
ReMarkable – A writable eInk tablet - breck
https://getremarkable.com/
======
aaronmck
This is a bit of a repeat:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13113819](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13113819).

To echo the old thread's sentiments, I'd be extremely happy to see this hit
the market in late summer as a great full-page PDF viewer. Academics would
never be happier. Just hoping it's not vaporware like so many others.

~~~
BanzaiTokyo
I absolutely love my Sony Digital Paper [http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-
digitalpaper/resource.solu...](http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-
digitalpaper/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-show-digitalpaper-
digitalpaper.shtml) it is a bit expensive, but it is a beautiful product and
makes my life so much more comfortable.

~~~
j_s
I was looking into getting one and according to CDW the Sony Digital Paper was
discontinued January 17.

My fear with the Remarkable is that they will try to require a monthly
subscription to their cloud service in order for the device to function.

~~~
BanzaiTokyo
if you can find a Sony DPS, just buy it. If you are thinking about buying one,
you should get one.

------
fuzzythinker
It's a good alternative to the discontinued SONY DPT-S1 and Onyx BOOX. (Edit:
and goodereader)

The main difference based on spec is the screen, pen sensitivity, and price.

ReMarkable:

\- 10.3" 1872 x 1404 (4:3, 226 DPI)

\- 2048 levels sensitivity, high friction pen

\- $429 (limited time offer, preorder)

SONY DPT-S1:

(discontinued Jan 17, 2017)

\- 13.3" 1600 x 1200 (4:3, 150 DPI)

\- pen input

\- was $799 (now > $1k on ebay)

Onyx BOOX Max:

\- 13.3" 1600 x 1200 (4:3, 150 DPI)

\- pen input

\- $760

Onyx BOOX N96:

\- 9.7" 1200x825 (16:11, 150 DPI)

\- pen input

\- $369

Goodereader:

\- 13.3" 1600 x 1200 (4:3, 150 DPI)

\- 1024 levels sensitivity pen

\- $699 (preorder)

~~~
snaky
> In a couple of months Onyx is going to start production of Max Carta (same
> Max but with higher resolution Carta screen). Onyx Max 2 is in work and is
> expected later this year.

[https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3487807&pos...](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3487807&postcount=804)

------
Al-Khwarizmi
I see that they ship to Europe, but do they ship European orders _from_
Europe? I'm tempted by this, but I really don't want to play the customs
lottery, not only due to the money (which is also a factor) but also due to
the paperwork, etc.

~~~
lambdasue
I asked this question months ago (being based in Europe too) and the reply was
that I will indeed have to pay my local VAT and import toll when receiving the
product.

When I explicitly followed up with whether this means they will ship from
China they followed up with saying that it is very likely, but not set in
stone yet.

~~~
Al-Khwarizmi
Thanks for the info! It's a pity. I'd rather pay an extra for shipping when I
preorder, in exchange for not having to worry about customs, as some
Kickstarters do (or as Amazon does). Customs in my country are cumbersome and
used to be unreliable (I have heard reports that they aren't that bad lately,
but I still avoid them as knee-jerk reaction).

------
DiabloD3
I'd get one in a heartbeat if the writing interface is as good as Microsoft
Surface 4 Pro/Surfacebook, the only pen interface in the history of computing
that I found wasn't an unusable laggy pile of shit. Seeing as it is based on
Wacom technology, I'm going to assume they already failed this requirement.

Also, they need to get the device price down. Anything over $200, and they
already priced themselves out of the market for cheap tablet that has limited
use.

~~~
jodrellblank
Does this handwriting -
[http://i.imgur.com/46zsYWw.png](http://i.imgur.com/46zsYWw.png) \- look like
a device that's picking up fine, fast movements as well as paper? Or this -
[http://i.imgur.com/BEvjRWI.png](http://i.imgur.com/BEvjRWI.png) \- what are
those highlighted shapes? It's possibly just the chap's handwriting, but in a
product video for a new product all about how it's like handwriting on paper,
wouldn't it be a plan to choose someone with tidy handwriting? But I don't
think it is his handwriting; in both of the bits pictured there's lots of
uuuuu shapes and round o shapes are mashed or almost missing; 'Let A be ev°n
uhon Z is .dd. P l o t roills OK Kincticn'.

Put their video[1] in 0.25x slow motion and watch at 39 seconds, the 's' they
write at the end of 'Restrictions', see it gets the start and end missed and
the shape distorted. Then watch the filling in sketching movements at 40
seconds, the ink appearing lags by the entire length of the pen stroke...

Yet in a couple of places, it looks like it is keeping up with writing. Where
they say it's the fastest, where they zoom in on his handwriting.

I want it to be paper. But ... I dunno...

[1] [https://youtu.be/34I27KPZM6g?t=38](https://youtu.be/34I27KPZM6g?t=38)

~~~
Foxboron
Quick disclaimer; The CTO of reMarkable is a friend of mine.

I was at their office and tested reMarkable a bit. The delay is surprisingly
low. If i did quick circle shapes over the display the pen would be 5-8 cm in
front of the line. When writing normally i didn't feel or notice any lag at
all really. The display itself is also more rugged then a kindle paperwhite,
so writing gives enough resistance to feel "paper-ish". The software does a
correction after writing, so ragged shapes gets smoothed out and i saw some
fills being added. I'm unsure how much of this is being tested and tweaked.

------
SyneRyder
I think you'd have to really, really prefer eInk to want this.

If you just want an affordable tablet with writing ability, the Samsung Galaxy
Tab A With S Pen is $299 on Amazon, and it has twice the storage (16GB plus a
microSD slot) and 4x the RAM (2GB vs 512MB). S Note has improved a lot with
better cut/paste/resizing features, and can synchronize your notes & sketches
to Evernote.

That's a beautifully designed product page though, and bonus points for
including scenes from Malmö in their video.

~~~
fulafel
They are not really meant for the same applications. It's not running Android.
E-ink displays are grayscale, they refresh very slowly compared to LCD/LED,
completly lack glare, work well in sunlight. It's a different category of
device, and yes it's meant for people who really, definitely do want this
instead of a garden variety Android tablet.

~~~
linuxkerneldev
> E-ink displays are grayscale

Most, but not all. There are commercially available E-Ink color displays
(using color filters) such as E-Ink Triton ,
[http://www.eink.com/display_products_triton.html](http://www.eink.com/display_products_triton.html)
.

A year ago, E-Ink demonstrated pure color (pigment based) which gives you
broad gamut color (more than color filter based displays) but I haven't seen
them used in commercial products yet.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2V9iuTW3sA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2V9iuTW3sA)

The displays can update quickly, even do 10Hz-20Hz type animation. But that
would defeat the purpose of using it for low-power by not updating it all.

------
ctbarrett
I have wanted something like this for years (ever since I got my first
kindle), but I just can't get over the price - over $400 for what is basically
an e-reader with a digitizer? I get that there's a premium to be paid for
basically bootstrapping the production process, but I would have guessed that
$300 would be closer to the top end for this (and I would still wait for the
price to come down from there).

~~~
ianai
I think the price makes sense. It's a bigger display than you get on the $200
kindle. It also has a digitizer (add $100), software, and the "bootstrap"
extra. Now if they ever raise the price to 700+...nuts.

------
Animats
There's a 42-inch version of this from Quirk Logic.[1] Does almost exactly the
same thing, but it's bigger, for groups. No price given. Like the little
tablet, it uses a special pen. It's so close to the tablet in functionality
that there must be some commonality.

Eink displays are still expensive per pixel. Early on, the technology was
touted as being cheap, but that hasn't happened. The contrast is much
improved, though; it started as dark grey on light grey, as seen in early
e-book readers, but some devices are now tolerable. Not the cheap ones,
though.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyQc90MY3fo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyQc90MY3fo)

~~~
mamcx
I wish to have a large e-ink monitor for read & write, with a normal one for
the rest.

My eyes get tired fast and is mainly because I'm addicted to read ;)

------
kayoone
This looks really nice, but to be honest i find the experience with a Surface
Pro and OneNote/Drawboard PDf so good when using the pen, i hardly need
anything more and it doubles as a full desktop computer when i want to. In the
end, for 200, maybe 250 EUR i would buy this, but not for double that.

~~~
barking
I have never been much of an early technology adopter for this reason. The
cost benefit ratio is almost always too high for me. Good job not everyone's
the same. I could see myself getting one in a few years though if the price
goes down so I wish them well.

------
jlebrech
$429 is pretty high, you can get a few separates for less than that. but if it
had a lot of b&w productivity apps it could be a better buy than an ipad pro.

~~~
victorhooi
I think they're meant for different target markets and use-cases.

------
ianai
I really wish I had this in undergrad. Back pains alone.

------
tmd83
Definitely as an ereader user I would be interested any low lag technology
even if I don't really want a bigger device currently. But I am also curious
about the glass free display because I do really worry about the fragility of
the e-ink displays. The idea of a textured surface is also very appealing if
the display quality remains good.

------
proee
Does this come with a front light similar to Paperwhite on the Kindle? IMHO
this is hugely important for good readability.

------
petecox
The video emphasises the creative aspects of the tablet but I wonder how
they'll go without an online bookstore.

They explicitly don't support DRM which means they can't, say, read titles
bought from Google Play Books - if they hope to migrate Amazon and Rakuten
customers.

------
tempodox
I wonder how robust the stylus is. The iDevice styli have a quite limited life
span.

------
chid
Is there a reason this doesn't take a microSD card?

~~~
OJFord
The only 'data loading mechanism' it mentions is the company's cloud service,
and I suppose cloud-syncing multiple cards and internal storage would be a
hard UX to get right. (As a user, you'd presumably want the new empty card you
put in to sync with a _different_ set of documents from your cloud account.)

------
omar3550
So how is this different than the Amazon paperwhite tablets?

~~~
devnonymous
It's in the title -- you can write on it.

------
orliesaurus
costs too much and lags too much - pass.

~~~
igravious
I basically don't use my Kindle paoerwhite because of the tiny lag. It is
regretful how impatient and intolerant I am. Many people seem fine with this
amount of lag, not me. Probably the Remarkable has less lag but it's
noticeable in the video. Wish e-ink products would specify the lag for various
ops. As soon as a product like Remarkable gets below my
annoyance/intolerance/impatience threshold I'm sold.

I like adding diagrams to my text, probably I ought to get a digitiser and
pen. Until e-ink reaches the sweet spot any recommendations?

~~~
eric_h
> Remarkable has less lag but it's noticeable in the video

I found the editing of that video to be extremely frustrating as I wanted to
see a straight up shot of someone writing something on a blank screen. The
only shot of that I saw (I scrubbed through the video pretty quickly, so I
might have missed a better one) was blurred so much that I couldn't see how
bad the lag was.

I think that video was very clearly attempting to disguise how bad the lag is.

~~~
snaky
That's so common with e-ink devices.

The quote is about another crowd-funded e-ink device[1]

> Look at the two videos and it will be apparent that screen refreshes are
> horrible; they have highly edited the videos to hide this fact and other
> inconsistencies

[1]
[https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3285829&pos...](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3285829&postcount=8)

~~~
eric_h
> That's so common with e-ink devices

Which is very unfortunate. The intentional deception is so obvious to me that
it leaves me wondering what else they're hiding.

As a result I won't touch the product with a ten foot pole.

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stewbrew
The most remarkable thing is that I don't see anything -- even with javascript
enabled. Must be the ad blocker or something. Why can't a landing page have
any kind of fallback plain html page?

