reMarkable has finally announced new hardware, and they are now leading the charge for what a writing slate can do. The company announced the reMarkable Paper Pro with a Color Canvas 3.0 e-paper display. Thanks to the new front-lit display, working during the day or night makes staying productive easier. Why did they use to incorporate these features? Remarkable has been listening to users who wanted a lighting system and a colour display to view colour PDF files and also freehand draw, take notes and edit documents. The best-selling feature? It is using E INK Gallery 3!
The reMarable Paper Pro features an 11.8-inch e-paper display with Canvas Color 3.0, based on E INK Gallery 3 and employs electrophoretic technology. The white and white colour content resolution is 2160 x 1620 with 229 PPI. Other paper tablets put a filter on a black-and-white display to produce colours. On reMarkable Paper Pro, coloured ink particles inside the display move around to render what users write and read. The natural colours evoke the feeling of a printed newspaper page. Compared to LCDs or LED screens on laptops and smartphones, the Canvas Color display doesn’t use bright, flickering lights to produce colours. The low-glare display reflects natural light for a more comfortable reading experience. In dim lighting conditions, a new adjustable reading light softly illuminates the display, making it possible to read and work for hours without eye strain.
Remarkable is the second company to use Gallery 3 on a commercial product. However, reMarkable is the largest and has the potential to go truly mainstream. How did the company manage to make Gallery 3 work? reMarkable told me in a written statement, “In the Gallery 3 platform, E Ink gave us the right ingredients for making a unique colour display. Using that display paper technology as a foundation, our teams have redesigned every part of reMarkable’s signature paper-like writing experience, from the Marker tip to the textured display surface to how reMarkable OS, our custom operating system, behaves. The result is the Canvas Color display, a custom display stack that delivers an even better writing experience than reMarkable 2. Out of the box, Gallery 3 promises “an update time of 30 ms.” On reMarkable 2, it’s 21 ms. On reMarkable Paper Pro, it’s as low as 12 ms.”
Underneath the hood is a 1.8 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, 2 GB LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of internal storage. There is a USB-C port to charge and transfer documents to the device. Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz are available, primarily to access cloud stuff and fetch firmware updates. It is powered by a giant 5,030 mAh battery. The dimensions are 274.1 x 196.6 x 5.1 mm (10.8 x 7.8 x 0.24 inches) and Approximately 525 g (1.16 lb).
The OS is based on Linux, and if you have used reMarkable one or reMarkable 2, the overall UI and menus are the same. So are the vast majority of writing features. The only difference is a new slider bar to control the front-lit display brightness. It also has colours that can be used to sign PDF documents, freehand draw, take notes, etc. The nine colours are black, grey, white, blue, red, green, cyan, magenta and yellow. The colours are not just standalone; you can blend them to create new ones or get artistic and use blending/shading. The device can support 20,000 different colours.
There are two styluses to choose from when you buy the new reMarkable Paper Pro. The stock one is one comes for free, is grey, and weighs 14g. It has a magnet to attach to the side of the tablet. The Marker Plus features a built-in eraser and finely textured black finish. Just flip it over and erase it like a regular pencil. It also has tilt recognition for shading, which few styluses can support and weighs 18.4g. This one costs more, but it is heavily recommended. Each stylus you order comes with around six replacement nibs and a tool. There are three new cases: leather, mosaic weave, and polymer weaver, each with different colours.
- reMarkable Paper Pro is available today on remarkable.com and bestbuy.com. On remarkable.com, it comes bundled with a Marker ($579) or Marker Plus ($629). Add a Book Folio in Mosaic weave or premium leather for a discount.
- Book Folio for reMarkable Paper Pro is available in six colours and finishes: recycled polymer weave ($89) in Gray; recycled Mosaic weave ($139) in Basalt, Burgundy, and Cobalt; and responsibly sourced premium leather ($179) in Black and Brown. It features auto wake-up and a magnetic Marker strap.
- Type Folio for reMarkable Paper Pro ($229) is available in recycled Mosaic weave in Basalt. It has layouts in seven different languages: US English, UK English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Nordic (including Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish).
- It features backlit full-size letter keys, auto wake-up, and a magnetic Marker strap.
- Creating and editing in the reMarkable mobile and desktop apps requires a Connect subscription. By subscribing to Connect, users can enjoy unlimited cloud storage, automatic sync, the reMarkable Protection Plan, and exclusive offers. New reMarkable users get a free 100-day Connect trial. Afterward, Connect costs $2.99/mo—or $29.90/year. Cancel anytime.
- reMarkable two will continue to be sold alongside reMarkable Paper Pro on remarkable.com, bundled with a Marker or Marker Plus, starting at $379.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
