Remarkable vs. iPad | How to choose in 2024?

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:49 Initial thoughts
2:06 Device & features
4:03 Blue light
4:31 Upload PDFs
5:37 Distraction free
6:17 Writing experience
7:47 Battery life
8:18 E-reader
8:38 iPad vs. Remarkable

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[esthereley]

I’m a veteran of digital planning on the iPad and I’ve recently got a remarkable for my birthday. What I’ve found is I’m wasting so much less money and time (on digital stickers and planners) by using the reMarkable. On the iPad it’s so easy to overcomplicate things on a planning page – what colour scheme, which stickers, what font, how to customise the spread etc. With the reMarkable you just simply handwrite everything. I’m journaling way more and actually using my planners to get stuff done! And I’m watching less YouTube videos etc.

[telockett]

I use them together. I love my rM2 and I use it for school, budget planner, fitness planner, bible study, daily planner and other things. I have the paper write on the iPad and its just not a good writing experience even with it on vs. the rM2. For class, if I don’t want to take my laptop, I use my 12.9 iPad along with my rM2 to take notes and study. As you mentioned, it’s not trying to be a iPad which is one reason I think people should stop comparing them, they are not even in the same category per se.

[sophiapan]

Great review! I am glad to see someone in the digital planning community reviews reMarkable 2. I use both reMarkable 2 and iPad for digital planning and love both!

[hualp]

Remarkable 2 guy college. Hated to go back and forth over my notes in different notebook plus wasting money in different notebooks was not something I wanted to do each month. The remarkable itself is just to take notes and thats the reason I chose it over an ipad. Bc I always get distracted with other apps i wanted something that was straightforward and to help me focus. Been using it for 3 months. Is great the only cons I can see is the short amount of memory and colours but after that is great. ppl with difficulty to concentrate or adhd this is such a great tool. 10/10

[heatherm]

Just bought a ReMarkable Pro and about to return it for a new iPad. I love the writing, but the lack of ability to share and integrate is a problem. Once you convert to text, the file can't be edited. If you send a PDF to yourself, again it can't be edited. Wish I'd see this and the review from Tom Solid before I bought it!!! I love the rM for notetaking, but that's all it is. It's like a paper notebook and feels great to write on. You can't search within notes on it either. You can only search folder or notebook names.

[emmaradd]

Great review! I would personally stick with an iPad, as well.

[brainkiss]

Loved this review. I still cant decide, I want both! lol

[Mohammed-jkvq]

This device is awsome but still need some modifications... It would be great if they add these features and updates to next gen. Remarkable 3:

- Main ink colors.. red, yellow, blue, green...
- colored highlights..
- More file extension supports such as doc, docx, txt...etc.
- enhance the accuracy of the screen edges when writing on the edges of the screen. (reduce the effect of the magnet on writing).
- adding more memory storage such as up to 23 Gb or 64 Gb or adding external micro slote for more storage.
- enhancing the response of the device.

[jaimim]

I've had an ipad for a while but basically try to use it like a Remarkable; I'm not an artist, I'm very basic with it. I noticed someone in one of my classes had one and I was curious about the difference. Remarkable is right down my alley, hoping to sell mine soon and make the switch. Thank you for comparing the two!

[joenoetirado]

Thank you for such as detail and honesty review. I’m a digital artist and your explanation help me to decided between those 2, thanks

[aidadautova-khan]

So far Remarkable looks very limited and I can’t adjust the price point. So for foreseeable future I am an IPad girl

[tarbyonlineful]

7:50 personally I have been very disappointed with the reMarkabke’s battery life. Being connected to WiFi really drains it, even just using it at the same desk and not using screen share or other features. I don’t think it would last a week (Still, better than a day)

It’s a very steep price for what is now 5 year old hardware (and it was hardly cutting edge then), plus you have to pay a subscription, or at least sign up to an account where all your data us uploaded to remarkable’s google drive, to use some of the most useful features such as viewing notes on the mobile and desktop apps. The lag reminds me of an old kindle, as does the screen resolution, which makes sense given the age of the underlying hardware. The UI still needs work IMO as well, such as the zoom which is either tiny or huge.

TBH the user experience could be better in general. For instance, mine wouldn’t connect to WiFi out of the box and needed an update using a mobile hotspot just to connect to a WiFi network with low security settings that I created in an effort to connect this thing to something. Once connected to that WiFi network the remarkable found another update (which it wouldn’t find on the hotspot), following which it connected to a WPA2 secured network (it can’t do WPA3 according to remarkable). A lot of effort just to get up and running- they’ve had 5 years to sort this out, why are remarkable still shipping stock with firmware that doesn’t connect to WiFi and as a consequence their own update servers and cloud in 2024?

Perhaps we will get a new “classic” reMarkable with updated hardware in addition to the paper pro, but until then I will be taking advantage of the 100 day money back guarantee despite really wanting to love the remarkable. At the price I paid (on offer) for the remarkable 2, keyboard folio, and marker plus I could have a current gen 64gb iPad, Apple Pencil, paper screen protector, a cheap case, and a Bluetooth keyboard. It’ll also be able to open DRM protected ebooks and be connected to a cloud of my choice without passing through a third party such as remarkable! I imagine there are even cheaper android alternatives as well. Remarkable want a lot of money for outdated hardware with a textured screen and a Wacom stylus compared to what else is out there.

The remarkable is an amazing idea, particularly for those of us who are easily distracted and can’t get used to the plastic on glass sensation of a stylus on a conventional tablet screen, but it feels over priced and poorly implemented to me.

[imsparkly]

Great review! Very informative and helpful. Thank you.

[Corikay]

An iPad makes way more sense especially for all that money

[JoeBrigAI]

I've used the reMarkable2 for years, it's been great, but it's getting a bit dated at this point. Looking to update to the new SuperNote this summer.

[syedarmaghanhassan]

Thanks! yeah, but we wanted more about the difference in the writing experience in the both devices!

[gutierrez.realty]

I needed this review and based on the remarkable lagging I'm not sure I could get one I'm not that patient when taking notes lol

[savanniek]

I have RM2 and i paid $280 buying from ebay. Came with the pen pro too and a case. Such a deal.

Spending 500$ plus I just could not. I am a therapist and writing on my ipad distracted my clients. And I was using too many notebooks and pens plus the confidentiality aspect.…

I really wanted to do my planning and journaling in the RM2 but I think I will just stick to using it for client notes and that only.

I love the vibrancy of the ipad but I still can’t decide what I want to do for planning. Physical planner RM2 or ipad😫

I cant decide!

[BlanaBlana-jppc]

Why ppl keep forgetting that eink tablets are mainly made to take care of your eyesight

[dhruvmeena]

Colour is when you sync these notes on laptop you can see colours