The perfect E Ink tablets for 2024

Display dimension: 10.3-inch | Battery life: Two weeks | Community connectivity: Wi-Fi | Capability: 8GB | Included stylus: No, further price | Supported file sorts: PDF, EPUB

The latest reMarkable tablet isn’t topping our checklist as a result of it’s essentially the most full-featured and even most fascinating writing pill we examined. Slightly, it offers one of the best mixture of options individuals will discover helpful in an e-paper system like this. We’ll get into all of them, however first, it’s value mentioning construct high quality. The reMarkable 2 weighs lower than one pound and is likely one of the sleekest E Ink tablets we tried. It has a ten.3-inch monochrome digital paper show that’s surrounded by beige-colored bezels, with the chunkiest portion on the backside edge the place you’d naturally grip it. There’s a slim silver bezel on the left aspect, which attaches to equipment just like the folio case and the brand new Type Folio keyboard. Hats off to reMarkable for making an E Ink pill that feels proper at residence with your whole different fancy devices.

Let’s begin with the writing and studying experiences on the reMarkable 2, each of that are nice. From the get go, scribbling, doodling and writing was a breeze. We examined out the Marker Plus, which has a built-in eraser, however each it and the usual Marker are tilt- and strain delicate pens, and require no batteries or charging. I noticed mainly no lag between my urgent down onto the reMarkable 2’s display and features exhibiting up. The latency was so low that it felt the closest to precise pen-and-paper. However I’ll say that this isn’t distinctive amongst our high picks on this information – virtually all the E Ink tablets we examined obtained this very essential characteristic proper.

In relation to studying, the reMarkable 2 helps PDFs and ePUBs, and you may add recordsdata to the system by logging into your reMarkable account on desktop or by way of the companion cellular app in your cellphone. You can too pair your Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox account along with your reMarkable account and entry recordsdata that manner as effectively. That needs to be ok for anybody who, say, reads a number of tutorial papers or evaluations many paperwork for work. It’ll be tougher for individuals who buy their ebooks from on-line marketplaces just like the Kindle or Kobo shops, however there are different choices for these.

One other enjoyable technique to get paperwork onto the reMarkable 2 is by way of the Read with reMarkable extension for Google Chrome. After putting in it and pairing your reMarkable account, you’ll be capable to ship articles you discover on-line on to your reMarkable 2 so you’ll be able to verify them out later. You possibly can even customise these recordsdata to be despatched as textual content solely, which can allow you to change their format immediately in your reMarkable, or as a PDF file. No matter which you select, you’ll be capable to mark up these articles as you’ll every other file on the E Ink pill. I used this extension rather a lot and I did take pleasure in studying longform articles on the reMarkable 2 greater than on my iPhone. Having the ability to underline, spotlight and in any other case mark up these tales was extra of a bonus than a necessity for me, however for others who glean sources from on-line supplies can be higher off for it.

General, it’s fairly straightforward to get recordsdata onto the reMarkable 2 and it’s doable to entry them elsewhere when it’s possible you’ll not be capable to whip out the E Ink pill. These with a reMarkable Join subscription could have one of the best expertise, and it’s a pleasant perk that you just get a one-year membership if you purchase one. The $3-per-month subscription offers the power to edit present notes and take new ones from anyplace utilizing the desktop and cellular apps, plus limitless cloud storage and syncing.

That stated, I stored most of my testing native on the reMarkable 2 itself and was impressed by its skill to be a digital pocket book with no steep studying curve. You possibly can create totally different notebooks and “fast sheets” to arrange your handwritten notes, and folders to make sense of imported recordsdata. You’ll discover eight totally different brush sorts with which to mark up paperwork and take notes, together with customizable line thicknesses and “colours” (which simply present up as shades on the pill itself). You possibly can even kind wherever you need in a doc, and the reMarkable 2 can translate handwritten notes into machine-readable textual content with stunning accuracy.

It was no shock that the reMarkable 2 ended up having one of the best mixture of options, together with a comparatively low studying curve. The corporate was one of many first on the scene with a really viable E Ink pill again in 2017, they usually’ve been refining the expertise ever since. However that comes at a price – the reMarkable 2 isn’t the most costly E Ink pill we examined, but it surely’s not low-cost both. The pill will set you again $399 with the usual Marker, or $449 for a bundle with the Marker Plus. You possibly can get a 10th-gen iPad and the USB-C Apple Pencil for round identical worth and also you’d have a extra versatile duo, purely primarily based on the capabilities of iOS.

However you’re most likely not contemplating an iPad for a selected motive, whether or not that’s your love for E Ink or the sensation of pen-to-paper writing, otherwise you merely desire a extra distraction-free expertise. In case you’re searching for an E Ink pill that won’t take ages to get used to, affords a stellar writing expertise and makes it comparatively easy to entry notes elsewhere, the reMarkable 2 is your finest wager.

Learn our full reMarkable Paper Pro review

Display dimension: 11.8-inch | Battery life: Two weeks | Community connectivity: Wi-Fi | Capability: 64GB | Included stylus: No, further price | Supported file sorts: PDF, EPUB

ReMarkable upped the ante in mainly each manner with the Paper Pro, with out sacrificing something we liked in regards to the reMarkable 2. Each my colleague Dan Cooper and I examined out the brand new system and you may learn his full reMarkable Paper Pro review right here, which works in-depth into the Paper Professional’s achievements and shortcomings. In my testing, I used to be most impressed by the refined design, sooner response occasions and small joys that got here from having a brand new coloration show.

The $579 Paper Professional has an 11.8-inch show, which is barely bigger and taller than that of the reMarkable 2. It’s not cumbersome, although, and with its 5.1mm thickness, it will get actually near the legal-pad pocket book dimension I personally love. It feels fairly premium by itself, particularly with the brand new grooved edges, and even with its Folio protector, it stays fairly svelte. The reMarkable 2 definitely isn’t an ogre by comparability, however the “professional” within the Paper Professional’s identify is well-deserved.

Contained in the reMarkable Paper Professional is a brand new 1.8GHz quad-core Cortex A53 processor, 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage — all of that are specs which have been bumped up from the reMarkable 2. It really makes a distinction within the efficiency of the brand new mannequin. Whereas the reMarkable 2 definitely didn’t lag, the Professional feels zippier: web page refreshes are faster, actions and transitions are extra easy and pen latency is barely 12ms (virtually undetectable in my expertise).

The place you see the gears working most frequently is in the usage of coloration. The Paper Professional’s display makes use of a modified model of E-Ink’s Gallery 3 expertise referred to as Canvas Colour, which is able to producing 20,000 colours that may layer on high of one another (assume if you spotlight a line greater than as soon as utilizing two totally different colours over each other). You possibly can really see the pixels turning from a normal black coloration to the colour of your selecting if you’re scribbling in a observe, which isn’t a foul factor as a result of the display doesn’t lag or freeze due to this — write at your individual pace and the system will up and produce the correct colours as you go alongside.

As for software program, you’re getting the identical expertise as you’ll with the reMarkable 2, which is to remain a reasonably streamlined interface that makes it straightforward to arrange your whole paperwork, notes and different studying and writing materials. The reMarkable 2 provided one of the vital approachable software program experiences in an E Ink pill, and that continues right here on the Paper Professional. These units prioritize a distraction-free setting — or on the very least, a lower-distraction zone — and I admire how reMarkable has stored its units’ interface easy and simple.

Arguably the most important caveat to any reMarkable pill stays the month-to-month Connection subscription — an non-compulsory $3-per-month service that gives limitless cloud storage, system syncing and the power to create and edit notes in reMarkable cellular apps. Energy customers will doubtless discover it worthwhile to pay for Join, however the Paper Professional’s 64GB of inner storage is perhaps sufficient for others who need to preserve it easy (and preserve all of their exercise to the Paper Professional itself). New system house owners get a 100-day free trial, so it’s straightforward sufficient to offer Join a shot after which cancel in case you don’t end up utilizing all of its perks.

Crucial factor to recollect in case you’re contemplating a reMarkable pill is that, base on our testing, each the reMarkable 2 and reMarkable Paper Professional are strong units. The Paper Professional definitely earned its “professional” moniker because of noticeable enhancements the corporate made, however these don’t damaging how good of a tool the reMarkable 2 nonetheless is. However in case you’ve obtained the money and need to put money into a luxurious E Ink pill expertise, the Paper Professional is the best way to go.

Display dimension: 10.2-inch | Battery life: Months | Community connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Capability: As much as 64GB | Included stylus: Sure | Supported file sorts: AZW3, AZW, TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively and more

You actually have two choices on this house: the Amazon Kindle Scribe and the Kobo Elipsa 2E. The Scribe edged out the Elipsa 2E purely due to its low-latency pen-and-screen mixture. The Elipsa has its deserves, which we’ll get into in a bit, but it surely simply couldn’t compete with the Scribe when it got here to a seamless and easy handwriting expertise.

We already gave the Kindle Scribe the full review treatment, and on the whole, I loved it whereas testing it out for this information, too. As talked about, there’s little to no latency when writing on the Scribe with its companion pen. Because of the latest software update, you even have extra brush sorts to select from now, together with fountain pen, marker and pencil, which add to the appeal. Like different E Ink tablets, the Scribe makes it straightforward to create a number of notebooks, and you may add pages to them and alter up their templates if you want.

As an e-reader, the Scribe shines not solely because of its 10.2-inch touchscreen with auto-adjusting entrance lights, but additionally as a result of you’ve gotten Amazon’s complete e book retailer at your fingertips. In case you get most of your studying materials from Amazon or subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, you’ll be capable to leap proper into your whole titles immediately on the Scribe simply as you’ll on a tool just like the Kindle Paperwhite. As well as, the Scribe can hook up with Audible by way of Bluetooth for audiobook listening. It’s additionally straightforward to get ebooks out of your native library and browse them on a Kindle. This can be essential not just for voracious readers, however particularly for college students who purchase or lease digital textbooks and people who eat books recurrently for analysis functions.

I considered college students rather a lot when utilizing the Scribe. I began faculty in 2009, two years after the primary Kindle was launched and one yr earlier than the primary iPad got here out. Getting textbooks digitally actually wasn’t an possibility for me – however I can perceive the attraction a note-taking system just like the Kindle Scribe would have for college students. It’s arguably even higher than a normal Kindle as a result of its larger display dimension, which can make it much less tiring to stare at for lengthy durations of time. Including the power to take handwritten notes whilst you’re finding out is icing on the cake.

Nonetheless, Amazon’s execution of ebook notes shouldn’t be my favourite. You really can’t make annotations within the margins of Kindle ebooks. As an alternative you press and maintain the pen’s tip on the display to focus on textual content or add a observe to a specific phrase or phrase. In case you do the latter, a window pops up on the underside half of the display the place you’ll be able to both take a handwritten observe or kind a textual content observe utilizing the Scribe’s mildly irritating and sluggish on-screen keyboard.

Amazon just lately rectified this a bit with a software update that permits for direct on-page writing in sure Kindle books. The Kindle Retailer now has a bit that showcases “Write-on Books,” which is presently principally made up of journals and sport books that characteristic puzzles like crosswords and sudoku. That is definitely a step in the correct path, but it surely means you continue to will not be capable to mark up your favourite fiction and non-fiction books till they help the brand new characteristic.

That is the place I give a nod to the Kobo Elipsa 2E, the place you can write notes within the margins, underline, circle and in any other case mark up your studying materials. It’s a extra pure (and enjoyable) expertise because it mimics what you’d do in case you have been studying a bodily ebook. It’s a disgrace that the latency on the Elipsa was only a hair extra noticeable than that of the Scribe. If it weren’t for that, it might need crushed Amazon’s system right here.

What that further little bit of latency interprets to in follow is handwriting that may come out only a bit messier, and that will increase precipitously the sooner you write. However that additionally implies that you’ll discover this essentially the most when taking notes longhand on the Elipsa; in case you’re primarily utilizing an E Ink pill to mark up paperwork, it received’t have an effect on you as a lot. Regardless of that, I did like the best way Kobo executed notebooks on the Elipsa. You possibly can have a normal pocket book the place you’ll be able to write and scribble away, or an “superior” pocket book that helps handwriting-to-text conversion and inserting issues like diagrams and formulation. Textual content conversion is definitely fairly correct, too, even when coping with a few of my ugliest handwriting.

Kobo additionally has a reasonably sizable e book market, so it’s definitely a good possibility if you wish to keep away from the Amazon ecosystem. However Amazon has the higher hand in the case of worth. The Kobo Elipsa 2E pack that features its stylus is $399, whereas the 16GB Kindle Scribe with the premium pen (which incorporates devoted eraser and shortcut buttons) is available in at $369. Even in case you max out the Scribe with 64GB of storage, you’d solely spend $20 greater than you’ll on the Kobo Elipsa. That, mixed with the Scribe’s robust total efficiency and the ubiquity of Amazon’s e book choices will make it the higher alternative for many readers.

Display dimension: 10.3-inch | Battery life: Weeks | Community connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Capability: 32GB | Included stylus: No, further price | Supported file sorts: PDF, EPUB, Phrase, Textual content (.txt), PNG, JPG, Comedian ebook archive (.cbz), FictionBook2 (.fb2) and OpenXPS (.xps)

I spent some time testing all of those E Ink tablets, and the Supernote X is the one I used to be constantly most excited to make use of. As a pocket book nerd, I discover this factor so cool. Obtainable in 10.3-inch (what I examined) and seven.8-inch sizes, the Supernote X has a “FeelWrite” display protector that has a unique really feel than a normal e-paper display. When writing on it with Coronary heart of Metallic Pen 2, which is weighty and appears like a fountain pen, you get a gel pen-like really feel slightly than the subtly scratchy vibe that different E Ink tablets have. In truth, the Supernote X has among the finest writing experiences out of any pill I examined.

The Supernote X helps a variety of file codecs, together with PDF, ePUB, Phrase (.doc), PNG and JPG, which actually opens up the content material you’ll be able to put onto the factor. I wished to see if I may deal with it virtually like a digital bullet journal, and that wasn’t onerous to do. There are built-in web page templates, however I used to be in a position to obtain each day, weekly and month-to-month planner templates on-line, resize them and transfer them onto the Supernote X utilizing Android File Transfer. The system has a devoted “MyStyle” folder the place it can save you recordsdata you need to use as templates. Essentially the most troublesome half was ensuring I had the scale proper whereas resizing the paperwork. As soon as saved in the correct folder, I may make a complete pocket book out of the templates I had gotten from the web totally free.

Supernote does have its personal “app retailer,” however there’s not a lot in there, and its Play Retailer choices are restricted to solely the Kindle app. This system doesn’t have a backlight, so it received’t be straightforward to see in darkish environments. However you’ll be able to obtain Amazon’s e book app and browse similar to you’ll on a normal pill (no, you’ll be able to’t mark up books right here both).

Actually, the very last thing I wished to do with the Supernote X was learn, although. The system actually shines as an E Ink pocket book and the corporate clearly put a number of thought into “constructing a greater mousetrap,” so to talk. You possibly can translate handwritten phrases into typed textual content, however you don’t have to do this to ensure that the software program to acknowledge your handwriting. There’s a key phrases characteristic that permits you to mainly bookmark essential phrases for fast entry later. All you must do is lasso the phrase, press the key phrase button and the pill’s software program will translate your writing into typed textual content. Then you’ll be able to add it as a key phrase and rapidly leap again to it from the left-side pill of contents menu. Equally, you’ll be able to bookmark titles and add stars to pages which are essential, all of which allow you to leap between essential bits.

That stated, the Supernote X typically felt a bit inconsistent. The writing expertise was top-notch, however there have been different issues that felt rather less polished. For instance, you’ll be able to swipe down on the correct bezel to carry up a menu that permits you to rapidly navigate between favorited notes and up to date paperwork – that’s fairly considerate. However then the Information web page simply has a few starkly named folders like Export, Screenshot and Inbox that I didn’t contact as soon as, and the pen sidebar has extra choices than most individuals will know what to do with (and none of them have textual content labels).

These are small nit-picks, however they go to indicate that the Supernote X won’t be one of the best system for tech novices. There’s a studying curve right here, however pocket book nerds like myself can be thrilled with all that the Supernote X has to supply. Unsurprisingly, all these superior options come at a steep worth: the A5-sized pill with a folio and pen will set you again at the least $532, making it the most costly set on our checklist.

Display dimension: 10.3-inch | Battery life: As much as 4 weeks | Community connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Capability: 64GB | Included stylus: Sure | Supported file sorts: PDF, PPT, EPUB, TXT, DJVU, HTML, RTF, FB2, DOC, MOBI, CHM, PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP

Whereas we haven’t absolutely examined the brand new Boox Note Air 3, we really feel snug recommending it right here as a result of it’s mainly only a barely upgraded model of our earlier decide, the Note Air 2 Plus. Key variations are the Be aware Air 3’s sooner processor and new fingerprint recognition characteristic, however in any other case each units have the identical 10.3-inch “paperlike” display, run the newest model of Android and are available bundled with a stylus.

Primarily based on our expertise with the Be aware Air 2 Plus, Boox’s complete Be aware collection is what you’d get in case you eliminated a number of the notebook-specific options from the Supernote X and added in a extra full model of Android. Boox makes a lot of fascinating E Ink units and the Be aware Air 2 Plus/Be aware Air 3 are those that finest evaluate to the others on our checklist because of its 10.3-inch show. They’re E Ink Android tablets, so which means you’ll be able to really obtain Android apps from the Google Play Retailer like Kindle, Kobo and others. There’s even an internet browser, and sure, you’ll be able to watch movies on this factor, too.

In fact, simply because you are able to do all of that doesn’t imply you must. E Ink screens are really finest for studying and writing, so I didn’t spend a lot time binge watching YouTube on Boox’s system – however I used to be comfortable that I had the liberty to take action. Actually, the utility of Android is available in with the app retailer and I count on that most individuals will use it to obtain all of their favourite studying and writing apps. Very similar to a normal pill, this can be an ideal possibility for anybody that will get their studying materials from a bunch of various locations — and since you’ll be able to manually switch paperwork out of your laptop to the system, too, it’s far-and-away essentially the most versatile possibility on our checklist.

I skilled little to no latency when writing on Boox’s system and I used to be pleased with the variety of brush choices it has. Just like the Supernote X, it comes with a bunch of web page templates you need to use, or you’ll be able to herald your individual PDFs and different paperwork to make use of as templates. There’s an “AI recognition” characteristic that interprets an entire web page’s handwriting into typed textual content, and it’s really fairly correct. (Although, it did constantly confuse my “&” for a capital A). I additionally appreciated that you may add other forms of fabric to your notes, together with internet pages and voice recordings, and share notes as PDFs or PNGs by way of e-mail, Google Drive and different companies. Options like these be sure that, with this partially analog system, you don’t miss out on a number of the conveniences {that a} true digital pocket book system would have.

And, importantly, Boox tablets on the whole provide an fascinating worth proposition. A Be aware Air 3 bundle with the pill, a normal pen and a folio case is available in at $400, placing it on the upper finish of the value spectrum among the many units we examined. However contemplating it’s a full Android pill, that doesn’t appear absurd. Those that need to keep away from distractions more often than not whereas nonetheless getting access to e-mail and an internet browser would possibly gravitate in direction of a tool like this.

There’s additionally the Be aware Air 3 C, a model of the identical pill that has a coloration e-paper show, and have been in a position to spend a while with that system. Colour, unsurprisingly, provides a number of dimension and enjoyable to a tool like this. Not solely are you able to take pleasure in full-color photographs in books, however you can too take notes, spotlight and mark up paperwork utilizing just a few totally different colours of digital pens and markers. The large caveat, although, is that the Be aware Air 3 C prices $100 greater than the usual Be aware Air 3, so you will need to pay a premium if coloration is a precedence for you.

Display dimension: 7-inch | Battery life: As much as 40 days | Community connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Capability: 32GB | Included stylus: No | Supported file sorts: EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR, Kobo audiobooks

The Kobo Libra Colour, one of many firm’s latest ereaders, not solely provides coloration to its display but additionally stylus help. Which means you’ll be able to spotlight textual content, write within the margins of e-books and create notebooks. The low-latency, feature-rich stylus, plus integration with Dropbox and Google Drive, make the Libra Color a surprisingly efficient E Ink pill. Finally, we nonetheless assume the Kindle Scribe is your finest wager for a tablet-and-ereader combo, because of the extra expansive Kindle library and the bigger, ten-inch display — however Kobo’s newest deserves a point out.

The Libra Color is our present decide for a mannequin with buttons in our ereader guide. It has a premium construct, loads of textual content customizations for snug studying and a crisp, warm-light, seven-inch show. The addition of coloration provides curiosity to ebook covers and allows you to spotlight textual content in 4 totally different hues. Kobo additionally caught a sooner processor within the system, which makes waking from sleep, turning pages, navigating the menu and altering orientation zippy quick.

The Libra Color doesn’t include the Kobo stylus — one other level within the Scribe’s favor — however in case you add the $70 accent, you’ll be capable to spotlight textual content and scribble notes within the margins of any ebook. You’ll additionally unlock entry to Kobo’s two types of notebooks: Primary, which helps you to draw, scribble and write freehand, and Superior, which may convert handwriting to typed textual content and allows you to add diagrams and sections.

The stylus affords three pen types, plus a brush and highlighter, and switching between them is fast with an unobtrusive menu. Because of the colour expertise, you’ll be able to write and attract ten colours and spotlight in 4. One of many few points I bumped into was with the highlighter button — it’s in an ideal spot for spotlighting textual content on the fly, however that location can also be proper the place I relaxation my pointer finger, so I typically hit it whereas writing. However the utility of the built-in eraser balances out that irritation.

I seen a barely perceptible latency and good strain sensitivity, which is most blatant utilizing the fountain pen. The faucet-to-convert characteristic virtually all the time accurately turned my bizarre printing-and-cursive-hybrid handwriting into kind, and importing notebooks to Dropbox or Google Drive took mere seconds. (You can too do hardwired, USB-C transfers to a pc.)

With the added price of the stylus, you’ll pay $290 for Kobo’s set, which continues to be $50 cheaper than the bottom mannequin Scribe. In case you don’t want a bigger display or entry to the tons of of Kindle titles you might have already bought, the Libra Color makes for an interesting ereader/E Ink pill various. — Amy Skorheim, Reporter, Shopping for Recommendation