reMarkable Paper Pro 11.8" RM83C-1005NW Gray 2024

The reMarkable Paper Pro is a wildly expensive, single-purpose marvel that finally adds color to the best digital writing experience around. It's a terrible tablet and a perfect notebook.

We weren't expecting a quad-core Cortex-A53 to set any speed records, and it doesn't. It's in the 37th percentile for CPU power, which sounds rough until you realize this thing isn't rendering video or playing Genshin Impact. It turns your handwriting into text and syncs PDFs, and it does both without a hiccup. The real surprise is how well the color Canvas display works. It's not an iPad screen. It's slower, with a ghosting effect on full-page refreshes that's part of the charm. The backlight is a game-changer for late-night note-takers, and the Marker Plus stylus feels so good you'll find excuses to write things down.

An Apple iPad Pro M5 will run circles around this for raw power, art, and media consumption, but it's a notification-filled nightmare for pure writing. The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is a full PC and a better choice if you need one device for everything, but its writing feel is a glassy afterthought. The reMarkable sits alone. It's not competing with those devices. It's competing with a Moleskine and a pen, and it's winning that fight by adding a backlight and cloud sync.

Look, this thing is expensive. The price spread across vendors is a wild $159,354, which tells you some sellers are just making up numbers. Ignore the noise. At its real retail price, you're paying a premium for focus. If you're a student or professional who lives in your notebooks, the cost-per-use is a no-brainer. If you just want to doodle, it's a luxury you probably don't need.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is the digital notebook for people who are sick of digital notebooks. It doesn't try to be an iPad. It doesn't ping you with notifications. It's a slab of focus that finally adds color to its already excellent paper-like screen, and for the right person, that's worth every penny. The one thing to know? This is the best writing experience you can get on a screen, period. But it's a terrible general-purpose tablet, and that's entirely the point.

If you're looking for a device to watch videos, browse the web, or run apps, this isn't it. Go get an iPad or a Samsung Galaxy Tab instead. This is a digital piece of paper for people who write, and if that's not you, you'll hate its limitations.

Buy the reMarkable Paper Pro if your primary goal is to replace a stack of paper notebooks with something that feels just as good and keeps you laser-focused. The addition of color and a backlight fixes the biggest gripes from earlier models. It's a niche device that owns its niche completely. Don't buy it expecting a tablet. Buy it expecting the best digital paper on the market, and you'll be thrilled.