Surprisingly Paper Pure is the best digital pen I have ever used

Do I write with a pen and paper, or a tablet? It’s becoming harder than ever to say.

The Remarkable Paper Pure is to follow 2020 Best 2 and two high quality E Ink tablets. As with the first two Remarkable digital notebooks, the Paper Pure has a black and white E Ink screen that provides illumination when writing. The end of the screen is more like writing on real paper than a tablet with a smooth glass. Without lighting, you can’t use it anywhere. But that tradeoff is important. Each stroke appears to be connected directly to the Pen’s tip, making it feel like you’re using a real pen on paper rather than writing on a screen. Better than anything I’ve tried so far.

What about the pen? The White comes with a basic battery-powered marker called the Marker, but I tested the more expensive Marker Plus which adds a dedicated erase button and is available as part of a more expensive $449 bundle that also includes a new Sleeve Folio case. Its latency is the same as the Remarkable 2 pen and it doesn’t respond as well Apple Pencil Probut I think the writings of Remarkable tablets remain incomparable. It’s nice that the pen can charge wirelessly when attached to the side of the tablet, if iPad Pro and Air. It’s thinner than the Remarkable 2 pen and sticks more securely than before.

There are some additional features. Paper Pure has a faster dual-core processor, a bump from 1GB of RAM to 2GB, and an increase in storage from 8GB to 32GB. Comparing the two tablets side-by-side, the Paper Pure is faster when running the UI and opening documents, but not by much. While large ebooks and PDFs opened about half a second faster on Paper Pure, the speed improvement was less for other documents, including their native documents.

Remarkable says that the new third-generation Paper Pure screen – a 10.3-inch version of E Ink’s Carta 1300 group that is already used in e-readers – offers 20 percent more contrast and a brighter image than the second model of Remarkable 2. There is a subtle difference between the two, but it is only visible with both tablets sitting next to each other.

The upgraded screen helps the Paper Pure’s snappier UI performance, but it improves on the Remarkable 2’s 1,872 x 1,404 resolution and 226PPI, which is less than what you’ll find on most other modern tablets this size, including the Remarkable’s color screen. Small text still looks crisp and clear, just not as crisp as the latest Kobo and Kindle 300PPI readers.

What I really like about Paper Pure is the new design which feels very sturdy. I made Amazing as a booklet that I can throw in my bag, and it has survived years of abuse. The Shock 2 was very sturdy with a solid design, but the Paper Pure now has an all-plastic back panel that I’m confident will easily survive use and abuse. It’s slightly larger than the Wonder 2 as a result, but at a light 44 grams it’s easy to carry.

The only disappointing change is that Paper Pure doesn’t improve the contact paper edge of the Remarkable 2 which uses contact with the company’s best. Type folio keyboard case. This update doesn’t disable the corresponding add-on for Paper Pure, but it does need to connect in some way.

Paper Pure’s software is similar to the Marvelous 2’s that have been regularly updated over the years, but the company is bringing some new features that its older tablets have also received. Pages saved through the Remarkable Chrome extension or mobile apps and other exported documents can be converted to editable documents, allowing their content to be modified or edited before sharing with others.

The tablets are also getting the integration of Google calendar and Microsoft Outlook for the new meeting notes that automatically fill in the notebook with the details of the output of the call. Additional notes taken from the meeting can be summarized using AI that will highlight important points or things to do before sharing.

And while Paper Pure can be used to read ebooks and PDFs with enough editing options, it still lacks the functionality of other E Ink devices. About Amazon $429.99 Sweet Secretary (if Amazon will also release the version without a visible light) it doubles as an e-reader capable of accessing large bookstores, while Boox offers several E Ink tablets under $500 which runs Android with access to the Google Play Store, further expanding its usability.

If your need is to find a digital converter for a stack of notes, sticky notes, and anywhere else you can jot down your thoughts, the Remarkable Paper Pure is as close as you’ll get to a pen on paper to ditch the clutter. The Paper Pro and Paper Pro Mov they can be tempting with their nice color screens, but Paper Pure is the better option. However, if you’re already a happy user of the Marvel 2, aside from the slightly larger battery there are few reasons to encourage the company’s strong commitment to innovation in existing devices.

Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge