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> Sure, you can "hack" your RM2 but the chances that the next official update will then completely brick your device are rather high – /r/RemarkableTablet/ is full of these stories

No... they're approximately 0.

The next update will wipe out your modifications, everything outside of the home directory is wiped, but the device will still work.

People bricking their devices are people actively doing things that brick their devices, not updates coming along and bricking them later.

> People bricking their devices are people actively doing things that brick their devices

... such as flashing their own bootloaders or overwriting the system partitions. This isn't required for any of the fancy mods :)

I learned that 9-10 inches is to small to annotate pdfs so I decided against remarkable or supernote a5. To be honest, most science-y documents I read by the computer, because I try to use knowledge right away in some notebook and/or repl.

But then I noticed that I also read substantial amount of soft skill/self help/popscience books and they're easily obtainable in epubs. I pulled te trigger and bought supernote a6x. It size is perfect. I can read and annotate on the go, I can jot during coffee breaks. I take notes on the meetings and then I can put supernote on the stand beside monitor and see bullet points/todo lists for this day.

Supernote support and community is very helpful and constant upgrades take user requests into account.

Thanks for sharing. I got the reMarkable 1 pretty early and I've been debating ordering the reMarkable 2. I've heard almost exclusively good things about it, but right now I'm happy enough with the original device. I hadn't heard of Supernote until seeing this comment, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on when I think about upgrading.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say the RM2 has "pretty much none" when it comes to PDF reading and annotation capabilities. That's pretty much exclusively what I use my RM1 device for and it works great.

EDIT: Wow. Looked at the A5X and for the price compared to the RM2, it's very enticing. (Once you throw in the folio and the pen for the RM2, the A5X is comparable if not cheaper.) Since my old Kindle Keyboard died a while back, I haven't replaced it. Looks like the A5X can also read Kindle books which is a huge draw for me. Do you know if there's any API that allows me to write my own utilities to sync with the A5X? Specifically, I want to be able to send PDFs to the device programmatically that will be eventually synced the next time I use it.

> I'm not sure what you mean when you say the RM2 has "pretty much none" when it comes to PDF reading and annotation capabilities.

Well, all you can basically do is scribble within a PDF. The RM2 doesn't offer proper PDFs annotations and it doesn't even come close to the Supernote in terms of other useful features like bookmarking, digests, etc.

> EDIT: Wow. Looked at the A5X and for the price compared to the RM2, it's very enticing.

Yup, exactly. It seems more expensive upon first sight but it's actually a pretty good deal.

> Do you know if there's any API that allows me to write my own utilities to sync with the A5X? Specifically, I want to be able to send PDFs to the device programmatically that will be eventually synced the next time I use it.

This is exactly what I'm waiting for, too! My hope is that once they open up their platform I'll be able to install the Syncthing Android app and sync my Supernote with all my other devices over WiFi.

> RM2 doesn't offer proper PDFs annotations

This is true and I don't really mind that personally although having read up a bit more on the Supernote, the annotations it generates do seem much nicer.

> it's actually a pretty good deal

Pricing seems about the same really. Especially when you consider the bundle of table, folio, and pen together for each. I was disappointed to see that the standard Supernote pen does not include an eraser and the LAMY pen which does lacks the ceramic tip and instead requires replacing nibs just like the reMarkable pen.

> Pricing seems about the same really. Especially when you consider the bundle of table, folio, and pen together for each.

Fair enough. On the other hand, the Supernote comes with more features than the RM2 and gets updates much more frequently, so one would have to price that in, too.

> I was disappointed to see that the standard Supernote pen does not include an eraser and the LAMY pen which does lacks the ceramic tip and instead requires replacing nibs just like the reMarkable pen.

True. I hear that Ratta (the company behind the Supernote) is working on a pen with built-in eraser, though.

I recently saw that in a firmware update last month there was a new "gesture eraser" feature added. Supposedly if you hold two figures down elsewhere on the screen, then drawing turns into area erase. Curious if you've tried this and how well it works.

Oh, I hadn't heard of that feature yet! Thank you, I'll check it out and let you know!

This is going to sound like an odd question -- does the Supernote do too much? Or is it still simple to use?

I've been wavering on a RM2. I already have an iPad with the Paperlike screen cover. And I absolutely love writing on it. However, it has two downsides for me that keep me from using it all the time for notes:

1) It's still pretty heavy

2) It does too much. Seriously, I also have a keyboard for it, and there are tons of apps that I can use. This is the problem -- because it can do so much, I can't just use it for only notes.

I never heard of the Supernote until today, but it sounds great. I'm just worried that it might do a little too much? I'd love to have a note taking device that I used as much as I used to use a paper notebook.

I understand where you're coming from! Let me dodge your question by saying that, at least for me, the RM2 provides too little . Remarkable (the company) seems to pursuing Apple's vision here in that they're trying to avoid feature bloat – this I appreciate but I still think they should provide more than the most basic of features.

As for the Supernote, it comes with quite a few features I love but also a few ones (email, cloud sync, OCR) I don't really use. But that's fine as they never get in my way, so I don't really notice them.

One exception where the RM2 is (still?) superior feature-wise: Brush styles. The Supernote doesn't come with a lot of options here and is still missing a caligraphy pen and a pencil. It hasn't really bothered me but it might bother people who want to use their e-ink tablet for drawing.

Supernote does not do too much.

It has an excellent note taking app, a quirky way to create word docs, a calendar, ability to read and annotate pdf/epub, an email app (which I found impossible to set up), and kindle. That's it. You cannot install/side-load apps.

So, it is a perfect device for no distraction note taking.

I don't use those features but currently you can sync it using Ratta's own cloud (which is optional by the way, no obligation to create an account), dropbox or email. Otherwise you can copy files via USB. There's no APIs that i know off and currently the device is not hackable so there's no alternative software.

Thanks! Syncing via Dropbox would not be my first choice, but probably sufficient for my use case. I'll definitely have to keep an eye on this :)

The supernote website / product pages are super confusing.

If I want the Lamy pen, and don't want the "nebula" cover, I have to buy the lamy pen separately, but I'll also still get the standard set, which I don't want? Or can I choose the Lamy set but change the cover?

Also, the Lamy pen has a function button, but also doesn't have the ceramic nib. This is weird since they go to such great lengths to convey how valuable the "never wear-out nib" is on the regular supernote pen. Also, does the Lamy pen need to be charged somehow?

Also, apparently, Canadians have had to pay ~$95 in duty, and shipping already isn't cheap. 95$ in duty is insane IMO.

Seems like an interesting product, but the website needs a huge overhaul IMO. I've been looking to replace my Kobo H20 Aura for a while, and I wouldn't mind ponying up a more for the supernote, but the website leaves me with more questions than answers.

I dunno, it's cool

How is it better than the remarkable?

I updated my post! :)

Interesting - thanks for writing up the differences.

For me, lack of android is more of a feature for this kind of device.

It's important to note that unlike the Onyx Boox that exposes the Play Store, the Supernote is only using Android under the hood, it's not visible. It's still an experience controlled by Supernote.

That why they could preinstall the Kindle app, however they don't let you install apps and have a bad experience in the Play Store, bad experience with apps that work but are clunky on an e-ink display...

Not sure why you're getting downvoted – this is certainly a matter of taste. Why do you consider it a feature, though?

Here's why I prefer Android over plain Linux on anything that's not a laptop or desktop computer (or a server):

- Much more secure. Every app is running in a sandbox and permissions are clearly defined. (This is a big one! I don't want to have to trust the apps I'm running.)

- Data encryption by default

- Clearly defined ways for apps to talk to one another (intents etc.), for user data to be separated from app cache etc, for user data to get backed up via Google Backup / Seedvault. Anyone who's trying to do the same on Linux needs to re-invent the wheel here. As Ratta is planning to open up their Supernote platform for 3rd-party apps, this is crucial.

- A/B updates – it's hard to break your device

- Bluetooth & fingerprint support. I wish the Supernote came with a fingerprint reader but it does allow you to use a bluetooth keyboard (though typing comes with a rather long delay)

Part of the draw for me is a device that does very few things with hardware/software optimized for doing those few things well.

In a lot of ways that's the opposite of Android. It doesn't mean that an Android implementation as the base OS has to be bad, but it requires extra effort to constrain it to be good. I've also had performance issues with Android in the past, but maybe that's better now.

I wish it had a web browser. Didn't see many updates from them about it.