Project manager Simon van Ipenburg on a product he gets excited about
In the category of “products that make business life a lot easier and more fun”: the reMarkable tablet. For several weeks now I have been using the tablet and she is truly remarkable. The versatility is enormous and perfectly suits my needs as a project manager. Gone are those wretched notebooks and paper documents, welcome tablets. This product combines best-of-both worlds of the “regular” tablet and e-reader: an e-ink screen and touchscreen control. The proposition according to the Norwegian manufacturer is “Here to replace your notebooks, sketchbooks, and printouts.
Tablets have been available on the market since 1992, starting back then with the first PDA (personal digital assistant) series, also known as Apple Newton, Palm Pilot, or Sony Clie. While these did not initially catch on tremendously, in the decades since these business gadgets have rapidly become available to the wider public. Who doesn’t have a smartphone or tablet these days? The brightly lit screens with multi-touch controls are getting bigger and bigger, of higher quality, and are even flexibly available today.
In the shadow of these fancy smartphones and tablets, over time the e-reader has also appeared on the scene, mainly suitable for reading documents and books. The e-ink technology of the e-reader is ideal because of its low consumption (because it consumes energy only when refreshing the screen) and its readability under bright sunlight. The reMarkable tablet combines the advantages of a tablet and an e-reader: an e-ink screen with touchscreen control. You can write and draw on it like on paper, with an endless number of pages, and it is super responsive. And with low power consumption, the battery lasts for weeks.
ReMarkable focuses on use for Business and Art (sketching). It is actually quite similar to the first PDAs. The big difference is that the technology has developed enormously in the meantime and this PDA works flawlessly. In my opinion, the tablet is therefore extremely suitable for business and very successful. Navigating through the menus of the reMarkable can be done by hand or with the supplied stylus pen. Writing and sketching can only be done with the stylus. The pressure and edge gel sensitivity of the stylus and the choice of different writing utensils (fineliner, ballpoint pen, pencil, marker, eraser), give a palette of possibilities for formatting your documents. In addition, the tablet includes many different templates, such as line paper, checkered paper and action lists. Through the reMarkable’s wireless connection, documents are automatically synchronized with a phone and/or laptop. Editing a document while on the train? No problem; PDF documents are opened flawlessly and can be commented on with the (marker) pen. At the end of the journey, you can send the document by e-mail to a colleague with one press of a button.
Ok, it is fair to say that the reMarkable is quite expensive, but in return, you get a great product. Only real disadvantage compared to an ordinary paper notebook: the tablet really needs to be recharged every now and then….
Want to know more or the Remarkable? Then watch the video.
