reMarkable Paper Pro Review: way too expensive

The reMarkable Paper Pro was released in September 2024, and I wanted to give you an honest review as I did for the reMarkable 2. I waited for bug fixes, software stability, and faster shipping times before taking the plunge and purchasing it. And here it is, the long-awaited article, with a small comparison between reMarkable 2 vs. reMarkable Paper Pro in case you’re hesitating between the two.

I’d like to clarify that I have no affiliation with reMarkable. I purchased this tablet with my own money.

The Advantages of reMarkable

reMarkable sells tablets equipped with E Ink screens, designed for taking notes, drawing, reading, and annotating books and documents. It’s like a paper notebook, but digital. reMarkable Paper Pro is their most recent version (released in September 2024).

We’ve seen many stylus tablets, some with closed systems like Kindle and Kobo, others functioning like normal tablets (Boox, Lenovo…). But reMarkable has always stood apart with its own Linux-based system, vision, niche, and innovations targeting ONE specific category of consumers.

To explain simply, others try to pack in maximum features, while reMarkable aims for just one thing: paper, but better. Hence their obsession with (1) the paper sensation and (2) distraction-free experience.

Yes, the major advantage of reMarkable tablets is being “distraction-free.” In a world full of ADHD, hyperactivity, TikTok, notifications, temptations… reMarkable doesn’t even display the time!!! It often happens that I read for several hours straight and forget to sleep because I don’t even know what time it is. It’s very rare these days to have technological tools as useful as a book but as high-tech as an iPad. This tablet makes me smarter and has saved my memory! I read 10 times more since purchasing it. Writing by hand, instead of typing on a keyboard, means I retain information better. I keep saying this but nobody understands what I’m talking about until they use it themselves.

Additionally, you can access the tablet via SSH and do some geeky customizations. JB and I have created custom scripts to interact with our tablets, and in a world where young people no longer even know how to type on a computer or what a tab is, it’s essential to still have tools that make you want to geek out and create a bit.

reMarkable occupies a niche for a very specific use. So if you’re hesitating a lot (I’m talking about the features, not the price – of course everyone hesitates when looking at the price), it’s certain this isn’t for you. If you’re part of the target audience, you’ll know immediately.

Aspect	Kindle or Kobo with stylus	reMarkable
Central objective	Reading ebooks	Writing by hand + reading
User experience	Long reading sessions, visual comfort	Paper writing experience + concentration
Target audience	Passionate readers	Professionals, creatives, students
Strategic evolution	Tied to Kindle/Kobo ecosystem	Independent, focused on distraction-free productivity
Writing technology	Minimal, not very fluid	Highly developed, ultra-fluid, designed for writing

The Main Differences Between reMarkable 2 and Paper Pro

Since all reMarkable tablets use the same software (reMarkable 1, 2, Paper Pro), each time reMarkable releases a new tablet, it’s the hardware that changes. The big difference between reMarkable 2 and Paper Pro is the hardware: a larger screen, added colors, and a front light for Paper Pro, all with a new E Ink Gallery 3 screen.

	reMarkable 2	reMarkable Paper Pro
Colors	black and white eink	color eink
Light	no light (front light)	with light (front light) – 5 brightness levels
Internal memory	6GB	64GB
Stylus	battery-free stylus, with or without eraser	battery-powered stylus (but automatically recharged when stored on the side of the tablet), with or without eraser
Size	246 x 188 mm	274.1 x 196.6 mm
Screen	10.3″ monochrome 1872 x 1404 px (226 DPI)	11.8″ color 2160 x 1620 px (229 PPI)
Price	from €369	from €649
Weight	404 g	525 g

The Technology

To understand the limitations/advantages of each reMarkable tablet, you need to know how each screen works.

reMarkable 2 and Eink Carta

The reMarkable 2 uses black and white eink and Eink Carta technology. E Ink Carta technology is based on the principle of electrophoretic display, using millions of microcapsules suspended in a clear liquid. Each microcapsule contains negatively charged white particles and positively charged black particles. When an electric field is applied, these particles move: either black or white particles rise to the surface of the screen, making the pixel appear black or white depending on the polarity of the field.

reMarkable Paper Pro and E Ink Gallery 3

The reMarkable Paper Pro uses E Ink Gallery 3 technology, the most advanced color eink available. This technology cost the eink company $10 million to develop. Very few tablets on the market are equipped with it.

E Ink Gallery 3 is based on the E Ink ACeP™ (Advanced Color ePaper) platform. On this platform, a full range of colors is achieved through a four-particle ink system: cyan, magenta, yellow, and white, allowing a full range of colors at each pixel. If you have a color printer or if you draw, you know that with just cyan, magenta, and yellow, you can create a multitude of colors – 20,000 for reMarkable.

As shown in the animated gif below: ACeP™ is composed of Microcups® filled with 4 types of ink particles (cyan, magenta, yellow, and white). An electric field applied to the Microcups sends particles upwards, creating visible colors. Each Microcup® can display different combinations of particles, allowing a dynamic range of colors.

It is therefore impossible to transform a reMarkable 2 into a color version because the difference is hardware-based. The reMarkable 2 doesn’t have color Microcups, so you need to upgrade to the Paper Pro to benefit from colors.

Why reMarkable Paper Pro Isn’t Like Kobo Clara Colour

If you’ve seen a Kobo Clara Colour in stores, you’ve probably noticed that its screen appears dark and the colors lack vibrancy. The reason is technical: Kobo uses E Ink Kaleido™ 3 technology with a Color Filter Array placed over a black and white electronic ink layer. This filter divides each pixel into red, green, and blue (RGB) sub-pixels, but blocks part of the reflected light, making the image darker. This filter cannot be removed, resulting in more ghosting & less sharpness because you can’t display only black or only white.

The Kobo offers 4,096 shades of color, while the reMarkable Paper Pro offers 20,000 and benefits from a brighter screen thanks to E Ink Gallery 3 technology. reMarkable Paper Pro thus uses a more recent version than Kobo.

To date, reMarkable is the best color eink tablet on the market: the best technology, and thanks to its innovations, it offers a much brighter and more responsive screen than other tablets using Gallery 3.

E ink Gallery 3: A Black More Blue Than Black

However, despite this technical superiority, the Paper Pro’s colors remain pastel. 20,000 shades will never compare to millions of colors on an LED screen.

And since Gallery 3 creates black from CMY, the black we see is more dark blue than black (that’s why our color printers have a separate black cartridge to print true black instead of creating black from CMY inks). But Eink Gallery 3 hasn’t provided black particles for us (I told you that progress in eink advances sloowwwly).

For very sensitive eyes, not having true black might interfere with reading. There’s a contrast filter you can enable or disable whenever you open a file. It makes text easier to read, but slightly darkens colors. So, if a page contains both text and images, you’ll have to choose between 3 modes for either more vivid colors or better text readability. Below I show you the 3 contrast modes – you can choose, for each file, the mode that suits you best. On a very colorful PDF, here’s what it looks like:

Here’s the screenshot of the same PDF on the computer:

This isn’t reMarkable’s fault but rather the E Ink company that holds the monopoly on this technology and isn’t pushed to innovate as quickly as, say, OpenAI.

Nevertheless, reMarkable has worked to customize this technology, particularly to improve latency, which explains why compared to other devices using the same technology, the performance isn’t the same as reMarkable’s.

The Resolution

The reMarkable Paper Pro screen is larger than the reMarkable 2, but the DPI only increases from 226 to 229 DPI (even though the technology allows up to 300DPI – I don’t know why they didn’t go to the max). If you’re used to the sharpness of Kindle, you’ll find this 229 DPI resolution very average. On black and white texts, it’s acceptable, but on colors, when zooming it looks something like this:

On a file without colors, the resolution is acceptable:

However, some reMarkable users point out that pixelation isn’t always related to the number of DPI. “The pixels we see when writing aren’t due to a resolution limit (DPI), but to how the writing is displayed on screen. What we perceive as ‘jagged edges’ or a pixelation effect comes mainly from a lack of anti-aliasing, not from the pixel density itself.” What is anti-aliasing? It’s a graphic technique that visually softens edges by adding intermediate pixels, slightly gray or blurred, to give an impression of fluidity. Imagine a pen stroke that, instead of having jagged edges, would be gently faded on the sides to appear smooth, even at low resolution. The problem is that this method compensates well for black & white, but not for colors: for good anti-aliasing, you need to be able to display intermediate shades between two colors. But well, we’ll see if reMarkable developers manage to achieve this via their software in the future, but at the moment, it’s not quite there yet. JB finds reading magazines & comics painful on Paper Pro because of the pixelation.

The Paper Sensation?

1. Latency

Latency is the delay between when the stylus touches the screen and the appearance of “electronic ink.” To mimic the paper sensation, this latency must be almost non-existent.

For reMarkable 2, the latency is 21ms while for reMarkable Paper Pro, it’s 12ms!!! It remains the best on the market.

2. The Touch

The second essential condition for reproducing the paper sensation is the touch when the pen “scratches” the screen surface. If the pen glides too easily, you must adapt your writing or drawing style.

While reMarkable 2 offers this sensation from the first use, with Paper Pro, the paper sensation isn’t immediate. I suspected this and had already discussed this specific point in my article about reMarkable 2. Since current technology imposes a darker screen for color eink, a light layer must be added; and light means glass. Due to the front light, the screen is glass and more slippery than the reMarkable 2 (while still remaining much rougher than an iPad).

The stylus tip is harder and slides too much on the new screen. After a few weeks of use, the tip wears slightly and finally offers the resistance that reminds of writing on paper. The advantage of a harder tip is that it wears out more slowly. Personally, I took out my emery paper and the paper sensation improves immediately; but it still doesn’t equal the paper sensation of reMarkable 2. But we still have the little sound of the pen scratching the screen.

Writing with reMarkable Paper Pro is like writing with a ballpoint pen on an A4 sheet placed on a table.

Writing with reMarkable 2 is like writing with a fountain pen on a notebook. Thus, reMarkable 2 remains superior in terms of paper sensation, it’s important to emphasize this.

Tip: Slightly file the tip of the stylus as soon as you take it out of the packaging for a better paper sensation. 600-grit sandpaper will do the job.

A Perfectible Color Screen

A Flicker When Writing in Color

The biggest disadvantage of Paper Pro manifests when you write in color. The ink first appears in navy blue (13ms latency), then there’s a “tail” in the color you want. When you finish your sentence, a flicker occurs on the part you just wrote, and the true color finally appears (the time it takes for the layers of cyan, magenta, yellow, and white to settle). Everything happens in a few hundred milliseconds, but it’s clearly visible to the naked eye.

This phenomenon also occurs when you highlight text. You first see the black color, then the yellow highlighter following the black, as if you were doing watercolor. The screen flickers as soon as you remove the pen, and everything becomes the color you chose.

On the other hand, in black and white on the Paper Pro, no flicker is necessary, the screen doesn’t need to be refreshed.

Is it annoying? For reading, not at all, because the screen only flickers during page changes (as on all eInk devices). However, if you write exclusively in colors, the screen will flicker at the end of each sentence, which can become irritating. For me, highlighting in color brings real visual satisfaction, even if each stroke concludes with this characteristic little flicker.

Is it reMarkable’s fault? No, it’s inherent to the technology. This isn’t an LED screen, but a screen with physical particles that move and take time (about 300 milliseconds, visible) to settle. To ensure near-zero latency, reMarkable’s solution is to display the dark navy color and make the true color “run” behind the navy color, before “flashing” to fix the color.

Yellow Ghosting

It seems that for some users, the yellow particles like to stay a bit too much on the surface. Several reports have noted yellow ghosting after turning a page, requiring a refresh to bring down these yellow particles. Or the entire screen is yellow (due to uneven quality from the eink screen supplier). If this happens to you, know that it’s not normal – contact support ASAP and request a replacement. You have 100 days for free returns and a 3-year warranty.

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Three years ago, when discovering the first color eInk devices, I sincerely thought the technology would have made giant leaps by 2025. It’s clear that this is still not the case. Even having the best technology on the market, Eink Gallery 3 still shows visible shortcomings. But in my opinion, there’s no point waiting for 2026 or 2027… this technology advances very slowly (due to monopoly and R&D currently focused on AI). Despite all these shortcomings, reMarkable Paper Pro remains the best color eink, so… either we accept the limitations of this new technology, or we stick with black and white.

Brushes & Colors

There are 9 colors x 3 stroke widths for standard “pens”

Then, you have a “blender” where colors can be overlaid to create quite nice shades.

The highlighter has 6 colors.

I’ll show you the different brushes & colors. With or without frontlight – in a fairly dark area of the apartment. Contrary to online reviews, you can absolutely read in the dark with a light intensity of 5/5.

And the same page when exported as PNG. We can see that with shader, we can have several shades.

Brightness & Front Light

A color eink must absolutely be accompanied by a light because it remains a bit darker than a black and white screen. With reMarkable, we have only one color: yellow. And 5 light intensities. To be honest, there’s not much difference between the 5 intensities, so it’s as if we could only do ON/OFF.

People are happy because they can read in the evening. The photos don’t do it justice, it looks unreadable, but honestly, this light intensity is sufficient to read in total darkness.

Recently (Update 3.19), for those who find the tablet too dark, you can configure “super light” mode, i.e., increase the light by 240%. However, this mode will drain the battery faster and damage the battery more quickly.

To allow you to compare the screen brightness vs. a white sheet, I placed reMarkable 2, Paper Pro, and a white A4 sheet side by side. Here are the screens WITHOUT light.

And here with the Paper Pro with the front light.

Without light, Paper Pro is naturally darker than reMarkable 2

To achieve the same brightness as reMarkable 2, you need to set the front light to level 2/5:

The Stylus

Left: the Marker Plus of reMarkable 2; right: the Marker Plus of reMarkable Paper Pro

I opted for a stylus with eraser (Marker Plus, despite the additional €50), as I find styluses without erasers impractical. reMarkable styluses are exceptional. Their magnetic design perfectly fits the curve of the tablet, which prevents losing them. The Paper Pro stylus integrates a battery, necessary for E Ink Gallery 3 technology, and recharges automatically when stored on the right side of the tablet. Because of this battery, it’s a bit heavier and wider than the reMarkable 2 stylus.

I know Amazon offers a stylus compatible with Paper Pro, but I don’t recommend it because you’ll have to think about charging the stylus yourself. Additionally, reMarkable deploys updates to its official styluses. They have a higher sensitivity level than non-official styluses.

I’ve noticed that several people store them incorrectly. The tip should point downward.

As I was saying, the tip of this new reMarkable stylus is harder than on reMarkable 2, but that means it can be used longer. At the same time, I don’t change reMarkable 2 tips that often. You’ll notice that the replacement tips now come in a super stylish box.

Note that reMarkable 2 styluses are not compatible with Paper Pro due to technological differences.

The Keyboard

The reMarkable 2 keyboard will not be compatible with reMarkable Paper Pro either. I’ve never used the reMarkable keyboard because I don’t feel the need, but I’ve heard quite a few positive reviews.

Note that the folio type for reMarkable 2 is not compatible with Paper Pro due to size differences.

The Battery

Because of the light, the Paper Pro battery (5,030 mAh) may drain faster than reMarkable 2 (3,000 mAh). Additionally, the same battery must be used to charge the stylus. But this isn’t a problematic point because I can still use it all day. And if the battery is empty, I can always charge it while continuing to use it (be careful to charge it via a computer to prevent the battery from overheating).

The Finishes

It’s needless to say how sublime reMarkable Paper Pro is. We’re looking at Apple-level quality. Even though Paper Pro has gained a few millimeters in thickness, it remains very thin. Everything is beautiful with them, including the packaging & packaging design. I’ll let you watch the unboxing video to see the attention to detail from this company.

My Usage

Apart from all the uses I’ve already mentioned in my other article on reMarkable 2, the addition of colors allows me to:

• Read color content (ideally black & white texts with a few color graphics here and there)
• Better see my colored highlights, which considerably facilitates my re-readings
• Design my leather bags with colors
• Use my two tablets in synchronization: I read on one and take notes on the other, all my documents being synchronized between the two devices, as I use the same my remarkable account on both
• Pixelation makes reading painful for 100% color magazines & color comics, but theoretically you can do it (though I don’t recommend it)

The Pros/Cons of reMarkable Paper Pro

Strengths

• The best color eink technology on the market: 20,000 shades of colors, and less dark than other color screens
• “Distraction-free” experience
• A larger screen
• Access via SSH to create your own scripts
• A writing experience quite close to paper
• A sleek, elegant design
• Many manual gestures to go faster. All these gestures are clearly explained during the tablet’s initial setup
• Regular software updates, there’s no planned obsolescence, even old tablets (reMarkable 1) are still updated to date
• You can use the same my remarkable account on multiple devices. Personally, I have the same docs on reMarkable 2 and Paper Pro
• The tablet automatically wakes up when opening the magnetic folio (versus pressing a button for reMarkable 2)

Weaknesses

• High price (but we’ll talk about that later)
• Paper sensation inferior to that of reMarkable 2
• Weight, over 500g, it becomes quite heavy to hold with one hand
• Only 229 DPI
• reMarkable 2 accessories are not compatible with reMarkable Paper Pro, so you have to buy everything again
• Eink Gallery 3 technology still has technical disadvantages: flickering with each addition of colors, screen slightly darker than a black and white screen (but much brighter compared to Kobo & Co.), pastel colors, a black that’s rather blue

The following disadvantages are not related to Paper Pro but to all reMarkable tablets:

• Like all reMarkable tablets, you need a Connect subscription to access more advanced features, but personally I don’t use these advanced features much (1st year free, then €2.99/month)
• You can’t completely synchronize your docs with Google Drive/Dropbox. Basically, you access Drive to download files to the tablet, then re-upload files to these Drive services; it’s not true synchronization. But the reMarkable cloud allows true syncing
• No direct compatibility with Kindle, Kobo, Google Play etc. You need to download DRM-free books (without protection) and put them on the tablet in epub or pdf format, it’s very easy, but I understand that some people don’t feel geeky enough for this and prefer an easier solution. However, it’s the only way to directly annotate an ebook. Even on Kindle Scribe, you have to write on a separate sticky note because of DRM.

[Image description: JB with reMarkable Paper Pro (for illustration)]

How Much Does It Cost and Where to Buy It?

The tablet can be purchased on the official reMarkable website. You can also find it on Amazon but at a much higher price. Prices are in euros (reMarkable is a Norwegian company), shipping is via FEDEX (count 2 to 6 business days – don’t take express delivery, with standard delivery, I ordered on the 9th and received on the 11th) and you pay neither customs fees nor shipping fees.

• The tablet costs €649 with the standard stylus (without eraser).
• But for €50 more, you get the Marker Plus with eraser (which I highly recommend, it’s a real game-changer to have the eraser and especially a magnetic stylus that attaches to the tablet)
• Official cases cost at least €99, but you can find alternatives on Amazon for about €20

What I suggest is to save a bit by buying a case equivalent to the official case on Amazon, which saves you €80!!

reMarkable Paper Pro + Marker Plus (with eraser)	€699
Amazon case (Amazon link)	€20
TOTAL	€719

The Amazon case (Amazon link) looks a lot like the official case. It’s slightly heavier, but we have the basic features (the ability to remove it easily, the magnetic opening will automatically turn on the tablet, space for the stylus). It’s made of synthetic leather and has a very pleasant touch.

Connect

There’s a Connect subscription (free for the 1st year, €2.99/month thereafter) to access advanced features, but I don’t use them much:

• Access to Google Drive and Dropbox: without Connect, you can work around this by using reMarkable apps (computer, phone) to send files to reMarkable
• Convert handwritten documents to typed text: I don’t need this
• Display reMarkable screen live on the computer: very useful for teachers, personally I don’t need it
• Continuous and unlimited sync with reMarkable cloud: without Connect, all files are synchronized to the reMarkable cloud as long as you open them every 50 days. When you see that a file is no longer synchronized with the reMarkable cloud, just open it on the tablet and it’s back
• Unlimited reMarkable cloud space: honestly after 2 and a half years, I only need 4GB on my tablet so the unlimited aspect isn’t essential to me. Paper Pro has 64GB, which is plennnty
• Type text on the reMarkable app (on computer & smartphone)

Connect being free the first year, I advise you to try it anyway to see if you really need it or not. reMarkable gives you 100 days to try (return is free via FEDEX) so if you have any doubts, try it and return it after.

Conclusion

I’d like to clarify that I have no affiliation with reMarkable. I purchased this tablet with my own money. My goal is simply to help you make an informed decision, as I have both reMarkable 2 and Paper Pro.

If you were hesitating between reMarkable 2 and Paper Pro, I hope this article has helped clarify things. The Paper Pro does offer additions like colors and front light, but these minor improvements come with significant compromises on the paper sensation and technical limitations inherent to current color E Ink technology. The question remains: are these features really worth the additional €280?

Personally, I intend to keep my reMarkable Paper Pro tablet because despite these imperfections, I want to support innovation and companies that dare to push technological boundaries. In the world of color E Ink, reMarkable Paper Pro represents the best currently available. With current R&D priorities mostly focused on AI and other more lucrative fields, it’s unlikely that a significant advancement in this niche technology will appear for several years. Might as well enjoy the best option available now, even if it’s not perfect.

If pastel colors and lighting aren’t essential elements for you, the “refurbished” reMarkable 2 at €419 clearly represents the best value for money, while also offering 100 days to try. Even in 2025, the previous model remains perfectly competitive against other stylus tablets, without making you pay a premium for a still imperfect color technology.

Q&A

Some ask me if reMarkable can suit their usage, but I can’t answer because everyone is unique. I know that spending €700 to try a product and returning it after 100 days if you don’t like it isn’t a luxury everyone can afford, but if you have the budget and you’re still reading this article, maybe you’re part of the target audience?

reMarkable’s referral system has been paused and we don’t know when it will return. But by following my advice, you’re already saving €80 on the case.

Thus, I will close the comments on this article and won’t respond to inquiries about reMarkable because some take me for reMarkable’s French-speaking customer service or a fortune teller (“when will such feature come out?”). I’d like to clarify that I have no affiliation with reMarkable. You can contact them, they respond super super quickly.