With a great color e-ink screen and a smaller form factor, the Move does everything right.
I am a longtime fan of ink on paper, at least, as far as taking notes and staying organized is concerned. I’ve written before that I prefer the feel and friction involved with using a notebook for ideas and to-do lists.
I’ve tried digital versions of this process, including the Paperlike screen protector on my iPad Pro. Still, none of them have ever perfectly recreated the experience of writing with a real pen or pencil on real paper.
Recently, however, Remarkable announced the Remarkable Paper Pro Move, which is a very long name for a small color e-ink tablet. I’d previously used the larger version, known as the Paper Pro, but had a hard time figuring out how to fit it into my life. It was just too big.
There’s a trade-off, of course. If I’m going to carry around something this large, it has to offer me more value than the cost associated with its size or weight. With the larger Paper Pro, I haven’t been able to balance out that equation.
With the smaller version, however, suddenly everything made sense. In fact, after using it for a few months, I’m starting to think it might just be the perfect productivity device.
To be fair, it’s not going to be for everyone. If you’re the kind of person who just uses your email inbox as your main to-do list, this probably isn’t going to work for you. But, if you’re a handwritten list kind of person, there are four reasons you might want to check out the Paper Pro move:
1. It’s close enough
To be fair, this still isn’t like writing on real paper. But the Paper Pro Move is close enough to that experience that I’m willing to use it regularly. It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. It just has to be comfortable, and it is. There’s enough friction in the experience that it doesn’t feel like you’re writing on a device.
And, the color e-ink screen is good. It’s definitely slower than the Remarkable 2, but I think that’s just physics, and a function of how they work. Like the larger Paper Pro, having color probably is what makes it slower, but I think the trade off is worth it in terms of functionality.
2. It’s small
The only real objection I had to the full-size Paper Pro is that it was just too big to be something I wanted to carry with me all the time. I don’t want another device that’s basically the size of my laptop or iPad.
The Paper Pro Move, however, is small enough that it fits better in my workflow and my carry bag. It’s right in the sweet spot between small enough to carry and big enough to write on without feeling cramped.
That said, it was too small for most of the planner templates I was used to on the bigger version. Thankfully, there’s a pretty active network of people making templates and it didn’t take long at all to find some specifically designed for the Paper Pro Move.
3. It’s infinity notebooks
I guess it’s technically not “infinity,” so to speak. The Paper Pro Move has 64GB of internal storage, which the company says is enough for 100,000 pages of PDF documents. That’s about 83 years’ worth of notebooks if you go through one a month. I assume the backlight will die and the battery will stop holding a charge long before you’ll ever fill up the device’s storage.
The reality is that having all of the notes you take with you all the time is really the reason you would use something like the Remarkable instead of just writing on paper. There’s something very nice about being able to go back to meetings or notes from months ago without having to figure out which notebook I put them in.
4. There are no distractions
Lastly, the killer feature is that the Paper Pro Move has zero distractions. There are no notifications or apps. There’s nothing begging for your attention except whatever you’re working on. That makes it the perfect device for thinking, organizing, and working.
To be honest, I don’t think the Paper Pro Move can ever replace the joy that comes from writing with a pen on paper, but it does about as a good a job as I think is possible at recreating that experience. The real question is whether the benefits from using a digital device are worth it. In this case, I think the answer is yes.
Obviously, this is a premium device, which means it comes with a pretty big price tag. With a Marker Plus and a Folio, it’ll cost you $570. You can buy a pen and paper notebook for like, what, $10? You can get a lot of pens and notebooks for the price of this digital version.
That means it’s definitely not for everyone, and that’s okay. Most people probably shouldn’t spend $570 on a digital notebook, especially if you read this far and still aren’t sure how you’d possibly use this in your life. On the other hand, if you’re a fan of notebooks and pens, and you use both to take notes and organize your ideas, there’s no question this might just be the best productivity device yet.
