I'm a tactile person. I need to take hand written notes as part of my information absorption process. I understand it's a brain-hand connection associated with retention and memory. But I'm also a techie, I travel a fair amount, and want to keep paper weight down. Kindle paperwhite was an early friend to me in that I could finally have books with me and not be leaving paperbacks at hotels because of my suitcase being too full.
So i wanted something similar for note taking... but never had much luck. I tried using onenote, evernote, and every other possible combination of technology based note taking including my closest favorite LiveScribe. but every single solution had some sort of drawback, till now.
I had seen ads pop up from time to time for this thing called ReMarkable. An electronic ink deposition note taking device, doohickie.. whatever. I kept thinking hmmm... interesting... can they really do that. So I finally decided to try it out (a bit pricy, but it was time).
Here is the ReMarkable with it's pen (pencil).
The big question for me was would the tactile interface really satisfy my expectations. So many times I had found that the pen/surface interactions were so dissatisfactory I could not use them. But when i tried ReMarkable, I was very impressed.
The pen can simulate pencil, ball point, ink tip, marker, and even sketching pencils/brushes. All black and white, or grey. the ink color can also be set to white if you are wanting to selectively sketch over prior dark colored sketches.
the tablets surface has a cloth like or paper like feel that means the pen doesn't slip or slide around (like the glassy surfaces of most tablets), and the sensation of writing feels very normal. The tablet is very thin, and is smart enough not to see heel of my hand as a source of input, even though many of the interface features are touch sensitive.
the UI is pleasantly and elegantly simple and intuitive. it's easy to change the pen features, including area wrap erase, move files, sort notebooks etc. the underlying pages can be lined, grid layout, dayplanners, weekplanners, plain, and many more preset templates.
One really interesting aspect of this unit is that it is "distraction" free. It is what it is intended to be - a writing tool... no social media distractions at all!
I'm a happy person, I finally have a real note taking tool that means I can set aside my myriad of note papers and file away my handwritten notes electronically from now on.
If you want a coupon for $100 off of this $599 marvel - feel free to drop a note in the comments. As a new buyer they provided me with a few.
