I considered all the options back in 2021 and went with the iPad Mini.

My reasons: much better software for sketching, not bound to a single ereader app, multiple ways to send stuff around, perfect size.

Many years later, I would still choose the same. I use it to annotate webpages, sketch, read books and read queued articles in instapaper. It's distraction-free but still connected. I can Airdrop drawings or load my handwritten notes on the Macbook app. Tap to define is so good I've absent-mindedly tried it on a paper book.

The LED screen is great for some things and bad for others. You have to turn it on and unlock it. You can't SSH into it or sync your drawings as simple files. Otherwise, it's really good.

The Boox is a little cheaper, I have one. It's mostly just an Eink Android tablet. I absolutely love it.

It will run most Android apps (modulo Eink screen support). The built-in note taking app is terrific.

Ratta's Supernote is an option. The second hand market isn't as good, though, for buyers.

The PineNote is only slightly cheaper, I suspect that Remarkable isn't making a lot of profit on their product.

The Boox Go 10 is ~$400 and has a note-taking app built in. While it runs Android, the note taking experience is poor with apps other than the built-in one.

Honestly I found the base iPad excellent for this. The writing experience isn't a lot like paper, but is still quite good. You can get a little closer by applying a matte screen guard.

Paper?

The reMarkable isn't an e-reader. It can display books, but that's not its primary purpose. If you want an e-reader, there are many significantly cheaper options.

Granted I've only used a remarkable as an e-reader, but i read a lot of paper books.

I don't understand why this is such a necessary feature. Most people don't read paper books with a dictionary handy.

The rM2 basically isn't an e-reader. It's a PDF viewer with a focus on annotation, and it's a notebook. Any ability to read ebooks is just circumstantial.

There is no lookup functionality at all that I could find. You cannot install your own dictionary on the stock firmware.

I wound up down the https://toltec-dev.org/ rabbit hole which was fun and gets me additional features but has its own issues (suspend/resume is dodgy sometimes now)

Again to be fair the rM2 is not sold as an _e-reader_ per se. But regardless I do find the e-reading experience weak.

You can install koreader pretty easily. It's way better than their built in reader.

The Palma 2 doesn't have writing support does it?

I have been looking at the Boox Go 7... I have a Boox Note Air and generally like it a lot after the major software upgrade it got when Air 2 was released and also particularly running Android has been quite handy (for syncing journal articles with Zotero). But I am also very curious about Supernote Nomad and may go that way if I decide backlight doesn't matter. I do like backlight for reading in be without bothering my wife...

And so I keep spinning in indecision...

Heh I saw that mentioned on a review of this unit, but running Android makes it a nonstarter. The price point is much more reasonable though.

My experience has been that it's very easy to flip through a pile of papers, and I tend to "know" where the info is.

The beauty of physical interfaces like for paper is that you really can just flip through a stack while talking to someone and find what you need.

The big thing that I think works well in paper world is simply having things organized chronologically. I often remember around when I collected a piece of info.

The RM2 also fails at organizing: no text search in PDFs and not in notes, if you don't convert every handwritten note into text on a new page; only tags, which means if you don't add tags everywhere, you can't find anything by searching; etc. It's extremely expensive for the functionality it offers.

You've probably heard of Org mode. Go look it up - md and a todo app is exactly poor man's Org mode.

Good point, and it may. The site oddly claims that "taxes and duties included". But that would be an ill-advised move for them for a couple of reasons.

-No Canadian expects that. Our standard is taxes calculated in the final calculation.

-Tax rates differ by province. In Alberta it's 5%, while in Ontario it's 13%, for instance. Which is a big reason taxes are calculated in the final calculation.

So maybe they think they're simplifying prices, but it's not an advised way to do it it. And the "duties paid" for an electronics vendor is a super weird claim in 2025.

Canada never includes taxes either so that's an extra 10% to 15% for most provinces.

Hi, hyperpaper creator here– sorry it didn't work for you :(

Just curious if there were any problems specifically with the planner, or if it was just the fact that the rM really didn't work for you at all? Always looking to improve it and fill in any gaps in the product.

Also when did you try it? Because I will admit the first version was definitely clunky

Huh. Glad I didn't lose real $. Did you customize your hyperpaper template? I can't quite picture "how [you] wanted to take notes" not being supported, given all the flexibility. shrug

Out of the box I was already disappointed. All their marketing shots showed a knit cover, which I know is a small aesthetic thing, but gave it a certain vibe. I looked all over the site before ordering to try and find confirmation or look at where to order it. I didn’t find it, so assumed it came with it and rolled the dice. It did not. They shipped some puffer jacket style sleeve it could be stored in instead. This was disappointing, as the tactile experience of using it went from something I thought would be the cozy image they were selling, to just another hard plastic tablet. It felt like bait and switch. I reached out to support, and talked to them again I some other forum. They said they updated the site to make it clear, but when I looked it was buried deep in an FAQ and their sales page still showed it in almost all the images (it’s still in a significant number of their marketing images, even though they said they couldn’t make it work).

But I felt bad sending it back over that, especially for a new company, so I figured I’d give it a fair shot.

I spent some time trying to use the default launcher and figure out its quirks. Eventually I got annoyed with it and installed a more traditional launcher. At this point it just turned into a generic Android tablet with a worse screen. Since I’m in the Apple ecosystem, it was a bit of an island, and generic tablets have never fit well into my workflow, I gave up on the iPad after those sat around too.

I did like the pen, mostly because it didn’t require any batteries or charging. The Apple Pencil needing to be changed makes it a non-starter for me, I find that experience to be awful. So props to Daylight for going the battery free route, like a normal pencil or pen would be.

The pen alone wasn’t enough for me. I don’t write that many hand written notes. And while I kind of liked that aspect, since it didn’t integrate with my other stuff, it wasn’t something I could really invest in, and wasn’t good enough to find a bunch of new cross platform tools to make it fit.

The novelty of the black and white screen wore off quickly. Outside of note taking, a lot of app and websites really lean on color to provide meaningful information that was all lost. The amber backlight I found hard to see, so adjusted it more white. There were some random buttons on the side of the tablet that didn’t seem to do anything. Maybe if I spent more time outdoors my perspective on the screen may have shifted, but I don’t. Overall it was very “meh”, for me.

If you want a general purpose tablet, an iPad Air is cheaper and better in almost every way. If you want it black and white, the iPad has a color filter for that. If you want a screen that works in bright sunlight and a pen that doesn’t need a battery, those are the two areas where the Daylight can one-up the iPad, but that person may be more of a Remarkable customer.

I have one, and I used the ipad alternative that a friend has, and the ipad is just better. I haven't used the RM2 in over a year, since the functionality is just lacking compared to even a paper notebook - which is a ridiculous comparison.