And That’s How I Gave Up Paper Notebooks for a Tablet
Not totally — that’s impossible. I have a small rainforest’s worth of unused notebooks on my bookshelf. I’m still analog. I still wear the uniform. But they got to me, man. They got into my head. Into my heart. I am one of them now. I take notes on an e-tablet. It’s not my first time. A million years ago, I thought my brand-new PalmPilot would change my life. But all it did was beep all the time and make me learn a new alphabet, which turned out to be useless and dumb. All my real work has been done on paper in logbooks and planners. I’ve been a paper pusher for decades.There are reasons to prefer pen and paper over stylus and glass.
Partially it’s the feel of it. The scritchy scritch drag of a pen’s nib over the paper. I like cheap paper instead of expensive stationery. That disposability lets me be insanely creative without fearing I’m wasting expensive cotton rag on doodles. I know it’s a little hipster, a little extra to nerd out over luxurious writing implements and Baron Fig (my love) cloth-bound notebooks. But clearly, I’m no longer part of an emergent trend. “Paperists” are a market now.But What If Cool Pencil and Paper Cred Is Bad for the Planet?
There’s no way around it. Paper comes from trees. Although there are some alternatives to wood pulp paper, they are a sliver of the global market. Most paper is paper, and when you use it to doodle a Douglas fir, you’re engaging in some dark irony. Analog tools are made from natural resources. That affects the environment and grows your global footprint. Even if you work hard to use only paper salvaged from the enormous pile of discarded manuscripts mined out of Stephen King’s backyard. Doesn’t matter. Every page I tear off my recycled legal pad is the skin of a tree.Which Is Why a Digital Notebook Is Better
Unless it isn’t. It depends on your ethical position. One 2020 analysis compared the life cycle assessments of an iPad, a Remarkable, and a paper notebook for their impacts on the environment. The scenario was populated by university students taking 70 pages of notes per class per semester. In all aspects of the study, using paper showed a significantly lower environmental impact. According to science, paper is better for the environment.It can be concluded from this study that for a student considering a new note-taking device, paper notebooks seem to be more environmentally friendly than the tablets, given the current state of technology.
But wait a minute, what about the future?
The technology of paper has reached its zenith. It is a time-tested technology whose bugs and glitches were ironed out centuries ago. Electronic tablets are still in the crib. The Remarkable 2 is only the second iteration of the device. By its sixth or seventh iteration, power usage, production of its motherboard, and internal system may improve by a lot. Same with all devices: They get better, cost less, have less impact on the environment. Using a tablet now grows the market, leading to greater advances in minimizing environmental footprint while maximizing its capabilities. Trees aren’t going to get better. And, chopping them down is, perhaps, a bad idea for a planet that needs a whole lot of them to exhale to keep it from bursting into flames. The long game of using devices may be important. The short game goes to paper notebooks.But Electronic Note-taking Tablets Are So Cool!
Undeniably so. The Remarkable 2 and Ratta’s Supernote A5 X are a serious notetaker’s dream. They feel like paper. Looking at them, reading from them, is just like reading from paper. They use electronic ink instead of backlighting (like the iPad), and so they’re more pleasant and better on your eyes. They don’t have 16 million apps. They don’t have color displays. They are, experientially, the same as paper.Let’s Compare the Top Three Tablets
As your analog-digital spy, I’ve secretly investigated three top devices. I peeked under their hood, looked at the fine print and kicked the tires (mixing metaphors is hard work) to see which ones are worth the money. The answer surprised me.1. The Remarkable 2 is trending, and so is the idea of digital pen latency.

2. The Supernote took a weird turn for the paper feel.

But like the Remarkable 2, the Supernote A5 X is pricey.
Shopping for both these devices is exciting. The Remarkable 2’s video is mesmerizing, and the Supernote’s details and design are pure clickbait for compromised analogs (ahem). The writing experience is stripped down to the bones of what writing is: dragging the tip of a pen across paper and nothing else. I mean, file storage, a little monochromatic web surfing, Wi-Fi, and email exchange — sure. They have that. But they’ve aimed to achieve the perfect digital version of paper and they come remarkably close. For nearly $600.3. Seriously? I Can Get a Loaded iPad for Half That Price

Featured image by Andreas Haslinger on Unsplash; iPad photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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