As someone trying to move away from dead tree paper and towards digital (but hasn't quite found a cozy spot with those e-readers like kindle). What is so good about ReMarkable? I would never use it for writing only reading white and black text with no images
IMHO the best thing about the ReMarkable is that it's an "open" device rather than a locked-down uber proprietary system like Kindle. They give you the root password to the device and you can use or write third-party tools if you don't want to pay for their cloud subscription. They have a browser extension that makes it super easy to send articles/web pages to the Remarkable for later reading, and it has built-in integration with Google Drive (which doesn't require the subscription!) so it's pretty easy to get content off and on to the device. I also use rcu[1].
I love using my Remarkable as an e-reader. I've never been one to "write in the margins" because I like to keep my books clean, but this has been a surprising great feature of the Remarkable to me. I can write all over the PDF or epub and it saves as a copy (instead of overwriting the original).
If you're only going to read on it, and only white and black text, I'd recommend a Remarkable 2 instead as it's much cheaper.
An important caveat: I refuse to buy DRMed media, so all my e-books work on any device. They are almost entirely epubs or PDFs. If you buy stuff from the Kindle store then you won't be able to read them on the ReMarkable unless you strip the DRM.
For what it's worth, Kobo is similarly open with tons of hacks and add-ons for their devices. They do have a store but you can just not use it and even sync books from your own server running Calibre-Web if you want.
Before I got my rM2, I carried two paper notebooks with me everywhere - one for work and one for everything else. I also carried a nice fountain pen in a sleeve for note-taking.
After getting the rM2, I carried it. All of my notes are there, they're sharable from "the cloud", and I screen-share with it on Zoom calls for work when there's a need to diagram.
> What is so good about ReMarkable?
All of their products are, first and foremost, an "electronic paper notebook". They're designed to replace physical pen/pencil-and-paper. If that's what you want to use it for, you'll be happy with it.
> I would never use it for writing only reading white and black text with no images
I'd steer you toward an rM2 then, unless you absolutely need the backlight. They seem to be going for about $300 in like-new condition on the used market, so now is a good time to buy.
As for using it as an eReader, they work well in some cases and adequately in others.
PDF support is excellent - >90% of my eBook collection is uploaded to my reMarkable account in PDF format. It looks exactly the same on the device as it does printed, navigation works, and documents are easy to "mark up" using the pen.
EPUB support is... well, adequate. I think it's running a script in the backend the first time you open an EPUB file that converts it to PDF. Changing the font size does the same. For the rM2, this process could take a second or so for most documents and up to about 15 seconds for 500-ish page books. I've not empirically tested this, but the RPP seems to be much faster in this regard.
Note that DRM is not supported. That means you'll have to do the import/strip/export dance with Calibre if you have a collection of Kindle books to transfer.
There are also no integrated "stores", so you'll have to acquire your files elsewhere. I use Kobo for a lot of things. If Kobo doesn't have it - or if they don't have it DRM-free - I try to buy directly from the author. Failing that, I'll buy it on Kobo or Amazon then go download a PDF from libgen or similar.
The main advantage is just focus. ReMarkable is an eInk tablet that's only really good at writing and passable at reading so you're not going to wander off to the web or something. This model has some uniqueness from the kind of color eInk display it has but if you don't care about that you're probably better off with a Kobo Elispa, some model of Boox or the Kindle Scribe.
But for READING I would not go for a ReMarkable. They can't do Adobe DRM'd ePubs, they can't do library books and ePub support in general seems really subpar. Makes way more sense to get an Elispa or Boox model.
My understanding is that it is excellent for handwriting notes, which feels like writing on paper (and not like on glass). I read books on my Kindle because RM is too expensive for me and I don't like the idea of having to pay their subscription fees.
