RUERTU RT-BE-103C Review

About my contact with Ruertu

A few weeks ago, Ruertu made contact with me and offered to send me a review unit of this tablet, however, I found that there was somewhat of a communication barrier – I couldn’t understand what they wanted and they couldn’t understand what I wanted.

To me, this stemmed from our respective native languages. My ignorance of other languages means that I can only understand English and I believe I was exchanging emails with a native Chinese speaker (whose English, admittedly, is many orders of magnitude better than my Chinese!).

But ultimately, it was still broken English and I was unable to comprehend what the terms of the review unit were (I always demand full editorial control of everything I write and my opinions cannot be influenced by manufacturers). And they did not provide me with the specification data I asked for, despite multiple requests.

So, I felt that there was a lot of potential for misunderstandings between us that would not result in an effective partnership. And it was also becoming too time-consuming to ask for the same information repeatedly. I emailed Ruertu to explain how I felt and left the door open for us to reconnect if they were to ever get a native English speaker on their team.

Reviewing the Ruertu

I did toy with buying the Ruertu myself, but unfortunately, my budget would not allow it – I recently bought and reviewed the Note Air3 and I like to have a financial cushion in case something really cool gets unexpectedly released. So, I decided to delay reviewing the Ruertu for a couple of months.

Thankfully, my friend Jeffrey Moss, kindly checked the specification data for the Ruertu on eWritable and provided me with the information I’d been asking Ruertu for – the spec sheet has now been updated on the website.

Jeff has had a more successful interaction with Ruertu, received a unit from them, and just finished publishing his video review. He has kindly given me permission to re-publish it here (although we disagree from time-to-time, I have full trust in Jeff’s evaluation).

Jeff’s Video Reviews

Some background info on Ruertu

It is worth mentioning that Ruertu does not appear to have their own website or domain name. In addition, my original email contact with Ruertu (supposedly!) was from two separate individuals that had GMail email addresses, with the subject “We need article promotion“. These individuals also asked how much it would cost to write an article promoting the Ruertu on eWritable – I explained that articles on eWritable cannot be purchased (in order to maintain my website’s integrity).

I was also contacted by an individual with a Hotmail email address (Christina) – this is the individual with whom I have had the longer conversations – and they informed me:

You mentioned that someone contacted you initially but did not reply to you later.

I was the only representative of our company who contacted the blogger.

Ruertu

I think this means that the previous two contacts were not part of the Ruertu company?

Anyhow, my point is that I am unable to verify any of the individuals that contacted me saying they were from Ruertu, however, Christina did sound genuine and did offer to send me a review unit. But, the lack of a website, and use of hotmail addresses instead of owning their own domain makes verification difficult, as well as portraying a somewhat unprofessional image here in the West. However, maybe this is how business is conducted in China – Meebook are also a Chinese company without a website and they make some pretty nice e-readers.

Christina provided me with the following introduction to their brand (reproduced -copied/pasted – exactly as it was sent to me):

The RUERTU and  KOORUI brands are a giant in these miconductor display industry of China Tou Huike Group. It is a brand-new mobile Internet enterprise focusing oninteligent hardware and consumption design, developmentand sales of electronic products, founded on July,2023 RUERTU The business started from online, andthe main sales channels covered omnibearing includedAmazon, Jingdong, TikTok and WalmarAnd globalshopping platforms.

Gather HKC superior resources,Innovative product design and experience.

Given the increasing investment in the semiconductor industry in China, RUERTU integrates the resources of the upstream semiconductor screen factory and the downstream terminal Combined resources. Furthermore, RUERTUE is known for the innovative design, rapid development and manufacturing of all kinds of trending products with good market and reputation.

Ruertu

I previously noted that the Ruertu tablet seems to be eerily similar to the Bigme Inknote Color. When asked about their relationship to Bigme, they informed me:

Bigme is just a foundry for us.

Ruertu

I also asked Bigme the same question and they informed me that they could not disclose their clients but they have been an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) since 2008 and only began promoting their own brand to the consumer market since 2020. This essentially means that Bigme manufactures equipment that can be white-labeled by other brands…and I think that this is the case with Ruertu.

Verdict

Just to reiterate – I’ve not yet personally reviewed the Ruertu e-ink tablet, so my verdict is not based on hands-on experience. Instead it is based on reviews from people I trust, the spec sheets, and my own experience of other e-ink tablets (which runs well into double digits).

Despite the issues with communication and professionalism/brand image (i.e. not having their own domain name), I think it is important to remember that Ruertu are essentially a startup business that is less than a year old.

So, I have to give them credit for being able to bring a product to market in less than 8 months – and, as Jeff says in his videos, it does not appear to be a terrible product. I think it will be worth keeping an eye on Ruertu and seeing what they can achieve in the next 8 months as they become more established.

But would I personally buy the Ruertu now? I don’t think I would.

In the 10.3″ Colour (Kaleido 3) e-ink space, there are already some pretty decent options, the Boox Note Air3 C perhaps being my top recommendation, or the Bigme Inknote Color+ Lite as a more budget-friendly option. If you need more RAM, you might look to the Boox Tab Ultra C Pro or the Bigme Inknote Color+.

The Ruertu sort of sits in between – you get the extra RAM/Storage at a pretty affordable price but the software is not quite as polished and the company has not really established itself yet. And given the communication barrier I faced, I wonder what the customer support is like? You certainly can’t get the specs of the Ruertu at the price of the Ruertu from any other manufacturer but I feel there is still a fair bit of work that needs to be done before I can recommend it.

The Ruertu is currently available on Amazon.