Extremely informative and “Yes” do more of these - I learned a lot based on each of your preferences. I own a Supernote A6X (love it) and want to purchase a 10.3 e-ink device. I watch all three of you. Use case is so important to understand and this vid helped me think about each of the devices.
My use case: As a college student getting a CS degree, my text books could easily cost $4-500 per semester. I also had the money to buy nearly any computer book that spurred my interest. I quickly had more books than would fit in a catalog case in the back seat of my truck. When the Kindle DX came out it offered a way to carry all those books *everywhere* I went, with a per book price that was less than paper, That didn't changed when I graduated. As computer languages and applications evolve, the books I own become obsolete, and I find I have to replace them with the new edition. Then as my needs change, I have to add still more books on new subjects. Newer texts have started using color to distinguish code from text---this improves readability immensely---so a color e-reader has become the new goal. The third factor has been the inability to shop outside the Amazon, Kobo, or B&N devices. The advent of Android devices has opened that door, making many other publisher's available, but also including their proprietary encrypted formats. Lastly, an e-reader makes the buying of pre-print texts possible, putting the latest info on a new language available.
I love my remarkable- I am a professional and use it for personal and professional notes. I will say Voja should be paid by RM because his guide made using this device super easy to integrate notes in my planner. I am not tech savvy and get overwhelmed but this device is straight forward and fits my need. Sleeper use that I did not even consider when purchasing is grocery lists that I can access on the app. You can probably do that on other devices, but was a happy surprise. Thanks for always weighing pros and cons for us!
There is nothing the remarkable can do that other e-ink tablets can't do, but there are tons of things the remarkable can't do that other e-ink tablets can do...
After watching many of your (plural) videos, I just purchased a Supernote A5X from the “open box” price. I wanted to love the Remarkable2, but ended up returning it quickly. Mainly due to too much proprietary and bad connectors to other systems for basic robust note taking. I hated the way OCR worked on R2. I want a good way to take my notes and transfer them to Word to edit and file away. I still love taking notes on paper, but sometimes even finding things there isn’t great. Love the way Supernote has a roadmap and listens to customers. Crossing fingers it will work pretty well for my needs, but based on what you have shown, I think it will! Very excited!
I have had my Supernote for about a year. Love it. Watched 2 of you in deciding what to buy ( sorry Brandon) will have to check your page out. Good conversation and discussion. Loved it, you should do it again. Maybe just a discussion about each tablet and what you like best and worse about each one and may tip or tricks you each might know.
I own the Remarkable2 and Scribe. I will soon have the new SuperNote Nomad. Anyone new to this should pay particular attention to what they intend to such a device for. Each represents a compromise of some kind when compared to paper and pen (which I prefer to pencil). Today, you can easily write your notes or draw your sketches on a paper of your choice and then scan them into your computer system. So, if you are a student, in sales (my case), office worker or professional figure out the features you would like and do your research. These gentlemen are an excellent start and then there is a lot of information on the internet to go through. These are expensive devices and each offers its own particular compromises.
Yeah. Great interaction. Supernote seems to fit my use case best (mostly drafting prose to be used for polished, published work later on). I need focus, excellent transcription, the best writing feel, with a few more options on top.
This has been incredibly helpful, with the three of you chiming in with the user experience and the way your minds approach the note taking experience. I was heavily leaning towards Boox, but hearing Voya and Brandon's take on having to consistently relearning the UX and how there's the itch to always tweak the settings, I've realized Boox won't be a good fit for me with my ADHD. What I love about physical notebooks is that it allows me to sit and think and focus on ideas, and Boox's UX would have been too distracting. Can't thank you enough for saving from plunking down a huge chunk of money on an e-ink tablet that won't suit the way my brain works!
Awesome video. Really enjoyed it. I currently used the boox tab ultra which is a great device but I feel the learning curve is very steep which is why I'm now leaning towards the supernote. Boox clearly want to offer all things to all people whereas the SN seems to be pitching to the middle ground. They know their strengths and seem to improve already excellent areas constantly.
Really happy you all did this. So thoughtful and fun and a good degree of agreement I would say. Where you did disagree it added to the overall experience and helped pull out some of the nuances. Please do it again. As a new e-ink notebook users (A6X) I would love a discussion about best practices for different use cases and different devices.
I have owned the Supernote and Boox products, and the team behind Supernote, including support, is just phenomenal and much better to work with than Boox in my experience.
@@svennikolajsen6624 No. They have come up with an ingenious screen and nib. It's fantastic you can use an everlasting them. There is a great short video if you look for Supernote (the company is actually named Ratta) on RU-vid) showing how their screen technology works. I admit, I was loathe to sell my Supernote for the scribe, and it was definitely a gamble. It hasn't paid off yet, but it's early days and I am going to wait and see what kind of updates the scribe will have. I can always go back to supernote!
True, but you buy a product, not a support team though. While it is nice to have good support; the hope is that you will never need to use it. If you buy something and never have to deal with support, that is better than having a device that offer great support, isn't it?
@@fcf8269 sure, but even with the best devices there is a significant chance you will. Aside from the support, I found Supernote to be a better experience in general.
@@ernestintownandjackintheco1024 Any device may fail, that is a given; but out of the ones I had, some never gave me any trouble; so technically I never experienced their customer service at all
How terrific to have all 3 of the e-ink heavy hitters in one video! Really liked the debate and hope you will consider doing more of these! I currently have a RM2 and a SN A5X with a Mobiscribe Wave Color on pre-order. Returned the Scribe because as you noted one hits a brick wall almost immediately with the note taking side of things. Perhaps you could do a "deep dive debate" on a certain aspects such as setting up and using notebooks including things like searching, linking, tags, titles and handwritting conversion. Another could be pdf annotation and ebooks. Just some thoughts - good work guys!
This was awesome! Hope to see you three on another "round table". Even though I just purchased a Supernote A5 x. I contemplated the other two. I appreciate the differences between them and would like to hear more. I may purchase another just to round out my needs. Thank you!
Loved this video! Thanks guys. I learned a lot. It would be great to continue to hear each of you talk about each device or other devices in the e-ink category (ex. pros & cons) and how your using it. Plus I enjoyed listening to how each device is continuing to be developed. I need a device for work that will be relatively easy for note taking & categorizing my notes: which covers a vast amount of things. I am leaning toward the Supernote. But for creativity for me personally then I may get the reMarkable & Boox too. Lol
Here I was about to order a Boox Tab X, and then you spoke about the Gallay 3 screen, so I guess I'll wait another year to upgrade from the Max2 to see what Bigme and Boox does with the Gally 3. I'm a big fan of Boox.
Would be great if you could discuss the topic Security and Privacy with these devices. As a lot of them come from China and are equipped with a microphone and record every note we take I guess this is a serious topic! Especially as these devices are used in the business environment. Thanks for your content!
I agree that the topic is serious, but I completely disagree about the origin of the device being a relevant component to the consideration. The answer is rather simple. If you want privacy, then you keep your devices offline. That's it. Any device at all being online is a privacy risk, and it doesn't matter wether it is Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon or Boox that is the one doing the listening, as it is equally wrong. That being said, having a device that physically doesn't have a microphone is the best option, so Supernote and Remarkable win over Boox in that regard, but Supernote wins overall, as it is the only one that allows you complete access to your handwritten data, meaning, that can be normally used fully offline, something that Remarkable can't do, as it is tethered to the Cloud account like an umbilical.
@@MyDeepGuide Thank you very much for your prompt answer! Partly I agree with you, partly not. First things first. The origin of a product should not be a reason on its own to criticize the product. In the last few weeks I've seen some other RU-vid stuff regarding other kinds of products and they all completely disagree that a product is bad just because it is from China. They are all correct! To do so would be some kind of racism. But. I disagree that in the sense of privacy I can't use any product online. One example: when we talk about note taking we can throw an eye on Obsidian. Obsidian is quite informative regarding their steps taken to ensure privacy. I can choose my own password to encrypt the data I store in their cloud storage. On the other hand, Onyx is quite silent in this regard. I can authenticate with my phone number and choose the EUR to sync my private and business notes. That’s all and a bit sparse. I just wish for some more information and options to secure the privacy of my very private notes. To keep my device offline is not the smartest idea in the tech world, from my point of view. And last but not least. We, the Europeans, with our glorious GDPR, are a bit strange when it comes to technology and privacy. We can not build just one competitive mobile device, no operating system suitable for the masses. But we are very good at dictating to other countries how to build devices and software. ;)
On the Apple/amazon/kindle comment about “let me own my device”. It reminds me of a great comment I heard many years ago on the PCPro podcast: stop being frustrated by what you can’t do with the device and enjoy what Apple let you do. I write this on my ipad. Later tonight I’ll write my daily journal on a remarkable and read a book on my kindle in bed. No, I don’t have a glass of kool aid on my night stand. 😂
That was fun but this show even more, in case it was not clear, that all 3 devices suck big time for certain things, and are perfect for certain things. I don't think there is any other category of hardware devices that is so tied to how you use it (maybe pens are in the same realm, as everyone may like a different pen for a thousand of different reasons?); so it is really hard to not say "this is device is good for you if you do A, B and C, but not so good for D, E and F". As now the Boox devices are the best as generic devices tablet-like; the Supernote is in the middle with the best experience for note taking links and overall organization, while the Remarkable 2 is the best for drawing and sketching and for minimalist usage. I don't feel neither of these companies is interested in exploring outside of their "area" at this point, to take more market share from the others... They seem to be happy camping in their little world with their fanbase, and don't care about making a device that could do more to take share from competitors. If this is a good or bad thing, that is up to you to decide... I would like to see competition heating up among the device makers because that means better products for us consumers... But if they are happy in their little world and people are basically taking side in each ecosystem; the hope of a definitive eink device that can be used by different people, is just a dream.
I own two Booxes , had a RM2 but returned it, and I haven't owned a Supernote - yet. Regarding their bubbles, I do think Boox and Supernote have at least been stretching them. Boox possibly with the Tab Ultra as the most PC tablet-like device, and Supernote with their user-focused approach in which they constantly add new features or functions. I prefer Supernote's approach and am waiting for their new device line-up this year before I jump onto their wagon.
The biggest problem with e-ink tablets is that you can't spread your notes out and discover the "big picture" or unearth "underlying patterns". Same goes for annotating on a journal article. This is a must for people doing conceptual work or struggling with complex problems. Finally, "distraction free" is just "marketing" nonsense. Turn off your notifications, problems solved.
I connect notes from multiple sources all the time with my A5X. Got me through grad school. I can make and highlight notes on textbook PDFs. Make folders, links/ quick connections from those notes to my class notes and upcoming projects. And compile all everything together for term papers and my thesis. Now that I've graduated, I use it in my analytical work space daily. I'd be lost without it. I made my final decision based on one of Vojas early 2021 A5X / RM comparison videos. I have to say, I truly enjoy that these reviews are geared, not only to the device but, to the role each product best suits. My partner does interior design, and the RM2 fits his role perfectly
I actually own 4 of these. Boox Note Air 2 Plus, Boox Tab Ultra, SuperNote A5X, and Remarkable 2. The Air 2 Plus has only 1 problem and that is lag in notebooks with 15-20 pages of notes when switching from one page to the next. So I decided to buy the fastest on the planet, the Tab Ultra but same issue. It seems that all the speed is focused at the browser and play store and all the other apps you can download but the notes app is identical to the Air 2 Plus when it comes to resources and performance! I love the Remarkable but since all my books are Kindle all I can really do with it is write so that leaves the SuperNote and I must say I have doubled and tripled my largest notebook up to around 60 paged with links and Titles scattered throughout and there is no lag. I can't have my full-fledged Bible app, but I have Kindle. Lastly, the built in calendar and mail apps, work very nice to round out the user experience so this lies somewhere in-between the Remarkable and the Boox. For now, I believe the SuperNote A5X is the best because the Remarkable is missing too much and the Boox needs to do some work on the main purpose of eink devices; note taking. Boox owners try it for yourselves and see, start a note document and add a few titles and a few links and get it up to 15-20 pages and see if going from page to page doesn't hang up. Not every page turn but several as you go from page 1 through to the end. Oh, and try to fill the pages at least halfway with text, don't just put a letter or a number on 20 pages and say no issue here. 🙂
Very informative. I am behind the curve and am only just beginning to think about e-ink, so this was extremely useful, and I would definitely like to see more of it.
I think what Voja said was one of the key (ok, I'm also game devs, so we have something common): "Let me the device I own to be my own!" It is all about who we are, what we want! Apple was driven by one of the most egoist people, so the rule was simple: how I do the way everyone should do. I hate it because I'm a creative. Many people love it because it give them a line to follow. Android is a mixture of many ideas and never get working great together, even if it works once, it might won't after an update with a new idea included. I hate it because always changing and need to re-learning. Let the people "design" they own is the most risky in terms of sales and marketing, because you need to believe your buyers will know what to do... as a game dev and designer, I know how difficult is to draw a line where you let the player to decide or give them a line to follow (freedom will make it hard for many people, while everyone want freedom not everyone can handle it) So the real question is where is the line between "your own way" Those who are more creative can and want to setup they own way of working, own workflow and want the device to follow it. Others on the other side need a guideline to make it easy to do everything they need... It is a bit like a pro mechanic in a garage vs a student brake down on a road... the mechanic has all the spec. expensive tools dedicated to a task to save time and make work better, while students want the cheapest tool working for every case if the car broke down, since they don't care that much about wasting time and how perfect is the end results... So are you a pro looking for a dedicated tool or a student looking for a "cheap" all in one solution?
I am definitely the person with too many notebooks problem :). By the way, you *have* to take into consideration the MSRP. Boox (2 Air+) is €520 (no cover), Supernote (a5x) is whooping 705€ (including pen and cover), and Remarkable (2) is ... 349€ (nothing included). If we add all the equipment (good quality, 3rd party) the prices are: Supernote 705€, Boox 553€, Remarkable 444€. I hope you can see the difference.
I want an A3 full colour e-ink. I want to be able to use it as a drawing tablet connected or wirelessley. I'd like this large e-ink to have a great battery with several days of battery. I want to be able to use all of my kindle and Audible content, and I'd like both apps to run side by side. I want to read my digital graphic novels at full or close to full size of the original artwork (in comics that is A3). Any viewable art that is larger, say A2-A0 would reduce perfectly) I want it to work with a computer so if artwork is being developed, you can see a colour accurate version.
@@fcf8269 I mean the specs and the form factor. For example I like the black versus white. The new specs of processor used and memory.. These make a difference for me.
@@khaledgad5971 I see. As far as specs in terms of being newer, obviously a SN is 3 years old now? A new device is clearly having newer hardware; although it does not make much difference in the end on a eink display. A faster CPU won't make the screen refresh faster dramatically; which is why Boox had to add a whole GPU chip just for improving refresh rate. Even old devices like from 2-3 years old are plenty for what an eink device does or should do (read books and documents, take notes, occasionally surf on internet).
Hey, Voja. Thanks. Very informative discussion. You’ve sold me on the Supernote A5. But one question: I want to be able to use it as an e-reader as well. How much am I compromising on the reading front with the Supernote?
Why is audio and video so out of sync? If I liked the Supernote screen feel, I'm sure I'd prefer that. But because it's even more expensive than reMarkable 2 I can't get it. so rM2 is the best, but it has a few major flaws. Maybe biggest is how fragile it is.
Thank you for this fantastic video. Really helpful :-) I can't agree with the statement that Apple release are polished and done: I have worked professionally developing on Apple devices for 3 years and, just to put an example (speaking of Big Sur, which was the latest version at that time): the login UI is a desaster: I found myself having to click on language/layout/local, not scrolling (because the scroll does not exists) but pressing the arrow and waiting like 5 real seconds to get my locale to show, click on it and that was just to add the language. Then I had to click again the language icon to get and select the fucking locale to be able to put my password. And this every fucking day. I actually filled a document with about 40 points of absolute disasters on the GUI design aspect. Not even speaking of APIs which are changed constantly without notification, and get broken. Neither the hardware, where they managed to make non-standard bios which are incompatible with Windows/Linux for dual Boot. Should I speak of keyboard (not able to manage standard ISO layout for my locale). I know that the full world seems to have them as the example to follow, when in reality, they still have the worse task-bar of any OS, they mix distraction-free with hidding you stuff, and still sell 3000$ devices without real touch-screen. I think the best of macOS is the BSD kernel. Note: I also worked professionally on Windows AND Linux, so I have background to compare on all 3 sides. So, I hope your e-ink tables are better.
I feel like the problem with the boox is yes it does way more, but because it does way more it is thus more distracting and we are trying to get away from distractions
I use an iPad to make digital note taking books, with boxes that shows date,time, speaker, source, topic, quick note, and many cut and paste articles, very few pics, and journals. I would like to use that format on an e-ink book, I find it’s the best way for me to study and remember, in view of my dyslexia and age (72). What e-ink product/book would you suggest. I use an Apple phone and iPad almost exclusively. Thank you Mrs. Bingham
Is there a e-ink tablet which suits for enterprise level usage where the tablet has to comply to multiple factors like data encryption when the device is stolen, privacy, restricted exports to external devices or emails, controlled cloud storage, remote wipe, mobile device policy enforcement.
Because the overall state of the OS is still not great, and the PDF reader stability is not good, even after it being out on the market for quite some time. Plus, we were discussing 10.3" devices here.
Hi Voja. Great job on the video. I need your assistance. I am locked into the Apple ecosystem for “most” of my professional work. I am locked into the Kindle ecosystem for reading but I can read those on both my Kindle and my iPad. But here’s what I want to do on an e-ink device. Easily download and read Kindle and PDF with the ability to annotate and take notes. Good character recognition to convert my scribbling to text. Enjoying the experience of reading, annotating, and taking notes. Supernote or Onyx? If Onyx, which model would you recommend? Thanks.
This is an excellent video, thank you all. I am a fan of all three of you. I caved in to a Boox NoteAir 2, and I find its user interface very difficult to learn. I am only just using it as a book reader, I couldn’t do basic things like flip pages. Their user manual is outdated, as is Voja’s videos, and I couldn’t find up to date tutorials. I am close to giving up on it
Thank you for watching :) Page flipping and basic operations are exactly the same as they have been for year, so you should be able to use the old guides to learn these basic operations. For the Reading documents and books, Tap the right side of the screen (or swipe from right to left) to flip to the next page, tap left side of the screen (or swipe from left to right) to flip to the previous page, and tap in the middle to expose the NeoReader menu. For Notebooks same thing, just use swiping gesture, instead of tapping. If you have trouble with the swiping gesture, check a video on my channel called "How to swipe like a pro" and that should help a lot :)
I have owned the Ultra, A5X and RM2. My take: - I returned the Ultra after just a few days. Too heavy, screen feel like and iPad, and IMO “unskinned” Android does not suit EInk tablets. Too much complexity, too much tweaking needed to avoid ghosting. Sure it has a web browser- but it’s awful. - RM2 IMO the best for those who want to create hand written content. It’s so simple, so elegant, and the app/screen share light years ahead of the others. Lovely scratchy screen feel too. And it’s light. - A5X is the middle ground. But I don’t like the screen feel and the HOM pen is nice to hold but for me it feels like an iPad screen. The software on device beats the RM2 but getting files to and from it so clunky unless you use Dropbox.
I wrote this on a privious video : Could you try to connect via remote desktop (or other similar app) an e-ink tablet (Onyx Boox Tab Ultra ?) and run a CAD software like Solidworks? It would be interesting to see if it can be used like on a normal tablet.
Useless device that has an Apple-like cult following of folks who aren't interested in learning/hearing just how limited reMarkable is as an e-ink tablet...
Boox is pretty good. I have the Scribe and just subscribe to the Washington post and New York Times through Amazon. I also supplement that by sending documents to myself from different webpages and read them that way.
Boox by far. I have the Max Lumi 2 to read PDFs primarily. You can go online with almost any Boox tablet (7" to 13") to browse websites but the best Boox tablet to do that is with the Boox Tab Ultra. With Boox tablets, I no longer have to subscribe to the NYT, New Yorker, and NYRB through Amazon.
If you want to browse and read, then Boox. However, you can "print to PDF" any web article and save it to your sync cloud to get access to those articles on the Supernote, or use the Read on Remarkable feature, which is basically the same thing, but under a different "blanket".
Thank you everyone! The issue is that articles that I read have 94-124 pages and they are separated per page so it is not possible to save every page in a pdf. I have to click 90 times to go on every page and then save it. It will take me too much time that way :) this is why a web browser would be an only option
Is there any device where you and rearrange the toolbars or UI to right side for left hand users, similar to how the UI would be for languages written right to left like Arabic or Hebrew ?
Even within the EU it would have been more expensive to order from Gorillascribe in France than from Ratta, LA directly. And I could assemble the device with the pen and cover I wanted, which was not possible with Gorillascribe. After ordering in USA the tablet arrived from China in Germany quickly.
I am confused between Nova air 2 and Supernote A6X, Voja, you said you are using Nova air regularly, is it good for daily planner, pub reading and pdf reading or supernate a6x?
I bet it wouldn't be that interesting to have 3 people with pretty different styles: Voja has a rigorous approach (almost "scientific") and the other two are ordinary reviewers. Good e-Reader channel's Peter would have been a complementary useful opinion. 2.8K viewers so far is not what one would call a good session... There's room for improvement.
Depends what your standards and expectations are and what you are basing them on. I'm quite content with 3K in under 24h for a video like this, and especially for a first venture into it and that it was quite a fun thing to do for us :) But, to each his own.
