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About

Hi,

My name’s Dan

I have a bit of a passion for e-ink writing tablets.

Here’s a picture of me with some of the tablets I own.

I use these little gadgets every day for:

  • Taking notes
  • Research
  • Making plans
  • Journaling
  • Reading e-books
  • Doodling
  • Plus, much more…

I don’t really need this many – one would suffice – but I actually love playing around with them and learning about the capabilities and use cases of each device. Buying them has become a bit of an addiction!

Here’s the story of how I got into e-ink tablets…

I previously used paper notebooks to record my thoughts, ideas and plans.

My girlfriend would buy me a Leuchtturm1917 every Christmas and I would use it as my journal for the year.

But, the more notebooks I filled, the more storage space I needed. Searching through old notes would also be very time-consuming. And, if I made a mistake, it was difficult to erase or undo.

So, I decided to move my system online. I tried a few different apps; Google Keep, Microsoft OneNote and Evernote, to name a few. Eventually, I decided on Google Keep as my note-taking app of choice.

I persisted with digital note-taking for several months, but despite my being able to organise my notes better and easily find old notes, it didn’t feel quite right and sometimes felt rather stressful.

Eventually, I realised that this was because I missed holding a pen and actually writing. For me, there is something wonderfully therapeutic and satisfying about the writing experience, which I just couldn’t get from typing on a keyboard.

So, I decided to invest in a laptop and a mobile phone with built-in styluses (for those that are interested, I use a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite and an Acer Chromebook Spin 713).

Although these devices improved the note-taking experience considerably because I could now actually write on the screen, something was still missing. It took me several more months to figure out exactly what this was.

The backlight/blue light from the LCD screen was too bright, even when set to low, and the glassy texture made the writing feel somehow ‘wrong’.

It didn’t have the same feeling as writing on paper. It was smooth and sometimes even squeaky, and the stylus glided far too easily over the glossy surface.

I felt that I would never find a solution combining the best features of both a digital and paper-based system.

And then, I saw an advertisement for the reMarkable 2 – a tablet that was as close to writing on paper as possible.

At this point, I didn’t actually buy the reMarkable 2 (although I do have one now), but it prompted me to look deeper into this new-fangled e-ink technology.

And in the end, I bought the Onyx Boox Max Lumi 2.

Now, it wasn’t perfect, and there are plenty of improvements that could be made to it, but on the whole, I was overjoyed with this device and used it almost every day for both work and personal stuff.

Whilst the Max Lumi did what I needed it to, I gradually developed an interest in other e-ink tablets and started buying more of them to add to my collection. I originally thought I’d buy them, see what they could do, then send them back or resell them. But I just really liked the quirks and eccentricities of each device and decided to keep them all.

Today, my goto tablet is the Supernote A5 X. Of all the e-ink tablets I’ve tested, this is the one that provides me with the best of both analogue and digital.

Why I made this website…

One thing I noticed during my research into e-ink tablets is that there really isn’t much information about them on the Internet. A lot of reviews are pure BS, and it is difficult for the average user to understand the features of each device without making a purchase – I certainly struggled to obtain the buying information I was searching for.

So, I made this website to provide accurate information about the range of products that are available in this technological niche that will (hopefully) help others who are looking for a digital note-taking solution.

What is the roadmap for this website?

I’ll be honest – I’m not quite sure how this website will pan out.

It’s a bit of a passion project for me because I love playing around with these types of devices and seeing what they can do and how they can support my workflows and mindfulness.

Over the past six months, it has gone from a simple list of e-ink tablets to comparison tables, and reviews. I’m even publishing a bit of e-ink news from time to time. The overwhelming feedback has been very positive and I’ve recently added affiliate links to the information so that the website can earn a little cash to fund my next e-ink tablet purchases.

I’ve had requests to add e-readers, e-ink monitors, and e-ink phones to the list, so that is also something I’m very interested in doing.

If you would like to contact me, please email dan@ewritable.com

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About the author

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Dan Dutton is passionate about E-ink writing tablets, which bring together the pleasure of writing on paper with the power of digital technology. When he bought his first tablet, he realised that there wasn't a lot of unbiased information available for people that were considering buying an E-ink tablet, and so he built eWritable.