ReMarkable 2 Review: I wanted to love it...

Giving the Remarkable 2 a bad review is hard because I wanted so badly to love it, but after using both it and the Kindle Scribe for may weeks, the Kindle Scribe is the winner.
0:00 Intro
0:50 Remarkable Pros
1:36 Remarkable Issues
4:05 Switching to Kindle Scribe
6:00 Kindle Features

[@majestikmoose9]

I picked up both the reMarkable 2 and the Kindle Scribe to compare. I really, really want to like the reMarkable better. The file organization is better, the interface is cleaner, the app integration is good, and the writing experience is excellent. But the Kindle Scribe (after the updates) honestly seems like the more future-proof device and it's the one I'm going to be keeping between the two. I'll take the more clumsy file management in exchange for the added benefit of the front light and overall lower price tag.

[@nickrandy1]

100% agree with the future-proofness

[@sisterparfums]

The rm2 you can’t cut yourself and say ok I’m gone keep only this fur a break but the kindle because of kindle and web and so emails access .. you can definitely ! But I love the shake of rm2 what a piece of beauty !

[@SheriCarthan-MinistryHelp]

Hello. I purchased the Remarkable 2 refurbished and it looked and performed like new. I opted for a third party pen which may have diminished my experience. I tried to love it but I simply couldn’t. The main reason I returned it was because I couldn’t reach anyone for support for an issue I was experiencing with Connect. There was a loop that continuously took me nowhere when trying to reach someone via chat. I feel the cost is too expensive for no support. I too switched to Kindle Scribe and I love it! And we know there’s always someone at Amazon we can speak with! I love the feel of the Scribe. I was bummed out because the rM2 didn’t fit me, but I soon got over it. 😊

[@nickrandy1]

Fully agree with the Amazon comment! I love supporting smaller businesses, but they have to be comparable in support

[@Kori_INJN]

Are you using a special charger on the remarkable 2? If you have 2 devices that went bad the probability is something external to the device is killing the battery

[@nickrandy1]

Nope. Charger from RM

[@Shiroe_Hamada]

@@nickrandy1 as far as I know, RM don’t include charger, just cable. Maybe that’s what Kori was referring to.

[@mrl9337]

Thank you for being honest about the remarkable 2

[@JoeBrigAI]

ReMarkable is now known as ReMarketable. All money seems to be spent in marketing and not R&D.

[@petepaxton5109]

You're all probably gonna think I'm crazy but I bought a Tab s8 a while back and I put a specific paperfeel screen protector on it. I've been using it to take notes for quite some time now and I got used to it and now I really like it. I can turn on either focus mode or do not disturb mode but to be honest I don't always need to be in distraction free mode. The note app I use almost replicates the Remarkable experience perfectly with nearly every feature. But I do like that I can add color or color highlights to my notes on my tab s8. But to be fair I gave the Remarkable a shot. To be honest I just didn't feel like I was using it any differently than my Tab s8. It just seemed like I was carrying another device around but doing the same thing and spending another $350. So I ended up sending it back. I see the appeal for some but it just not needed for my use case.

[@gfranks007]

Thanks so much for taking the time to create this video. Very helpful. I almost bought this too, but I ended buying a BOOX and love it, very versatile another great option beside the Kindle.

[@nickrandy1]

I have never heard of the BOOX, I'll have to look into it!

[@sisterparfums]

@@nickrandy1if you tru the 3 air c you might fall for it be careful 😅

[@GeezerUK7]

I might have chosen the scribe too but for the fact that it means I am locked into getting all my ebooks via kindle, or I lose annotation capability. If you have a PDF you want to write on, you have to shove it through the Amazon grinder first. 😳

[@nickrandy1]

Fair Point! I solely use my scribe as a notebook, and am not much of an E-reader, so for me this has been a non-issue

[@michaeldejean3742]

Woah. That’s a huge deal

[@sisterparfums]

May I ask you if you did not went through all thebatteryissues would you fav the RM2 or still stay on the scribe ? Thanks

[@ThierryC-te3rx]

Exactly the point of this video. He would fav the RM2.

[@sisterparfums]

@@ThierryC-te3rx I’m having the two right now and it’s a very very hard choice … remarkable (not having any battery issue) .. remarkably beatify design like an Airways open notebook .. but no web browsing /Or email access if you want to stay focus only on your work you can’t avoid other tools .. but you can colour your notes and you or the person will have them coloured .. But no light for the night and I’m having an issue with the last update don’t want work . Scribble I hate the shape and the weight of it and hated the homepage that is so annoying when you want focus but love the battery life / the web browsing (no videos ) including my email access (I can send and reply but not pictures) /Superb lighting/ Kindle and audible access (using Bluetooth ) . Both of them allow the transfer very easily of PDF .. but I find the scribe screen pro rata screen pdf better to write on it and the double fonction on double pen so useful when you need to highlight a lot .So annoying on the Rm2 that you have to change pen every time .. double gesture every time .im still hesitating which one to keep because rm2 is So light and beautiful ( I would love a smaller size to kick my bag )

[@ThierryC-te3rx]

@@sisterparfums Yes but that's You. Just pay attention to his choice of words and how He talks about each tablet. You will notice that his favorite would be the RM2.

[@sisterparfums]

@@ThierryC-te3rx personally despite all the missing I still fav the rm2 because of the geek design side .. and I don’t have any issue with the battery only with the update ..I just hope one day they will add web browser to avoid me using an other screen .

[@nickrandy1]

If the RM didnt have battery issues, I'd stick with it for sure. But it does, and pretty consistently it seems like! not just for me but others as well

[@kstringer24]

Your thumbnail makes it look like the remarkable 2 is good and the kindle scribe is bad.

[@nickrandy1]

Yeah I literally can’t draw on the RM so it was my only option

[@justjonoutdoors]

Bummer you go a (2!) lemon(s). I’ve been using mine, which I purchased on the original Kickstart campaign (4+ years ago?), non-stop and quite heavily. It’s been downright bulletproof. It’s only just now getting to the point where it will only charge to ~98%. That’s a whole lot better than my Kindle Paperwhite’s battery has held up!

[@nickrandy1]

Not surprised by this! Sometimes with volume manufacturing, start-ups lose quality

[@SticksAandstonesBozo]

How durable is the scribe ? If I were to take it on dirty work sites every day you think I would get a year or two out of it

[@nickrandy1]

Hard to say. I'd honestly stick to pen and paper on a jobsite

[@TheAbsoluteCool]

I work in the oil fields, remarkable lasts about 2 weeks on a charge, scribe lasted a little over a day for my usage. I couldn’t use the scribe half the time cuz I can’t find a charger in the field. You cannot add pdf files in the scribes notes section it has to be in the books section FYI, very annoying for schematics. I beat the heck out of my remarkable, I drop it all the time in dirt mud and hydraulic oil

[@DigiDriftZone]

@@TheAbsoluteCool really? - I find the battery better on my scribe compared to the reMarkable2, the reMarkable lasts about 2-3 days for me, the scribe lasts a week - unless I put the RM2 in airplane mode I guess, then it's about the same. Both devices feel relatively fragile to me and I know the Scribe is definitely not waterproof or dust proof in the slightest, so sounds like the RM2 is more durable (apart from the power button, don't drop it on that). Having both devices in front of me, the scribe has a thin gap around the housing around the screen that water/dust/dirt can get into, the RM2 is pretty solidly glued together but I don't think that USB-C port is waterproof. Officially the reMarkable team say there is no waterproofing whatsoever.

[@martinkay67]

Great decision. I only tested the original reMarkable and switched to iPad note taking a couple of years ago. When Amazon announced the Kindle Scribe, I was very happy to hear, I can get a 10" device for reading, plus the opportunity of note taking. When the Scribe was released, I was very disappointed and wrote a bad review on Amazon. So bad that Amazon reached out and contacted me to provide information what's to improve. In the meantime I bought an Onyx BOOX Note Air 2 Plus and was very happy with it, although the note taking experience in comparison to the first reMarkable was way better on the scribe. When Amazon made their tons of updates, including the introduction of a fountain pen, writing experience on the Scribe turned up to be the best ever. The only thing I currently miss on the Scribe are tools for sketching. At least drawing a line or some basic shapes like triangle, circle or square. The Kindle Scribe is now so good that I completely switched from Boox Note Air 2 Plus to Kindle Scribe and bought a second (!) Scribe when it was on sale. One remains at my desk, the other in the living room for reading and taking notes when I all of a sudden have an idea.

[@falsedragon33]

I've been searching for days, and I still can't find any real information. My issue, is the vast majority of reviewers don't have any real technical need for these. As an engineer, what one gives me the best experience at drawing electrical schematics? What one is the best for assisting in drawing graphs, or scatter plots? What one had the foresight to include software similar to the TI-84 calculator? Why is there no integration into Chat GPT? If none of them thought of these things, then what device works with developers? Writing my own software is semi-normal, but I'm not seeing any development tools.

[@MStoica]

4:58 “the feel of writing on this tablet not quite as good as the remarkable”… I’m sold: will definitely get the Remarkable now. I think that the writing experience is the main factor for people wanting to get a device like this. Plus, the design of the Amazon one looks like 10+ years old, compared to how the Remarkable looks. Yeah, I’d probably be upset if that happened to me, but you’d have to really be unlucky.

[@DigiDriftZone]

I have both (the Scribe went on sale for £160 with the premium pen so I couldn't resist!), and to be honest, I don't find the write feel all the different. The eraser feels better on the scribe, there's a button for the highlighter which is convenient, the only difference I can notice is if I look at the screen from an unnatural angle (like 30 degrees) and then try to write (it's not comfortable to write like this), I can see a gap that's there for the backlight. But that backlight (front light really) is really fantastic to have, especially as it has a night mode that can invert even your notebooks (so you're writing with white on black), and you can control the temperature of the display. The more I use the scribe, the more it's growing on me, higher resolution display, backlight, faster processor so navigation is snappier, the first party case is nicer and opens vertically making it very natural (and has a safe space for your pen), the recent updates added things like a separate template per page which was a glaring omission before, plus no monthly subscription at 2.7x lower purchase price (on sale). Don't get me wrong, I love my reMarkable2 and will try to figure out how to use both devices effectively, but the more I use the Scribe, the more I gravitate to it which I did not expect, my plan was to use it for mostly reading. If the price was the same, I would pick the RM2 (but would miss the backlight), but considering the price of the RM2 is 2.7x higher, I think it must be the Scribe all the way. I agree about reliability, I've not had any reliability with my 1 year of RM2 ownership and I have colleagues that owned theirs for almost 4 years now, also without issues.

[@davidr1431]

I tried the RM2 and sent it back within the return period. I agree that the customer service is very good. I also liked the product and didn't have the battery problems you encountered twice. For me, the issue was that the scribe felt a much nicer device overall, even though the note-taking functions were not quite on the level of the RM2. As it happens, I have recently bought a Boox Note Air 3 which is so much more flexible than the Scribe. The screen and lighting is not quite as good as the Scribe, but it is still very good and the note-taking and pdf functions are terrific. Coupled with being able to manage emails and read on kindle, it is a device worth looking at as an alternative to the scribe.

[@nickrandy1]

I agree! Overall I think the scribe will last longer and has a better platform to ensure backwards compatibility

[@gggamergirl2191]

I love writing and I’m trying to write my stories to get them published, I’m leaning towards the kindle switch

[@andrewmontague9682]

My worry about the Scribe is transferring notes to another device like a macOS device. It looks particularly poor in that way.

[@aMildCow]

Whats great about the scribe is that all your notebooks/noteswill automatically be backed up to your amazon account meaning that you can view them from any device using the kindle app, also as someone who also uses this for reading, it also stores all highlights and hand written sticky notes on the books as well! It's actually quite seemless!!! So don't worry about the transferring process it's all stored on Amazon's cloud as well as locally to the scribe. There are ways to export as a pdf as well from the scribe itself directly to an email and it will automatically save your email as a preset to send your notebooks too. It's pretty cool for a device that's kinda just branded as a online e-book reader. Added bonuses are the capability to listen to audio books via Bluetooth as well!!

[@DigiDriftZone]

@@aMildCow Yes, except if you have PDF notebooks that you annotate, like say a 5 minute journal PDF. Yes they are thankfully backed up (I factory reset my scribe and after re-activating they synced up), but there is no way to see your annotations on any other device which is a pain in the ass. I hope Amazon address this. You can see your notebooks (read only) which is great, but come on Amazon, we need to see our PDF annotations!

[@EyeLean5280]

It's not for everyone, but I love mine. Don't know why yours died? Plenty of other KZbinrs report having theirs for a long time. I've had mine for three years or so.

[@thomasday5777]

I used Supernote for about a year. Loved the paperlike writing experience but it was kind of a pain in a lot of ways. Switched to the Kindle Scribe about a month ago and love it. I use it for work notes, personal notes and downloaded a daily calendar that is unbelievable! I read a lot of Kindle books as well.

[@sisterparfums]

Please can you tell me where you got your daily calendar I’m trying to font a good one thanks ,)

[@elaith169]

@@sisterparfums I'm interested in this as well! Thanks

[@sisterparfums]

@@elaith169 yes but waiting patiently for the repliea both of my questions here 😬

[@jonboyjon1976]

I am thinking about Supernote. How did you find it, and why do you find Scribe better?

[@galooperlooper4763]

I have been using the reMarkable 2 for 6 months and have found that it often has issues with magnetization. All you need to do is place it next to something with a built-in magnet in the bag. The result is that the point of touching the stylus (marker) is different from the point on the screen, which makes the notebook practically useless. The discrepancy in places reaches up to 1 mm. And from technical support, all I heard was wishes that the problem would solve itself.

[@nickrandy1]

Interesting!! I hadnt heard about this but it doesnt surprise me

[@DigiDriftZone]

This happens on the Scribe too unfortunately, the solution is to tap the impacted area with the tip of the pen, creating maybe 20/30 dots in the area and the problem goes away, it doesn't happen too often and it's not too big of a deal for either device. It seems to effect all eInk notebook devices except the supernote I think which has some shielding and better position of the case magnets.

[@sillywezez]

Better off with either Samsung or Lenovo, Lenovo M model works great for me and costs less than both the deMarkable and Kindle scribe

[@DrMojojo]

Returned my remarkable 2 and kept my scribe. Need the scribe display, with the remarkable interface.

[@nickrandy1]

Would be the best of both worlds!

[@sisterparfums]

Saaaame here 🤧 I hate the fact that I’m not directly on my note page or set my lockscreen on my to do agenda like with the noox one

[@JoeBrigAI]

Sounds like you may want the next gen Supernote. The smaller version is out now. Larger one in June.

[@DrMojojo]

@@JoeBrigAI I’ll check it out. Haven’t heard of it!

[@DigiDriftZone]

Heads up, Amazon just released a new update for the Scribe, that allows you to choose a template on a per page basis, finally!

[@petrucho130]

Thanks for sharing. Good that I did not buy one. 😅

[@tckemp6906]

I am so there with you! A waste of money. I am trying to get them to take it back... I'm way over the 100 day window

[@DigiDriftZone]

I think you got really unlucky, I have one and bought one for my partner, people at work had theirs for coming up to 4 years now with no issues, I've had mine about a year, my partner had hers about 6 months. I also have a friend that uses her one for work about 8 hours a day, she goes through a pen nib every few weeks! - none of us had any issues, I would really give this another try, maybe it's your charger?

[@nickrandy1]

Product quality issues often come as a small company grows and demand to build and ship more product increases. I think that is what has happened recently in my opinion

[@DigiDriftZone]

@@nickrandy1 That's possible but the product has been around for 4 years now with no hardware revisions at all, you would think they would have sorted this out by now.

[@DigiDriftZone]

​@@nickrandy1 Small update, the Scribe with a Premium pen went on sale for £160 (for comparison the reMarkable2 with a premium pen is £420 and is never on sale) and I am enjoying it more than I thought. Especially with the recent update that lets you change templates on a per page basis. The resolution is better, the backlight is amazing, I prefer the feel of eraser and the button for the highlighter, writing experience is pretty close in my opinion, it's obviously a much better book reader having the kindle app, I prefer the case that opens vertically instead of horizontally (and has a safe place for your pen), the CPU is faster and you feel it opening larger PDFs, the battery is better, there's no monthly subscription, you can export your notebook with full text search (without converting to pure text), and while it's missing some things the RM2 has like layers, more straightforward navigation, ability to duplicate pages in a PDF, double/triple tap to undo/redo and a few other conveniences, I'm surprised how good the Scribe is. If they were the same price, I would probably still pick the RM2, but maybe not as the backlight is nice to have... - but considering the Scribe is 2.6x cheaper? - it's not even close!

[@dolorlux4612]

Good to know

[@iamtammydenise]

Thank u

[@GibsonCRG]

I've had the ReMarkable 2 for around 3 years. It sounds like your issue is the battery dying, which is totally understandable. I can say that it's not inherent in the RM2 to have bad batteries - my battery life after 3 years is still terrific. It does indeed like lower power chargers, but the only thing that "died" for me has been the stylus tip, but I'm still on my original pack of 5 replacements that came with it. The cloud synching, the computer application, it all works. There's definitely areas to gripe about - but the battery dying out I don't think should be assumed to affect every device.

[@nickrandy1]

I can't speak for every device, for sure! I just know that I've had 2, and they both had the issue. I've also seen a growing number of reddit users having a similar issue. It is a common enough issue that RM has an entire troubleshooting process for it that they've standardized. It may be newer production models that are having the issue? I feel like even if the failure rate is 1 in 10, that is still too high!

[@sisterparfums]

How long your good working battery last please?

[@mcjogom]

👍👍👍

[@johnprosser5035]

Blimey... Not ready for market.... The Remarkable 2 was launched 4 years ago, if its not ready now it never will be!!!

[@nickrandy1]

Maybe it never will be! I really like some of the features, I just don’t trust the battery.

[@nickrandy1]

@@markpalmer9844 Maybe! But there is reddit forums with hundreds of people with the same issue

[@3geminorum]

Plus the ones that read but don’t post on these forums and have this issue too, like me..

[@SkinPros]

I’ve been using mine each day for more than 4 yrs now. Still flawless 🙌

[@omg2046]

Haha, not ready for the market? 😂 Please just say you don’t like it

[@TeddScheckler]

You have to use a slower charger, like one of the older iPhone wall plugs, to get out of the battery issue cycle.

[@nickrandy1]

Believe me, I tried every charger type, every amperage, portable chargers, slow charging cords, for up to 24 hours, but it wouldn't come out of a cycle. Also, in my opinion, a $600 tablet package shouldn't have to be brought back to life like this

[@RobertJones-qj9dl]

As a Service Manager who spent two months thinking on this... You sold me on the Scribe.

[@nickrandy1]

I think you'll be happy!

[@flabbybum9562]

No way would I have accepted refurbished. Just hearing of such a sneaky move, turns me off the R2. I pay for solutions, not problems.

[@user-oc3lc1sx8m]

RM2 pen tips don't last and they are expensive.

[@thirstycaterpillar]

Reviews a refurbished product: wonders why it doesn’t work properly

[@Mr_Web]

I wanted to buy one, then I went on Amazon and bought an old fashion lined A4 Notebook. To hell with technology. It will never replace the good old fashion pen and paper which cost me a fraction of the price btw

[@nickrandy1]

I agree! I love notes in general. For me, I like the ability to have multiple "notebooks" on one tablet, and to erase quickly, and get my notes on my computer when necessary. But, pen and paper will always be an option!