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somewhat light and pared-down iPad and eBook reader hybrid, the reMarkable paper tablet (around £550/US$600) imitates the feel of using a pen on paper without the hassle of running out of ink or lead, and carrying an actual notepad or sketchbook. There’s not much else to love with this promising device if you're a typical 21st-century multitasker, what with its hefty price tag, but if you're out for a no-frills drawing, reading, and writing companion, then reMarkable definitely lives up to its name.

iPad users will find reMarkable a bit weird: all the colors to see are black, gray, and white, and no streamed movies to see either, let alone emails and video chats. It's as if they removed all these other apps and tools to unburden the tablet, and perhaps it worked: it's featherweight and long-lasting (with batteries that work without recharging for days).

Setup, First Use, Storage

Before using the reMarkable tablet you have to register it. Using its full capabalities requires installing the reMarkable app, before which you have to create a My reMarkable account first. While files sync and backup across devices, you need the app to add eBooks and PDFs to reMarkable. The tablet has an 8-GB internal storage, and 8-GB of cloud space hosted via Google Cloud for backup.

Next, we run down all its features and weigh all the pros and cons:

User Interface — It's plain and simple. Three square buttons along the bottom face of the tablet let you turn pages (left and right buttons), and return to the home screen (center button). Here you can organize content into thumbnails or lists, and sort views by Bookmarks (any file assigned for quick access), Documents (PDFs), eBooks (.epub files) or Notebooks (your notes, scribbles, sketches).

If tapping, double-tapping, and swiping left and right with your fingers, along with all other touchpad gestures, have become second nature to you, forget all that when using the reMarkable tablet.