Writing things down by hands will help us remember them better as well as improve our focus. Since the digital note taking is booming, more and more digital note taking devices are designed for creating scribbles or notes with a stylus for reading and marking up PDFs. We’ve already discussed the note taking tablet before, today I’d like to share the best note taking ebook Reader. Keep reading to learn the top 5 best note taking eReaders.
Note Taking eReader vs Tablets
Why not just get a tablet for note taking? There are different answers but can be concluded to the following 4 cases.
1• The batter life is short and you have to charge it every other day.
Best smart pen 2021: Tools for smarter note-taking. If you're looking to digitize your handwritten notes or drawings, consider investing in a smart pen. For many, Evernote has been the first and last word in digital note-taking from the beginning, so it only makes sense that it’s one of the best note-taking apps for iPad. The app really came onto the note-taking scene in 2008 (though it was launched in 2000) as a web-based platform that eventually integrated with other platforms and services. Best General Note-Taking App While seeing the green elephant logo no longer sparks joy in me, Evernote is still the top pick for most people. Its vast feature set ensures that it does everything well enough and has the fewest quirks (even though it doesn’t have Markdown support — a MAJOR quirk). Dec 28, 2020 Royole might not be the most known brand among the tablets – but it’s the brand that specializes in producing note-taking tablets and this product is a high on our list, taking the number one spot. No list of best note-taking apps is complete without Evernote, which is one of the oldest and most fully-featured. Evernote lets you create both simple and complex workflows using a combination of.
2• The screen will cause the eye strain. If your eyes are sensitive, the much paper like e-ink device can relief its stress.
3 • The screen can be hard to read in the sunlight.
4• You may be distracted by the versatile functionality on tablet. To be more focus, e-ink device can be a better choice.
| Note Taking eReader(e-ink tablet) | Tablets | |
|---|---|---|
| Pros | Work well in sunlight, long battery life | Rich color palettes, best software tools, versatile functionality |
| Cons | Expensive, monochrome, limited software, proprietary designs | Expensive, require special styli, screens can be hard to read in sunlight |
1. reMarkable 2
reMarkable 2 is the second generation of the company’s e-ink tablet, but greatly improve the overlook and feel. With the 10.3-inch display and 226 DPI resolution as the original model, still it is 30% thinner than the original one. And it is made of glass while the remarkable 1 is made of plastic.
If you want to focus more on the task at hand, then remarkable 2 can offer you the best experience on note-taking, sketching, annotating documents, and reading PDFs and eBooks.
Price $399 for reMarkable 2, $49 for the basic, eraser-less pen
Features
♦ It offers a 21ms latency writing which is the biggest fix on the original model.
♦ It has super long battery life which will last about 2 weeks in daily use.
♦ The pressure sensitivity of the new pen is increased to 4096 level which is twice as the original one, which makes the experience feel and appear natural, close to the feel of writing with a fine-point Sharpie.
♦ Reading and annotating pdfs and epubs ebooks is also available on reMarkable 2. Sometimes, you may encounter the long-time waiting whey loading large ebooks or convert handwriting heavy documents.
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♦ Taking notes and drawing is the basic function. You can even share them from the tablet as a PDF, PNG or SVG file through email.
♦ Just like the original one, the reMarkable 2 also doesn't offer the option for sync your work to the cloud unless you register a reMarkable account/app to sync content. Third party services like OneNote or Dropbox is not supported..
♦ It can convert the handwriting to text which is very useful for many people.
♦ There is still no backlight and no web browser.
♦ It is lack of many reading features as Kindle or Kobo does.
♦ Supports PDF and DRM-free ePub files. To read kindle books on reMarkable, please follow How to Read Kindle Books on ReMarkable Paper Tablet.
As the note-taking device, it is the dedicated one for dedicated note-takers because it is better for writing and drawing than it is for reading ebooks and PDFs.
2. Onyx Boox Note Air
Easy to hold, cold, solid metal slab, beautiful flat-front design, the Onyx Boox Note Air looks perfectly now. It has the very similar software to Onyx Boox Mac Lumi with lower price. It also runs a modified version of Android 10 which means you can install any android apps you like on it. This feature you’ll never found on Kindle, remarkable of Sony’s Digital Paper.
Onyx’s software is second to none when it comes to reading PDFs and it supports almost all ebook formats and you can write on every book format using the stylus. Most importantly, the notes are easily exported.
Price $479
Features
♦ The Note Air has a color-changing front light that goes from very yellow to very blue.
♦ Reading on this large E Ink screen is brilliant, but if you get close you can see the pixels pretty easily as this screen is only 1,872 x 1,404.
♦ Although you can run the android app on this tablet, but you may not completely satisfied with what you are seeing. But it works well when you are using app optimize settings.
♦ The note Air is added a rotation sensor so it will automatically switch the screen orientation when rotating the device.
♦ It has a Wacom touchscreen with support for 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
♦ It also supports the screen split which mean you can run two apps at the same time on the splitted screens.
♦ It supports versatile ebook formats, such as EPUB, PDF, MOBI, TXT, FB2, HTML, DJVU, RTF, DOC, CHM, plus more via apps.
♦ Stylus lacks built-in eraser function and feels cheap.
Onyx’s devices aren’t bad but there’s more delay when writing, and there’s a bit more space between the stylus tip and the screen because Onyx has a thicker top layer over the screen.
3. Supernote A5X
Supernote A5X is features a 10.3 inch E-Ink Digital Ink Touch Screen with a WACOM digitizer layer. This device is running on an Android os that has been heavily optimized for making digital notes. This device is geared towards taking digital notes, editing PDF files and reading ebooks. It also pulls double duty as a dedicated ebook reader.
Price $499
Features
♦ It supports both epub and pdf files. But there are only three fonts available. And each time you change the fonts, margin or line spacing, you will go to the start of the epub or pdf files.
♦ With the touch-slider on the right-side, you can swipe down to bring up the menu at any time, or access your recent files, notes, and bookmarks. It is really handy feature.
♦ It officially offers three types of stylus: Standard pen, heart of metal and the lamy pen.
♦ It has a soft film protector on the top of it unlike other devices using the soft nibs in their pens and hard surface on its screen. It will provide softness and damping while you are writing.
♦ With the Android system , it enables you have the ability to adapt and have new apps installed.
♦ As for its price, it is not on the cheap side but it is right smack in the middle of the where you expected and where all the competitor device price are.
I would have no hesitation in saying that this is the dream device for anyone that works with text or needs to organize and optimize their note-taking.
4. Boyue Likebook Ares
If you are fine with the smaller screen and has limited budget, the Likebook Ares is a good choice. It features a 7.8 inch E INK Carta HD screen with with a capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1872×1404 with 300 PPI. The screen is completely flush with the bezel and has a layer of glass. It also has a WACOM layer which is designed to allow you to draw, take notes and export them to your computer.
Price $294
Features
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♦ It allows you to draw, edit and annotate pdf files with a basic generic stylus that the Ares ships out with, which weighs around 6g and has 4096 degrees of pressure sensitivity.
♦ It has an SD card with a maximum of 128GB of additions storage.
♦ It also support wifi, Bluetoth 4.1 and with a usb-c port with OTG support, which enables you to connect up a keyboard, mouse or any other USB accessory.
♦ With two speakers on the side, you can listen to audiobook or music as well.
♦ Due to its android system, you can install any ebook reading app and read any format ebooks. Comics, manga, magazines, newspapers are all displayed well. As for its default app, it supports TXT, CHM,FB2, MOBI, HTML, RTF, HTXT, EPUB, PDB, DOC, PRC, PDF, DJVU.
The Ares is also quite excellent for people who have never had a digital note taking device before and want to see how it works. Also it is the start-up note taking e-ink device.
5. Onyx Boox Max 3
BOOX Max3 features a 13.3-inch E-ink Mobius and Carta display and a resolution of 2200×1650 and 207 DPI. It has a WACOM screen for the stylus and a capacitive touchscreen for interactions involving swipes and gestures. Its accompanied Wacom stylus has 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
Price $860
Features
♦ It handles PDF documents perfectly. It is the best pdf reading/editing e-ink experience because of the screen size. You can even view the A4 formatting without zoom in or adjust it. As for annotation, you can just annotate directly on the document, or you can split the screen with the pdf on one side and separate notes on the other.
♦ It has very long battery life.
♦ It allows you to install basically any Google Play store app. But it feels sluggish using a lot of android apps that use simple animations in the user interface.
♦ Notes can be synced with several online platforms.
♦ It even has a HDMI port that can connect up to you PC as a monitor.
♦ The biggest drawback is the lack of a built-in front light, but you can use any light source to illuminate its screen. Any this makes it hard to take notes when studying at night.
♦ Because the built-in android system, you can install Kindle app, kobo app or even more reading app. That means you can read and manage kindle format, epub, pdf and all other ebooks in one device.
♦ You can convert handwriting to text with this eink notepad.
♦ It is a little bit heavy but slim. Thus, it is easy to hold. In additional, it doesn’t collect fingerprints.
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Although Onyx Boox Max 3 is a very nice note taking device, it is not affordable for many of us. But if you really like the large screen, this one can be the best candidate.
Comparison Sheet
| No. | Price | Display | Battery | Light |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| reMarkable 2 | $399 | 10.3-inch E Ink Carta display at 1,874 x 1,404 (226 ppi) | 3,000 mAh | No |
| Onyx Boox Note Air | $479 | 10.3-inch E Ink Carta display at 1,872 x 1,404(227 ppi) | 3,000 mAh | Yes |
| Supernote A5 X | $499 | 10.3-inch E Ink Carta display at 1,872 x 1,404(227 ppi) | 3,800mAh | No |
| Likebook Ares | $294 | 7.8 inch E INk Carta HD screen at 872×1404 with 300 PPI | 3,300 mAh | Yes |
| Onyx Boox Max 3 | $860 | 13.3-inch 1650 x 2200 display | 4,300mAh | No |
The above sheet shows some specifications of these best note taking eReaders for your reference.
Which e-ink note-taking device will you pick? You are welcome to leave the message in the following comment section.
Iris Yan joined Epubor since 2017. She always wants to share everything related to ebook reading and improve your reading journey.