Hands-on Review of reMarkable Paper Pro: Hardware Performance
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Following up on the previous article "The New Generation of Color E Ink: reMarkable Paper Pro Unboxing and Comments", this time, I will be reviewing the hardware aspects of the reMarkable Paper Pro (hereinafter referred to as rMPP) for those who are interested. When considering an E Ink device, the screen's display quality is paramount. Consequently, this article will thoroughly examine the rMPP's screen characteristics and the reMarkable team's optimization of Eink Gallery 3. Furthermore, I will delve into battery life, another crucial aspect for many users.
Table of Content
Screen
Size
This time, reMarkable has adopted a rather unique screen size of 11.8 inches, which seems to be exclusive among current E Ink screens. I haven't even seen this size at the Touch Taiwan exhibition, so it's possible reMarkable negotiated a custom specification directly with E Ink. However, the main reason for choosing this size is something I'm quite curious about. The standard A4 paper size is 210 mm x 297 mm, and if you want to view A4 content like papers or textbooks [Note 1]the 13.3-inch screen (203 mm x 271 mm) is still the closest to A4, only slightly smaller. Therefore, viewing A4-formatted text on a 13.3-inch screen will only result in a slight reduction in text size. However, viewing it on the 11.8-inch rMPP will shrink the text a bit more, which might make it more difficult for some people to read, especially since some papers already have quite small font sizes when viewed on A4. Shrinking them down to an 11-inch display would be quite challenging unless you improve it by cropping the margins, but that requires sufficient white space in the original layout for cropping.
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On the left is the 13.3-inch Kaleido 3 color E Ink mooInk Pro 2C (abbreviated as mP2C)[Note 2], and on the right is the 11.8-inch rMPP. You can see that the font on the rMPP is significantly smaller. Since the file is in a fixed-layout PDF format, we can also infer the text scaling ratio from the image scaling. Calculations show that the text size on the rMPP is reduced to 90% of the mP2C's text size |
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The cropped view of the rMPP shows that the text size can be a bit larger than the text on the mP2C on the left. However, this cropping sacrifices the chapter titles at the top left and the page numbers at the bottom left of the original page, although these don't significantly impact reading. You can also see that if there isn't sufficient margin in the document, the text in the top left corner of the rMPP will be obscured by the system's floating button. While this also has a minor impact, it can be a bit annoying when reading. It's a pity that the rMPP's software doesn't have a feature like Boox where you can hide the floating button and use side gestures to bring up the toolbar. |
Actually, the rMPP's screen size (180 mm x 240 mm, 3:4 aspect ratio) is closer to the size of B5 paper (176 mm x 250 mm). While some magazines do use this size, it's relatively less common. Therefore, most of the time, if you want to make the font size of content originally formatted for A4 comfortable to read, cropping the margins using its built-in software is necessary.
Reflectivity
Many people should be very concerned about the issue of surface reflectivity. Higher reflectivity means less ambient light is absorbed, resulting in a brighter E Ink screen and a brighter background. The biggest problem with Kaleido is that it adds a layer of color filters to the screen surface, and this layer absorbs a significant amount of light, making the screen brightness less than that of black and white E Ink readers. This is why many people don't like it. Gallery 3, on the other hand, uses four-color ink particles to mix colors without need of an overlying color filter. Therefore, since there's no light-absorbing filter layer, the screen brightness is theoretically greater than that of Kaleido 3.
I believe that in the previous paragraph where we talked about size, many people have already noticed that the screen brightness of the rMPP in the photos is indeed greater than the mP2C which uses Kaleido 3, and the white background is also whiter. This is a noticeable improvement. However, from the light gradient in the photos above, you can also see that the difference in the white background is smaller in the brighter areas and larger in the darker areas. This is because the human eye is more sensitive to changes in brightness in dark areas than in bright areas. Therefore, the difference in brightness and white background between color E Ink and black and white E Ink screens is generally more pronounced in dim or low-light environments.
Another point worth mentioning is that even among devices using the same Kaleido 3 technology, the screen reflectivity can vary between different brands and models. In fact, among the four Kaleido 3 devices I own, the brightness of the white background in the same environment, from brightest to darkest, is: Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C Pro (hereinafter referred to as TUCP) > Boox Tab Min C (hereinafter referred to as TMC) > mP2C > Pubook Pro. Therefore, the mP2C's white background is not considered particularly bright among Kaleido 3 screens.
I found that in bright environment without the front light, there isn't a huge difference in screen brightness between the rMPP and the TUCP. The TUCP's color tone is relatively whiter, while the rMPP's white tone is relatively yellower. Additionally, one has a black bezel and the other has a white bezel, which creates some visual illusions. Therefore, the comparison is somewhat influenced by the color tone and bezel. However, you can still see from the photos that the rMPP's background is a bit brighter than the TUCP's, but the difference isn't as big as I had initially imagined (I always thought Gallery 3's white background should be as bright as the white background of black and white E Ink).
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On the left is the TUCP using Kaleido 3 technology, and on the right is the rMPP using Gallery 3 technology. Neither has the front light on. You can see that in bright conditions, the brightness of the white background between the two isn't drastically different. |
If I take color samples from the white background of the photos above, the RGB values for the TUCP are (221, 212, 201), and the RGB values for the rMPP are (221, 215, 203). You can see that the brightness of the two is indeed not significantly different, with the rMPP being slightly brighter.
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If we compare it to the Kobo Clara 2E, a top performer in terms of brightness among black and white E Ink devices, we will find that the rMPP's white background is still far less bright white than it. |
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However, if we compare it to the Kindle Paperwhite 3, the rMPP's white background brightness is only slightly inferior. |
To summarize, in terms of screen brightness, black and white E Ink > Gallery 3 > Kaleido 3. Gallery 3's brightness is in the middle, still slightly inferior to black and white E Ink, which explains why all the Gallery 3 devices I saw at the Touch Taiwan exhibition had their front lights turned on a bit. But why isn't the screen brightness of Gallery 3, which doesn't use a color filter, as bright as black and white E Ink? I really don't know the answer to this. Perhaps readers who know can share in the comments.
Reflection Characteristics
The reflection characteristics of the screen also greatly affect the comfort of reading and writing. Generally speaking, the less mirror-like reflection a screen has, the better for reading and writing. This is because surfaces that easily produce mirror-like reflections, such as smooth glass, not only have reflected images that can easily interfere with the screen image, but also tend to produce strong glare when there is a strong light source nearby (such as a desk lamp or ceiling light), which can be dazzling to the eyes and also make it difficult to see the image in the area of strong glare due to overexposure.
The screen surface of the rMPP is made of glass with a special texture treatment. The reMarkable official website specifically mentions that this surface treatment reduces glare intensity by 15% compared to the previous generation (reMarkable 2), making reading and writing more comfortable for the eyes. I don't have reMarkable 2 on hand, but I can compare it with two note-taking E Ink tablets I have – the TUCP and mP2C – as well as regular light-emitting tablets, the iPad, and the TCL NXTPAPER 11. The comparison photos are as follows:
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surface glare of TUCP |
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surface glare of rMPP |
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surface glare of mP2C |
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surface glare of TCL NXTPAPER 11 |
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Surface glare of iPad Pro 2017. You can see that in addition to glare, there is also mirror reflection interference from surrounding objects |
For optimal reading and writing comfort, a screen should exhibit strong diffuse reflection and minimal specular reflection (mirror-like glare). Enhanced diffuse reflection reduces glare by blurring the primary light source, expanding the illuminated area (diffused halo), and lowering the source's overall luminance. Consequently, lower glare minimizes eye fatigue and enhances reading comfort, especially during prolonged use. Evaluating the diffuse reflection capabilities based on the provided photos, the devices rank as follows: TCL NXTPAPER 11 > rMPP > mP2C > TUCP >>> iPad Pro 2017. While the TCL NXTPAPER 11 demonstrates superior diffuse reflection, it's worth mentioning that this characteristic presents a trade-off in the context of LCD technology, a topic I will elaborate on in a future review of the TCL.
The excellent anti-glare treatment of the rMPP, as demonstrated above, significantly enhances writing comfort, which is truly in line with the team's focus on delivering a premium writing experience. However, it's worth noting that anti-glare treatments can sometimes impact image display quality, a point I will discuss in more detail in the 'Microstructure' section later.
Screen Refresh Rate and Characteristics
The refresh rate of the rMPP screen is also a part that many people are most concerned about. This is because the earliest ACeP technology [Note 2] required 30 seconds for a full screen refresh, so it was impossible to use it as an e-reader at that time. Later, it gradually improved to ten seconds. When the Gallery 3 technology was introduced the year before last, the fastest refresh rate of Gallery 3 had already improved to 500 milliseconds. However, this 500-millisecond page-turning speed is the fast mode, which can only be achieved by sacrificing some color and picture quality. Official E Ink data indicates that in addition to the fast mode, Gallery 3 also has a standard mode and a best image quality mode. The refresh rate of the standard mode is approximately 750 ~ 1000 ms, while the best image quality mode is 1500 ms, which is 1.5 seconds.
After testing, the rMPP's color refresh mode actually uses the standard mode of Gallery 3, which means it takes one second to turn the page. However, the time it takes for the image to appear after turning the page is actually less than one second. It's just that after the image appears, it will flash a few more times to render the correct colors. Therefore, one second is the time for the entire process. Please refer to the video below:
Let's take a look at its refreshing process in slow motion:
A key visual difference between Gallery and Kaleido refresh is that Gallery flashes multiple times for a full refresh, unlike Kaleido which only flashes once. Many might find this page-turning flicker unacceptable, particularly when rapidly reading color comics, as the constant screen flickering could lead to eye fatigue, similar to the effects of low-frequency strobing. However, while testing the rMPP's battery consumption by reading full-page picture books, I read three books (over 600 pages) consecutively and experienced no eye discomfort, dizziness, or general unease. I suspect this is because E Ink screens aren't as bright as regular light-emitting screens [Note 3], resulting in less intense flicker with a smaller brightness change amplitude, which is less likely to strain the eye muscles.
To ensure my own perception wasn't skewed, I asked my wife to try it out. After reading over a hundred pages of picture books, she reported no eye strain or discomfort but admitted feeling quite bothered by the continuous screen flashing 😆! Unlike her, I didn't find it psychologically irritating, perhaps because years of using E Ink have made me more tolerant of the page-turning flicker 😆😆.
However, it's important to emphasize here that Gallery 3 has a partial refresh capability. This means that it only flashes multiple times in the areas where color needs to be rendered. Therefore, for picture books where a small portion of the screen is an image and the majority is text, or for textbooks where most pages are text with occasional images or charts, the overall reading experience is still quite comfortable. This is because the time spent on each page is relatively long, and during page turns, the entire screen doesn't continuously flicker; only the local areas flicker.
Furthermore, as you can notice from the two videos above, if the screen is entirely black and white text, the page-turning speed is actually very fast. The official E Ink website mentions that Gallery 3's page refresh rate in black and white mode is only 350 ms. Therefore, reading pure text novels on the rMPP also feels very smooth:
The rMPP also automatically switches to this fast black and white refresh mode when zooming in or out on a page. It reverts to the standard color mode after the zoom level is set, as shown in the video below:
Note-taking characteristics, latency and precision
The refresh effect when writing with a stylus is also a point that many people are very concerned about. On the day reMarkable announced the rMPP, many well-known YouTubers had already received the actual device and conducted some tests on the handwriting function. At that time, many members in the Facebook group noticed in the test videos shared by the YouTubers that the color of the handwriting strokes needed to flash several times after lifting the stylus to display correctly. The effect was very similar to the refresh flicker of color images when turning pages. Many people at the time expressed that they could not accept this kind of handwriting effect. When I saw it, I also felt that the performance in this area was disappointing and a bit surprising. This is because I saw a certain manufacturer showcasing their improvements to the handwriting function on Gallery 3 at the Touch Taiwan exhibition in April last year. When I tried it, I was very satisfied. The handwriting was smooth, the colors were saturated, and most importantly, there was no need for the strokes to flicker several times after writing to display the correct color like the rMPP. I still have the video of my trial at that time, as shown below:
However, after personally experiencing the handwriting function of the rMPP recently, I found the overall feeling to be good. Actually, under normal usage scenarios, the flicker after lifting the stylus does not cause too much visual disturbance. As I mentioned in the previous section about refresh characteristics, the stylus stroke flicker is localized, and the brightness is not as glaring as on mobile phones or tablets. Therefore, when you are seriously taking notes, you will not find this effect very abrupt or annoying.
In particular, when I am normally taking notes, I mostly use the color black. I only use other colors when highlighting key points or for notes where I specifically want to create a distinction. The black and white strokes on the rMPP do not flicker after lifting the stylus, just like a regular black and white E Ink tablet, as demonstrated below:
As for the other colors, although they do flicker after lifting the stylus, the system is set to only flicker and refresh to the correct color if the stylus is lifted for more than one second without writing again. Therefore, if we continuously write or draw using the same color, as long as the time we lift the stylus isn't too long, the flickering effect won't bother us. A demonstration video is shown below:
2025/0515 Update: The latest firmware update has altered this behavior. Previously, intentionally keeping the pen tip on the screen could prevent flickering. However, if you now draw a somewhat straight line and hold the pen tip down for a second, the software automatically converts it to a perfectly straight line. This triggers a fast, full-screen black and white refresh mode, and after you lift the pen tip, the entire screen flickers to change back to color mode, making the experience even more uncomfortable.
You can also see from the video above that the color isn't like what some online users have shared, where it's initially black and then flashes to become colored. Instead, the color appears close to the intended shade immediately after the stroke, and then it becomes more saturated after lifting the pen. I will demonstrate this in another way below:
From the video above, you can also see that the stylus latency is very low and the responsiveness is excellent. The performance in this aspect is very outstanding. The reMarkable official website mentions that the rMPP's stylus latency is even lower than the reMarkable 2's, with only 12 ms, while the reMarkable 2 has a latency of 21 ms (although human senses generally cannot perceive such a small difference).
However, the rMPP needs improvement in terms of pen-to-ink precision. There's a 0.92 mm pen-to-ink distance error (the distance between the pen tip and where the ink appears on the screen). Although official information shows this is more precise than the previous generation reMarkable 2 stylus (which had a distance of 0.946 mm), this margin of error can make tasks like accurately connecting lines, writing very small characters, or coloring in drawings difficult. It requires extra practice to adapt to this difference. In contrast, while Onyx Boox styluses used to have a similar margin of error, after recent updates, the pen-to-ink distance is almost zero when I use the Boox stylus to draw on the TUCP, allowing for very precise line connections. Given that reMarkable touts an ultimate writing experience, I believe this is an area they urgently need to improve.
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1 mm is considered a significant margin of error for precise drawing. |
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There is almost no error between the tip of the Onyx Boox stylus and the writing. |
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Writing very small characters with the rMPP requires getting a feel for the error distance, which is not easy. |
Actually, I've been thinking about why the Taiwanese handwriting technology company I saw at the Touch Taiwan exhibition was able to achieve non-flickering color handwriting on a Gallery 3 display. One possibility is that the company was simply showing the initial color before the refresh on the rMPP, which isn't as saturated or vibrant. However, my own simulation seems to indicate that's not the case, as shown in the photo below:
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The photo above is a screenshot from the Touch Taiwan video, and the photo below is my simulation of drawing on the rMPP. The color block my stylus tip is pointing to is the color before the flicker refresh, but neither the already refreshed colors nor the colors before the refresh look like what I saw at the exhibition. |
The color palette used for handwriting on the rMPP essentially includes the basic colors of ink particles, such as Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. Theoretically, controlling the display of these basic colors should be much easier than mixed colors. Unless the color difference in the exhibition video was caused by the lighting conditions at the event, it's possible that the exhibiting company has a special color control formula. This is truly unknown. I hope that in the future, reMarkable will be able to achieve flicker-free handwriting, which would make it even more perfect.
Ghosting Control
Regarding ghosting(afterimage) control, I believe this is also an aspect that many people want to know about. The ghosting control of the rMPP can be said to be very excellent. Under normal usage, almost no ghosting are visible. You can see the following video demonstration:
Although the rMPP uses the standard color mode of Gallery 3, and performs a full refresh with every page turn, such excellent ghosting control is not entirely surprising. However, the even more impressive aspect of the rMPP is that the pure black and white mode, which only takes 350 ms to refresh a page, also exhibits absolutely no ghosting:
Another impressive thing about the rMPP is that after erasing handwritten notes, there is absolutely no ghosting.
In contrast to Onyx Boox's TUCP, ghosting can often be observed after erasing handwritten notes on the Boox device. This suggests that Onyx's ghosting removal features are not effective in this aspect:
From the video demonstration above, it's clear that reMarkable has put a lot of effort into ghosting control, allowing the rMPP to be completely free of ghosting in various usage scenarios. The extent of its excellent ghosting control makes me think that if someone new to E Ink bought a reMarkable today, they might not even know that E Ink has something called ghosting. However, my description above is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the rMPP does occasionally experience bugs during use that cause some ghosting to appear on the screen, but it's truly very rare, as shown in the image below:
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The rMPP occasionally shows ghosting due to bugs. If you encounter this situation, simply return to the main screen and re-enter the document. |
Color Reproduction
The color reproduction of the rMPP is another very large topic. Since this is the first time in history that we users can do a relatively complete color test of a Gallery 3 consumer electronic product, I will write a separate article to discuss this part. After it's finished, I will put the link here, so please look forward to it.
Frontlight
The rMPP's front light only has five adjustable levels, and even at its maximum setting, the brightness is much lower than the maximum front light brightness of many other E Ink readers. I tested the front light intensity using the same method I used for the Boox Nova 3 Color, Nova Air C, and Tab Ultra C Pro (TUCP) in the past. I found that even with the rMPP's front light at its maximum, the brightness is roughly at the level 15 setting of the TUCP. The TUCP has 32 levels, so the maximum front light brightness of the rMPP is a bit less than half of the TUCP's. Actually, when I usually use the TUCP, I rarely turn the front light up to more than halfway. Therefore, it can be inferred that the reflectivity of the rMPP screen is indeed higher than that of the TUCP, so the maximum front light brightness doesn't need to be as high as the TUCP's.
I think reMarkable's foolproof design for the front light is good because they didn't include an automatic light sensor for front light adjustment in the rMPP. They only provided the necessary amount of compensation light and didn't give more, to prevent people from immediately turning the front light to a very bright level and feeling that it's glaring and causing eye strain when taking notes or reading for a long time (which is actually due to improper usage). By the way, in recent years, as the surface reflectivity of readers has increased, the maximum front light brightness should actually be getting lower. The latest generation of Kindle has a maximum front light brightness that is even brighter than the previous generation, which is quite peculiar.
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In this image, the left side shows the rMPP with its front light at maximum brightness, while the right side shows the TCL NXTPAPER 11 with its backlight at maximum brightness. You can see a very large difference in maximum brightness between the two. Additionally, the rMPP's front light has a lower color temperature, appearing less blue-white (the TCL is using eye protection mode, which automatically adjusts the color temperature, currently making it lean towards blue-white). |
On E Ink's official website, it's mentioned that Gallery 3 is equipped with ComfortGaze front light technology. Currently, it seems that the rMPP's front light, in terms of both brightness and color temperature, is quite similar to the specifications mentioned in a research paper I cited in my previous article, "Tab Ultra C's Front Light Features and Recommended Usage". I personally think it's very likely that this front light technology is ComfortGaze, but whether it is or not is unknown.
DPI
The rMPP doesn't achieve the recent standard of 300 DPI, with only 227 DPI. I think this will be a point of concern for many people. However, many 10-inch and 13-inch black and white readers on the market also only have 207 or 227 DPI [Note 4]. Therefore, I don't think the rMPP's 11.8-inch screen with this DPI is worse than similarly sized readers, especially considering the color display also maintains the 227 DPI level, which is currently considered the highest resolution among color E Ink displays. Although 10-inch Kaleido 3 panels can currently achieve 300 DPI for black and white display, the actual color resolution is only around 150 DPI because a color filter array is used for color mixing. Therefore, theoretically, the rMPP using Gallery 3 should have significantly better color photo detail than Kaleido 3.
Microstructure
Because the reMarkable team places great emphasis on the writing experience of the rMPP, they put a lot of effort into the texture of the surface glass. This allows it to provide a realistic feel of writing on paper when used with the stylus. You can refer to the official description of their surface treatment here: "Why reMarkable Paper Pro feels like writing on paper". Another advantage of this surface treatment is that it can increase the diffuse reflection of the surface, thereby reducing the brightness of glare produced by surrounding light sources on the rMPP surface. Official data states that glare is reduced by about 15% compared to the reMarkable 2.
However, the current diffuse reflection treatment on most screen surfaces (another way of saying anti-glare treatment) actually involves increasing the surface roughness so that incident light is not reflected along a specific angle. The disadvantage of this is that it can increase the surface graininess, which affects image quality, similar to how applying a matte screen protector on an iPad adds a layer of graininess to the image. Therefore, at a normal reading distance, the surface graininess of the rMPP screen is slightly noticeable, somewhat resembling the effect of a higher ISO value in photography. Many people might think this is a visual effect caused by the 227 DPI, but it's actually not. You can see the following photo:
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When viewed up close, you can see that the rMPP's image has an effect similar to looking through frosted glass. This is actually the special glass surface treatment that reMarkable applies to enhance the writing feel. Because this tactile feedback is desired, the graininess cannot be made too fine. |
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Looking at it even larger, you can see that the ink particles cannot be seen clearly because there is still a layer of frosted glass in between, and the graininess of the glass is very obvious. |
But it's certain that the rMPP surface doesn't have a color filter array. Therefore, without this filter layer, the surface light reflectivity will be better. Let's take a look at the magnified view of the TUCP screen surface which uses Kaleido 3 technology:
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| The TUCP surface also has etched glass treatment, but the texture of the color filter array is more noticeable than the texture of the etched glass. |
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| Looking at it even more magnified, you can see that the lines of the color filter array are not clearly visible, mainly due to the frosted glass visual effect caused by the surface etched glass treatment. However, from here, you can also see that the etching grain on the TUCP is finer than on the rMPP, so the frictional resistance when writing will be smaller, and there will be less of a scratchy sound. |
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Attached is a magnified photo of the surface of the black and white E Ink Kobo Clara 2E for reference. |
Ease of Fingerprint Smudging
The screen surface of the rMPP doesn't attract fingerprints very easily. I think this is related to the surface treatment done to optimize the writing experience, as mentioned earlier. Even if fingerprints do get on the screen, they are not very noticeable. This characteristic is actually very similar to that of flexible E Ink Mobius displays. Because fingerprints don't easily smudge the screen, the feeling during writing and reading is better.
CPU & RAM
Regarding the CPU of the rMPP, the reMarkable official website only states that it's a quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex A53, without mentioning the brand or the specific model. The memory is 2 GB LPDDR4 RAM. However, for a pure e-reader and note-taking tablet, the CPU and memory specifications are not that important to the average user, as they can't install other apps or software. These specifications are more meaningful for geeks who want to modify the device themselves. For general users and manufacturers, the CPU and RAM performance only needs to be sufficient to run the manufacturer's built-in reading and writing software smoothly. Therefore, my focus here is to test whether the rMPP experiences delays when reading larger PDF files (I'm using a 300 MB file) in terms of opening documents, turning pages, and displaying thumbnails.
Based on my current testing, I feel that the rMPP's CPU speed isn't particularly fast. When the file is relatively large, a loading icon appears for one or two seconds after turning a page before the content is displayed. Similarly, when loading quick preview thumbnails, if the document has too many pages, it takes some time for the thumbnails to be generated. This is demonstrated in the video below:
We can compare the above test video with the performance king in the E Ink world, the TUCP. The TUCP's CPU currently uses a high-end Snapdragon 855 from the 8 series. A video testing the same size book file (300 Mb) is shown below:
The above test videos show that the rMPP is slow to generate quick preview thumbnails when dealing with large files. This would be a hindrance when users want to jump to a specific page, thereby degrading the user's reading experience. ReMarkable might also be aware of its weakness and has adopted a clever approach, which is to store the generated quick preview thumbnails. Therefore, only the first time a book file is opened and the quick preview screen is accessed will the reader need to wait for the thumbnails to be generated slowly. Once they are all generated, they don't need to be re-created. The next time the book file is opened, all the thumbnails can be accessed without any loading time. I initially thought these thumbnails were only temporarily stored in memory, but when I turned off the device and restarted it, the quick preview thumbnails for that book file were still there without needing to be regenerated. Therefore, reMarkable must be saving them as files. In contrast, the TUCP's Neo Reader regenerates quick preview thumbnails every time, but fortunately, the TUCP's performance is strong enough that users don't have to wait too long when quickly jumping to pages.
However, I think an area where reMarkable could improve is that after a user opens a new book, it should automatically perform the task of generating quick preview thumbnails in the background, instead of waiting until the user clicks on the quick preview page-jump function to start generating them. Although the loading icon can be seen appearing when the rMPP suddenly jumps to a certain page in a large file in the video demonstration above, the loading icon does not appear when the user flips through the pages one by one. Therefore, the reMarkable team must have designed a system to pre-load the content of the previous and next pages in the background to mitigate the CPU's insufficient speed when handling large files.
The above issues should not significantly affect most users who directly purchase ebook files, because most ebook files, even in PDF format, rarely exceed 200-300 Mb. However, for users who like to create their own ebook files (self-publishing), they may need to carefully consider this, because if self-published ebook files retain high quality or are not adequately compressed for different types of content, the file size will often exceed 300-500 Mb. The reading experience with such self-published ebook files on the rMPP will be relatively poor. (However, my other pure e-reader devices like the mooInk Pro 2C, Sony DPT-RP1, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kobo Clara 2E also have the same issues. In short, you really can't expect very good performance from the CPUs in pure e-reader devices.)
No Bluetooth, No Speakers
The rMPP hardware itself doesn't have Bluetooth or speakers, which are two aspects that I find a bit disappointing. Without Bluetooth, it's impossible to connect a page turner. Given the overall weight of the rMPP, I usually either place it flat on a desk or use it with a stand for reading, so being able to connect a page turner would be very convenient.
Furthermore, the lack of Bluetooth connectivity also means that Bluetooth keyboards cannot be used, so typing with a keyboard is limited to purchasing the official keyboard folio.
As for speakers, not having built-in speakers is acceptable because the device is already quite heavy. However, if Bluetooth were available, there would be the opportunity to connect Bluetooth headphones. Given the increasing variety and popularity of audiobooks in recent years, if reMarkable could offer audiobook or TTS (Text-to-Speech) functionality, I think it would be even more practical. Otherwise, from a purely reading perspective, the rMPP's reading software doesn't have any particular advantages.
Hard Drive Space
The storage space of the rMPP is much larger than the 8 GB of the previous generation reMarkable 2, coming in at 64 GB. However, the operating system takes up approximately 18 GB, leaving about 46 GB of usable space. Since the rMPP is a pure note-taking e-reader and cannot install other apps, this amount of space should be sufficient for most people. This is especially true when users subscribe to reMarkable Connect, their cloud service, which offers unlimited storage. Even if the device's storage becomes insufficient, you can archive less frequently used documents and books to free up local space, similar to iCloud. However, reMarkable's archiving isn't done automatically by the program based on recent usage; you need to manually select the files.
Furthermore, users can gradually build their own cloud library through reMarkable Connect, keeping only the books they read most often on the device itself. The subscription fee for reMarkable Connect is also not expensive, at only 3 euros per month, which is about 100 NTD. Another benefit of subscribing is that if the device is ever reset to factory settings or if you buy a new device, you won't need to re-upload and slowly rebuild your book collection and notes. Simply log in to your Connect account, and all the files in the cloud will automatically download to the device, saving a lot of hassle and time.
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After archiving a book, a cloud icon will appear in the lower right corner of the book cover, indicating that the hard drive space it occupied has been released from the local device, and it needs to be read from the cloud when used. |
Battery, Charging, and Power Consumption
The rMPP has a fairly large battery with a capacity of 5030 mAh, which is 0.6 times larger than the previous generation reMarkable 2, so the battery alone must have added a significant amount to the device's weight. I think everyone is most concerned about power consumption and battery life, so I conducted some actual tests.
F irst, I tested the power consumption in standby (sleep) mode after a full charge. At 11:00 PM, I unplugged the fully charged (100%) rMPP and put it into standby mode. Until 7:00 AM the next morning, I opened it to observe the battery drain. The result was that the rMPP was surprisingly power-efficient! Upon opening, I found that the battery still had 99% charge, which means it only consumed 1% of power in eight hours of standby. If we calculate based on this, a full charge could last for about 33 days of standby, which is roughly one month. Considering the standards for a pure e-reader, this performance is quite good, at about the level of Kindle and Kobo. For Android E Ink tablets with fast-refresh tech like the Onyx Boox TUCP or TMC, leaving them on overnight would easily drain at least 10% of the battery (at a rate of about 1% per hour when the battery is healthy). However, the reMarkable official website claims a 90-day standby time, which seems a bit exaggerated based on my testing results.
Next, I tested the power consumption during normal reading. My settings were: Wifi on, front light off. Then I read three full-page color picture books because I wanted the rMPP to do a full-color flicker refresh with each page turn to see how power-consuming that would be. Over approximately 15 hours, I read three picture books totaling 404 pages (I read intermittently, often interrupted by various household chores, but I set the auto-sleep to never, so the screen was continuously on and connected to Wifi). The battery level dropped from 99% to 84%, so it consumed a total of 15% of the power. This also included using Wifi to sync and transfer the three picture book files (totaling about 300 MB). I think this power consumption performance is very good, considering that I finished reading three full-color picture books, transferred three files, and kept the device on without sleeping for 15 hours, all while only consuming 15% of the battery.
Then, I tested the power consumption with the front light on and continuous Wifi connection. I set the front light to the third level and also turned off auto-sleep to prevent it from entering standby mode. After leaving it like this for seven hours, it consumed 9% of the battery. There was no reading or page turning during this time; it was just left sitting there. From this, it can be seen that the power consumption speed increases significantly after turning on the front light, especially since the third level of front light brightness is only about 1/4 of the full brightness. Therefore, for people who like to read with the front light at its maximum brightness, I believe the battery life will be greatly reduced.
Finally, I tested the charging aspect. I used a general fast-charging adapter that I use for the Onyx Boox TUCP. Starting from a 10% battery level, I found that even using a fast-charging adapter and cable, the charging speed was still very slow. The charging rate was very stable at an increase of 17% battery level per hour. Therefore, charging from 0% to full would probably take about six hours, which is very long! The Onyx Boox fast-charging adapter can provide output voltages and currents of (5V, 3A), (9V, 2A), and (12V, 1.5A), so the maximum charging power is 18W. If I switch to a 30W charger that I use for my Macbook Air, with output voltages of (20V, 1.5A), (15V, 2A), (9V, 2A), and (5V, 3A), the charging efficiency only increased to 21% per hour. This is still far from the official data claiming that it only takes 90 minutes to charge from 0 to 90%. This discrepancy is very large, and I'm not sure what the problem is. If I use the same fast-charging adapter and cable to charge the TUCP, the TUCP can charge more than 54% per hour! If any readers know how to make the rMPP charge faster, please feel free to leave a comment in the comments section. Thank you!
Wifi
The rMPP supports 5G Wi-Fi transmission. Based on my current usage, I feel that its Wi-Fi chip is quite good, and there are no issues with unstable connection quality during transmission. Since it's a note-taking e-reader, the only purpose of Wi-Fi is for cloud file synchronization. Therefore, when purely reading, Wi-Fi can be turned off to save battery. Also, because it's a e-reader, I won't be testing the Wi-Fi transmission speed. Instead, I'll be testing the transfer speed of transferring files from the reMarkable App to the rMPP device. My network environment is Chunghwa Telecom's 1 Gbs/1 Gbs plan, with a mesh network sending a 5G signal. At my testing location, the internet speed test on my iPhone showed a download speed of 241 Mbps and an upload speed of 123.6 Mbps. If we convert this to data units of Mb/s, the download speed is about 30 Mb/s. In my actual test, transferring a 291 Mb PDF file via the reMarkable app took about 30 seconds to complete. Therefore, the rate at which the rMPP downloads cloud books is approximately 9.7 Mb/s. This file transfer speed is quite acceptable, at least faster than the transfer rate of some bookstore platforms. Most EPUB files can be transferred in less than 1 second, and handwritten notes can also synchronize multiple files within a second.
Conclusion
In this hardware review, I've tried my best to capture many aspects with photos or videos. Because everyone values different things and has different tolerance levels, relying solely on my one-sided textual descriptions of good or bad would often be my own subjective judgment. I hope that through these photos and videos, you will be better able to determine if the reMarkable Paper Pro is the ideal E Ink reader (or note-taking tablet) for you. Of course, before purchasing an E Ink device, I still recommend testing it in person if possible. However, since reMarkable doesn't have any distributors or physical stores in Taiwan, readers in Taiwan cannot try the device firsthand.
The color reproduction and software aspects, which I haven't covered in this article, will also be important factors for many when considering a purchase. But because my time is very limited after having children, I can only ask for your continued patience. If this article has been helpful to you, please don't hesitate to give it a like or share, or buy me a cup of coffee to give me more motivation to continue writing. Thank you for all your support!
Further Reading:
Note
Note 1:This type of content often has many tables and charts, and the PDF format presents the layout better. Currently, most publishers also use PDF format for these types of digital books, with fewer using EPUB format.⤴️
Note 2:The mooInk Pro 2C is a 13.3 inch color e-reader launched by Readmoo, a Taiwanese online bookstore platform. The black and white version of this reader was actually the Sony DPT-RP1, manufactured by Linfiny, a subsidiary of E Ink.⤴️
Note 3:Gallery 3 belongs to E Ink's full-color e-paper technology (Advanced Color ePaper, or ACeP for short), which is a technology that uses four-color ink particles to mix colors.⤴️
Note 4:I did not turn on the front light when I was reading these picture books on the rMPP. In addition, even with the rMPP's front light turned to the maximum brightness, its brightness is much weaker than half the brightness of a mobile phone.⤴️
Note 5:When I was writing this article, Onyx had already launched the black and white 13.3-inch 300 dpi Boox Note Max.⤴️
About the Author
Jack Black
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Driven by a passion for physics, science, and engineering, I seek to leverage my medical experience to advance human health and environmental sustainability. |
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If you liked what I wrote, feel free to support me. It'll give me more motivation to create. Thanks! |
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