The reMarkable Paper Pure made me want to start writing things down again

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As a kid, my favorite part of back-to-school shopping was picking out notebooks for the new year. Back then, they were color-coded by subject (according to the system in my head), and equipped with obnoxious spirals that would almost certainly get tangled in my backpack. It’s been a long time since I’ve shopped a school supply list, but my love of notebooks hasn’t gone anywhere.

That’s probably why the reMarkable Paper Pure ( $399 at reMarkable ) won me over so quickly. While many E-Ink tablets try to pack in productivity features, and Amazon’s Kindles keep adding limitations and AI tools, the Paper Pure is refreshingly committed to being exactly one thing: a really good digital notebook. After more than a week with the device, I’m in no rush to take it back out of my tech rotation.

The Paper Pure doesn’t look like most modern tablets. At 360g and just 6mm thick, the device is exceptionally light. Its asymmetrical bezel gives me somewhere to hold the tablet without constantly covering the screen in fingerprints.

The 10.3-inch monochrome Canvas display reinforces the feeling that I’m carrying around a notebook, not a tablet. There’s also no front light, which is one of the bolder choices reMarkable made with the device. Without another lighting layer sitting above the display, the screen is cleaner, and the writing experience is more responsive. On the other hand, I need a lamp (or in my case, a head lamp) to use this comfortably at night, just like a pen and paper journal session.

The device is also strictly grayscale, which stands out in contrast to the increasingly colorful e-ink market. Text looks crisp, and the screen retains the bright, paper-like look that monochrome e-ink still does best. I didn’t miss color nearly as much as I thought I would, which is shocking considering everything from my brain to my wardrobe is organized by ROYGBIV.

Internally, the Paper Pure runs on a 1.7GHz dual-core Cortex-A55 processor with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. None of that is especially impressive by tablet standards, but it doesn’t need to be. The interface is fast, and the whole device feels focused in a way a lot of modern tablets don’t anymore. It also packs a 3,820 mAh battery that lasts up to three weeks on a charge, and I’ve yet to have to think about it.

Most importantly, writing on the Paper Pure is good enough that I started looking for excuses to use it. The textured display gives the stylus enough resistance without overdoing the paper gimmick, and the low-latency input keeps handwriting natural. I did miss compatibility with the brand’s Type Folio, but once I mentally committed to my untidy penmanship, the simpler notebook-forward setup felt nostalgic.