[review] reMarkable 2, after 2 and a half years of use

I bought my reMarkable 2 years and a half ago, and this purchase changed my life.

I have good intuition and make decisions very quickly. When I saw the reMarkable ad pop up on Facebook, and after reading glowing and positive reviews for this quirky Norwegian product sold only online, I still took the plunge, and I congratulate myself every day for doing so.

Durability

• The reMarkable is still like new. No marks, no issues, battery still top-notch.
• Paper feel as usual, no complaints
• Syncing is top-notch, across all my devices (computer, phone). Syncing has improved with each update.
• Despite all the books and documents I’ve put on it, I’m only at 4GB out of the allowed 6GB.
• The stylus is still great. I haven’t even used all 9 tips that came with it.
• As expected, I almost sat on it, but my plastic case saved it. Of course, I’d recommend not roughhousing it or putting pressure on the screen, naturally, but it’s less fragile than I thought.
• The stylus has dropped several times, but it still works, it’s less fragile than it looks.
• The reMarkable has traveled the world with me. It handles flights very well, protected by its plastic case.
• In short, everything is like new, what more can I say?

Over the years, the reMarkable software has been improved. I’m happy with every update, but I must say, apart from the big 3.0 update, nothing has been revolutionary. Just quality-of-life updates to address some user requests. The keyboard release was revolutionary for some, but I don’t need it.

For me, there’s room for improvement, but fundamentally, I’m happy with the software. There are many manual gestures to speed things up, the whole thing remains intuitive, minimalist, and easy to use.

When people ask me how to use the reMarkable, I’m really surprised, because there are like, 10 buttons? And people can’t even be bothered to click all the buttons to see what they do? Those people did well to buy the reMarkable, because it’ll make them less lazy 😀

I educated myself

I already listed all my uses in my other article. I thought when buying the reMarkable that I would write a lot. But in the end, I mostly read and annotated.

Thanks to Goodreads, I was able to tally up the number of books I read between 2021 and 2023, and the results are clear:

• in 2021, I read 10 books, reading on Kindle and reMarkable
• in 2022, I read 32 books, only on reMarkable
• in 2023, I read 120 books, including all 7 volumes ofIn Search of Lost Time ! I even summarize books on my Instagram now

Looking through the book list, I also realized that before, even with a Kindle, I was reading real crap, easily digestible, fun content that didn’t require many brain cells. Or purely technical content, practical for work and travel (hello Lonely Planet). I never noticed the poor quality of the books I read!

After buying the reMarkable, I started reading more interesting things, non-fiction books, difficult books. I’m no longer afraid of books that are too long, too thick. Now I can easily finish a 700-page book in 5 days, whereas I would take months (or never) to finish before. I realized I had more knowledge when I returned to the same museum in Istanbul and I enjoyed the visit more, because I could better appreciate the calligraphy, having learned the art of Arabic calligraphy from another book….

Whenever I find an interesting article (on the internet), I send it to the reMarkable via the Chrome extension, and that’s how I store the most interesting info on the web.

I sold my Kindle very quickly. The sale of the Kindle wasn’t just because of its size, smaller than the reMarkable, but because it’s too difficult to handle with just your fingers. Reading on the reMarkable, I have easier access to features that let me retain information and find that information more easily. Because we read to retain information, an efficient machine or system like reMarkable can assist us.

The more information you retain, the more eager you become for knowledge, and the more you seek out and read increasingly interesting and challenging books. The most thrilling moment is when I read a book and recall a tidbit I read in another book months ago—and can actually find the exact page!! This is made possible by the tags I add to each interesting page, and my numerous handwritten notes.

I’ve learned an annotation method: A great reader advises compiling all notes from all books into a separate notebook. You note the book title, the date read, and for important information, you first note the page. For example p.20. Then the main idea. This way, if you want to find the exact quote, you can simply locate the page in a few clicks. But note, write by hand for better retention.

After an emotional shock in 2022, I realized I was losing my memory: I couldn’t even recall what I’d done in the previous 12 months. I took up reading and annotating again to save my memory, and I succeeded. If old memories were partly gone for good, at least new ones could be preserved as before.

I also have more critical thinking now. I can do anything—I can comment, annotate my books, critique the text I’m reading by adding !!!! ????!!! all by myself, without feeling like I’ve destroyed a book.

The fact of having no clock on the reMarkable changes everything. When I settle down to read, I pay no attention to time. As a result, I listen to myself more. Sometimes I read until very late at night without eating, simply because I’m not hungry. I realize I also force myself to eat, whereas if I really listened to myself, I could easily skip dinner from time to time.

This level of concentration can’t be achieved on an iPad. Even if you put it “offline,” it’s far too tempting to check the time, peek at this or that app, do a Google search… and then get completely lost and wonder why you’re scrolling through TikTok. Even on Kindle, I check the time and automatically shift into “planner” mode: “In 5 minutes, I need to cook. Oh, tomorrow at such-and-such time, I have to do this, do that…”

Over the years, I’ve developed a true passion for books. For someone who only reads ebooks, it’s pretty funny. I gathered my courage to digitize an old book as a volunteer. Following that, I acquired skills to automatically translate any book.And now, I do bookbinding and can print and bind any book. You can’t imagine how important it is to be able to translate any book. Translated books are very rare, and we completely miss out on books from great civilizations like Chinese, Indian, Arabic… just because they’ll never be translated. The knowledge won’t reach you. After these adventures, I came across an edition available only in Chinese, and it completely changed my worldview.I’m truly more serene and happy now.

I dare to do anything

I have very few constraints in my life, but I self-limited myself. For example, for years I wanted to learn to draw, but never managed it because I thought I had no talent. With reMarkable, I started tracing over others’ drawings to illustrate some of my articles. Then I found it fun and began to modify the strokes and add my own touch.

And without realizing it, I was able to create a design myself. Simple, certainly, but it’s what I always wanted to do and thought I was incapable of.

Drawings export directly as SVG (so infinitely scalable). To make them prettier (smoother lines), I did some touch-ups in Adobe Illustrator.

Then gradually, I gained confidence and learned to use Adobe Illustrator. Again, a dream come true. I thought I was terrible, but knowing I could revert to the manual stroke on reMarkable at any time reassured me. Now I can draw directly in Illustrator without going through reMarkable. Look at me, who doesn’t know how to draw!

I’m even learning the Sanskrit alphabet, just to give you an idea!

Everything is easy with this machine; everything is just a few clicks away; you discover new uses every day. You outdo yourself every day. You no longer self-censor. You can write anything, then erase it, move the text, resize it. You have to try it to realize that when you write on paper, you self-censor a lot, because there’s no digital eraser, and you overthink before writing. With reMarkable, all mistakes and stupid ideas are allowed.

If we could speak of a muse, reMarkable is my muse.

It’s hard to explain to those who don’t own one, but studies have shown how much writing by hand activates memory and creativity. The act of tapping with fingers doesn’t have the same effect as writing. That’s why Kindle, iPad, etc. never manage to compete with reMarkable, or paper.

Among my circle, only two people have taken the plunge. We’re like crazy people at every update. Those two are as gaga as I am about the reMarkable and can’t live without it. No issues reported on their end either. One of them dropped their stylus and broke it. reMarkable sent a replacement stylus via DHL the next day, free of charge.