GoKawiilis a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.
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Was I writing with pen and paper, or a stylus on a tablet? It’s getting more difficult than ever to tell.
The Remarkable Paper Pure is a follow-up to 2020’s Remarkable 2 and a couple of premium color E Ink tablets. As with Remarkable’s first two digital notepads, the Paper Pure features a black-and-white E Ink screen that sacrifices lighting for writing. The screen’s textured finish feels more like writing on actual paper than a tablet with a smooth glass screen. Without lighting, you can’t use it everywhere. But that tradeoff is important. Every stroke seems directly connected to the tip of the Marker as a result, making it feel more like you’re using an actual pen on a piece of paper rather than a stylus on a screen. It’s better than anything I’ve tested so far.
So how about that pen? The Pure comes with a basic battery-powered stylus called the Marker, but I tested the more expensive Marker Plus that adds a dedicated eraser button and is available as part of a more expensive $449 bundle that also includes a new Sleeve Folio case. Its latency is the same as the Remarkable 2’s stylus and not as responsive as the Apple Pencil Pro, but I think the writing experience with Remarkable’s tablets remains unmatched. It’s nice that the stylus can wirelessly charge when attached to the side of the tablet, like the iPad Pro and Air. It’s no thicker than the Remarkable 2’s stylus and attaches more securely than before.
The Paper Pure (top) uses a powered stylus that recharges while magnetically attached to the side of the tablet with a stronger hold than the Remarkable 2 (bottom) offered.
There are some other upgrades. The Paper Pure has a faster dual-core processor, a bump from 1GB of RAM to 2GB, and a storage increase from 8GB to 32GB. Comparing the two tablets side by side, the Paper Pure is faster when it comes to navigating the UI and opening documents, but not significantly. While large ebooks and PDFs opened about half a second faster on the Paper Pure, the speed improvements were less than that for other documents, including its native notebooks.
Remarkable says the Paper Pure’s new third-generation Canvas screen — a customized 10.3-inch version of E Ink’s Carta 1300 panel that’s already in use in many e-readers — offers 20 percent more contrast and a brighter appearance than the Remarkable 2’s second-gen display. There’s a subtle difference between the two, but it’s really only noticeable with both tablets sitting right next to each other.
The upgraded screen contributes to the Paper Pure’s slightly snappier UI performance, but it carries forward the Remarkable 2’s 1,872 x 1,404 resolution and 226PPI, which is less than what you’ll find on many other modern tablets this size, including Remarkable’s color screen devices. Small text still looks crisp and legible, just not as crisp as it would on the latest Kobo and Kindle 300PPI e-readers.
The Paper Pure (right) is smaller than the Remarkable 2 (left) and features an upgraded display with improved contrast. The Paper Pure (right) has a plastic back panel that may look less premium than the Remarkable 2 (left), but it feels more durable.
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