reMarkable Paper Pro Review

Design & Build

The reMarkable Paper Pro (rMPP) has an 11.8″ screen, which is larger than the more usual 10.3″ variety that is more commonplace, hence it has a slightly larger footprint than its competitors.

The chassis is made from silver metal, and makes up the rear and edges of the tablet, kind of like a tray. The internal components and screen (which I believe is plastic because there is a fair bit of flex to it) are attached to the inside of the tray. The metal shell makes the tablet feel quite cold and heavy in the hand, but of course, one should remember that the screen is larger than more common varieties, and so will carry extra weight.

A close inspection of the build shows that it has been manufactured precisely to a very high standard, with no visible imperfections. The strong chassis and flexible screen also indicate that the tablet will be durable (if treated with care) but this cannot be confirmed until I have used it for a longer period of time.

The edges are at right-angles to the front and rear surfaces, but have rounded corners. Dual parallel indented lines run around the edge, creating a corrugated effect. The only exceptions are:

• a 13cm area on the right edge, to which the stylus attaches via magnetic attraction. This area also houses the wireless charging pad for the stylus.
• the USB-C port (for charging and data transfer) on the bottom edge (left side)
• the power button on the top edge (also left side)

The power button matches the metal of the edges but juts out slightly to make it easy to locate with your fingertips.

The rear of the tablet is smooth, except for four circular indentations in the corners that are home to rubber feet, which keep the tablet level, and prevent it from slipping on your desktop. There are also five POGO pins, which are used to connected the keyboard (in the keyboard folio) to the tablet.

Overall, it has the look-and-feel feel of a premium product because of the high-precision build and simplistic design.

Hardware specs and performance

The rMPP has a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, 2Gb RAM, and 64Gb of storage.

For Android tablets that are capable of running third-party apps, I usually run some CPU performance benchmark tests in this section so that visitors have an idea of how well other apps may run in comparison to other tablets. However, the rMPP does not run third-party apps, so these numbers would be meaningless for this particular device.

Performance-wise, the rMPP runs its own native apps (the note-taking app and PDF/ePub reader) fairly well, however, I did notice some performance bottlenecks when loading up particularly large PDFs and when changing the font size/type on an ePub. Speculatively, I believe the reason for the latter is that the reMarkable reading app does not natively support ePubs – instead, it converts ePubs to PDFs behind-the-scenes before displaying them. So, any changes to the flow of the ePub results in a full reconversion, which slows down the tablet.

In addition, I noticed a low-level electrical buzzing sound when flicking between pages and zooming in/out. This was quite irritating and unsettling, but according to reMarkable, this is normal behaviour (although it is not normal behaviour on any other e-ink tablet I’ve reviewed!)

Screen

As mentioned earlier, the screen is 11.8″, which makes it a little larger (in both width and height) than the more popular 10.3″ screens that is more commonplace for e-ink tablets. For some, this additional screen real estate will be a boon for their reading and writing tasks.

The screen also has color capabilities, but uses a different color e-ink technology (Gallery3) than most other tablets (which use Kaleido3). I only know of two e-ink tablets that use Gallery3; the rMPP, and the Bigme Galy (the Galy was not very good at all).

Essentially, Gallery3 screens can reproduce an order of magnitude more colors than Kaleido3 (tens of thousands for the former, thousands for the latter) and has a better color resolution (229PPI opposed to 150PPI). However, it is worth noting that newer Kaleido3 tablets offer 300PPI black-and-white resolution, whilst the rMPP still only has 229PPI for monochrome. In addition, Gallery3 tends to be slower to refresh than Kaleido3, as I found in my tests.

When writing on the rMPP using a color brush, the initial strokes you make are in grayscale, and then the color sort of lags behind, or doesn’t get filled in until you stop writing (there is a visual flash as the area refreshes). For me, this was quite vexing, and made the experience very non-paperlike.

In addition, the six non-monochrome colors that you can choose from do not look the same on the rMPP screen as they do when you export it and view it on an LCD screen. Another point of note is that the rMPP screen is noticeably a darker shade (less white) than monochrome e-ink tablets, including the reMarkable 2.

Now, the darker background and mismatching colors are also an inherent issue with Kaleido3 as well, however, Kaleido3 (on the tablets I’ve used, anyway) does not have the issue whereby there is a delay in strokes being “coloured in“. And with only a choice of six non-monochrome colors in reMarkable’s note-taking app, the primary benefit of Gallery3 (more colors) is not realised when writing/sketching.

However, the larger color palette and resolution of the rMPP (Gallery3) is noticeable when using the reading app to view higher resolution images (see pic below).

Moving onto the frontlight, there are only 5 levels of brightness (most other e-ink tablets have levels that go into double figures) and even the highest setting is comparatively quite dim (although bright enough to work with). What’s more, the light sort of bleeds under the bezels, creating a sort of soft glow and shadows around the edges. In addition, the presence of a frontlight (on any e-ink tablet) has other inherent drawbacks, including the pen-to-ink distance. So whilst the frontlight does carry out its primary function of illuminating the screen in dim environments, it is (in my opinion) very poorly implemented.

The screen appears to be plastic (or at least have a plastic covering) because there is a bit of flexibility to it – it is not as hard or rigid as the reMarkable 2. In addition, there is a grainy “paper-like” film over the surface, which makes writing with the stylus feel somewhat rough and scratchy (which I’ll talk about more in the next section).

Overall, the good points of the screen are that it is larger than average, has color, and has a frontlight. On the negative side, color and the frontlight have inherent drawbacks that, for me, outweigh their benefits.

Writing feel

Before I attempt to describe the writing feel, it is worth pointing out that the rMPP does not use a Wacom-compatible stylus, or have a Wacom layer under the screen (as most other e-ink tablets do). I’ll go into more detail about this later (in the stylus section).

The nib of the reMarkable Marker (stylus) is hard and rigid (not like the soft plastic nibs of the reMarkable 2). The hardness of the nib combined with the grainy surface of the screen results in an audible and tactile experience that feels to me like writing with chalk on a blackboard. I couldn’t quite place the feeling at first, but with more use, the tapping and scrawling sounds transported me back to my early schooldays.

The writing experience is actually rather pleasant, which I wasn’t expecting from a non-Wacom stylus. There is very little lag when mark-making in monochrome (color – as previously mentioned – does have some lag issues), and reMarkable have finely-tuned the pressure and tilt sensitivity of their brushes to almost perfection. However, the nib is not quite so fine at the point as other stylii, so it does not feel quite so precise.

On the whole, the tactile writing feel is nice (although not the best I’ve experienced), and the software used for the different brush types is spot-on, but as soon as you switch to color, the latency and frequent refreshes becomes tediously frustrating.

Hardware features

In this section, I usually talk about the additional hardware features of an e-ink tablet, such as speakers, microphone, g-sensor, fingerprint scanner etc.

However, the rMPP’s minimalist design doesn’t incorporate any hardware ‘extras‘, other than those already mentioned:

• Wireless charging pad (for the stylus)
• USB-C port (for charging and data transfer)
• Keyboard folio (see below)

Battery

Although the rMPP has a large 5030mAh battery, I found that it drained far too quickly, resulting in one of the worst battery performance results out of all the e-ink tablets I’ve tested.

The table below shows the percentage of battery used per hour for note-taking and reading. And also the difference in battery usage when Wifi/frontlight is turned on.

Test (1hr)	rMPP (% battery used)
Note-taking	10%
Reading	3%
Wifi On	+1%
Frontlight On (medium)	+1%
Frontlight On (full)	+3%
Frontlight On (medium) Brightness Boost (see below)	+2%
Frontlight On (full) Brightness Boost (see below)	+4%

I calculate typical battery life from these figures by assuming 3 hours of note-taking and 3 hours of reading each day. If the frontlight is not used, you could expect to use up about 39% of the battery per day, which would give you about 2.6 days of usage. If the frontlight is turned on on a medium setting for the duration, the percentage of battery used increases to around 45% per day, and you could expect it to last around 2.2 days before recharging.

You can see a full comparison of battery life across e-ink tablets here, but, in simple terms, the rMPP has a poor battery life, compared to other e-ink tablets.

Brightness Boost Update June 2025: reMarkable’s 3.19 firmware update introduced a setting to boost the brightness of the frontlight, which appears to increase the battery usage by +1% per hour.

Accessories

Along with the rMPP, I also purchased the standard Marker, and the Keyboard Folio (called the Type Folio by reMarkable).

Stylus

I chose reMarkable’s standard stylus (called the Model Marker), because it was an additional £40 for the Model Marker Plus, which has an eraser at the top of the barrel. Personally, I prefer stylii without erasers, and so had difficulty justifying the additional cost for the eraser to myself.

It is almost cylindrical in shape, with one side flatted, both to prevent rolling, and to snap to the side of the tablet using magnetism. On the opposite side of the flattened edge, there is a small cut-out at the top of the shaft adorned with the reMarkable logo.

As already mentioned, the rMPP does not use the same Wacom technology as most of the popular e-ink tablets.

This means it requires its own power source (a self-contained battery in the barrel). So that users do not have to carry around spare batteries, or have to charge via an ugly USB port on the shaft, reMarkable have implemented wireless charging. Whilst the stylus is magnetically snapped to the side of the tablet, it will recharge automatically. I actually think that this is a really neat feature (although if they’d have used Wacom instead, they wouldn’t have had to worry about recharging at all because Wacom uses electromagnetism and doesn’t require a power source).

The nib is hard and cone-shaped, and when I first saw it, I didn’t expect to like it at all (after an awful experience with the similarly-styled Kobo stylus) but it actually writes fairly well, and is light, nicely balanced, and comfortable to hold.

I’m not too sure about the light-gray coloring, but aesthetically, I think it looks nice. It’s certainly not the best stylus I’ve used, but its not terrible either.

Keyboard folio (Type Folio)

reMarkable’s awesome Type Folio was my shining light in a sea composed chiefly of disappointment whilst carrying out this review. It is the best keyboard folio for an e-ink tablet I’ve used (excepting the Type Folio for the reMarkable 2, which is fundamentally the same).

The dark-gray exterior has a canvas-like texture, with the reMarkable logo discretely embossed in the top-left corner. The interior is a slightly lighter gray, and feels smoother.

It consists of two panels (front and rear) joined together in the middle. The front panel is thinner and lighter than the rear panel, which contains the keyboard.

There is a magnetic flap/clasp, which prevents the cover from inadvertently opening. I’ve said in previous tablet reviews how much I dislike this ‘flap mechanism’ because when the folio is open, the flap sticks out and looks ugly. But (on other models) if you tuck it behind the rear panel, then it makes the tablet uneven and it rocks slightly. reMarkable have solved this issue with a simple and ingenious method – on the rear, there is a small rectangular indent that the flap can fold back into, ensuring the tablet stays level. This may seem like a small thing, but it is one that was important to me.

Unlike other keyboard folios I’ve used where the keyboard is housed on the interior of the front panel (and therefore, the keys are facing the screen when the folio is closed), reMarkable have opted to put the keyboard on the inside of the rear panel, and then covered it with a second panel, to which the tablet connects.

By utilising some clever folding techniques on the interior rear panel, it can be opened up to reveal the keyboard and act as a stand for the tablet. Converting the folio to a stand angles the tablet/screen at around 60 degrees, whilst activating the keyboard, and switching the screen orientation to landscape. Although you can’t adjust the angle, the preset is pretty much perfect for typing and it is exceedingly stable.

The keyboard itself has a standard QWERTY layout. It is backlit, so you can see the keys in dim/dark lighting conditions, however only the alphabetical characters light up (numbers, punctuation etc. are not). The intensity of the keyboard backlight can be adjusted (with a swipe-down from the top-right corner, in the same place as frontlight adjustment).

The CAPS LOCK key has a white LED in it to show when it has been activated (although when turned off, the dot is still quite a bright white, and it took a while for me to discern the difference between on and off). There is also a dedicated ‘refine’ button with an orange LED. When activated, the stylus can be used to select and manipulate text (rather than inserting freehand pen strokes). In addition, there’s lots of keyboard shortcuts, which can further add to the ease of formatting and manipulating text. However, formatting options are limited – there’s only title, single sub-heading, bullets, checkboxes, and normal paragraphs to choose from.

As with handwriting, the screen refreshes quite frequently, usually when there is a pause in your typing. It’s very subtle but noticeable, and irritated me at first, but I’ve since gotten used to it. I still find it a little irksome, but I can live with it.

On the whole, I’ve found typing text documents on the rMPP to be a very pleasurable experience, and the Type Folio is the best tablet cover with integrated keyboard that I have used.

Software

My review of this tablet should be read in conjunction with my review of the current firmware (see table below), which includes aspects such as the Operating System, User Interface, and Native Apps.

The hardware and software reviews have been separated because the firmware used at the time that this review was written may not be the same firmware being used currently. This could result in the review quickly becoming outdated. Also, as several tablets may use the same firmware, this would mean going back and updating every single tablet review from a particular manufacturer to account for the new firmware. By splitting them up, if there is a firmware update, I am able to make the updates on a single page.

Current versions of this brand’s firmware are shown in the table below, along with the tablets running them.

My rating	Firmware version	Tablets using this firmware
	3.22 (current version) Sep 2025	reMarkable 2 reMarkable Paper Pro Move reMarkable Paper Pro
Older remarkable firmware versions may be found here

Brand

For some people, it is also worth considering the brand as a whole, including aspects like customer service, ecosystem, values, and criticisms.

My full overview of the reMarkable brand can be found here, but I have provided a summary below.

Final Verdict

Starting at $579, the reMarkable Paper Pro is one of the most expensive e-ink tablets on the market, which would make you think that it is one of the best, yet there are so many areas in which it is inferior compared to its competitors.

First of all, the software is exceedingly limited. There’s no support for third-party apps, and the native apps are limited to a PDF/EPUB reader (which includes the ability to add handwritten annotations), and a note-taking app.

And whilst this does result in a fair degree of disconnection from external distractions, it does restrict the use cases of the rMPP (as I’ll go into later).

The reading app is very basic, and I’m not convinced it even supports ePub natively – the time it takes to reflow an ePub suggests that it may actually be converting it to PDF.

The note-taking app is pretty decent but still does not have as many features as the likes of Boox or Supernote (e.g. no handwriting search). And the frequent visible screen refreshes (particularly when using color) can be quite frustrating.

In addition, battery life is quite poor, and there is an intermittent low electrical buzzing sound that I think those with a high level of auditory perception will find agitating. And the frontlight creates shadows around the edges of the screen.

And whilst the tactile writing feel is pretty good, it is far from the best I have experienced.

Moving on from the negative, let’s see what’s good about the rMPP…

Firstly, the Gallery3 e-ink screen means more colors and higher color density. You will get the best experience of viewing high-resolution color images in PDFs on the rMPP because most e-ink brands use Kaleido3 instead (which is faster but lower quality). However, this color quality advantage does not traverse into the note-taking app – you are limited to six non-monochrome colors, and they don’t look the same when exported. In addition, the 11.8″ screen does provide more note-taking canvas than the more conventional 10.3″ size of other brands.

Secondly, the reMarkable mobile and desktop apps allow you to edit and add to the text in your notebooks, so that you can continue working when you’re away from the tablet – no other e-ink brand I know of provides this functionality. Unfortunately, this capability is only available for those that pay an ongoing monthly fee for a Connect subscription, which adds to the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the device, and only TEXT can be manipulated, not handwriting.

Thirdly, the Type Folio is magnificent. Not only is it beautifully designed and excellently engineered, it is also very practical and functional. The software behind it has also been optimised for typists more than any other keyboard folio on the market, with both touch and stylus selection and plenty of useful keyboard shortcuts.

Another advantage of the rMPP is that the the user interface is simple, highly intuitive, and easy to use.

Finally, reMarkable have a large selection brush tools in their note-taking app, which have been tweaked almost to perfection in terms of pressure and tilt sensitivity – this provides a plethora of style choices when writing/sketching content.

But these positives, in my opinion, will not make up for the deficits, except for in a few niche use cases.

The first use case would be those who need a high-quality color resolution (for example, when viewing color photographs in PDFs). However, bear in mind that the quality is still not as good as it would be on a conventional screen (although it is better than Kaleido3 tablets).

The second use case would be those that want a simple distraction-free (albeit very expensive) electronic typewriter. I fall into this category myself, and have written up my last couple of reviews (including this one) using the rMPP. The typing experience is very easy, and very calming (although I still get a little irked by the screen refreshes). I very much prefer typing up my reviews using the rMPP than doing it on my laptop. However, if I didn’t feel compelled to buy the rMPP for review purposes on eWritable, I would definitely think twice about shelling out £739 (the cost of the tablet, stylus and type folio) for what is, essentially, a glorified typewriter. In fact, I really couldn’t justify this expense to myself at all, and even have some buyer’s remorse, even though I used eWritable’s funds for the purchase!

A third use case, might be for those that want to be able to make edits and additions to their text from their computer or mobile (however, this is text only – not handwriting/sketches – and requires a subscription).

For other use cases, I think the rMPP is inferior to other products.

Now, admittedly, this opinion goes against the grain of several other reviews you may have read, and the incredible marketing machine that reMarkable is. I can only think of two reasons for this.

The first is that the reviewers are looking at their first e-ink tablet and have nothing to compare it to (other than a regular tablet or traditional pen and paper). I think this is a similar story for many reMarkable owners – they may not even be aware that alternatives to reMarkable even exist.

The second is that reMarkable have a lucrative affiliate program. On average, I get around £25 for each reMarkable sale. For other brands, I get around £10-£15. So, the incentive is certainly there for reviewers to promote reMarkable to the moon rather than their competitors.

But the point of eWritable is to provide honest reviews of e-ink tablets (which includes my subjective perspective), and I feel I would be selling out if I pushed the pros and conveniently downplayed the cons just to make a bit more money.

So, there you have it. The reMarkable Paper Pro isn’t a bad e-ink tablet (and in some limited situations, it excels), but in my opinion, it certainly isn’t the best and is not worth the high price tag.

reMarkable Paper Pro Specs