INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The sequel to the original, announced today, looks to make a good thing even better.Designed for the creation and consumption of
monochromatic content like long documents, e-books, notes and sketches, the reMarkable set itself apart as a more minimalist alternative (or
complement) to the likes of the iPad or Surface
The device was crowdfunded and has sold more than 100,000 units; meanwhile, the company has grown and attracted a $15 million A round
One sees in retrospect that the money helped launch this successor.The most obvious change is to the design
notebook: Hold it with your left hand and write with your right
best thing about the original reMarkable, however, was how good it felt to write and draw on, and the company has spent the last few years
improving that wherever they can
For one thing, the already very small delay of about 40 ms between touching the screen with the stylus and a line appearing has been nearly
The lag on a real pen and paper is zero, of course, and while the reMarkable was good, there was still a very slight lag, especially when
making large gestures or lines
As the company explained to me:The hardware to further push the latency down further did not exist, so we decided to invent the technology
We redesigned both the hardware and software architecture that controls the display through a completely new display controller that changes
how the display itself is electrically controlled, down to the voltages and electrical currents applied in complex waveforms to each
individual pixel, millions at a time
The result is a 20ms latency, smoother ink flow with less jitter, and a completely uncontested digital writing experience perfected.I intend
to investigate this myself once I get my hands on one of the new devices
The company worked with E Ink, the main manufacturer and investor in e-paper type displays, to accomplish the new display, which has the
well-executed, aspirational promo video:The software running on the reMarkable has received several major updates since the product made its
debut, adding things like handwriting recognition, a new interface, better performance and so on
my specific request of adding Pocket integration, deciding instead to roll their own with a Chrome plugin that sends a reformatted web page
Unfortunately I use Firefox, but I can make an exception for this.The company is claiming a 3x boost to battery life, using the same 3,000
mAh battery, based on performance improvements throughout and a more efficient (but more powerful) dual-core ARM processor
That means two weeks of use and 90 days of standby
You could always erase by selecting that tool, of course, but now one of the tips of the stylus will activate it automatically, a feature
borrowed from Wacom and accomplished in collaboration with them
The reMarkable, for all its merits, was not cheap at $700
The reMarkable 2 will sell for $399 if you pre-order, and comes with a Marker and a nice folio case
For anyone who was on the fence about the first one, the sequel may prove irresistible.
