In the seemingly irreversible digitalization of our lives, there is one activity that has proven to be more tenaciously attached to analog practices: taking notes or making quick sketches. Many of us still do this using notebooks.

However, in addition to the increasingly used Notes apps on our smartphones and the predictable popularity that AI systems will have for converting our voice notes into organized notes, a still relatively immature technology, there is a category of devices dedicated precisely to taking notes directly in digital format. Devices that are winning over a loyal audience and are becoming increasingly popular.

The most famous is certainly reMarkable, the notebook launched in 2016 by a Norwegian startup. The subsequent model, reMarkable 2, is undoubtedly the one with which the company conquered the public, thanks in particular to some key choices, beyond the excellent “paper-like” feel of the device when used for writing or the (relative) speed and fluidity of operations. What makes reMarkable a reference is the minimalist approach to writing, with a very agile interface and very precise commands, the result of a long study on how the device could bring the act of writing to the center of the user experience; and in parallel, there has been great patience and prudence on the part of the startup, which has not launched other physical devices for 4 years, a rarity in the world of technology today, preferring to give space to the development of software and services, as in 2021 the Chief Design Officer Mats Herding told Domus.

Now the device is updated, or rather returns with a “pro” device, another great trend in today’s tech, to redefine what we expect from a digital notebook. Bigger, brighter and more colorful, reMarkable defines it, summarizing its main features.

The screen is indeed larger, now 11.8 inches, and the lighting has been added, a technically difficult aspect to implement but which we have seen on many other similar devices launched in recent years by Amazon, Kobo and other competitors like Huawei.

The stylus changes, becoming truly “pro”, following the path traced by Apple's Pencil. And colors are integrated: attention, not like on the screen of a normal tablet, because here the technology is always the same eInk; reMarkable has also preferred a minimalist approach here, allowing the user a rational use of colors, so as to make the most of the potential of this new technology which allows you to optimize your notes as we do (or did) with colored pens and pencils and highlighters, remaining within the confines of its very evident limits. Moreover, the colors were already present in the reMarkable software for some time, but obviously only visible using the smartphone or desktop apps. On the reMarkable 2, they were simply shades of gray.

The launch price of the reMarkable Paper Pro is 649 euros and is already available on the official website.