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Title: The best E Ink tablets for 2025

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2025 09:01:28 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/best-...

E Ink tablets have always been intriguing to me because IΓÇÖm a longtime
lover of pen and paper. IΓÇÖve had probably hundreds of notebooks over the
years, serving as repositories for my story ideas, to-do lists, meeting notes
and everything in between. However, I turned away from physical notebooks at
a certain point because it was just easier to store everything digitally so I
always had my most important information at my fingertips.

E Ink tablets seem to provide the best of both worlds: the tactile
satisfaction of regular notebooks with many of the conveniences found in
digital tools, plus easy-on-the-eyes E Ink screens. These devices have come a
long way in the past few years, and weΓÇÖre just starting to see more color E
Ink tablets become more widely available. I tested out a number of different
E Ink tablets to see how well they work, how convenient they really are and
which are the best tablets using E Ink screens available today.

Editors note (6/27/25): Earlier this year, it was rumored that reMarkable
would raise its prices due to "increased costs." A reMarkable representative
confirmed this to Engadget and provided the following statement: "We
regularly review our pricing based on market conditions and operational
costs. We've communicated an upcoming adjustment for the US market effective
in May to provide transparency to our customers. Multiple factors influence
our pricing decisions, including supply chain dynamics and overall
operational costs in specific markets. We're adjusting our US pricing in May
and have notified customers in advance."

The increase in prices manifested in the reMarkable Paper Pro jumping from
$579 to $629 (that's for the bundle with the standard Marker and no Folio).
This isn't great, considering the Paper Pro was already on the expensive side
of the spectrum for E Ink tablets. However, we still consider it our top
"premium" pick. It's also worth noting that Supernote and Onyx Boox have
raised prices in the past few months as well.

Table of contents

Best E Ink tablets for 2025

Are E Ink tablets worth it?

What to look for in an E Ink tablet

Other E Ink tablets we've tested

Best E Ink tablets for 2025

Are E Ink tablets worth it?

An E Ink tablet will be a worthwhile purchase to a very select group of
people. If you prefer the look and feel of an e paper display to LCD panels
found on traditional tablets, it makes a lot of sense. TheyΓÇÖre also good
options for those who want a more paper-like writing experience (although you
can get that kind of functionality on a regular tablet with the right screen
protector) or a more distraction-free device overall.

The final note is key here. Most E Ink tablets donΓÇÖt run on the same
operating systems as regular tablets, so youΓÇÖre automatically going to be
limited in what you can do. And even with those that do allow you to download
traditional apps like Chrome, Instagram and Facebook, E Ink tablets are not
designed to give you the best casual-browsing experience. This is mostly due
to the nature of E Ink displays, which have noticeable refreshes, a lack of
color and lower quality than the panels youΓÇÖll find on even the cheapest
iPad.

Arguably the biggest reason why you wouldnΓÇÖt want to go with an iPad (all
models of which support stylus input, a plethora of reading apps, etc) is
because itΓÇÖs much easier to get distracted by email, social media and other
Internet-related temptations. An e-reader is also worth considering if this
is the case for you, but just know that most standard e-readers do not accept
stylus input. If you like to make notes in the margins of books, underline
and mark up PDFs and the like, an e-reader wonΓÇÖt cut it.

What to look for in an E Ink tablet Latency

I discovered four main things that can really make or break your experience
with an E Ink tablet during my testing; first is the writing experience. How
good it is will depend a lot on the displayΓÇÖs refresh rate (does it refresh
after every time you put pen to ΓÇ£paper,ΓÇ¥ so to speak?) and the stylusΓÇÖ
latency. Most had little to no latency, but there were some that were worse
than others. Finally, you should double check before buying that your
preferred E Ink tablet comes with a stylus.

Reading

The second thing to consider is the reading experience. How much will you be
reading books, documents and other things on this tablet? While you can find
E Ink tablets in all different sizes, most of them tend to be larger than
your standard e-reader because it makes writing much easier. Having a larger
display isnΓÇÖt a bad thing, but it might make holding it for long periods
slightly more uncomfortable. (Most e-readers are roughly the size of a
paperback book, giving you a similar feeling to analog reading).

The supported file types will also make a big difference. ItΓÇÖs hard to make
a blanket statement here because this varies so much among E Ink tablets. The
TL;DR is that youΓÇÖll have a much better reading experience if you go with
one made by a company that already has a history in e-book sales (i.e. Amazon
or Kobo). All of the titles you bought via the Kindle or Kobo store should
automatically be available to you on your Kindle or Kobo E Ink tablet. And
with Kindle titles, specifically, since they are protected by DRM, itΓÇÖs not
necessarily the best idea to try to bring those titles over to a third-party
device. Unless the tablet supports reading apps like AmazonΓÇÖs Kindle or the
Kobo app, youΓÇÖll be limited to supported file types, like ePUB, PDF, MOBI,
JPEG, PNG and others.

Search functionality

Third, most E Ink tablets have some search features, but they can vary widely
between models. YouΓÇÖll want to consider how important it is to you to be
able to search through all your handwritten notes and markups. I noticed that
AmazonΓÇÖs and KoboΓÇÖs E Ink tablets made it easy to refer back to notes
made in books and files because they automatically save on which pages you
took notes, made highlights and more. Searching is less standardized on E Ink
tablets that have different supported file types, but their features can be
quite powerful in their own right. For example, a few devices I tested
supported text search in handwritten notes along with handwriting
recognition, the latter of which allows you to translate your scribbles into
typed text.

Sharing and connectivity

The final factor to consider is sharing and connectivity. Yes, we established
that E Ink tablets can be great distraction-free devices, but most
manufacturers understand that your notes and doodles arenΓÇÖt created in a
vacuum. YouΓÇÖll likely want to access them elsewhere, and that requires some
form of connectivity. All of the E Ink tablets I tried were Wi-Fi devices,
and some supported cloud syncing, companion mobile apps and the ability to
export notes via email so you can access them elsewhere. None of them,
however, integrate directly with a digital note taking system like Evernote
or OneNote, so these devices will always be somewhat supplementary if you use
apps like that, too. Ultimately, you should think about what you will want to
do with the documents youΓÇÖll interact with on your E Ink tablet after the
tablet portion is done.

Other E Ink tablets we've tested Lenovo Smart Paper

Lenovo made a solid E Ink tablet in the Smart Paper, but it's too pricey and
too married to the company's companion cloud service to warrant a spot on our
top picks list. The hardware is great, but the software isn't as flexible as
those of competitors like the reMarkable 2. It has good Google Drive
integration, but you must pair it with Lenovo's cloud service to really get
the most use out of it — and in the UK, the service costs £9 per month for
three months, which is quite expensive.

Onyx Boox Tab Ultra

The Boox Tab Ultra has a lot of the same features we like in the Note Air 2
Plus, but itΓÇÖs designed to be a true, all-purpose tablet with an E Ink
screen. Running Android 11 and compatible with a magnetic keyboard case, you
can use it like a standard 2-in-1 laptop, albeit a low-powered one. You can
browse the web, check email and even watch YouTube videos on this thing ΓÇö
but that doesnΓÇÖt mean you should. A standard 2-in-1 laptop with a more
responsive screen and better overall performance would be a better fit for
most people who even have the slightest desire to have an all-in-one device.
Like the rest of OnyxΓÇÖs devices, the Tab Ultra is specifically for those
who put reading and eye comfort above all else.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/best-...
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