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The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

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Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#381

Post by dredmorbius »

theodric wrote: post #299

I had an Onyx Boox 1 and it was slower than my 5-year-old iPad, the touchscreen would only register touches from the stylus they didn't provide so much as a storage strap for, and the OS was Android 6 with a custom spin so you couldn't load a lot of normal apps on it, and was abandoned and never upgraded. Total dogshit waste of €400. I gave it to my dad after a week. I hope he used it as a rifle target, but I never a…

For anyone reading this, finger-touch may be enabled or disabled on BOOX devices.

My BOOX cover has a stylus loop.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#382

Post by CosmicShadow »

cstejerean wrote: post #276
CosmicShadow wrote: post #260

I'm always super intrigued by the reMarkable 2, but I think it's because it paints an image of the type of person I think it'd be cool to be, someone who can just write down notes and draw stuff with a really cool, slim device. Someone who carries around moleskines and uses them, instead of just buying so many of them in different shapes and leaving them in a drawer packed to the brim with notebooks. The problem keep…

For comparison I rarely use the pen on my iPad Pro. I think partially because of all the distractions, as soon as I grab my iPad there’s lots of other stuff I could be doing other than taking notes. And partially because the writing on glass never felt right. So it’s been more of an occasional use when I really need to sketch something. I was on the fence for the RM2 for a while for the same reasons you mentioned. Wo…

I've looked at it seriously a while back when it was on presale, but it's definitely a heavy chunk of change, especially since I'm Canadian and have to pay the exchange rate prices.

I do like the idea of no distractions and being able to move stuff around and organize it, unlike with paper, but most of my life is at home (since I'm self-employed) and I already have a computer on all 3 floors of my house that I'm usually at with OneNote and Notepad++ with a ton of tabs on each, so I'm worried that I'll never really use it unless I want to sit on the couch and focus, but then will I be wishing I had all my subsequent notes and such already on OneNote and in my various notepad++ tabs? What happens when I go back and sit at my computer for the majority of the day where I do work, play, research, side businesses etc.? Do I need some stand and will I just be cross copying notes back and forth?

Is it something I can comfortably hold and write on while sitting on a couch, or on some random chair or while leaning against a wall? Or am I going to be doing weird grips and being forced to counterbalance my writing on a floating pad if it's not sitting on a desk? I find writing in a small notebook way harder if it's not just on a table, so even that already worries me. Will I get less legible or not be able to as effectively write on the entire surface area of the device while holding it if not on a desk or having it setup on my lap (which may not even be that feasible without some cushion or stand)?

A 30 day trial could definitely help me figure this out, but I'm leaning towards the fact that it probably won't work out, at least not with the current version and I'm always afraid I won't commit the time I need to really test it in those first 30 days, haha!

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#383

Post by Foobar8568 »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #303
nemosaltat wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was in the Navy I carried a little memoranda pad in my left breast pocket. I’d take notes each day, at the beginning of each new day, I’d carry any necessary information from the previous day to the next page and then fold the previous page along the diagonal, alternating the folds right and left each day. The effects of pulling out a notepad and jotting notes are markedly different than pulling out a phone or…

I've noticed that early on; 15 years ago, I was keeping notes on a "feature phone with sliding keyboard". I was pulled by my manager for being disrespectful after the meeting; I showed him the notes and demonstrated that I was by far the most attention / had the best retention / was most involved in the meeting, but still... the message was - it looks unprofessional, stop it. Thing is: * My handwriting sucks (I liter…

>My handwriting sucks (I literally can't read my own; I'm 42yo - don't tell me to practice / it'll improve, just don't be that arrogant ignoramus ;).

I am close to 40, 2 - 3 years ago, I re-practiced handwriting with my daughter who wanted to learn (out of school) writing. To my surprise, my handwriting did improve and I was actually surprised by the result (cursive, I am French), hers was miles ahead of mine but really I was damn surprised by how effective it was.

I used to have teachers that refused to correct my copies because of my handwriting, so it's never too late.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#385

Post by sork_hn »

edmundsauto wrote: post #263
CosmicShadow wrote: post #260

I'm always super intrigued by the reMarkable 2, but I think it's because it paints an image of the type of person I think it'd be cool to be, someone who can just write down notes and draw stuff with a really cool, slim device. Someone who carries around moleskines and uses them, instead of just buying so many of them in different shapes and leaving them in a drawer packed to the brim with notebooks. The problem keep…

This is pretty accurate, from someone who just got one as a gift. They are useful devices, however your criticism is spot on. That said, a couple big advantages I haven’t seen advertised: - I don’t have a dozen notebooks around, just one - easy to start a new notebook, plus the centralization, is sort of an “organized by default” mode - I can’t take notes on my computer, so it’s either this or paper - distraction fre…

One of the things I love about mine - I never realized that I get 'anxiety' about wasting paper or space on paper. Being able to write and keep a few lines per page has been great.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#386

Post by modzu »

adding a different perspective here: we're still comparing 2 technologies that, to me, are not yet mature enough for the mainstream. i have both but still use my pen and notebook. why? firstly, its not quite a joy. they are slow (janky, glitchy refreshes, latency, etc, depending on your specific device..) for example changing a page is still jarring. in some lighting the screens dont look good (grey, low contrast). and sometimes i reach for the boox, and woops, dead battery. what i thought i would benefit from the most was having a "single notepad to rule them all" (i have multiple notebooks for various purposes and thought it would be cool to just have one device, with the multiple notebooks inside, and searchable!) well, in some ways its more convenient, but in others its clearly lacking polish. its a pain to move a page from one book to another for instance, or to open up the section i want, so i end up with notes mixed up sometimes anyway. i cant be as precise as with a real pen, so a single page in my real book is about 2 on the tablet. etc. anyway, there werent many dissenting voices here so i thought id share a dose of reality for anyone with an itch. im very excited to see what comes in the next generation of both, maybe then ill finally be able to recommend them

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#387

Post by dredmorbius »

squarefoot wrote: post #86

Ah, e-readers. I'm looking for a good one since forever, but they are either too small, too slow or too costly. Hopefully technology developments will bring soon a good 10" before my eyes will need a 15" one:) Reading old books and magazines is also a problem: they're often 100% graphics with no OCRed text, therefore they're really slow, also zooming a page with diagrams on a technical book can be painful on low end…

I splurged on the 13.3" Onyx BOOX Max Lumi for largely similar reasoning: I do a lot of reads of older materials with poor-quality scans, and wanted to be able to read as many of those at full-screen rather than zoomed resolution. I also had concerns with the size of the device.

I'm happy with my purchase, though with experience, I'm happy to suggest trade-offs.

Onyx's product line is based around 7.8", 10.3", and 13.3" e-ink screens. Those are what their vendor offers, so it's what Onyx bases its builds around.

My previous experience was with a 9" emissive (OLED) Android tablet, which saw principle use as an e-book reader (the only application to which it's well-suited), with portrait-mode presentation of books and articles working fairly well. It was hard to read in bright light, with overhead lighting (screen glare), or, of course, outdoors.

The jump to 13.3" e-ink at 220 ppi makes even low-quality scans of small-print materials readable at full size (without zooming). There are a few specific cases that really impressed this on me. Many books can be read landscape mode, 2-up, which is also good.

The device is large, about the size of an A4 or Letter-sized paper tablet. This is just about at the maximum size for comfortable in-hand viewing, and you might prefer a smaller device. It packs easily into my courier pouch.

If you don't wanto to spend the $800 (over $900 when you include stylus and cover), you can shave a a few hundred on a smaller device with some compromises in reading convenience. There's an in-page navigation that will scroll either in "reverse-N" or "Z" mode, for articles or comics, respectively, dividing the page into four regions (a 2x zoom). This makes virtually any material readable, at a cost of not being able to see the full page in a single glance. Even with a 10" or 8" device, you'd likely only have to engage this for a portion of your reading. Most books are readable at 100%, and even many articles. You can also trim margins to increase the size of the actual text on the page.

Battery life is quit good (I get a couple of days per charge, but use the device for much of the day, what I'm spared is any battery anxiety), performance is quite good, the display is delicious.

The notetaking feature wasn't something that attracted me to the device but it has turned out to be surprisingly useful and appealing.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#388

Post by tomc1985 »

CosmicShadow wrote: post #260

I'm always super intrigued by the reMarkable 2, but I think it's because it paints an image of the type of person I think it'd be cool to be, someone who can just write down notes and draw stuff with a really cool, slim device. Someone who carries around moleskines and uses them, instead of just buying so many of them in different shapes and leaving them in a drawer packed to the brim with notebooks. The problem keep…

I keep mine at my desk and use it for relatively germaine note-taking and ideation...

Why you gotta be a hipster about it?

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#390

Post by jmspring »

CosmicShadow wrote: post #260

I'm always super intrigued by the reMarkable 2, but I think it's because it paints an image of the type of person I think it'd be cool to be, someone who can just write down notes and draw stuff with a really cool, slim device. Someone who carries around moleskines and uses them, instead of just buying so many of them in different shapes and leaving them in a drawer packed to the brim with notebooks. The problem keep…

I'm in no way cool or carry moleskins, but for some dumb reason I thought doing a second Masters in an area unrelated to anything I do - my first is in computer engineering, this new one is GeoEngineering - would be a good idea. I'm someone that needs to write thoughts and notes on paper and then construct a doc around such. I have a Remarkable2 and it was great for note taking, it was also great for hand writing out some advanced math courses / problems I had to revisit.

In some classes where we used Excel, I would do a mix of an iPad Pro (with pencil) and on the computer excel.

I like the simplicity of the Remarkable2, but it doesn't handle all my needs, but it does many.

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