There’s no denying that since the release of the more feature-packed (and certainly pricier) Remarkable Paper Pro, the value proposition of the Remarkable 2 has changed somewhat, but the Remarkable 2 remains our number one pick for the best E-Ink tablet to buy right now.

While it is true that the Remarkable 2 doesn’t boast the colour screen, longer battery life and faster refresh rate of the Paper Pro, the fact that the former costs £349/$379 and the latter rings in at £559/$579, we’d argue that those upgrades don’t quite justify the uptick in price for most people. Unless you’re absolutely set on having the widest array of features possible, the Remarkable 2 still crushes when it comes to the core note-taking experience.

At its heart, writing with the accompanying stylus on the Remarkable 2’s 10.3-inch display feels just like pen and paper. There’s no discernible delay between the movement of your hand and seeing your writing on the screen either, allowing the device to keep up with your thoughts and doodles in real time.

You also have a plethora of tools at your disposal to tweak your digital notebooks as you see fit. For instance, you can pick from a wide array of templates to suit the type of work at hand, so if you need a legal pad-style page, one filled with empty blocks for a storyboard or even just a blank sheet, you’re covered.

There’s a layering tool for ensuring that any additional notes or feedback won’t accidentally erase anything that you’ve written down, and there’s a lasso tool to quickly move pieces of handwriting around the page.

What really sells the Remarkable 2 however is the complete lack of notifications, meaning that if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of your phone and laptop then this is a great place to reconnect with your mind and focus on the task at hand.

The Remarkable Paper Pro is an expensive device, yet it has a few key selling points that’ll make it a standout choice for someone happy to spend a little bit more.

First off, it packs a colour display – adding some extra pop to text and images. It’s not as colourful as an OLED panel on a tablet, but it does make a big difference when highlighting text. We don’t think the colour screen is reason enough to upgrade even if it is a welcome addition. What we did appreciate was the larger screen, even if it makes for an overall larger device that isn’t quite as portable as the Remarkable 2.

Our favourite screen upgrade though, is the addition of a light. This allows for night reading and doodling, and generally just helps out when the light is a little gloomy. We always found it odd the Remarkable range had resisted lighting, so this is a step in the right direction.

Our reviewer also loved the exceptional battery life, which, in our tests, sits at around two weeks. This is a vast improvement over the previous products from the brand. General performance is much better too, with page refreshes far smoother and scrolling faster.

It’s really only the price stopping us from placing the Paper Pro in the number one spot, and if you’re happy to splurge then it’s the most fully-featured option.

While the Remarkable 2 might be lacking a fair amount of smart features, the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra suffers from no such problem. By all standards, this is a fully-fledged Android tablet that just happens to feature an E-Ink display.

Running full Android 11, the Tab Ultra has complete access to the Google Play Store and all the apps within it, so in addition to the stock Onyx apps for note-taking and drawing, you also have the ability to read books in the Kindle app, listen to audiobooks via Audible and, if you just want to see what videos look like on an E-Ink display, dive into a spot of YouTube.

The Tab Ultra is so feature-packed that no other E-Ink tablet on this list comes close. With the included stylus and optional keyboard case, the Ultra can be used as a genuine productivity machine that’s easier on the eyes than a laptop.

The accompanying app isn’t quite as intuitive as Remarkable’s, but what’s really impressive is just how fast the screen is able to refresh itself. Handwritten notes appear with unbelievable speed that we previously didn’t think was possible with E-Ink technology, so the Tab Ultra deserves recognition for really pushing the bar on what’s possible here.

For all that power however, the Tab Ultra does come with a hefty price tag that isn’t too far off the price of an iPad Air, so it’s really up to the user to decide if they value an E-Ink screen above all else when deciding which tablet to buy.

Amazon’s first attempt at an E-Ink tablet left much to be desired, but the company fixed many of its major issues with the second-gen Kindle Scribe (2024).

It’s still not quite as smart as the Remarkable 2 or as powerful as the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra, nor is it as colourful as the Remarkable Paper Pro, but it does have several things going for it, namely its integration with the Amazon Kindle library and a superb writing experience.

There’s no denying that Amazon’s collection of Kindle books leads the way in terms of e-book retailers, so the Kindle Scribe benefits from having one of the best reading experiences out there on an E-Ink tablet, especially with a large 10.2-inch canvas – the largest in the Kindle collection.

What separates the Scribe from other Kindles however is the included stylus which allows you to scribble down whatever your heart desires in the notebook section of the device. The stylus is lighter and more ergonomic than before and Amazon’s absolutely nailed the sensation of pen-to-paper writing with the new textured screen on the second-gen device, making it an easy recommendation for note-taking – but it’s not perfect.

For starters, while you can finally take notes directly on the page in Kindle books (a limitation of the first-gen device), the way the text wraps around your notes can be unpredictable and sometimes breaks the formatting of the page. And, unlike the Remarkable, there’s no way to search through handwritten notes using text. You can transcribe handwritten notes to text, but only when you share the note via email – a very odd limitation indeed.

Still, if you’re invested in the Kindle book ecosystem and want a big-screen device for note-taking and reading, the Scribe (2024) is a solid choice.