reMarkable Paper Pure with Marker Plus and Folio

Verified purchase

“This review is based on a two-week cycle across France, with an eye on four aspects:- Battery life and size- Robustness- Utility as a sketchpad and notebook- Packaging and arrival experience1. Battery life and size:Battery life proved a complete non-issue. After two weeks away, using the device for up to an hour a day, I returned home having never once worried about charging it. The quoted three-week battery life appears entirely consistent with my experience. In terms of size and weight, it compares favourably with a standard notepad. At 599g on my scales, it is only 150g heavier than my A5 notebook, yet a full 300g lighter than the notebook and sketchpad combination I would otherwise have packed (895g combined).2. Robustness and wear:For two weeks and over 1000km, the device was unceremoniously thrown into a bicycle pannier each day with very little regard for its precise positioning amongst lights, tools, protruding bolts and the other assorted contents of a touring cyclist's bag. It survived.The green folio case, which securely grips the tablet and feels reassuringly robust, did its job. It emerged with a few minor chocolate stains courtesy of a poorly placed pain au chocolat, along with some pressure marks from neighbouring hardware. The device itself remains pristine. I did have some concerns during the trip's heatwave. Sustained temperatures of around 40°C seemed like a reasonable stress test for both the battery and internal components. Neither appeared affected.The stylus nib is also worth mentioning. Predominantly using the device for sketching and drawing, I managed to wear down the edges through shading and tonal work. The tablet ships with five replacement nibs and the cost of further replacements seems reasonable enough to be considered maintenance rather than a significant running expense. Nib wear will vary considerably depending on drawing style. In pen mode, a very light touch is sufficient, whereas more aggressive shading will inevitably accelerate wear. 3. Sketching:I've recently taken up drawing and was particularly interested in the different pencil grades, templates, layers, and the ability to erase mistakes. There are several alternatives at similar price points aimed squarely at artists and designers. I've generally avoided them on the basis that they appear unnecessarily complex for my purposes. You don't give a learner driver a Ferrari, and there is something wholesome about learning with nothing more than pencil and paper. The simplicity of the Paper Pure met this criteria for me without overcomplicating things.- Instruments:Between the pen and pencil options, each available in various grades, you effectively carry an entire pencil case within a single stylus. Moving between tools is simple. I frequently sketched initial forms in pencil before reinforcing selected lines in ink. The pen feels light on the page, while the pencil tool convincingly reproduces both the feel and pressure characteristics of a real pencil, particularly when building tone or shading. The result is intuitive and satisfying.- Erasing:The erase function, whether using area selection or the traditional "flip the pencil over" rubber, works exactly as intended. I couldn't tell you precisely how many sheets of paper this feature saved me over two weeks, but it is not an insignificant number. Given the tablet's deliberately minimalist philosophy, this capability alone is genuinely excellent.- Layers and templates:The device arrives loaded with templates ranging from simple lined paper and calendars to more specialist layouts. Additional templates can be downloaded or created with relative ease. As someone still wrestling with the proportions of the human figure, I created several basic reference templates, reducing anatomy to simple geometric forms on a separate layer. The layer function then allowed me to draw over the top while hiding the reference afterwards, much like the tracing paper of old. Historically, illustrators often sketched in blue pencil before inking over the top in black, relying on printing processes that ignored the blue lines. The reMarkable enables a similar workflow in a digital format.4. Packaging and arrival:The packaging arrives in a pristine white box complete with all the associated theatre. Personally, I would happily trade the presentation for a smaller shipping footprint. The packaging could be substantially reduced in size and produced without bleached card, with little lost beyond the unboxing experience.Conclusion:Will the reMarkable stop me using pen and paper at home? No.Will it significantly reduce the weight and volume of notebooks when travelling while providing an effective platform for note-taking, reading and sketching on the move? Absolutely.If you can justify the £400 price tag, it is a thoughtful, capable tool that does exactly what it sets out to do. More importantly, it achieves that without succumbing to unnecessary complexity. For anyone who enjoys the feel of pen and paper but wants the convenience of travelling with less of both, it is a compelling proposition.”

Verified purchase

“All things considered, it's really only the price that is an issue with this product. And actually the remarkable paper pure is quite well priced given the market segment for this type of device. Even the equivalent Kindle scribe is more expensive.So I ordered it apprehensively thinking that it was a lot of money to justify... But now I use it everyday and can't imagine being without it. I use it for personal and work. A problem I used to have would be lots of different notebooks littered around for different purposes and notes spread across notebooks, never being able to find anything later. This device completely eradicates those problems. I'm very impressed.And as for the reviewers who complain about it being the only thing that the device does? - well that's the whole point and I would have thought people would understand that when buying it.The only thing I would slightly fault it for - but again it's the cheaper model, would be the lack of a backlight. However, I find in my daily use this is not an issue as long as you are in a reasonably lit room. If I'm st down in the evening without lighting, it does become a bit of a problem but generally it's fine. And it isn't enough to make me think I should have bought a more expensive model by any means.I still think it was a lot of money but having said that, I don't think I'd be without it. It's one of those purchases that gets daily use and you have to consider the investment against the use that you'll get out of it. If it's going to become a core part of your daily routine like it has for me then it's probably worth the money.”