PhD Student Reviews ReMarkable 2 

for anyone interested: the updates in the past couple of months have made the experience so much more pleasurable !! - zooming in and out works excellent ! - scrolling has become so much easier, with a quick scroll option - sending pdf version directly via mail has become easier I have been working with mine (as a science student) for a year now, and i always enjoyed it, now even more. some of the problems (not being able to look up words...) are still bugging. All in all so happy!!

Really appreciate the honest and balanced review. It's so hard to find a non-sponsored/promoted review these days. Thanks for taking the time.

I chose the remarkable because at my job I take notes every day, and the battery lasts way longer than if I bought an iPad. The screen won't bother your eyes vs iPad, and you're less likely to get distracted vs. the iPad and its apps. I think remarkable is very useful for people who love writing and love taking notes and need to take notes daily.

This is the most useful review i've gotten yet, like of anything

Fantastic review...You saved me some money :)

This is by far the most useful review on YT. Very informative!

Yea this really is a cool and promising product that just hasn't hit the mark yet. I hope the company sticks around for long enough to put in the necessary polish. As you said, I'm eager to see what they can do in a couple of generations.

I bought both.. I use the iPad for all media and books and whatnot for my online courses and use the remarkable for my “paper/notebook” some instructors won’t allow an iPad but will allow the remarkable for tests and finals. It’s definitely not ideal for everyone, but it’s an amazing writing experience. I bought the First generation because of the physical buttons and I’m glad I did because the second Gen remarkable is extremely fragile and I’ve seen so many people having trouble having it repaired. Just some extra info for others who are still trying to decide. Also if you close the menu while writing it gets rid of the X so it won’t exit out.

So helpful! You gave me ALL the answers I needed...

Great review, thank you! The issues with the left and right hand writing were especially helpful for me but you also helped me with a few other things that I hadn't even considered, like the template problem(s).

Hi Melody! Hopeful PhD student AND lefty here, this review was really helpful! I have one on the way to try out for the 30 day guarantee but I'll be watching out for these complaints (especially the left-handed incompatibility issues). I've subscribed, too. Always excited to see more women in academia on youtube

THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!! I've been debating about getting one for awhile now, and this was super helpful!!

I hope ReMarkable sees this video. This seems like a lack of user testing (most of which can be fixed in software). Thanks for the great review.

What a review, spot on. This is what everyone look for, addressing real issues. Great work, well done 👍

There’s actually daily/weekly/monthly/yearly planner templates you can get that can do what you need.

This was a great review, and very helpful! Thank you for putting the time and effort into making it!

Thank you so much! A little sad that this video got so little attention, but it’s really (finally) what I was looking for. Thank you so much. I am looking for a best way to take notes for university with good erasing and organizing features. You saved me time, nerves and money indeed. Thank you again

While I hate writing on glass (going to buy a apple pencil tip that will help), using Notability with the iPad gives me some functionality that is a non-negotiable requirement. As I take notes while on zoom-like meetings, I use Notability's camera feature to take a picture of the Participant list and it places it right in my notes. I can crop it and pinch zoom to position it right where I want to and annotate it. Further, I take screen shots of customer PowerPoint slides, or IT Architecture slides, which again places it right in the notes and I can size and annotate from there. The ability to use different ink colors and highlighter colors helps me draw attention to specific items in the note. Last, I don't leverage the convert writing to text function, but I don't have to. I can search for anything I've written (legibly) and the app finds it among the thousands of notes I've taken. No context on my choice.

I thought Remarkable 2 now has pinch to zoom and two-finger drag to move around the page which would allow it to operate like the iPad air as you had explained.

This is one of most thorough, accurate and honest review of any product i have see so far on youtube. Good Job. 👍

Finally a left handed person to represent us!! great video

I really appreciate the review. I'm a computer science/ cyber security student who was considering picking up the Remarkable 2 as I wanted something super light and immune from distractions for things like math homework, annotating documents, etc. I've decided to go with the iPad Mini, a cheap third party stylus, a good protective folio case, and throw a paper feeling matte screen protector on it. The total cost of all of that is still less than the Remarkable 2 if I bought their first party accessories. Plus since handwriting recognition is so much better, that is another massive pro for the iPad given how awful my handwriting is. I think I'll keep it on focus mode and research ways to prevent myself from being able to open distraction apps. It seems that by allowing myself only note taking, school, Kindle, and calculator apps, I'll have exceeded the functionality of the Remarkable 2 and without the need for a continuous monthly subscription. One thing is that if remarkable decided to ditch their proprietary operating system on one model and go with Android while retaining the screen, I think that makes it a much more compelling option for tons of people. Handwriting recognition is often excellent on many Android apps, as well as GBoard, the default keyboard. They could have a few essential apps by default and make sure focus mode is always on to prevent distractions. I'm not sure if Google would allow this kind of device to get access to its Play Store however.

I've never seen anyone discuss tech with such intensity and importance. Had to watch till the end.

For the pen falling off, I had that problem too, but then realized I was placing it wrong. If you put it tip down, then it’s a much stronger bond. I also think there was an update and you can now zoom in or out of anything you write or read. Very nice crisp quality when zoomed in. They also added two additional colors, red and blue, which show up on the desktop version of the file. I have the Remarkable 2 and I’m really impressed tbh. It’s got some kinks, but I was honestly expecting a lot worse. Writing feels amazing and it has more types of writing features (fine liner, paint brush, calligraphy) than other competing tablets. The eraser on the pen is also the one thing that remarkable has over other paper tablets. I use it like crazy and it’s the most natural feeling when writing notes bc it’s muscle memory. It’s just so much more simple than other products. Only things I would fix is getting rid of the subscription and adding back lighting on the screen that you can turn on or off. Also, a more secure pen holder.

Thank you! I'm also doing a doctorate and have been umming and ahhing about buying the Remarkable 2. This was helpful.

0:39 Bingo! That's the first thing I needed to know about the Remarkable 2. Can it export what you write on it into a Windows text editor for proofing/formatting, etc? I don't want PDFs or PNGs from it. I'm not a diary or a to-do-list person, which is what this thing seems to be really for.

I was frustrated by the x button to, but i found that if you close the lateral menu before start writing, the x button disappear and there's no problem

This is an excellent review, I can't fault anything that has been said. I have a ReMarkable 2 and I love writing on it, but all the things in this review are 100 percent correct this is not the right device for everybody - and some things just need to be fixed or reworked or added. I agree with the previous comment which hopes that ReMarkable themselves see this!

Thanks for an honest and thorough review. Appreciate it!

So, did you buy the iPad air? Did you find it more useful? I just bought the remarkable, but after using it for a week, I am not yet sure that it's what I need. Willing to hear about your experience with the iPad. 🌷

Remarkably good review!! Right from everyday use, the pro's and cons is very helpful indeed. Thank you very much. I was considering but will go for paperlike on an iPad. I was wondering though if you ever bought the ipad air and how satisfied you are with that. Cheers from Jean

Excellent. I received exactly the same remarkable, portfolio, etc this week and have been struggling to see if it was a good choice. Then I came across your video and it answered so many concerns. I am leaning heavily on returning it next week and just investing paperlike screen protector for the iPad air I already own,

Thanks for the review I was thinking of getting one of these also, but you really touched on a lot of that pain points that I was concerned with. I think I will also wait before buying one.

Best review I have seen so far, thank you.

You're attaching the stylus incorrectly, that's why it's weak. You can zoom in on documents since a recent update.

This video is super useful! Thank you! I recently purchased a Boox Tablet Ultra. It is absolutely wonderful for reading research papers and taking handwritten notes. It's a bit expensive compared with Remarkable but absolutely worth the price.

I loved the review, very good summary and insight.

I got the Supernote A5X for my work and it is a superior device in an aspects except for the slight feel advantage that the RM2 has. However, the built-in screen protector and excellent ceramic nib pen (no new nib replacements required) give the Supernote the edge in my opinion. The iPad some for versatility, whereas I believe the Supernote wins for removing distractions, excellent week-long battery life, writing, document annotations, and Kindle support. Voja from My Deep Guide has created excellent hyperlinked templates which are quite well laid out. Searching for keywords? You can use your own handwriting for organizing your notes as titles and you can make bookmarks for pages (not necessarily keywords but similar functionality). How are you liking your iPad?

really nice and objective review - thanks a lot for that!

Thanks for the review! I'm looking for something for a similar use case as yourself and I think many of the same frustrations you outline would apply to myself as well.

Good review! I thought the handwriting to text would be good if you were maybe sending some notes from a meeting you attended and needed to convert those notes into a document for yourself or your team. This device feels like it would be really good for like an Executive Assistant or someone that attended conferences and meetings and lectures that needs to jot down notes and use the note information later. Or someone that visits clients and makes notes during their meeting, and uses those notes to create a concept or strategy for said client. I can totally see it being useful for an assistant type person. Really interested in this device and glad I came across your review.

I've had a Remarkable 2 for a couple years and love it for what I need it to do: editing PDF manuscripts, brainstorming ideas for new novels, and reading long-form articles I get off the internet. I used to have stacks of yellow notepads strewn in my office; those are gone now, thanks to the Remarkable. Another use I find helpful is uploading ebooks to the Remarkable and being able to annotate them directly in the ebook file. I use this both for final edits on my own books as well as reading ebooks for story research purposes. Those things said, I have experienced most of what you find problematic and agree that those are all issues a potential buyer should consider. If I were "on the go" or had a busy schedule, I would HATE it for calendaring. The writing-to-text is still buggy, and if you are like me and have sloppy cursive, the only way to get a reasonably clean conversion is to print, which is a lot slower. I almost never use that feature. The glitching of page turning is also annoying, though it doesn't happen as much as it used to; I think the software has been much improved in the two years since you posted this video.

Left handed writer here as well. The top left x can be hidden by pushing the top right button to hide the menu which hides the top left x as well. Unhide to change pens. Hiding the menu also gives you the full A5x area to write on.

Having a keyword search function for handwritten notes (converted to text on the device or not) is a show stopper. We hand write our daily journals and must be able to search them over extended time periods. We also want our privacy and do not want our data on someone else's servers...ever. We still use 2007 Onenote with notebooks spanning 2007 to today and sizes exceeding 1GB. Onenote will search that size and find all relevant 'hits' in a second or two. BUT, Onenote runs on a bulky laptop and it's a writing on glass experience. Still looking for the features and computer integration of Onenote but not the bulk of a laptop. iPad air???

Your presentation was absolutely wonderful. You answered so any questions that I had about this device. Also, I too am left handed. So your input was quite helpful to me. I hope you don’t mind if I subscribe to see more of your content. BTW what are you studying to earn your PhD?

Ty for the wonderful and very helpful review.

Nice. Have you bought already the iPad? if yes could you share a video about your experience please :)

I found Remarkable is only for people who have distraction issues. It will help them so much to focus, which is totally different from iPad, given the multiple sources of distractions within it.

Thank you Melody. Great review...

Quick and to the point! Thank you.

Great review. I’m in the opposite camp. I’ve been using an iPad for notes for years and just bought the Remarkable 2. I am also left handed but write with my palm below the pen s o the X hasn’t affected me. On the iPad the paper-like screen protector greatly improves the feel. I switched because I never found an app on the iPad that I clicked with. Would love to see a follow up on which apps you are using on the iPad and how you like them.

Thank you for this review! But a non-negligible point, the ligntening! How can we work when there is no more natural light or when it is weak? The end of the winter day outdoors, summer evenings etc. It is a minimalist device based on productivity but that limits things a lot when you work often and everywhere doesn't it?

thank you for wonderful review. i am not sure, is it good for pdf-reading-machine? what is your opinion?

Thank you for the video, I'm a MA student now I know that I need to wait for a while to get something to actually benefit me more as a student, then a high price "reMark" that still dont do everything a real pen does for example.

Nice review! I'm also an academic and so far the rm2 has been perfect for me. The pinch-to-zoom feature was really lacking, but the good news is that it was implemented in the last updated that just came out. About custom templates, you can in fact add custom templates via some hacky way. It's not very difficult and there are many on-line guides that teach you how to do that (or do it for you).

Thanks for the review! FYI - you are attaching the pen upside down. The magnetic strip on the side of the tablet is much stronger when you point the tip towards the bottom rather than the top. I've never had the pen fall off in my bag and use the same folio cover. Hope this tip helps keep your pen secured!

Thank you for the in-depth review.

Thanks a lot for the honest review!

Thanks and congrats for the excellent video!

I'm a PhD student and I just bought a reMarkable 2 and I will be returning it for many of the same reasons. It still only allows you to email the handwriting-to-text and that is not at all useful. With the supposed integration with Google Drive, I thought I could export it there, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Thanks for your review!

If you do not mind, please keep writing your experiences on notetaking apps-reference manager app-Data analysis app etc.

Melody, really enjoyed the review, I've been looking for critical comments on the Remarkable. I do have one further question concerning the Remarkable's ability to mark-up pdfs. When you're dealing with research papers or articles in bulk, to the extent that you're using Zotero or Mendeley, how friendly is this device with your other file management options? Did you find it feasible to load pdfs in and out of the device? The small on-board storage seems concerning to me on these grounds - thanks in advance if you answer these.

Excellent review, thanks for your time! I wanted to buy the Remarkable for similar reasons, I will look into Apple Air and Paperlike! Have you been using this combo, how has it been for you so far?

Great honest review. Thank you.

Thank you for the comprehensive review. Curious now what your thesis is that you are working on.

did you test drawing gloves on your left hand to see if it would fix that dumb issue with not being able to move the x button?

Good summary. I also recently purchased a RM2, and am in the process of returning. In my use case, I manage multiple complex projects, so I had high hopes it would help me. However, the slowness to flip between pages when looking through 15 or 20 sheets was to slow for me; until working on the device, I had not realized I want the quick scroll capability offered by an iPad. Especially given that RM2 does not offer a word search feature. Second, the existing zoom feature is not useful for me. As I try to squeeze text on a page, I tried writing smaller or selecting the text and shrinking it; but when I tired the zoom function I was disappointed. Wish I could pinch with my fingers to zoom. Last, I tired it side by side with a iPad (without paper like film) this week. Surprisingly...I did not see a significant difference in the writing experience...aside from the Marker Plus nib being smaller than an Apple Pencil tip. It was kind of sad, given all the hype and advertisement over the RM2 writing experience. Perhaps RM2 has a glass cover on the screen; whereas RM1 did not; I’m speculating. Anyway, I also will be getting an iPad (11 inch), although I considered the SuperNote A5X; their pens do not require replacement of nibs, which I like. For fun, you maybe enjoy this video which compares the writing experiences: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rZ-mW6otcXw.html

I write the same way that you do. And yes it's incredibly annoying when that happens, but I noticed that if you touch the button that's above the ballpoint, pencil, fine liner, etc. It will disappear.

Would this be a good tablet to use for school?

like the honest review but I am kinda confused, you can zoom in and out on the remarkable 2 but she said that she couldn't, she probably didn't have that update

If you are left-handed, can't you flip the tablet so that the handle is on the right side?

I like how you corrected your own grammar at 7:12. I do the same! Thx for the useful review video, student as well!

Great review, thank you!

I think I'll follow your lead and wait a bit to see if handwriting to text gets better in future iterations of the dévide. Thank you.

Hi. Thanks for the review. Do you know if the grey scales become red and blue colors when exported to pdf in the PC app ? I haven’t found the answer to this question in any review on internet or RU-vid. Hope you can help me out. Thanks.

You can now pinch zoom on Remarkable 2

Thank you ! I search a device for my daily work and your video confirms the remarkable isn't the good one. I'm a left writer too and I really want to have key words on my notes and texte transcription. I'm curious about a review on the IPad Air :D

Thank you for the review.

What about the actual reading experience of those journal articles??

With the icon above the pen selection, you are able to hide the complete menu, except that icon.

Most of the issues mentioned here were addressed in the Boox Note Air. Their next gen device since this review was uploaded. I am getting it tomorrow. I find this review useful still since real life and real needs should guide tech. I really think they listened to this reviewer. I would be curious how she would review the Boox Note Air.

Thanks a lot for the balanced review :)

You can now zoom in on the remarkable 2, they made an update

Is the any chance open some color templates? Sometimes when study is very hello fully and you can write in colors too?

Wait what I can zoom on my remarkable just like an iPad

Do you have a referral link to purchase a Remarkable2?

This video is very informative regarding choosing on getting the Remarkable. The thing is I don't see why it's being compared to an IPad or any tablet. They are completely different

One thing is that the magnet is weak because you put it up side down, stick it the other way would be much much stronger

I use the Staedtler Noris digital jumbo 180J 22. EMR Stylus with soft digital eraser. This is much cheaper than the remarkable pens and I find a slightly better writing experience.

Love my Remarkable. I use it everyday hands down better writing experience over my ipad Pro.

Paperlike/IPad 12.9 along with good read and notability give a good experience for academic purposes and study. I still got supernote A5x for planning and free reading and annonations on non academic readings.

I am a Nursing Major and use mine religiously. I have notebooks that are filled and it has always been a pain to go back look for information. This allows me to have everything in one spot and I would not pivot away from this device under any circumstances due to its conveniences. And the fact that I can create functional PDFs in word or onenote and import them as PDFs with functional tabs has been a game changer for me. I love it and would probably find myself buying the next version if there is one.

Pen is supposed to be pointed down when attached to side. Someone posted video on Reddit showing the magnet hold is much stronger point down.

I really dont understand all these "Great product but this is why I am returning it" videos. When i buy equipment, I literally put hours and hours into research, ask friends who might have bought it and so on. When you buy something like the remarkable, you buy it to replace your notebooks and sticky notes. You do not buy it to be a piece of entertainment.The whole idea with a device that does not have SoME, RU-vid etc is to be able to have your full attention without any distraction. Replacing it with an Ipad also ads extra weight, clicking sound when writing and lots of disturbing popups from apps and also much reduced battery life.

I wonder how the reading experience and note taking on PDF are? I am a Master Student and want to get it so I can put notes directly on Lecture slides and PDF books.

Thank you for making this video! I am in a similar situation, I am a master's program and I'm interested in a e-ink tablet. I watched the video from my iPad pro, I think I am going to give it a go with some of the note taking apps on iPad. I honestly never considered taking notes on my iPad before 🤔 I like the idea of the remarkable being a focused device, I have ADHD. It's not hard for a notification to derail me. So I am not done with the idea of the remarkable. My plan is to try out some of the iPad note taking apps along with using the focus mode on iPad. Perhaps that'll work well enough for me. The other nice thing about the iPad is I already use it for the university LMS and for Zoom on occasion. So maybe the note taking will be more natural with the iPad? You've given me a lot to think about. Thanks again!

Can I use in OBS studio

A well explained review of the device.

as soon as she said “left-handed” i cried

This has been one of my temptations over a year now (and more for the 1st version). So glad I resisted. And now they introduced a subscription nonsense