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
#2Why the ReMarkable doesn't have a backlight I do not understand.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#3Why the ReMarkable doesn't have a backlight I do not understand.
Pure speculation, but could be a combination of keeping the thickness down (it's only 4.7mm thick), and the purism of recreating the pen-on-paper feel.
That being said I wouldn't be bothered at all about a thickness increase, or breaking out of the pen-on-paper "immersion"... Perhaps there's a more technical reason.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#4Why the ReMarkable doesn't have a backlight I do not understand.
The whole purpose of E-Ink is to use "passive" displays which are more comfortable to the eye. Adding a backlight would remove that.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#5Why the ReMarkable doesn't have a backlight I do not understand.
I'm going to guess it is to keep it slim. And while I normally think this fad to make everything thin is stupid, in this one case I feel it makes sense. You want the thing you're writing on to protrude from the table as little as possible.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#6I wonder which will happen faster:
A) classic displays (LCD/OLED/Mini-LED/Micro-LEDs) reaching a point where the quality and power consumption are so low as to be indistinguishable from paper
B) Color e-ink displays get good enough for interactive use, movie watching, etc.
Maybe someone who's an expert in display tech can chime in? My money's on A) since so much is invested in it.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#7Why the ReMarkable doesn't have a backlight I do not understand.
The whole purpose of E-Ink is to use "passive" displays which are more comfortable to the eye. Adding a backlight would remove that.
Most e ink doesn't use a true backlight, but an array of lights along the inside of the bezel that light up the screen reflectively. It's still very good for battery life. Both the kindle Paperwhite and the onyx tablets have this feature. Onyx even let's you tune the warmth of the light.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#8Why the ReMarkable doesn't have a backlight I do not understand.
AFAIK adding backlight means that the distance between the display and the pen tip needs to increase, so you end up with a small parallax effect and writing doesn't feel as natural anymore.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#9> Later this month I'll take a look at Supernote which already has a enthusiastic community and promises to have a rich API for 3rd parties to explore and expand.
I tried the Remarkable 2 for a month but ended up returning it and ordering the Supernote A5X instead – I couldn't be happier! Its main advantages (IMO):
- The Supernote acts as a regular USB mass storage device, so syncing files (w/o resorting to the cloud) is not as hard as with the RM2 (which serves a really buggy web interface over USB, pretending to be an ethernet device). Sure, the RM2 gives you SSH access but that doesn't help much because it's using a shitty proprietary file system, so you can't just scp your documents but need to convert them first.
- The Supernote comes with much better PDF reading and annotation capabilities. (The RM2 has pretty much none.)
- The Supernote's soft non-glass surface is more comfortable for long writing sessions – writing on it feels like writing with a gel pen. Plus you'll never need to replace your pen tips as they're made from ceramic.
- The Supernote A5X is running Android instead of a barebones Linux system, meaning that it comes with more features out of the box and it'll be much easier to extend it in the future when Ratta opens up their platform. (Sure, you can "hack" your RM2 but the chances that the next official update will then completely brick your device are rather high – /r/RemarkableTablet/ is full of these stories.)
- The company behind the Supernote actually values the community's input, see https://www.reddit.com/r/Supernote
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#10Why the ReMarkable doesn't have a backlight I do not understand.
I'm going to guess it is to keep it slim. And while I normally think this fad to make everything thin is stupid, in this one case I feel it makes sense. You want the thing you're writing on to protrude from the table as little as possible.
Thin (and especially light) tablets are not stupid.
I have the fact that especially "pro" tablets are becoming heavier. They're not comfortable to hold.
In my opinion the "perfect" tablet should not weigh more than 250-300 grams, we just don't have the tech for a flagship tablet that can weigh that much, yet.