Curious how it compares with say an iPad. I understand it’s kinda more elegant and feels nice, but aside from that? I was just looking into obsidian for use with math formulas, and it looks like some plugins exist that allow you to paste equations from pdf direct into notes as latex (using some AI behind the scenes) and another which allows you to scribble with a stylus (technically it seems like the math plugin only works on desktop but still pretty cool if it works). I’m thinking this is the best I can do, but sounds like you may have some insights
Discussion
I cannot compare it to a modern iPad. I have not tried one. I imagine an iPad has better features, color, responsiveness, integrations etc.
But I didn't want better. I wanted to write. With a reMarkable2, you turn it on and write, it doesn't do anything else. It is nice to look at, nice to hold, and nice to write on.
If you have a could subscription. It does have OCR but I am not sure it works well with math. I haven't tried it in a while. I don't publish, I just use it as a notepad. Math still seems best done by hand. I don't need to hunt for symbols, I just write them down, same as Euler, and Gauss did.
The main benefits over paper are endless scrolling pages so you can work a problem to its end, and staying organized.
The drawbacks are poor scrolling if you need to look at prior work, smaller than paper screen size, and lack of export options.
Also, while you can make straight lines by holding your stylus down, there isn't a way to make a circle, so diagrams are limited by my own limited artistic ability. I 3d printed my own compass to use. But it is never around when I need it.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I feel you on paper being king for learning math, but I was hoping to copy key formulas and proof snippets I could easily refence from an ever growing slew of pdfs I’ve got, for easy reference. And they’re ugly when I write them down (too many sub/superscripts, vectors, etc).
I may have to consider replacing my paper notebook with this remarkable device though. that might be the perfect stack for me!
You can certainly put all you math PDFs on it and add note pages to them or write on them etc. There is copy/paste functionality but I don't think it works on the text layer. I vaguely think I tried it awhile back for the same reason.
That’s cool. Gonna seriously consider one as replacement for notepads 🙏
One last question if you don’t mind. Nice folio worth spending on? Looks nice (probably dont want keyboard version), but 170 for the nicer one seems steep
My wife has the nice one, but she got me the sleeve by mistake. I have to say. I kinda prefer the sleeve. It has a place for the stylus whereas with the book folio you have to rely on the magnets. Granted the magnets are really good and a satisfying way to hold onto the stylus, but it is harder to trust when you are on the go.
I also like using the device by itself. If you want more protection it you are out and about a lot you can get a much cheaper plastic folio from Amazon. They aren't as durable as the one from remarkable but they probably do a better job protecting the device as they are rigid and the official one is not. We have those for the kids. They have dropped them. The case cracks but the device is fine.
As for the stylus. You can get them cheaper elsewhere but not sure I can recommend it. The magnets are weaker, the response not quite as precise and the eraser side isn't accurate.
Thanks again for further explanation. Very helpful. Think I’ll go with the sleeve, and I’ve gotta have the eraser side extra on the pen.
I’ve got it in the cart but gonna wait a day or two to decide for sure, Christmas just happened recently after all 😅