reMarkable, a New eink device with pen support

[rem736]

Originally Posted by Mathmyk

Did they mention that you have to be part of the first batch in order to pick up a unit in Oslo and take part in the survey?

October seems so far away...

i think they are looking for some unwilling "beta" testers. over a 6 month period is way too long for a simple survey.

[Philippe D.]

I'd say willing rather than unwilling; customers unwilling to serve as beta testers can just wait for their units to ship.

October is far away, but so is Norway (in a different way). I'll wait

[Akbar]

Please watch this Youtube comparison video below. It seemed to me that Remarkable beat Sony's reader in every way besides also being much cheaper. I noticed that there was lag in Sony when using the stylus while the response on the Remarkable was almost as fast as what you'd expect from an LCD tablet.
https://youtu.be/RbYIsfwNXSU

Here is also a full Youtube review below:
https://youtu.be/giIYoto4ZkA

[sonict72]

Originally Posted by Akbar

Please watch this Youtube comparison video below. It seemed to me that Remarkable beat Sony's reader in every way besides also being much cheaper. I noticed that there was lag in Sony when using the stylus while the response on the Remarkable was almost as fast as what you'd expect from an LCD tablet.
https://youtu.be/RbYIsfwNXSU

Here is also a full Youtube review below:
https://youtu.be/giIYoto4ZkA

Sony has two advantages. Much larger screen and much faster CPU. 10.3 is not much larger than 9.7 and the cortex A9 CPU is just brutal. That CPU is more than 10 years old. It's same as what Boox has been using for years. You will be much happier with the Sony.

[orebmur]

A quite sober German language review of the reMarkable has been published today on the website of respectable German computer magazine c't:
www.heise.de/ct/artikel/Notizblock-Remarkable-Hardware-fast-Papier-Software-fast-fertig-3832634.html

[johnnyb]

quite a few reviews out now, tenor seems to be that writing is really nice (except for the typical eink lag), the rest is still beat-ish and it's generally to expensive...

[Philippe D.]

Originally Posted by sonict72

Sony has two advantages. Much larger screen and much faster CPU. 10.3 is not much larger than 9.7 and the cortex A9 CPU is just brutal. That CPU is more than 10 years old. It's same as what Boox has been using for years. You will be much happier with the Sony.

Personnally, I don't care much what the CPU is, or what the screen size is. What I care about is whether using the device is comfortable or not, essentially for my use cases.

If a 10.3 inches screen is large enough to view the documents I need to read, then the 13.3 inches of the Sony are probably overkill. My interest is in reading PDF documents that are mostly scientific books and papers - with an original size not much larger than 10 inches, often with rather large margins. So if the device is smart enough to crop pages, or to keep the cropping parameters from page to page and reading to reading, that's probably good enough.

Mind you, I have no first hand experience with either of these devices. What I mean is, really what matters is the user experience (and the important aspects will be different to different people).

Problem is, neither of these devices is available for trying out in stores, so making a well informed choice is a very difficult thing.

[leselysten]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

quite a few reviews out now, tenor seems to be that writing is really nice (except for the typical eink lag), the rest is still beat-ish and it's generally to expensive...

That's odd: reviews I have seen comment on the good responsiveness when writing and drawing, UNLIKE the "typical eink lag".

See the responsiveness for yourself in this writing test video by goodereader.com.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

If a 10.3 inches screen is large enough to view the documents I need to read, then the 13.3 inches of the Sony are probably overkill. My interest is in reading PDF documents that are mostly scientific books and papers - with an original size not much larger than 10 inches, often with rather large margins. So if the device is smart enough to crop pages, or to keep the cropping parameters from page to page and reading to reading, that's probably good enough.

I would have thought it would be fine. I read PDFs on a iPad with a 10.5" screen, and it's very comfortable to read on at that size.

[sonict72]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I would have thought it would be fine. I read PDFs on a iPad with a 10.5" screen, and it's very comfortable to read on at that size.

I have been reading PDFs on 9.7 inch eInk devices for years. It's not comfortable. You can't rotate or zoom in with ease. It's a much different experience on a regular tablet. If your main use case is scientific or legal PDFs, 13.3 is MUCH better.

[sonict72]

Originally Posted by leselysten

That's odd: reviews I have seen comment on the good responsiveness when writing and drawing, UNLIKE the "typical eink lag".

See the responsiveness for yourself in this writing test video by goodereader.com.

It depends on your definition of "typical eink lag." This has gotten much better over the years. But it's not any faster than Sony that I can see. And the lag in navigation is worse than other devices. This may cause a lot of frustrations.

[sonict72]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

Personnally, I don't care much what the CPU is, or what the screen size is. What I care about is whether using the device is comfortable or not, essentially for my use cases.

If a 10.3 inches screen is large enough to view the documents I need to read, then the 13.3 inches of the Sony are probably overkill. My interest is in reading PDF documents that are mostly scientific books and papers - with an original size not much larger than 10 inches, often with rather large margins. So if the device is smart enough to crop pages, or to keep the cropping parameters from page to page and reading to reading, that's probably good enough.

Mind you, I have no first hand experience with either of these devices. What I mean is, really what matters is the user experience (and the important aspects will be different to different people).

Problem is, neither of these devices is available for trying out in stores, so making a well informed choice is a very difficult thing.

My use case is same as yours. I've owned over dozen different eInk devices in the last 10 years. Nothing can touch the Sony for scientific PDFs. None of my eInk devices can crop properly. And none can reflow properly. You are in for a lot of frustrations my friend.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by sonict72

I have been reading PDFs on 9.7 inch eInk devices for years. It's not comfortable. You can't rotate or zoom in with ease. It's a much different experience on a regular tablet. If your main use case is scientific or legal PDFs, 13.3 is MUCH better.

It really depends on your eyesight. I can read a scientific paper on my Kindle with no zooming. It's not the best experience but it's completely doable for me.
My 7.9" iPad Mini is quite comfortable for PDF reading with no zooming/rotating, so I'd imagine I could get away with a sharp enough 9.7" eInk reader and be quite happy.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sonict72

I have been reading PDFs on 9.7 inch eInk devices for years. It's not comfortable. You can't rotate or zoom in with ease. It's a much different experience on a regular tablet. If your main use case is scientific or legal PDFs, 13.3 is MUCH better.

The difference between 9.7" and 10.5" may not sound like much, but it makes a surprising difference. I sold my 12.9" iPad Pro because I just found it too big to carry around comfortably.

[Philippe D.]

Originally Posted by sonict72

My use case is same as yours. I've owned over dozen different eInk devices in the last 10 years. Nothing can touch the Sony for scientific PDFs. None of my eInk devices can crop properly. And none can reflow properly. You are in for a lot of frustrations my friend.

I don't know about the cropping, and I certainly don't expect any device to do proper reflowing of PDFs - the format just isn't made for that.

What I know, though, is that my iPad's screen is slightly smaller than 10 inches, and it's close to being comfortable enough; my bet is that an e-ink screen will make the difference.

Would the Sony provide a better screen size? In a sense it would. But it would also be another large device I'd have to carry around. Plus, Sony doesn't seem to show any interest in selling one to me - no European distribution, and an extra closed software setup.