Best E-Ink Tablets of 2022

How to choose the best tablet for drawing, reading and web-browsing

Best E-Ink Tablets of 2022: 0:00
reMarkable 2: 1:43
Onyx Boox: 4:07
Kobo Elipsa: 7:13

[LuMo]

You need to add the stylus and a cover to the price of the remarkable 2 tablet + a yearly $96 subscription, stating it only costs $399 is misleading...

[stevenprosser]

I have so much to say on this one!

I own a ReMarkable 2, Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color and Boox Leaf. In general I'd recommend getting an Onyx Boox as they can obviously do so much more and does have a frontlight if you're working in a darker room.

The ReMarkable 2 is overall pretty awesome, but I do have a lot of issues with it. Before I get into the issues, I just want to make one quick comment on the reason why it does not have a frontlight, which is that the creators were trying to make the absolute best writing feel. If you add a frontlight it makes the distance for the stylus tip to the surface larger, which weakens that writing feel technically. That being said I do prefer a frontlight and would sacrifice a little "writing feel" for it.

I don't agree with her assessment of ReMarkable 2 being "the cheapest" option. In Canada and apparently in Australia they actually gauge the customer. Rather than converting $299USD to $389CAD, they charge us $499CAD, which is cheaper than pre-subscription era when it was $599CAD. this is only for the tablet! The boox and kobo device that she's comparing this price with come with a stylus and case! The $300USD is JUST for the tablet, you wouldn't get a stylus included at that price. If you were to add up everything she is showing in this video, brown Folio plus the stylus you'd have spent $547USD then on top of that you pay $8/ month for extremely basic features that are available on all other eink tablets for free. If you owned a ReMarkable for 3 years the total cost will be $835USD whereas the other two devices would remain $499usd and $400usd with case and stylus included.

Also Eink has colour now, they are not limited to Grey scale. I own the Boox Nova 3 Color and have Kindle, kobo, libby, perlego, comixology, Marvel unlimited, and DC Universe all installed. I genuinely prefer reading from my Nova 3 Color to read Marvel unlimited than using my Samsung tablet to read coloured comics, textbooks, etc.That being said, my Nova 3 Color is now quickly becoming outdated. The new Nova Air C is using On-Cell Touch technology which makes the screen more vibrant, etc. But this is soon to be eclipsed by the latest announcement of Kaleido 3 and Eink Gallery 3 as both will dramatically improve colour Eink from my Nova 3 Color which is using Kaleido 2. New colour Eink devices should be coming out over the next few week-months.

Overall if I were not grandfathered into the ReMarkable subscription and I were buying today, I'd be getting a Boox Note Air 2 Plus or possibly a device by Bigme such as the Carve Color or Max+ Color.

And for any who want to shop around and explore other options besides the ones listed above. You can check out devices by Boyue/Meebook, Bigme or Dasung which also have Google Playstore as well as devices by Supernote (has Kindle), Fujitsu Quaderno (goodereader claims they have the best writing feel and technically can get Google play with a bit of a hack), PineNote from Pine64, Huawei paper Matepad, Sony DPT, Quirklogic Papyr, etc.

[festivitycat]

Love my Remarkable 2. Had it more than two years and use it every day for taking copious amounts of notes. Used to fill a notebook up every month, now all my notes are easily found in the rM2.

[giancarlopadilla]

I own a remarkable 2 with the upgraded pen that allows you to erase with the back like a normal pencil. Had it for about 4 months now and I have no complaints. Not even with the backlight. With so many screens in our faces nowadays I’m grateful to have a device I can use that’s easy on the eyes even when I have to use a lamp. At the very least I won’t have direct light in my eyes.

The Remarkable community is also amazing! Custom pdfs that are hyperlinked so you can have complex journals and planners. ie. clicking on a date in a month and it taking you to the exact day for your notes. I highly recommend this device even outside of work. My lists like chores and shopping are in there. And there are plenty of DRM free books. I feel like you’re underestimating how many you can actually purchase and own. The remarkable also keeps your spot on the ebooks so it’s not that different than kindle. Maybe you’ll miss scrubbing through pages or having a progress bar.

[annvoy]

Not sure, if anyone has mentioned it. But if you use fingers to highlight text in documents on the Boox, then the highlights straighten up and can be extracted. But yes, I would prefer that for pen highlighting as well. The learning curve is high for Boox, but once you understand their functions, it works really well. That is - until the next software update changes your workflow again.

[snailspace]

so, what you're saying is that after 20 or so years no one makes a truly usable e-ink tablet

[VOByRobbins]

I've had the note Air 2 for about a month and am really happy with it! love the back light for low light note taking and it's been a killer note book replacement, battery life is great, no complaints here---

[kmozhui]

I got the RM2 primarily for reading academic PDFs and note taking. But had to return it for two reason: (1) main reason: no landscape mode for pdfs (many science journals publish in 2-column format and landscape is ideal; landscape is also better for most figures); (2) secondary reason: extremely slow integration with dropbox and inability to scroll through long lists of pdfs without the device freezing. Ended up with the Kobo Elipsa instead. Looking forward to RM3.

[JustXavier]

Love this! Please do another where you bring *SuperNote* to the party. 😀

[EyeLean]

I adore my 1st generation reMarkable, I especially like that the surface doesn't feel like glass. I don't mind the lack of backlight - just clip a book light onto it, and you're good to go!

[denisepinet]

On supernote you don't have to pay extra like remarkable. It will convert text and you don't have to be online to do that.

[gulpowizzard]

To be honest I'd trade Kobo Elipsa with Supernote A5X. I find it more popular than Kobo Elipsa specifically on e-ink note taking market
I might missed it by RM2 cloud support is a paid subscription also compared to free service on other devices.

[LukeLane]

I still have a SONY e-reader from 12 or 13 years ago, and it still works just fine. It has a touch screen, but also came with a stylus for note taking.
I'm astonished at how little this technology has progressed in the past decade.
Sure, the screens have become sharper, devices bigger and lighter.
But compare this to how much smartphones and tablets have progressed in half that time.
Is the market just too small to really drive innovation?

[SandyRiverBlue]

I'm glad that there are finally some options on the market. The first I read about E-Ink tablets was in 96 or 97 in an article in Popular Mechanics where they made it sound as though it would be released any day now.

[tali]

Amazing, clear, no BS video. Love it, thank you.

[desireco]

I love how you are showing us using them on your lap and not on a table that we often don't have or essentially don't use them in such situations. Also helps me with perspective on their size.

[Rocky]

Amazing that this tech has not come close to mastery yet. And that’s astounding.

[elzar]

The only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger on the Remarkable 2 right now is the light situation. I saw a friend with one, and it looked great, but when we were in a dark room I noticed he strained at the screen a couple of times before talking to a better lit room to read some notes he had made.

Edit: Let me amend this. The difficulty I’ve heard some talk about in sharing the content to their other devices without a subscription gives me a little pause as well.

[PCK]

This was extremely timely. Thank you for sharing. Do you have a video on the best handwritten note taking apps?

[patrickkelley]

I have a Kobo eReader and like it so the natural system for me seems the Ellipsa. Of the three you show however it is the least “elegant”. That is imprecise but what I mean is it seems thick and clunky. I have a small Mobiscribe for digital writing but after a year have decided it’s too small for extensive notes and it won’t let me write/highlight my books. I like the Boox enough to get it but wonder if Kobo won’t soon come out with a more refined product. I see no indication that they will but would love a thinner, easier to handle Ellipsa. MyKobo eReader is simply great. Would like to stay in their ecosystem. The iPad I have is not fun or easy for reading ebooks. I also find it distracting because of all it offers. E ink is great for reading and writing. Nice review, thank you.