ReMarkable 2: Initial Review

I first bought the reMarkable 2 in March 2021 after I had been working from home for a year and needed a better way to take notes. I have always preferred taking handwritten notes during meetings because typing away on a laptop can give the impression you’re not listening and even when working remotely, keyboard tapping can be really annoying on conference calls, not to mention it being difficult to type notes while presenting and sharing your screen!

AI generated image of a female remote worker wearing a headset and typing at a computer with 2 screens

Declaration of interest: I am not associated with reMarkable in any way and am not being paid, nor offered any form or inducement to write this review. reMarkable do periodically send referral codes to existing customers, which I may share on this site when they are made available to me, but they have no influence nor bear any relation whatsoever to my reviews.

Jump to the parts of this reMarkable 2: initial review that interest you:

My ReMarkable Journey
Handwriting Recognition
ReMarkable Companion Desktop & Mobile App
Marker Plus
Folio Case
Backlight (or lack thereof)
Select, Copy, Paste & Move
ReMarkable 2 Initial Review: Conclusion

My ReMarkable Journey

Like many reMarkable converts, I started with a reusable Rocketbook but soon found I was filling the notebooks up too quickly and not getting time to scan and wipe them during weeks of back-to-back meetings. It got to the point where I found myself cramming notes on small post-it notes: not tidy, efficient or environmentally friendly!

Online ads for the reMarkable 2 therefore piqued my interest. The only factors causing me to hesitate were the price (at that time £400) and the lack of sync with cloud applications like Google Drive and OneNote, which I found useful with my Rocketbook [edit: these have since been added]. The promise of a 30-day money-back guarantee however finally pushed me over the edge. I even forked out £99 for the Marker Plus stylus, knowing I’d be cursing with frustration every time I instinctively turned the stylus upside down to rub something out if I didn’t.

By the end of week one, I’d decided I wouldn’t be making use of the money-back guarantee. I wasn’t that bothered about the feel of writing on paper — for me it was a purely practical, not an emotional purchase — but I had to admit I did like the way my handwriting just flowed onto the page and inspired me to use my “best writing” like that feeling of starting a new exercise book in school, but every day! Maybe that was just me…

Example of handwritten notes on reMarkable 2

Handwriting recognition

Even by my 5th page of slightly fatigued notes, which were in far from my “best writing”, I was delighted to discover that the handwriting recognition was still fairly accurate and far superior to the Rocketbook. I could finally write notes, email them to myself and actually use them to send the minutes, without having to correct every other word and remove errant line breaks (to the point at which I found it easier to just type up the notes like I had done for years with a paper notebook!).

Like auto-correct on my mobile phone, the reMarkable 2 does struggle with acronyms and words not in the dictionary, so these have to be fixed manually post-conversion. It also dislikes my fairly unusual version of an ampersand (more like a backwards ‘3’ with a vertical line down the middle) and interprets it as a number ‘4’, but otherwise it was quite satisfactory.

Photograph of the reMarkable 2 with the above text converted into typed text — Handwriting successfully converted to text

ReMarkable Companion Desktop & Mobile App

The reMarkable app for desktop and mobile isn’t sexy, but it is highly functional and you can create folders and move notebooks around slightly more easily than on the device itself, although even that isn't too difficult once you know how.

It is also super useful for importing PDF files, signing them with your actual signature, using the stylus, then being able to download and/or email the signed copy back to the sender. This is great for documents that require a "wet" signature and looks a lot more professional than just typing your name. It may not be suitable for all legal documents but seems perfectly fine for most signed agreements that can be sent electronically.

Marker Plus Stylus

I was glad I’d invested in the Marker Plus, as it does make it really easy to rub out, but I also found it wasn’t as essential as I’d first feared because there is an ‘erase’ option on the side-bar to put the stylus in ‘eraser mode’.

£99 could be considered a lot to pay for the added convenience but I think the experience would be significantly diminished without the eraser exactly where you’d intuitively expect it to be. Younger generations may not have grown up with erasers on the ends of their pencils (or even their Frixion pens!) but for me it was a must-have! The standard Marker is significantly cheaper but, when you consider the added convenience over the lifetime of the device, it doesn't seem so bad.

Folio Case

ReMarkable 2 in unofficial folio with Marker Plus stylus — ReMarkable 2 in unofficial folio

If you think the Marker Plus is overpriced, the official folios definitely are. Unlike the Marker Plus, however, they are completely unnecessary and I found a perfectly good one specifically for the reMarkable 2 on Amazon for under £25 [March 2021].

Edit 2024: do ensure that any folio you do buy overlaps all the edges of the device, as I managed to drop mine button-side down and had to claim a replacement on my gadget insurance (another must-have for such an expensive item!) because the power button became embedded in the top of the device and could not be extracted. This appears to be a common flaw, as I have since discovered a Reddit thread dedicated to the topic and how to resolve it. I now believe the issue may have been reparable, but was wary of invalidating the warranty by attempting to fix it myself and had insurance, so chose to take that route, but a slightly larger folio would likely have mitigated the risk of it happening in the first place. According to some of the opinions I have read online, the official folio doesn't offer much protection either. I have since bought one that overlaps the device on all sides and doesn't interfere with pressing the power button or connecting a charger.

Back-light (or lack thereof!)

I didn’t think the lack of back-light would bother me, as I’d previously used old style Kindles (in the days before they were back-lit) with no issues and usually work in a well-lit home office, but I did find it annoying when I sat on the sofa to do some genealogy research one evening and grabbed my reMarkable 2 to refer to some notes I’d made earlier, only to find I couldn’t see them and had to get up and turn the main light on. That felt like a step backwards.

Although it would add complexity and potentially a bit of weight to the hardware and it might not be so nice to use a back-lit screen in natural light conditions, it would be nice to have the option. I often use my personal laptop with just a couple of up-lighters or bedside lamp on in the evening and find this isn’t sufficient to see my handwritten notes, which is rather annoying. A workaround would be to use the phone or desktop app but that doesn’t solve the problem if you want to be able to edit them as well.

Select, copy, paste and move

The ability to select, copy, paste and move blocks of text around proved to be an added bonus I hadn’t really considered but found invaluable, particularly to add items to a list, or insert an extra paragraph when taking notes. I am yet to fully master the skill of circling the exact text I want without missing the tail of a 'y' or 'g' and placing it precisely where I want it, but perhaps this requires practice or is a relatively new feature that will take time to reach full maturity.