While e-paper has proven great for reading books and magazines, they haven’t quite caught on for other functions due to their very low refresh rates. Simply put, they’re downright frustrating to use for everything else. That may change soon if the reMarkable gets its way.
An e-reader, it comes with a paper-like screen that allows you to read books and magazines for long periods without the eyestrain you’ll normally get when using LED-backlit display panels. Unlike traditional e-readers, though, it uses a display called Canvas, which boasts a latency of just 55ms. That makes it fast enough to be used like a conventional LCD, allowing the screen to refresh without the noticeable delay you’ll find in current e-readers.
The reMarkable, however, isn’t a full-featured tablet, although we wouldn’t be surprised to see it evolve into something like that down the line. Instead, this 10.3-inch device is being positioned as digital paper. That means, you can use it to read books and magazines like your current e-reader, as well as draw, sketch, and jot down notes like you do with a notebook using the included stylus. Oh yeah, it boasts 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity, too, so you can make detailed, elaborate sketches with this thing.
Inside, it gets 8GB of onboard storage, which should be good enough to hold up to 100,000 pages, although the integrated Wi-Fi can automatically sync everything to the cloud to make sure you have a copy stored somewhere safe. It runs a custom Linux flavor called Codex, which has been optimized for function on low-latency e-paper.
Slated to ship summer next year, the reMarkable is priced at $529.