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In the realm of e-ink notepads, two brands often come up: reMarkable and Amazon’s Kindle. The Paperslate Pro, however, is a French innovation, offering a unique feature that its competitors lack: it operates on an Android-based OS, complete with access to the Google Play Store. This allows the installation of a wide range of apps in addition to the pre-installed ones. It also boasts water resistance, a rare feature in this market segment.
The Paperslate Pro features a 10-inch monochrome e-ink display. Unlike typical tablet screens, the e-ink display does not strain the eyes and can be read even in bright sunlight. Paperslate prices it at €429.95, compared to €349.95 for the standard version, which is less well-equipped. We have tested the Paperslate Pro. Does it live up to its promises?
Technical Specifications
| Model | Paperslate Pro |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 168.2 mm x 6 mm |
| DPI | 203 dpi |
| Expandable Storage | microSD |
| Internal Memory | 64 GB |
| Battery Life (as per manufacturer) | 7 days |
| Connector Type | USB Type-C |
| Weight | 430 g |
| Color | Black |
| Appearance | Metal |
| Protection Rating | IPx8 |
| Product sheet |
The unit for this review was provided by the brand.
Design
The Paperslate Pro features a fully black aluminum chassis, weighing 430 grams. It’s definitely noticeable in hand. While the finishes are good and the design is minimalist, the tablet lacks a bit of elegance, perhaps due to the large bezels surrounding the screen. It measures 23.3 mm in length, 16.2 mm in width, and 6 mm in thickness.
Apart from that, there’s little to criticize. It is sufficiently slim, and the buttons are well-placed. For an e-ink tablet, it’s quite standard.
On the upper edge, you’ll find all the ports and buttons: the USB-C port for charging, a slot for a microSD card, the speaker, and the unlock button.
The tablet comes with a stylus, which was somewhat surprising. In my opinion, it feels somewhat cheap due to the low-quality plastic. This impression is compounded by its small size and light weight, which make it feel less durable and more toy-like.
This stylus supports 4096 levels of pressure. It comes with an indelible tip and a soft tip (usable for 3 months). However, it’s appreciated that it includes an eraser (a plastic button at the top of the stylus) and a button on the body for highlighting, as well as a clip. Importantly, this stylus lacks a battery and does not magnetically attach to the tablet’s edge. Therefore, a case (or the clip!) is essential to avoid losing it.
In terms of chassis and design, the Paperslate Pro has something its rivals do not: an IPX8 rating making it waterproof.
Screen
The screen is quite white, with fairly good contrast, making reading enjoyable. However, the highlights stop there. Although the display itself is 1600 x 1200 pixels, the Paperslate features a resolution of 200 DPI, which is low for a tablet of this type; typically, they are around 300 DPI. The low resolution affects the quality: visible pixelation on straight lines when using the stylus, and texts become less sharp as soon as you zoom in.
The most troublesome issue was the screen’s ghosting. The refresh setting is adjustable, either turned off or set to refresh every 1, 5, 10, 15, or 20 actions. Due to the strong ghosting effect (where you can see a faint image of the previous page beneath the current one), you might be tempted to set it to refresh at every action. However, this causes the screen to flicker to negative, which is annoying if it happens every few seconds.
On a positive note, the backlighting is excellently implemented and deserves praise. You can precisely adjust the backlighting to be warmer or cooler using two sliders.
Stylus
Despite being light to hold, the stylus provides a good writing sensation. The screen’s coating is smooth, allowing the tip to glide fluidly. The soft tip is the most pleasant for writing, but the indelible tip is also perfectly usable. The responsiveness is quite good, making note-taking enjoyable. There’s not much to complain about here.
Performance and Features
The Paperslate Pro, like its sibling, is equipped with 2 GB of DDR4 RAM and an RK3566 processor (1.8 GHz). It offers 64 GB of storage, expandable via a microSD card.
In terms of wireless capabilities, it is well-equipped, supporting both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth 5.0. The inclusion of a speaker is a surprising feature in the digital notepad market.
A speaker, yes. But where are the + and – buttons to adjust the volume? Or at least, a software slider in the quick menu? There’s absolutely nothing available to adjust the volume.
After installing the Audible audiobook app, I played an audiobook to test the speaker. It works, but the sound level is so low that it’s very difficult to hear anything. And with no adjustment option on the tablet or the Audible app, it’s simply unusable. It’s best to connect Bluetooth headphones…
Software
The major distinguishing strength of this digital notepad is that it runs on Android (version 11).
This gives you access to the Play Store. This is particularly handy for using the full suite of Google apps, including Google Docs, Drive, Calendar, etc. The default browser works well, and I also installed Opera Mini. While loading times are slow, which is unsurprising, it is useful for reading news articles, for example.
However, while you can indeed install most apps from the Play Store, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will function properly. For instance, YouTube and Spotify crashed every time after about 20 seconds of use: it was impossible to play a video or music. This also sometimes happened with the Play Store.
This type of incident highlights a major issue with the Paperslate Pro: its slowness, due to its lack of power. If basic navigation on the tablet is already not very smooth, things get even more complicated when you try to use an app. The device suffers from many slowdowns and bugs, to the point where you really need to be patient at times.
It will also be difficult to use any note-taking app other than the one integrated natively. JNotes and Sketchbook, for taking notes and drawing respectively, are simply unusable. Indeed, there is a significant delay between drawing a line and it appearing on the screen. This is unfortunate for a tablet that promotes the ability to use the apps of your choice.
Note-taking and AI Functions
The tablet allows you to take notes very simply, via the “Note” tab at the bottom of the screen. There, you can create your notebooks and organize them.
If you create a new note, a document opens. You can choose from a marker, pen, pencil, and highlighter, as well as yellow, green, blue, and red in addition to black. Of course, since the screen is not in color, these will only appear upon exporting. The thickness of the line is adjusted via a precise slider.
Then, you can export your note in three different formats of your choice: as a handwritten PDF, or a digital transcription (via AI), either in PDF or Word format. Having tested it with several texts, the AI transcription of handwritten to typed text is very effective: I did not notice any errors. Note that the AI can also transcribe mathematical formulas or diagrams.
E-reader Functions
You can also view PDFs and ebooks. The ePub format is supported. The FBReader app is pre-installed and allows you to read your various files. Page navigation is not too slow. Also convenient is the ability to install Google Docs and thus have access to your text files synchronized across all your devices.
Battery Life
The tablet has a 3,200 mAh battery. The brand promises a week of use, which is less than its main competitors. This is easily explained by the use of Android, an OS that is much more power-hungry than KindleOS and reMarkableOS. If the battery life itself is fulfilled (between 5 and 7 days) and honest, the Paperslate suffers from a small problem: battery loss in standby. Thus, if you do not use it for one or two weeks, there is a good chance that you will find it completely flat.
In terms of charging, the tablet took 2.5 hours to go from 0 to 100% with a 20W charger.
Price and Availability
The Paperslate Pro is available for €429.95, only in black.
Paperslate Pro
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