E-ink tablet recommendations for note taking
Does anyone here use a tablet for note taking?
I've always used pen and paper for note taking when working or in/around the house. At one point when phones got bigger I did try moving to notes apps but they never clicked. Something about the glossy screen and the levels of fuss to take a note just didn't work.
I recently found out that there's e-ink tablets which try to emulate real note taking, like the Supernote which runs a custom firmware to make note taking as easy as possible. Or the Boox which is Android based, so it has way more apps, but it's got amazing reviews.
There's quite a lot, I'm curious if anyone here has actually used anything like this and what their thoughts are?
Looking at reviews, I'm drawn to the Supernote. But I'd love to hear some real use cases!
I have the supernote nomad and really like it for the most part. The writing on it feels really good compared to what I have experienced with remarkable. It also runs custom android btw so you can sideload apps on it (more on that below).
Backlight
The biggest downside for some people might be backlight. Apparently the lack of a backlight has to do with the writing feel and battery life.
I haven't really missed a backlight for the most part. But I can certainly see it being a dealbreaker for some people.
Writing experience
The writing experienced on it has been great! I really love the simple but workable interface that offers enough options to make it work for me. For example, I am left handed and that is no problem as everything can be moved around. I should say that I don't use most of the "smart" stuff like headers and OCR. Writing for me is a process that helps me form my thoughts, the majority is just writing it once and then never look back at it. Which was one of the reasons I got it as I had notebooks full of notes which did seem wasteful to me.
One of the cool things is that they also offer basic kits for the pens so you can put them in the housing (with some modification) of your favourite pen. Or you buy one from people who made their business out of it.
Sadly pens are not cheap and shipping to the EU adds to the price. The good news is that they use special ceramic nibs that don't wear out, although you can use regular EMR pens as well. Those just don't feel as great as the ceramic Supernote specific nibs.
The writing app supports various "templates" which are basically background images that provide you with lines, dots, etc just like a regular notebook. You can also add your own and there are websites like this one where you can download templates other people made.
Support and other stuff.
Besides the writing feel I also went with Supernote as they seem to focus on their products holistically as opposed to Boox throwing newer versions out there every other week (hyperbole). So far I have gotten fairly regular updates and they have slowly been working on giving me better control over my data.
There is also a subreddit which I do sometimes check. For the most part it is your typical subreddit with thousands of identical photos of people who just got the product and are exited to show it off. But every now and then there are some good informational posts on there as well.
Managing files is also very easy. It shows up as a mass storage device over USB. But I rarely use that as you also get a quick button to temporarily enable a web interface over your local network to manage files on the supernote. I tend to use that most often.
Sideloading android apps
Sideloading is extremely simple, you just need to enable it in your settings.
You'll want to do this if you want to turn this thing in a decent e-reader as well. I have installed koreader on it and now it is also a very nice e-reader for my use case. What I did is install F-droid and from there I sideload most of the other apps, which works great. One tip here is to force close F-droid once you are done for better battery life.
Would I recommend it?
Solid "yes but depends on the person". If you just want to write this is a great product. If you expect to want to do a bit more with it I'd only recommend it if you are okay with sideloading and such.
Great comment thanks! Sounds exactly like what I was thinking of, glad you could confirm a lot of it.
I didn't know you could side load on it, that also really makes it desirable.
Yup, there android hiding under there. Though it isn't a full on android experience as Sheep describes the Boox to be. Full blown Android apps also do have a bigger impact on battery life compared to the apps that come with the supernote. I mainly used it to install a e-ink browser and koreader and that is about it.
Can this be used for marking up pdfs?
Okay, you can open PDFs (this I knew) and draw on them. By default this isn't saved as a PDF but rather the scribbles are saved separately next to the pdf document in the supernote note format. However, there is also an export option which combines the original pdf and the notes you made in a new document.
I believe so, haven't used that myself but can double check later.
On the Kindles before backlighting, you could get a case that had a light in it. It wasn’t as nice as a backlight, one side or two corners of the screen were brighter than the rest, but it was fine. I just took a look at my old one, a corner pulls out with a light in it, powered by the device battery.
I’m surprised Supernote themselves don’t offer something like that, but it looks like some third parties do. As a person ages they tend to need lots of light to read, I could definitely see this as a helpful option. Yes it would run down the battery faster when the light is used, but it gets around the thicker screen issue and people are used to battery management these days.
The supernote has pogo pins and a magnet on the back for "future addons" or something. Some people have made custom lights for it. For the times I want to read in the dark I bought one of those cheap amazon book clip-on lights pretty much this one which works absolutely fine for me.
I generally also like rooms to be relatively well lit (warm light, but bright still). But I do recognize it is a highly personal thing as well.
Those lights have to be good for something. I hate using them on books, they crease up the pages and make marks on paperback covers.
I had a boox note air 2 plus a couple years ago.
When it says they're android based, I want to stress that it is quite literally a normal android tablet in the way it functions. It has a home screen like an android and you can go on YouTube or Twitter or whatever like you would on any phone. Only difference is that it has an e-ink screen.
This has the upside of supporting all your favorite apps, but also the downside of android being a bit finnicky with e-ink, since it's not really built for it. The moment you leave the first party apps, which do integrate well with the e-ink screen, your experience may vary. For example I used my tablet mainly for reading and had to do a lot of searching to find an app that played well with the screen because I didn't really like the boox default one (I ended up using KOReader in case you're curious). There's also the general slowness of android since it hogs resources more than other operating systems. It doesn't show up much given the limited scope of a tablet like this, but you will feel it at times, or at least I did.
So if you're considering a boox, know you're most likely going to want to stick with the first party apps, thus the android component likely won't matter as much as you think it does.
Especially true if you want to focus on note taking, because the majority of note taking apps on android don't take advantage of an e-ink screen with USI stylus capacities.
Lastly, and the reason I don't have a boox anymore, watch out for their quality control. My boox ended up developing a "dead pixel" in the middle of the screen after only a month of use (basically backlight layer developed a hole, meaning if the back light was on it shone like hell and was very distracting, despite being a microscopic hole. Only way to not see it was to turn off the back light). I returned it and replaced it with a new one and the same thing happened again, under a month of use. I returned that too and decided to not get a boox again.
I later learned that quality control for large e-ink screens (mine was 10 inches) isn't the best and that small defects like that are sometimes accepted.
If it wasn't for that I honestly would have kept my boox. It really is pleasant to read and write on e-ink. Nowadays I instead use a TCL NXTPAPER which although isn't e-ink has a matte screen (imitating paper), proper stylus support, and multiple screen modes to emulate e-ink.
KOReader is a fantastic ebook reader. I use it on my ancient secondhand kindle and I'm frankly upset how bad the built-in kindle software is in comparison. I love how it has options to do more advanced things like starting an SSH server, which is great because I hate having to search for a crappy micro USB cable to plug it in to a computer.
As far as I'm concerned, KOReader is the ebook reader that all others must compare themselves to.
Thanks for the reply! That's good to know.
So does that mean the Boox has the normal android stuff like a lock screen, home screen, settings drawer, etc etc?
I feel like a lot of that stuff is nonsense distractions I don't want or need in my note taker.
Yes, it has all that to varying degrees.
It is modified to better work with e-ink, but the general feel is that of an android tablet when you're operating it.
The home screen doesn't have a wallpaper or anything (I forget if you could set one, I sure never did) but it's a screen with all your app icons on it.
You pull down from the top to access settings and notifications like on any android, and of course that means you receive notifications like on android (You can disable them like on android too, of course)
The lock screen was the biggest difference compared to a regular android device. When you locked the boox tablet, it would just display whatever screen you were on or a custom image (or nothing at all). No notifications or anything.
So yeah, it's definitely very android-feely, at least to me. They could have changed this with newer versions but that was my experience when I used it.
To some people like myself, the fact that it's android is a pro because we want to tinker and sideload, but to others who want to get rid of android's distractions like yourself it might not be the best choice.
If you live in a country that allows for returns with no questions asked, I'd suggest first getting one and testing it out before returning it, just to fully understand if it's something you want. Otherwise, check out a video showcasing the operating system.
Thanks that's really useful.
Me like 5 years ago would have 100 percent gone for the Android tablet for more options, but I know now that all the extra fluff is gonna distract me.
I'll definitely watch some videos on the OS though before making a decision!
I think I got lucky with my Boox (same model). I couldn't stand it for the first year because updates were broken and the OS was buggy. Eventually, they fixed something (server-side I imagine), and I got a bunch of updates that made it work as intended. I haven't had hardware problems, thankfully. I enjoy using it as a reader, but I never fit the note taking into my workflow. Despite my original intentions, ha!
My wife swears by her Kindle Scribe, but you're tied to Amazon in that case and I don't think they have custom firmware for it yet like they do for most Kindles. Real paper is of course still the winner but there are benefits to having it be digital without having to scan it in.
I use a reMarkable 2 and have been generally happy with it. It looks like it's aimed at the same market as the Supernote: it runs a custom linux distro, not android, and has no real third-party apps. It generally postures itself less as "tablet with e-ink display" and more as "paper notebook/binder with unlimited pages".
It is possible to sideload apps, and there are a few open-source launchers and apps, but none of them are compelling to me. It is possible to install custom note templates (copy a pdf file to a particular directory), but software updates remove them. I've done this in the past but it's not worth the inconvenience. Generally the machine is very tinker-friendly with easy SSH and filesystem access, but the ergonomics are bad if you go off-label and don't put the work in to automate things.
For example there is a project remarkable_printer that lets you "print" PDF directly to the device (disclaimer: I haven't actually used that).
Getting documents on/off the device is straightforward. There is free Google Drive and OneDrive integration. You can also upload PDF to the device via the website, companion app, or LAN (via wifi or USB cable). You can export PDF/PNG/SVG via the same integrations, or share via email on-device. None of that requires the "Connect" subscription, but if you do have it, there's also a beta "create a link" web-hosted option.
I should also note that the subscription really isn't necessary. Feature comparison here. The only feature I find noteworthy is the "handwriting search" of files. The handwriting recognition runs in the cloud, and a text index of the files is sent back to the device. Searching the index occurs offline on-device, but it requires internet to update the index. There is on-device handwriting recognition "convert to text" feature that does not require subscription, but ins my experience it's slow and inaccurate. I've been pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of the handwriting search and "create a link" feature.
Pulling PDF off the device via Drive or OneDrive or LAN is a little annoying with very large notebooks, since the PDF export runs on-device, on the pitiful power-saving mobile processor. The website does not (currently) support PDF export, only upload. However with the companion mobile or desktop app, the app pulls the raw notebook file off device and converts to PDF locally, which is much faster.
Pulling the raw notebook file is fast in any case, easiest via SSH or LAN, but it's in a proprietary "lines" format. The format isn't very complex, so there are a few open-source converters and editors out there but none of them have great support last I looked. It seems like ricklupton/rmscene is still maintained.
If you're on Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android, the companion app is excellent. My biggest complaint is that, if you're on Linux like me, it doesn't work at all. It is ironic that the device runs Linux, the one platform for which support is neglected. The Windows app used to work under Wine but no longer. They announced about a month ago that a webapp is coming "mid-2026" which will unify the experience on the current platforms. Presumably, that would also native Linux support, or at least allow local PDF export in the browser. My dream is that part of this webapp release will be a canonical javascript implementation (or a wasm library) of the lines format that the community can use to build open-source conversion and file management tools.
Aside - I wonder if anyone has tried identifying and extracting the canonical lines implementation from the device and executing it via something like fex-emu?
It works fine as an e-reader for PDF or EPUB books, although that's not really its purpose. It has basic features like bookmarks, page tags, highlighting, etc. but if you have a huge library or do heavy reading it might feel lacking. (Edit: apparently KOReader that @creesch linked does support reMarkable.) It cannot show Kindle or other DRM content. I do like that it gives an extra few inches in all the margins on PDF and ebooks in which you can take notes (just two-finger scroll to the side). If you don't write in the margins, the PDF export has the same dimensions as the original, so you can use it to fill handwritten forms which is occasionally convenient.
Over the last few years they've pushed more heavily on their typing experience. There's a "type folio" keyboard cover, and an on-screen keyboard, and (with subscription) the companion app allows editing typed notes. I don't really see the appeal, but maybe I just don't do the right kind of writing. Usually it serves me better as a place to draw diagrams and mind maps to organize my thoughts as I type on my PC with a browser open for reference material. If I could use the desktop app I might type there so I can refer to it later on the notebook offline, but I can't, so I don't. In principle I do see some appeal to a distraction-free place to focus that's easier on the eyes than a backlit display, it's just not for me.
I find their pricing scheme a little strange, although it seems comparable to the Supernote.
The devices do not come with a stylus; those are purchased separately or in a bundle.Also, the styluses are not compatible between versions. The reMarkable 1 and 2 styluses are compatible, and the Paper Pro and Paper Pro Move styluses are compatible, but the reMarkable 2 stylus is not compatible with the Paper Pro. It's a shame, because I really want the big color (!) display of the Paper Pro.But not only would I need to cough up 630 USD for the new machine, I'd also need to cough up 130 USD for a stylus that I feel like I already paid for. 760 USD is far too much for me for a simple display upgrade.The reMarkable 2 is still available for saleand totals 400 + 80 USD for the basic marker, or 130 USD for the marker with built-in eraser on the other end.The Paper Pro Move is smallerand 450 USD, with marker sold separately, but I don't have any real use for a small device like that.(Edt: the pricing model is changed from when I purchased mine. The devices do include the basic marker, or a $50 upgrade to Marker Plus. That changes the calculus of the upgrade a bit and I am reconsidering it...)
A nice thing that's unique to my setup is that my phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note, and it uses the same stylus technology as the reMarkable 1/2; so I can use my phone stylus and reMarkable styluses interchangably on either device. The price is the first reason not to upgrade, but losing this convenience is a close second.
The Supernote refill that @creesch linked to use your own pen is really cool. If that were available and/or I knew about it when I was shopping for these, I might have gone with the Supernote instead.
That sent me down a rabbit hole to reddit and xdaforums. Supernote, reMarkable, and Samsung all use the same stylus technology, but you do not want to use the ceramic tip of the Supernote stylus on the reMarkable because it will scratch the frosted glass that makes the reMarkable feel so much like pencil-on-paper. The xda users embedded a cheap Samsung S-Pen in a Pilot G-2; I could do the same but since I have no need for the side button I don't need to cut the hole in the G-2. I wonder if there's a way to disassemble part or all of the S-Pen to let the click action of the G-2 function... placing the spring such that it won't interfere with the stylus coil might be difficult.
Thanks for the detailed reply!
That's very interesting, I had actually completely written off the remarkable because I misunderstood the subscription. I thought that without it you'd have limited cloud support to all cloud providers, which seemed extremely dumb. So glad to hear that was just me misreading it.
Definitely sounds like a contender, I'm going to put it on the list!
I've edited my post about pricing but I'll also say here more explicitly: I was wrong about the pricing model, it's different than I remembered, and the basic marker is included with the list price of the three devices.
Also, they're starting to release the webapp to beta users now, and people on Reddit say it is good, but I don't have access yet. Apparently it does not support PDF export (yet??? 🙏) which does not bode well for my dream of a canonical implementation of the file format for the community.
Also, the "create a public link" feature is out of beta and available in the latest software update.
I have access now. It does not support PDF export, and it does not render pages locally, instead streaming PNG page data from a server. I am displeased.
In any case it's nice to have some means to view page contents on Linux, but it still feels overly cumbersome. I am making noise in the feedback system requesting that they render locally, but somehow I doubt it will happen.
You might be interested in this support page: https://support.remarkable.com/s/article/Using-reMarkable-without-a-subscription
I've also been using rM since late 2020 starting with the rM2 and now on the rM Pro. I thought its various limitations would bother me, and they did initially, but instead it is now practically indispensable. Their apps on most major platforms (except Linux - why?) really make a difference - having my synced notes on my phone if the rM device is not with me at that moment is awesome. I never got much into the hacks available for the device but they seem to work well if you don't want to use the rM cloud.
Only half joking: Why not use pen and paper and then scan the notes if you really need a digital version (most people don't)?
it's a very robust technology, tried and true. Infinite battery life, litteraly paper-thin, foldable, pretty much fully compatible between vendors, the tactile feedback is exactly as good as real pen and paper, and the learning curve is already done with! you can even rip out a page to give someone a memo, with 100% compatibility with his existing hardware.
I ask because I've been in this situation of thinking I needed those fancy notetaking tablets and it just ended up in a drawer, as paper is so much more convenient.
Why use a high tech product to mimic a superior analogue low tech product?
For me it was the endless amounts of notebooks I would have, run out of, etc. I also always manage to somehow get them messed up when carrying them around in my backpack. There is also a bunch of other reasons but for me but my supernote just works slightly better than traditional pen and paper.
I also tried those notebooks you can erase again. But they smudge easily and the writing feeling on them is terrible.
Honestly it's fair to ask, good to get challenged!
It's a few things for me and this might not fix any of them:
I don't fancy spilling tea on an expensive tablet, but the rest I'm hoping I could maybe improve!
I was in a rare office visit the other day and a colleague was enthusing about his Boox which he'd had for a long time. I borrowed it, did some doodling, some scrawl to text, and read a couple pages of comic book on it. If I wanted such a device, it would be on my list. Felt great to write on.
I don't own one, and don't really want one, my e-reader is enough for me.
Great feedback though, thanks for the post!
At risk of being the person who completely ignores the assignment, I would recommend getting a normal Android tablet and getting a paper-feel screen cover for it. If you're in iOS land get an iPad, if you're Android you've got great options, but anything Samsung Galaxy flagship (S-pen doesn't use battery), or I recommend the Google Pixel Tablet, which I specifically bought for note taking with OneNote. I recently got a Galaxy S7 Tablet and stuck LineageOS on it which would also be a great option for significantly cheaper if you can stomach used. I'll never buy Boox because they have massive licensing issues with sharing source code which has soured them in the enthusiast community, and these Chinese vendors tend to be pretty bad about updating their stuff and already tend to have new products with Android versions several versions behind, Boox included. If I could get LineageOS on one of their devices I'd buy in a heartbeat.
With this post, I would do a ton of research to see if I could reasonably beat a SuperNote into shape, apparently Sideloading is an option. Looking at that company, if I were to buy an e-paper tablet I'd lean that way. Somebody side-loaded F-Droid which would give you access to Logseq, for example, an amazing app that (sort of) supports pen note-taking but operates more as a journal than a strict note app.
Yeah for most of the reasons mentioned by @creesch I don't want a normal tablet. I hate using my phone (or a tablet) for writing at all because of all the other crap and distractions on there, I think it really impacts the experience.
I'm taking literally having to turn it on, unlock the screen, open the right app. That's a lot of friction.
I expect with an e-ink tablet built for note taking it may be on all the time on the notes app or at most a button/pen press away from just working.
Sideloading is indeed an option for the supernote, see my comment. Personally I wouldn't want to use a regular tablet for this for a variety of reasons. There is the distraction factor, e-ink simply being more pleasant to look at (personal I guess), weight (the supernote nomad is really light) and battery life.
Lots of good experiences here already, but I figured I'd share anyway in case you have any questions I can answer: I've been using an Onyx Boox Nova 3 for about 5 years now for reading and journaling/notetaking. I absolutely love it, except for the fact that Boox only ever made one shitty case for it and third-party cases are basically nonexistent. I've been using a hacked-up iPad Mini case for most of that time, which works fine, but it's getting tattered at this point and I honestly don't know what I'll do next.
IMO the 7.8" screen is perfect for reading since it's very close to the size of a hardcover novel page. It's a bit small for notetaking, but if you have small handwriting, it's very pleasant for journaling and light notes. Just not spacious enough for most drawing.
Be aware that Boox is pretty awful at software. Lots of small bugs and broken English. I use a custom launcher (Lawnchair) with KOReader and Firefox, so the only Boox software I regularly touch is their Notes app, which is fine. Their ereader app, Neoreader, isn't bad, and it supports annotations on-page with the pen, but I don't find myself needing anything more than highlights.
As others have noted, support is a complete gamble. I don't think Boox would stand behind their product at all even if it burned my house down, because there's little legal enforcement for Chinese companies operating in the USA. If warrantees or repairs seem like something you want from a multi-hundred-dollar tablet, be warned!
I've recently started using a Boox Note Air 2 at my desk for notetaking in meetings on its larger 10" display since my partner upgraded to a kobo. The experience is much the same: quite nice (but not well supported) hardware, passable software. The screen on the Note Air 2 is honestly the most paperlike writing experience I've had on a tablet (much better than an iPad or my Nova 3) thanks to the somewhat rough texture of the screen protector. It hasn't worn much in 3-4 years of use from my partner as a knitting pattern display and ereader, so durability doesn't seem to be a problem.
I looked a lot at competitors like the Remarkable back when I bought my Nova 3, but I opted for Boox at the time for the following reasons:
If you're highly particular and looking to put in the effort to customize everything the way you want it, a Boox is worth it, if you're willing to accept the mediocre software and hardware support issues. Personally I think a frontlight is an indispensable feature and I wouldn't buy an ereader without it, but I understand that it compromises the writing experience a bit. Hopefully this helps!
Thank you for your reply, it does help!
I understood that you needed to replace the pen nubs occasionally if you used the stylus a lot, is that something you've experienced?
To be honest, my plan is to use this thing to sit on my desk during the day and replace my A4 paper note book and pencil for work and game notes. I've got a Kindle that my partner and I have been using to read for years now.
I've replaced the nibs once or twice per device in years of ownership. Unless you write with a very heavy hand, I'd expect to get at least a year per nib.
Based on your use case description, I wouldn't worry about a frontlight at all, then! But I would strongly suggest 10" screens for desk use.
Thanks! Sounds pretty manageable then.
I got the Boox AirNote 5C in November to replace my gen 1 Kindle Scribe, I wanted color for reading comics, but also I wanted better note-taking for my job (where I weekly go to sites and take measurements, counts, tallys, etc). Highly enjoyed on the book side all around.
On the notes side, it has been a great device. The pen it comes with is kinda bad, not terrible but feels very cheap. I stole my pen from my scribe, and when I lost that got a knockoff from Amazon for $30, and that has worked great. The notes has tons of options, including the usual ability to highlight, erase, draw shapes, copy, etc. The killer feature for me was the ability to make custom templates, from any arbitrary PDF, so I was able to use text boxes to list my usual suspects and can now just fill in items repeatedly rather than writing "cabinets" again on every page.
It is also easy to share your notes from the device. Besides being android (and having access to all the android apps), you can export and share from the native notes app in tons of ways, including my favorite via Bluetooth! It's convenient to not need an Internet or server connection to get my notes like the kindle did.
Side-note: one issue panned about the device is shorter battery life, usually a day or two before needing charging (as opposed to most e readers which can go weeks). I encountered this at first, but found an easy fix: simply turning off the wifi and Bluetooth massively boosted the battery to a week+. Now I just turn them on when I need to transfer files, and things work great. Edit: Note that I'm a heavy user, I read tons, and switch books often, so it's doing a lot of loading and being on. An occasional reader/note taker will probably get an even longer battery life than I do