Best E-Ink Tablets of 2022

e-ink tablets take your basic e-reader and kick it up a notch letting you take notes with the stylus they combine the battery life and easy reading experience of a kindle with the writing and note-taking ability usually found on traditional tablets so are they worth it compared to traditional tablets i compare three of the most popular models [Music] first thing first eating tablets aren't trying to be your go-to entertainment device you can't scroll through social media watch tv or play games these devices ditch the bright lcd displays found on ipads and other tablets in favor of the energy efficient e-ink technology the screens use grayscale just like your basic kindle yes these e-ink tablets do have some kind of rudimentary web browser but they are slow and definitely not fun to use if you want to browse the web stick with a tablet i find they work best for activities like reading note-taking and handwriting their goal is to give you the most paper-like experience if you need to plow through pdfs or love to take hand-written notes in a distraction-free setting an e-ink tablet is ideal so what's the difference between an e-ink tablet and an e-reader e-readers like kindles and kobo's tend to be small about the size of a paperback book they're also basically good only for reading you can highlight text and type out small notes with the on-screen keyboard but they tend not to have stylus support i tested three of the most popular e-ink tablets available to see how they stood up in real world use first up is the 300 remarkable two this one is one of the best for taking lots of handwritten notes it's super thin and light which makes it easy to carry around in a backpack it's 10.3 inches and uses a monochrome digital display with a resolution of 226 dpi the writing and text look clear and sharp and you can choose from over 40 different page templates for notes with seven options just for musical notation including guitar chords and piano sheets the software is easy to use with clear buttons at the top to add notebooks and folders it has eight gigabytes of internal storage and an optional cloud storage service for eight dollars per month after a 100 day free trial that connect service also does handwriting conversion and has google drive dropbox and onedrive integration the included stylish which doesn't require pairing or charging is great it offers the most realistic writing experience of any tablet i have ever used the screen has a paper-like feel which gives the pen a level of friction that feels incredibly true to life the remarkable 2 also shines with pdfs highlights automatically straighten themselves and turn a legible shade of gray i could add pages to pdfs for extra notes or write in the margins with ease the remarkable's thinness pen input and pdf management capabilities make this e-ink tablet one of my favorites the biggest issue is that the remarkable 2 lacks any kind of backlight which frankly could be a deal breaker much like an actual book or notebook this device requires an external light source to use in the dark even the cheapest kindle now has front light illumination for nighttime use it also doesn't function particularly well as an e-reader as the only formats it supports are pdf and unprotected epub that means you won't be able to access your kindle content or any other epub books with digital rights management software which includes almost all legally purchasable books on the market ultimately i found this e-ink tablet to be incredibly helpful as i mostly use it to highlight and markup long pdfs at 300 this is the cheapest e-ink tablet on our list but it's still essentially just a pdf and note-taking device next up is the 490 dollar onyx books note air 2. this is the most tablet-like e-ink device i tested it features a resolution of 227 dpi runs on a customized version of the android 11 operating system and even has its own app store where you can download third-party apps that have been optimized for the device there's also a way to access the full google play store though i wouldn't recommend it for anything other than downloading an e-reading app as the books still has an e-ink display and isn't made for games or video it's 64 gigabytes of storage which sadly isn't expandable and will fill up fast if you download a lot of apps the company does offer five gigabytes of cloud storage from its own service for free to help transfer documents to the device though you can also use dropbox evernote and onenote the biggest benefit of the app store is that you'll have access to your entire collection of books from your kindle nook and kobo library you can also download the libby app for library books and marvel unlimited users can download the app and read comics though not in color the note air 2 includes speakers and a microphone allowing you to listen to audio books from audible or other audiobook apps this is a great selling point of the device but i found the in-app experience to be less than ideal if you're someone who downloads ebooks for school don't count on taking notes on top of your books to write directly onto them you'll need to have them in a drm free ebook format for example you won't be able to use the pen to take notes or highlights and books on the kindle app luckily the book supports a wide range of formats including pdf epub doc and moby note taking and pdf management are strong on the note air 2 but not as seamless as on the remarkable two highlights aren't automatically straightened and users have to choose the color and width of the marker the note air 2 provides 16 options of grayscale color but they all look the same on the device leaving highlights looking dark and messy the included stylus also lagged ever so slightly when writing across the page on the plus side if you like audio notes you can include audio recordings the note air 2 also lets you open a pdf and notebook at the same time in a split screen view giving you the ability to read and take notes all at once like the kindle paperwhite and oasis the books note air 2 comes with a warm and cold front light to help make the screen easier on the eyes and give it a more paper-like look you can easily adjust both lights with a swipe down menu while this tablet is by far the most expensive on our lists it's also the most versatile of the e-ink tablets and does a lot well but nothing great you might see that the company has recently announced a note air 2 plus i haven't tried this one but it's almost identical to the original air 2 but with a bigger battery which also makes it slightly heavier finally we have the 400 kobo ellipsa kobo might be a smaller company than amazon but it's been making e-readers for just about as long while amazon once made a 9.7 inch kindle the product never offered natural input with a touchscreen or stylus and was discontinued in 2014 the ellipsa has a 10.3 inch screen and comes with a stylus and case unlike kindles kobo's have a seemingly limitless ability to customize the reading experience you can play continuously with margins line spacing fonts and font size to get a page that looks exactly how you want to no matter the size of the screen the stylus can be used on any pdf or kobo epub so it works just as well on library books as it does on books from the kobo store speaking of the library kobo is known for its deep integration with the ebook library service overdrive you can easily access browse and download library books directly from your device so long as your local library uses overdrive unfortunately the ellipse's note taking capabilities are lacking i experienced frustrating lag when writing with a stylus for any length of time and the notebook features are fairly basic the basic notebook gives you four different templates graph paper wide line dotted paper and blank for comparison the remarkable two offers a whopping eight different options just for lined paper advanced notebooks let you convert your handwriting to text insert drawings diagrams math equations and a free form section but there's just one type of lined page in which to take your notes there are only a few types of pens to choose from and just five pen brush sizes much fewer than the remarkable two in short i wasn't able to use the notebook feature for anything other than the most basic scribbles and i wouldn't recommend it for anything more than that the cobalt elipsa has 32 gigabytes of storage a resolution of 227 dpi and a blue front light but it lacks the warm light of the books while this e-ink tablet misses the mark on long-form writing it excels at large screen library-friendly e-reader with the ability to scribble in the margins so overall each e-ink tablet i tested has its strengths and weaknesses the remarkable is best for pdfs and note taking the books note air 2 is the most versatile and expensive and the kobo is the best for reading do you have any questions or a favorite e-ink model let me know in the comments for more guides and videos like this check out the description below thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: CNET

Views: 414,614

Keywords: CNET, Technology, News, Tech, Review, mobile phone, apple, android, unboxing, vs, science, smartphone, E-Ink, Tablets, remarkable, boox, rakuten, Kindle

Id: uTkrrP7DxdM

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 13 2022