"E-ink for writing" is one of my great white whales (previously, previously, previously, previously, see also) but I've been burned so many times by how clunky and slow the tech is that I've managed to completely ignore the latest-gen devices. Engadget rounds up 2023's slate of e-ink tablets and it's clear how far they've come: they've not only gotten credible, but some are good. The tl;dr: ReMarkable 2 is the best of the bunch, but others have qualities it doesn't. Valentina Palladio:
The latest reMarkable tablet isn't topping our list because it's the most full-featured or even most interesting E Ink tablet we tested. Rather, it provides the best mix of features people will find useful in a device like this. We'll get into them all, but first, it's worth mentioning build quality. The reMarkable 2 weighs less than one pound and is one of the sleekest E Ink tablets we tried. It has a 10.3-inch monochrome digital paper display that's surrounded by beige-colored bezels, with the chunkiest portion at the bottom edge where you'd naturally grip it. There's a slim silver bezel on the left side, which attaches to accessories like the folio case and the new Type Folio keyboard. Hats off to reMarkable for making an E Ink tablet that feels right at home with all of your other fancy gadgets.
But a newcomer, the Supernote X, is a better minimalist-yet-refined digital notepad.
As a notebook nerd, I find this thing so cool. Available in 10.3-inch (what I tested) and 7.8-inch sizes, the Supernote X has a "FeelWrite" screen protector that has a different feel than a standard E Ink screen. When writing on it with Heart of Metal Pen 2, which is weighty and looks like a fountain pen, you get a gel pen-like feel rather than the subtly scratchy vibe that other E Ink tablets have. In fact, the Supernote X has one of the best writing experiences out of any tablet I tested. The Supernote X supports a range of file formats, including PDF, ePUB, Word (.doc), PNG and JPG, which really opens up the content you can put onto the thing. I wanted to see if I could treat it almost like a digital bullet journal, and that wasn't hard to do. There are built-in page templates, but I was able to download daily, weekly and monthly planner templates online, resize them and move them onto the Supernote X using Android File Transfer.
The ReMarkable keyboard looks great, but a more fully-featured e-ink laptop–a Thinkpad!–is shipping imminently.
The best E Ink tablets for 2023 [Engadget]
