reMarkable Paper Pro review
The most expensive way to take handwritten notes, and the narrowest.
An 11.8 inch colour e-paper tablet built for writing and reading and deliberately nothing else, sold here with the Marker Plus pen and a leather folio.
Check price on AmazonSpecifications
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Display | 11.8 inch colour e-paper with adjustable reading light |
| Pen | Marker Plus, with built-in eraser and shortcut button, no charging |
| In the box | Tablet, Marker Plus, 6 spare marker tips, leather Book Folio, USB-C cable |
| File handling | Folders and tags, write directly on PDFs, handwriting to typed text |
| Reading light | Adjustable, so it works in a dark room |
| Approx. price | Around $699 for this bundle |
Specifications above come from reMarkable's own product listing. Treat pricing as approximate, since Amazon pricing moves.
What it does well
- The writing feel is the reason this product exists, and it is the one thing reMarkable has never been beaten on. The textured surface plus the Marker Plus gives friction that pen-on-glass tablets do not.
- It has no app store, no browser and no notifications. For a student who reaches for a tablet and loses forty minutes, that constraint is the feature.
- The Marker Plus never needs charging and has an eraser on the far end, so there is no mode switching and no dead stylus at the worst moment.
- Colour on e-paper is genuinely useful for annotation, letting you mark up a PDF in a colour that is not the body text.
- A reading light is included, which the earlier reMarkable models did not have and which matters if you read in bed.
Where it falls short
- Six hundred and ninety nine dollars for a device that writes and reads. That is the whole review in one sentence, and no amount of build quality changes it.
- reMarkable sells a Connect subscription. Basic use works without it, but cloud sync and some integrations sit behind it, so budget for a recurring cost or check the current terms before you buy rather than after.
- Colour e-paper is muted. It is not a screen for anything where colour fidelity matters, and the refresh is slow enough that scrolling a long PDF is not pleasant.
- It is a closed system. You cannot install the note app you already use, and getting work out means exporting rather than opening a shared file.
- Handwriting to text conversion is good, not perfect, and it degrades with messy writing. If your notes are already hard to read, this will not fix them.
What owners report
Published owner reviews are unusually consistent on this device, and they split cleanly in two directions. People who bought it specifically to write report that the writing feel lives up to the marketing and that they use it daily for years. People who bought it hoping it would replace a tablet report frustration within weeks, almost always about the same things: the closed software, the slow refresh when reading anything with images, and the subscription.
The other recurring theme is that the constraint works. Owners repeatedly describe picking it up instead of a laptop precisely because there is nothing else on it, which is the same argument our digital detox for studying piece makes about distraction. Whether that is worth $699 rather than the price of a paper notebook is the question the product never quite answers.
Complaints about durability show up less often than you would expect for a thin device, but folio-free drops are reported as fatal. This bundle includes the folio, which is part of why it costs what it does.
Who it suits
- Students whose notes are drawn as much as written: diagrams, equations, marked-up problem sets.
- Anyone who has already tried studying on a tablet and lost the argument with themselves about notifications.
- People who annotate long PDFs and want the marked copy to look like a marked paper copy.
Who should skip it
- Anyone on a student budget. The Kindle Scribe writes nearly as well for $200 less and reads far more.
- Anyone who needs one device for everything, where the iPad 11-inch is the honest answer.
- People who type their notes. Our paper notes versus digital notes comparison covers why that is often the better call, and if it is yours, buy a decent keyboard instead.
Alternatives worth considering
Two hundred dollars less, an 11 inch writing surface that is close enough that most people cannot pick a winner blind, and it doubles as a full Kindle with fifteen million books behind it. You give up colour and you accept Amazon's ecosystem.
Check price on AmazonIf colour annotation is the specific thing you want, this gets you colour e-ink at roughly the same money while keeping the Kindle bookstore. Choose it over the reMarkable when reading matters as much as writing.
Check price on AmazonRoughly half the price and it runs your lecture recordings, your reading apps, your video calls and your notes. The writing feel is worse and the distraction risk is real, but for most students the versatility wins.
Check price on AmazonCommon questions
Is the reMarkable Paper Pro worth it for students?
For most students, no. The writing experience is excellent, but $699 buys a device that writes and reads, and a Kindle Scribe at $500 or an iPad at $399 covers more of a degree. It becomes worth it when handwriting is genuinely how you learn and you have already proven a tablet does not work for you.
reMarkable Paper Pro vs Kindle Scribe: which should I buy?
The Scribe for almost everyone. It writes nearly as well, costs $200 less and gives you the Kindle store, which matters when set texts are available as ebooks. The reMarkable wins on writing feel, on colour, and on being a device with no shop attached. Our paper versus digital notes comparison is the better place to start if you have not yet decided that you want a writing tablet at all.
Does the reMarkable Paper Pro need a subscription?
Basic writing works without one. reMarkable sells a Connect subscription that covers cloud sync and some integrations, and the terms have changed more than once, so check what is included at the moment you buy rather than relying on a review. Treat it as a possible recurring cost when you compare prices.
Can it replace a laptop for university work?
No. There is no word processor, no browser you would want to use and no way to submit an assignment from it. It replaces a notebook, not a computer.
Is the colour screen actually useful?
For annotation, yes. Being able to mark a PDF in a colour that is not the body text makes a marked page readable at a glance. For anything where colour accuracy matters, no, because colour e-paper is muted by design.
Keep reading
- Paper notes vs digital notes
- Note taking methods for college
- Kindle Scribe review
- Apple iPad 11-inch review
- Study essentials roundup
This review draws on published specifications, manufacturer figures and the consensus of verified owner reviews. We have not tested this product ourselves, and we say so rather than implying otherwise. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.