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

I love my Remarkable 2 but I will say their customer service experience was pathetic.

When I received my Remarkable 2 I had an issue with the WiFi card as it would connect and then after syncing once it would disconnect and required a restart to get it working again. So I emailed support to discuss a replacement. The support had me adjust MY router to specific channels so that the WiFi card could work (the only device I've had to do this for, and I have my channels tuned to not interfere with the neighbors). The problem persisted for the first few months I had the device and after I made the adjustments. I even offered to use my software engineering skills to help diagnose this issue on the device.

Worse still, the customer support agent stopped responding to my emails. I don't know if there was a software update that fixed this issue, but the way the customer support black balled me and gave up, I will probably not buy another device from them again, especially if there are similar devices on the market.

Why? I tried to support this company by preordering and go through the proper channels and it lead me to a place where a customer support agent decided my questions and time were better shoved into the abyss rather than address my concerns. That doesn't happen from a customer support agent actions, but rather how management and C-suite trains customer support agents.

I've actually been saving the emails from companies that do this to me. Anyone know somewhere I can report and share my poor experiences with companies (ex BBB)?

Try Dropsync [1], you can sync particular folders to your Drobpox. The sync is bidirectional. There is a similar app for Google Drive as well.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.dr...

The problem has been fixed by a software update or some change I did not perform. If a company wants me to use a chat service or forum to solve my problem, they should direct me there and/or maintain that service. I contacted them directly to their support service, which should be trained to deal with questions, not push them into the abyss. While I appreciate your feedback I think it's a band-aid to the problem.

There's nothing wrong with saying:

"We have found that your problem is common and are working on a solution. We will reach out in a few weeks once this has been resolved."

Then the company can gather like problems and triage for later resolution.

I mean really sometimes it seems like companies act like support is a mystery and they have the first buggy product ever on the market.

This is great, thank you.

WRT 20GB - I'd just assumed it had a microSD slot. Your comment led me down a spiral, to find a guy who pulled the v1 device apart and soldered in socket for one. That's extra frustrating then that the electronics are already there, but the socket + hole is not. [1]

WRT pen - yes, I splashed out for the 'extra good' pen for the Samsung, and was glad I did. The bundled pen was serviceable, but things like the ersatz eraser, and thicker / heftier feel, made it worth while. When ogling the remarkable2 shop page I've kind of assumed I'd get the better pen at the same time, so it's good to have further confirmation on that gut feel.

Sync - sounds like that SyncThing project I found earlier, if it's still viable, might be a better option for us Linux users. If the data is coming across as SVG's or similar then I guess any native apps (Krita, etc) should work, but how good the interoperability on that actually is ... is not well blogged about. (A doubly niche market, I fear.)

[1] http://www.davisr.me/projects/remarkable-microsd/

> But I do feel the computing part could be much more utilized to make taking notes and reading text better. I am thinking of Hypertext, drawing tools like sketchpad, simple programming tools etc.

The problem is that even those "simple" things are a massive amount of work to get right (where "right" means bug-free, performant, well-documented (or intuitive - pick at least one), flexible, and with an ergonomic interface). Additionally, they're significantly more work than the even simpler restricted feature-set that the reMarkable currently offers.

I believe that the reMarkable developers are shooting for "quality over quantity" - polishing a small feature-set to a blinding shine, rather than trying to implement a larger feature-set poorly - that is, an intentional trade-off. I'm happy with that trade-off, but I know that others might not be - in which case, you'll probably get the Android device that other people in the thread are discussing.

Also, the reMarkable is open - you can add all these things yourself, if you're sufficiently motivated.

> something that I can pretty much get with a notebook

The reMarkable's features, as limited as they are, are still miles beyond what a notebook gives you. You have backup, synchronization, document export (PDF, raster, SVG), undo/redo, multiple documents, digital storage, cut/copy/paste, erasing (pen can't be erased, pencil usually leaves marks and has other problems), multiple brushes, page reordering, multiple page templates (lined, grid, music, blank canvas, and more), layers, really good handwriting recognition, and more.

Yes, it's light-years behind what we could have - but we're stuck in the place we're at because of a number of computing decisions that we made in the past (and continue to make now) that hamper creativity and flexibility, and overcoming those choices requires a lot of resources and the ability to ignore/bypass/counteract a massive amount of market inertia. The reMarkable team simply doesn't have those resources, so they have to make a trade-off - and the trade-off they made was quality over quantity (of features).