Remarkable Paper Pro Review | Trusted Reviews

Verdict

With the Paper Pro, Remarkable has elevated the digital note-taking experience to new heights. Even though its high price means that it’s better suited to those who absolutely need more than the Remarkable 2 can offer, it’s still the best E-Ink tablet I’ve tested.

Introduction

After four years on the market, the Remarkable 2 finally gets a successor in the premium-level Remarkable Paper Pro.

To this day, if anyone asks me which tech item has surprised me the most, the Remarkable 2 is my go-to response. At one time, I couldn’t quite fathom why E Ink tablets needed to exist but after getting the Remarkable 2 in for review some years ago, it has since become my most used device – after my phone and laptop, of course.

Digital note-taking is much more appealing when it mimics the feeling of pen and paper, which is why I never truly got on with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. I would have been more than happy to continue using the Remarkable 2 for quite some time to come, but with a premium device now on the market, is it worth the extra cost?

After spending several weeks with the Remarkable Paper Pro (and just about getting my head around its price tag), here is my verdict.

Price

Anyone anticipating a modest price increase for the Paper Pro over the Remarkable 2 should look away now. The Remarkable Paper Pro has a starting price of £559/$579, with the standard Marker stylus included.

For comparison, the Remarkable 2 can now be picked up from £389/$399, also with the Marker in tow.

Design

• More durable materials allow for easier repair
• Ridged exterior feels more premium

Occasionally in the world of tech, you do come across a product that doesn’t feel premium enough to justify its ‘Pro’ moniker – the latest Remarkable is not one of them. Even just to glance at this thing, it’s clear that a lot of work has gone into distinguishing the Paper Pro from the Remarkable 2.

There are now metallic ridges along the sides that Remarkable says is to mimic the sensation of holding a stack of notebook paper, topped off with a smooth finish on the back that not only gives the Paper Pro a nice feeling of heft in the hand, but also makes it comfortable to hold even without a case.

The updated design isn’t just for show either. Remarkable notes that not only is it more durable, but that it has been made with more recycled materials than before (including 50% recycled cobalt) which in turn allows the Paper Pro to be more easily repaired when it needs to be. All of this is great to hear, and it goes to show just how much of a difference a company can make to its strategy of sustainability when its products aren’t stifled by a yearly update cycle.

As you may have spotted from the comparison pictures, the Paper Pro is quite a bit larger than the Remarkable 2. The latter weighs 403.5g while the former comes in at 525g, and while that does mean that the Paper Pro is slightly less portable than the Remarkable 2, the trade-off is that you get a much larger screen.

Screen

• There’s a larger 11.8-inch display
• Draw in colour
• Backlighting finally comes to Remarkable

The Remarkable Paper Pro now has an 11.8-inch display (previously 10.3 on the Remarkable 2), along with a slimmer bezel to boot. There’s no longer an extended portion on the left-hand side to grip the device (although the sizeable chin remains), but the bezels are still large enough to rest your thumb during use.

It sounds a bit obvious to point out that having that larger display allowed for more freedom in my note-taking, but that’s exactly what happened in my time with it. The added space allowed me to be more expressive in my writing and doodling as I never felt boxed in by the margins.

The added benefit is that it’s now even easier to read documents without having to zoom in. PDFs for example are now able to appear in their entirety on the screen, which streamlines the annotation process quite a bit.

The real upgrade however, beyond the size of the display, is the fact that it now boasts a backlight to assist in any after-dark note-taking. That was one of the few issues I had with the Remarkable 2, as I felt less inclined to jot down any last-minute ideas when settling into bed, knowing that I would have to turn on a light to do so, and it meant that alternative devices like the Kindle Scribe and the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra had the upper hand. Now, the comparison isn’t quite so black and white (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Having a backlight on the Paper Pro has not only allowed me to jot stuff down at all hours of the day, but it’s also made it easier to see my notes as well, particularly in dimly-lit environments.

The only thing to bear in mind is that it unfortunately can’t get as bright as the backlight found on the Kindle Scribe. Remarkable’s explanation is that having a backlight at all presented an engineering challenge as it risks creating too much of a separation between the feeling of writing and the response on the screen. Even if this is the case, it’s worth bearing in mind that Amazon has figured out a more potent technology here, but it isn’t a dealbreaker for the Paper Pro, particularly as it has an added ace up its sleeve: a splash of colour.

From the Kobo Libra Colour to the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C, colour E Ink displays aren’t exactly new in this category but the Paper Pro represents the first time that this technology has been adopted by Remarkable, and it does make a big difference to the device’s interface.

On top of the standard black you can now write in red, blue, magenta and cyan, just to name a few options. Technically the Remarkable 2 would let you swap between different colours but their presence could only be viewed via the Remarkable app on a different device, which made the whole thing feel a bit pointless. On the Paper Pro however, I now regularly incorporate a splash of colour in my note-taking.

I’m definitely no artist so you won’t see me drawing the next Van Gogh with this thing, but it is great to be able to mix things up for headlines, subtitles and the odd doodle on the side. The impact is that everything feels more eye-catching and engaging, plus it’s a boon for annotation as it saves any feedback from getting lost in a sea of monochrome.

Features

• Notifcation free note-taking is a joy
• Ebook and google docs support
• Major price increase to contend with

When reviewing the Remarkable 2, I made note of the device’s approach to ridding your workspace of notifications, protecting your productivity at all costs. At the time, I felt that it fell behind the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra in terms of functionality (the Onyx offers full access to the Android Play Store), but having come to rely on Remarkable so much as one of my key work devices, I now appreciate what it is that the company is trying to achieve.

The Remarkable Paper Pro keeps things simple with no pop-ups whatsoever and limited app connectivity (mostly for document sharing), but that’s what makes it so great. You can dive into this thing and know that this is where your mind can get out everything it needs to, without being hassled, and as a long-time wearer of smartwatches I can tell you now that that serenity is worth its weight in gold.

It’s also worth mentioning that over the years since the Remarkable 2 launched, the company has slowly been refining its note-taking software, elevating the experience to a far more confident level that the Paper Pro can take advantage of right off the bat.

For instance you have quick access to two pen-types at a time from the side-bar, alongside a layering system and the ability to share documents via email in just a few steps.

When you’re not writing away in your notebooks, the Paper Pro does let you read ePub files which is a nice touch. The experience is easily bested by the Kindle Scribe, particularly as there’s no built-in store for ebooks, but at the very least you can write directly on to these books, and the addition of colours makes the Paper Pro better suited for graphic novels.

There’s also integration with Google Drive but just as was the case with the Remarkable 2, you can’t edit any documents in real time via the cloud. Instead, you need to download a specific file to then edit locally on the Remarkable, and then send it back to your Google Drive. It’s not ideal which is why I never find myself using the feature.

Alongside the redesign for the tablet itself, Remarkable has also unveiled an entirely refreshed range of accessories for the Paper Pro, but that’s something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the available styli have never felt better, with improved texturing around the exterior that provides a better grip when writing, and the cases come in a wonderful collection of colours, not to mention the fact that the Type Folio case now has a larger keyboard that’s also backlit. So what’s the problem?

The issue is that the Remarkable Paper Pro isn’t compatible with any of the styli sold with the Remarkable 2, so if you’re looking to upgrade from the older device then you’ll need to replace everything that went with it. Given the emphasis that Remarkable has put on the environmental credentials of the Paper Pro, it seems bizarre that there is no way to re-use existing Remarkable pens.

One issue that may have led to the change is that the new styli now have a battery included that wirelessly charges whenever it’s docked on the Paper Pro, but it isn’t quite clear what the benefits of it are.

Of course, the wider issue is the cost involved in having to replace everything to accommodate the Paper Pro. The Remarkable 2 wasn’t exactly cheap (now £389/$399 with the basic stylus included) but I could still easily recommend it to anyone who wanted a great digital note-taking device. The Remarkable Paper Pro on the other hand has a starting price of £559/$579 – thankfully with a Marker pen included, but that’s quite the jump and it’s before factoring certain accessories.

The more expensive Marker Plus, which lets you use the reverse end to erase any writing, costs an extra £40/$50, while the Book Folio and Type Folio cases cost £79/$89 and £219/$229 respectively.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that you opt for the most expensive options across the board – you’ll be expected to part with £818/$947 at the checkout. By comparison, an iPad Air M2 with an Apple Pencil (USB-C) and a new Magic Keyboard would set you back not that much more at £967/$977, and it’s here where the Paper Pro’s biggest hurdle lies.

Because of the price increase, I would still recommend the Remarkable 2 to most people as the value for money is much easier to convey with that device, particularly as I still believe it offers an unrivalled note-taking experience at its price point, and one that I’d choose over the iPad/Apple Pencil combo any day.

The Remarkable Paper Pro on the other hand should be left to those with more expendable income or those who know that this is the type of device that they’ll make use of far more than anyone else, such as a lecturer or writer. Speaking for myself, while expensive, the Remarkable Paper Pro is so good at what it does that I will not be reverting to its predecessor after this review.

The combination of colour E Ink, faster performance and a larger display have made the Paper Pro my go-to note-taking device of choice, and so if you want the best from this category, this is it.

Performance

• Big leap over the Remarkable 2
• Paper refreshes are smoother
• Page scrolling is faster

The actual writing sensation feels better than ever, partially thanks to the improved performance speeds of the Remarkable Paper Pro. The device now responds much faster to your inputs, to the point where I couldn’t discern any delay noticeable delay between the movement of my Marker Plus and the appearance of E Ink on the display.

This goes hand in hand with a faster refresh rate as you scroll up and down throughout a page. During one particularly infomation packed briefing, the faster scrolling was a huge help as I rushed to find empty space within which to jot down new sentences.

It’s not a perfect system, as anything written in colour requires a second to refresh, moving from your chosen colour, to black and then back again.

I noticed on occasion that the eraser would display a seemingly glitched version of whatever I’d removed for a split second, before getting rid of it entirely, something that I never recall seeing on the Remarkable 2.

Still, neither of these presented such an issue to diminish my overall enjoyment of using the Remarkable Paper Pro, and in terms of where the device excels, it feels as if Remarkable is firing on all cylinders, overtaking the competition by a wide margin in the process.

Battery Life

• Up to two weeks of battery
• Tested with the backlight set to max
• A vast improvement over the Remarkable 2

One of the under-the-hood benefits of the Remarkable Paper Pro’s larger chassis is that it now has a bigger battery than the one found in the Remarkable 2, and thank goodness for that. I’ve lost count of the number of times a low-battery notification has popped up on my Remarkable 2, surprising me earlier than expected each time and requiring a weekly charge.

Remarkable claims that the Paper Pro, even with the backlight in use, can last for up to two weeks and from my testing, that statement feels about right.

Of course, it’s difficult to track with precise accuracy the longevity of a battery that lasts for multiple weeks, but I have found myself charging the Paper Pro with far less frequency, leading to far fewer moments of battery anxiety when taking the device to a cafe or any place where power outlets might be in short supply.

I should also point out that those results come from using the device with the backlight at its brightest setting almost exclusively, so there’s a good chance that a user who opts for a dimmer setting or even just to have the backlight off entirely could use the Paper Pro for longer between charges.

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