ReMarkable Paper Pro review: E-ink enters the color era

Four years ago, the ReMarkable 2 arrived and changed my writing life. This ultra-thin, silver-framed e-ink screen, which I still think of as a legal pad from the future, helped me kickstart a handwritten diary I've kept up nearly every day for the last two years. I use its Marker in calligraphy pen mode, which has an aesthetic appeal even the mighty iPad can't match. Plus, the older I get the more I feel the joy of e-ink, tech's most soothing alternative to all that LED screenlight blasting our faces. So when Norwegian tablet maker ReMarkable handed me the device it's been working on ever since 2020, the Paper Pro, you can bet my peepers went wider than a side-eye emoji. A bigger screen? A backlight? A redesigned Marker where the nib doesn't wear down as frequently? Half the lag (that milisecond-measured gap between nib touching screen and e-ink appearing) of the ReMarkable 2, where the lag was already impressively low? And a range of colors, not just black and grey? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes please. The ReMarkable Paper Pro also updates the keyboard folio, an optional extra I'd been toting around with the ReMarkable 2 for the past couple of years but not actually used that much: the typing lag felt a tad too long, the text column was too narrow, the keyboard wasn't backlit. The Pro folio fixes all those problems, and it comes with a nice little wrap-around magnet that helps lock the Marker in place. Was this, finally, the perfect distraction-free device for writers I'd dreamed of for a decade? The Paper Pro isn't perfect After testing the Paper Pro for a week, I'm less enthused. It has some issues, though not enough for me to stop using it. Still, I can see why ReMarkable will continue to sell the $399 ReMarkable 2 ($449 with the more sensitive Marker Plus) alongside the Paper Pro ($579; $629 with Marker Plus; add a $199 keyboard folio and you're talking serious scratch for any e-ink machine). For many users on tighter budgets, the ReMarkable 2 will remain a supe