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, additional price | Supported file varieties: PDF, EPUB

The newest reMarkable pill isn’t topping our record as a result of it’s essentially the most full-featured and even most fascinating writing pill we examined. Reasonably, it gives the very best mixture of options individuals will discover helpful in an e-paper machine 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 without doubt 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 facet, which attaches to equipment just like the folio case and the brand new Kind Folio keyboard. Hats off to reMarkable for making an E Ink pill that feels proper at residence with your entire 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 stress delicate pens, and require no batteries or charging. I noticed principally no lag between my urgent down onto the reMarkable 2’s display and contours displaying 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 prime picks on this information – nearly the entire E Ink tablets we examined received this very essential function proper.

In the case of studying, the reMarkable 2 helps PDFs and ePUBs, and you’ll add recordsdata to the machine by logging into your reMarkable account on desktop or through the companion cellular app in your cellphone. You can too pair your Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox account together with your reMarkable account and entry recordsdata that means as nicely. That must be adequate for anybody who, say, reads a variety of educational papers or opinions many paperwork for work. It’ll be more durable 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 approach to get paperwork onto the reMarkable 2 is through the Learn 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 possibly can verify them out later. You may even customise these recordsdata to be despatched as textual content solely, which can allow you to change their format instantly 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 some other file on the E Ink pill. I used this extension loads and I did get pleasure from studying longform articles on the reMarkable 2 greater than on my iPhone. With 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 will probably be higher off for it.

Total, it’s fairly simple to get recordsdata onto the reMarkable 2 and it’s potential to entry them elsewhere when you might not be capable to whip out the E Ink pill. These with a reMarkable Join subscription can have the very best expertise, and it’s a pleasant perk that you simply get a one-year membership if you purchase one. The $3-per-month subscription gives the flexibility to edit current notes and take new ones from anyplace utilizing the desktop and cellular apps, plus limitless cloud storage and syncing.

That stated, I saved most of my testing native on the reMarkable 2 itself and was impressed by its potential to be a digital pocket book and not using a steep studying curve. You may 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 varieties 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 may even sort wherever you need in a doc, and the reMarkable 2 can translate handwritten notes into machine-readable textual content with shocking accuracy.

It was no shock that the reMarkable 2 ended up having the very best mixture of options, together with a comparatively low studying curve. The corporate was one of many first on the scene with a very viable E Ink pill again in 2017, and so they’ve been refining the expertise ever since. However that comes at a value – the reMarkable 2 isn’t the costliest E Ink pill we examined, nevertheless it’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 Tenth-gen iPad and the USB-C Apple Pencil for round identical worth and also you’d have a extra versatile duo, purely based mostly on the capabilities of iOS.

However you’re in all probability not contemplating an iPad for a selected cause, whether or not that’s your love for E Ink or the sensation of pen-to-paper writing, otherwise you merely need a extra distraction-free expertise. For those who’re in search of an E Ink pill that won’t take ages to get used to, presents a stellar writing expertise and makes it comparatively easy to entry notes elsewhere, the reMarkable 2 is your greatest guess.

Learn our full reMarkable Paper Professional evaluation

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

ReMarkable upped the ante in principally each means with the Paper Professional, with out sacrificing something we cherished concerning the reMarkable 2. Each my colleague Dan Cooper and I examined out the brand new machine and you’ll learn his full reMarkable Paper Professional evaluation 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, quicker response instances and small joys that got here from having a brand new colour 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 actually isn’t an ogre by comparability, however the “professional” within the Paper Professional’s title 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 actually didn’t lag, the Professional feels zippier: web page refreshes are faster, actions and transitions are extra easy and pen latency is just 12ms (nearly undetectable in my expertise).

The place you see the gears working most frequently is in the usage of colour. The Paper Professional’s display makes use of a modified model of E-Ink’s Gallery 3 expertise referred to as Canvas Shade, which is able to producing 20,000 colours that may layer on prime of one another (assume if you spotlight a line greater than as soon as utilizing two totally different colours over each other). You may really see the pixels turning from an ordinary black colour 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 velocity and the machine will up and produce the fitting 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 simple to arrange your entire paperwork, notes and different studying and writing materials. The reMarkable 2 provided probably the most approachable software program experiences in an E Ink pill, and that continues right here on the Paper Professional. These units prioritize a distraction-free surroundings — or on the very least, a lower-distraction zone — and I respect how reMarkable has saved its units’ interface easy and easy.

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, machine syncing and the flexibility 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 inside storage may be sufficient for others who wish to preserve it easy (and preserve all of their exercise to the Paper Professional itself). New machine house owners get a 100-day free trial, so it’s simple sufficient to present Join a shot after which cancel in the event you don’t end up utilizing all of its perks.

A very powerful factor to recollect in the event you’re contemplating a reMarkable pill is that, base on our testing, each the reMarkable 2 and reMarkable Paper Professional are stable units. The Paper Professional actually earned its “professional” moniker because of noticeable enhancements the corporate made, however these don’t unfavourable how good of a tool the reMarkable 2 nonetheless is. However in the event you’ve received the money and wish 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 varieties: AZW3, AZW, TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively and extra

You actually have two choices on this area: 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, nevertheless it 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 evaluation remedy, and generally, 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. Due to the newest software program replace, you even have extra brush varieties to select from now, together with fountain pen, marker and pencil, which add to the attraction. Like different E Ink tablets, the Scribe makes it simple to create a number of notebooks, and you’ll 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 will have Amazon’s whole e-book retailer at your fingertips. For those who get most of your studying materials from Amazon or subscribe to Kindle Limitless, you’ll be capable to bounce proper into your entire titles immediately on the Scribe simply as you’ll on a tool just like the Kindle Paperwhite. As well as, the Scribe can connect with Audible through Bluetooth for audiobook listening. It’s additionally simple to get ebooks out of your native library and browse them on a Kindle. This will probably be essential not just for voracious readers, however particularly for college students who purchase or lease digital textbooks and people who devour books frequently for analysis functions.

I considered college students loads when utilizing the Scribe. I began school in 2009, two years after the primary Kindle was launched and one 12 months earlier than the primary iPad got here out. Getting textbooks digitally actually wasn’t an possibility for me – however I can perceive the enchantment a note-taking machine just like the Kindle Scribe would have for college students. It’s arguably even higher than an ordinary Kindle as a result of its greater display dimension, which can make it much less tiring to stare at for lengthy intervals of time. Including the flexibility to take handwritten notes when you’re learning is icing on the cake.

Nevertheless, Amazon’s execution of e-book notes is just not my favourite. You really can not make annotations within the margins of Kindle ebooks. As a substitute 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. For those who do the latter, a window pops up on the underside half of the display the place you possibly can both take a handwritten observe or sort a textual content observe utilizing the Scribe’s mildly irritating and sluggish on-screen keyboard.

Amazon lately rectified this a bit with a software program replace that permits for direct on-page writing in sure Kindle books. The Kindle Retailer now has a piece that showcases “Write-on Books,” which is at the moment largely made up of journals and sport books that function puzzles like crosswords and sudoku. That is actually a step in the fitting course, nevertheless it means you continue to will not be capable to mark up your favourite fiction and non-fiction books till they help the brand new function.

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 the event you had been studying a bodily e-book. 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 machine right here.

What that additional little bit of latency interprets to in observe is handwriting that may come out only a bit messier, and that will increase precipitously the quicker you write. However that additionally implies that you’ll discover this essentially the most when taking notes longhand on the Elipsa; in the event 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 may have an ordinary pocket book the place you possibly can 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 actually a good possibility if you wish to keep away from the Amazon ecosystem. However Amazon has the higher hand with regards to 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 the event 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 general efficiency and the ubiquity of Amazon’s e-book choices will make it the higher selection for many readers.

Display dimension: 10.3-inch | Battery life: Weeks | Community connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Capability: 32GB | Included stylus: No, additional price | Supported file varieties: PDF, EPUB, Phrase, Textual content (.txt), PNG, JPG, Comedian e-book 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 persistently most excited to make use of. As a pocket book nerd, I discover this factor so cool. Out there in 10.3-inch (what I examined) and seven.8-inch sizes, the Supernote X has a “FeelWrite” display protector that has a distinct really feel than an ordinary e-paper display. When writing on it with Coronary heart of Steel Pen 2, which is weighty and appears like a fountain pen, you get a gel pen-like really feel moderately than the subtly scratchy vibe that different E Ink tablets have. In reality, the Supernote X has the most effective 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 possibly can put onto the factor. I wished to see if I may deal with it nearly like a digital bullet journal, and that wasn’t laborious 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 Switch. The machine has a devoted “MyStyle” folder the place it can save you recordsdata you wish to use as templates. Probably the most tough half was ensuring I had the scale proper whereas resizing the paperwork. As soon as saved in the fitting folder, I may make a complete pocket book out of the templates I had gotten from the web free of charge.

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 machine doesn’t have a backlight, so it received’t be simple to see in darkish environments. However you possibly can obtain Amazon’s e-book app and browse similar to you’ll on an ordinary pill (no, you possibly can’t mark up books right here both).

Actually, the very last thing I wished to do with the Supernote X was learn, although. The machine actually shines as an E Ink pocket book and the corporate clearly put a variety of thought into “constructing a greater mousetrap,” so to talk. You may translate handwritten phrases into typed textual content, however you don’t have to try this to ensure that the software program to acknowledge your handwriting. There’s a key phrases function that permits you to principally bookmark necessary 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 possibly can add it as a key phrase and shortly bounce again to it from the left-side pill of contents menu. Equally, you possibly can bookmark titles and add stars to pages which can be necessary, all of which aid you bounce between necessary bits.

That stated, the Supernote X typically felt slightly inconsistent. The writing expertise was top-notch, however there have been different issues that felt rather less polished. For instance, you possibly can swipe down on the fitting bezel to convey up a menu that permits you to shortly navigate between favorited notes and up to date paperwork – that’s fairly considerate. However then the Recordsdata 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 may not be the very best machine for tech novices. There’s a studying curve right here, however pocket book nerds like myself will probably 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 costliest set on our record.

Display dimension: 10.3-inch | Battery life: As much as 4 weeks | Community connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Capability: 64GB | Included stylus: Sure | Supported file varieties: 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 Notice Air 3, we really feel comfy recommending it right here as a result of it’s principally only a barely upgraded model of our earlier decide, the Notice Air 2 Plus. Key variations are the Notice Air 3’s quicker processor and new fingerprint recognition function, however in any other case each units have the identical 10.3-inch “paperlike” display, run the most recent model of Android and are available bundled with a stylus.

Primarily based on our expertise with the Notice Air 2 Plus, Boox’s whole Notice sequence is what you’d get in the event you eliminated among the notebook-specific options from the Supernote X and added in a extra full model of Android. Boox makes quite a few fascinating E Ink units and the Notice Air 2 Plus/Notice Air 3 are those that greatest evaluate to the others on our record because of its 10.3-inch show. They’re E Ink Android tablets, so which means you possibly can really obtain Android apps from the Google Play Retailer like Kindle, Kobo and others. There’s even an online browser, and sure, you possibly can watch movies on this factor, too.

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

I skilled little to no latency when writing on Boox’s machine 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 possibly can usher in your individual PDFs and different paperwork to make use of as templates. There’s an “AI recognition” function that interprets an entire web page’s handwriting into typed textual content, and it’s really fairly correct. (Although, it did persistently confuse my “&” for a capital A). I additionally appreciated which you could add other forms of fabric to your notes, together with net pages and voice recordings, and share notes as PDFs or PNGs through e-mail, Google Drive and different companies. Options like these make sure that, with this partially analog machine, you don’t miss out on among the conveniences {that a} true digital pocket book system would have.

And, importantly, Boox tablets generally provide an fascinating worth proposition. A Notice Air 3 bundle with the pill, an ordinary 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 wish to keep away from distractions more often than not whereas nonetheless gaining access to e-mail and an online browser may gravitate in the direction of a tool like this.

There’s additionally the Notice Air 3 C, a model of the identical pill that has a colour e-paper show, and had been in a position to spend a while with that machine. Shade, unsurprisingly, provides a variety of dimension and enjoyable to a tool like this. Not solely are you able to get pleasure from full-color photos in books, however you too can take notes, spotlight and mark up paperwork utilizing a couple of totally different colours of digital pens and markers. The large caveat, although, is that the Notice Air 3 C prices $100 greater than the usual Notice Air 3, so you will need to pay a premium if colour 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 varieties: EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR, Kobo audiobooks

The Kobo Libra Color, one of many firm’s latest ereaders, not solely provides colour to its display but additionally stylus help. Meaning you possibly can 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. In the end, we nonetheless assume the Kindle Scribe is your greatest guess 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 information. It has a premium construct, loads of textual content customizations for comfy studying and a crisp, warm-light, seven-inch show. The addition of colour provides curiosity to e-book covers and allows you to spotlight textual content in 4 totally different hues. Kobo additionally caught a quicker processor within the machine, 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 the event you add the $70 accent, you’ll be capable to spotlight textual content and scribble notes within the margins of any e-book. You’ll additionally unlock entry to Kobo’s two kinds 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 presents three pen kinds, plus a brush and highlighter, and switching between them is fast with an unobtrusive menu. Due to the colour expertise, you possibly can 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 important spot for spotlighting textual content on the fly, however that location can be proper the place I relaxation my pointer finger, so I usually hit it whereas writing. However the utility of the built-in eraser balances out that irritation.

I observed a barely perceptible latency and good stress sensitivity, which is most evident utilizing the fountain pen. The faucet-to-convert function nearly at all times accurately turned my bizarre printing-and-cursive-hybrid handwriting into sort, 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 remains to be $50 cheaper than the bottom mannequin Scribe. For those who don’t want a bigger display or entry to the a whole bunch of Kindle titles you will have already bought, the Libra Color makes for an interesting ereader/E Ink pill different. — Amy Skorheim, Reporter, Shopping for Recommendation