetic charge/pair capability.
There is one benefit to using the Ipad 10th gen – the selfie camera is on the long side of the tablet. That’s a much better position for zoom calls, and people I zoom with mention that that the video looks superior.
So it’s a tradeoff. Bottom line, I am happy with the Ipad and don’t miss the RM2 at all.
vegchili 