The ReMarkable Paper Pro Move Light Should Be Dim, but You Can Make It Brighter
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I’ve reviewed so many digital notebooks over the past year that my wife would roll her eyes every time I had to sign for a package. Of all the options, the reMarkable Paper Pro and its newer, smaller sibling, the reMarkable Paper Pro Move , are among the most impressive.
I just wish the screens on these two premium e-ink devices were a little more forgiving on my middle-aged eyes, and thanks to a software update earlier this year, they might be.
Darkening by design
In my reviews of the Paper Pro and Paper Pro Move, I noted that their built-in front lights were too dim to be useful. (Unlike the backlights on LED tablets, e-ink devices are illuminated by a backlight layer sandwiched between the outer glass and the inner display, which reflects light downward.) While reMarkable doesn’t publish a number, at full power, the front lights shine at around 3-4 nits, according to testers on Reddit . By comparison, the front lights on the competing Kindle Scribe and Boox Note Air 4C can get much brighter, at up to 94 nits. (For reference, my M1 MacBook Air’s screen maxes out at 400 nits.)
However, according to the statement I received from reMarkable, this was an intentional decision – a limitation built into the product’s design.
“The backlight is primarily designed to softly illuminate the page in low ambient light conditions, such as a dark conference room or at night, without compromising battery life or the natural feel of working with paper,” reMarkable said in an emailed response to questions. “During development, we conducted extensive testing of various brightness levels and environmental conditions, and intentionally limited the maximum brightness to find the optimal balance between visibility, comfort, and battery life.
I appreciate the thoughtfulness—reduced eye strain and longer battery life are certainly among the biggest advantages of e-ink over traditional tablets—but I think it’s gone too far. During my testing, I consistently found both reMarkable tablets to be too dark to read comfortably unless I was in a room with good natural light or had a lamp nearby. Turning the backlight up to maximum brightness didn’t help much. Even in a pitch-black room, I still found myself squinting or holding the device up to my face to read the small print.
A recent software update gives you more options
It seems I’m not the only one disappointed by this feature. A year ago, shortly after Paper Pro was released, Reddit users shared tips for modifying the operating system’s code to remove the software’s backlight limitations. The wealth of user feedback eventually prompted the company to rethink its design decision: while the previous limitations remain, a software update earlier this year (after my Paper Pro review was published) added a new setting to boost brightness.
“Since launch, we’ve heard from some users that they want an extra bright option in certain situations,” reMarkable says. “In response, we’ve added an [Extra bright] toggle to the Display settings that allows users to increase the maximum brightness beyond the default range. This allows users to choose the brightness level that’s right for them while still maintaining the original design intent.”
To try this feature, open the Settings menu on your reMarkable Paper Pro or Paper Pro Move and tap Display , then tap the slider to turn on Extra Brightness . (You’ll see a warning that this “drains your battery faster than usual.”)
The effect isn’t as dramatic as I expected — as you can see above, it’s still much darker than the Kindle Scribe at maximum brightness — but it does improve readability a bit in the conditions described above. The photo at the top of the article is a comparison of the devices’ brightness with and without the new feature enabled. You can also see it in action in this video from YouTube user @howtotechstuff.
As the company notes, brighter light does drain the battery faster. According to a video by @howtotechstuff, during testing, battery drain dropped from 4% per hour to 8% per hour under similar usage conditions. To be fair, that’s a pretty big deal for such a modest increase in brightness, but it might be worth it if it makes the device more comfortable for you.
Is backlighting even necessary on a digital laptop?
While I still find the bright backlighting of other devices I’ve tested more useful, it’s worth noting that a number of e-ink notebooks I’ve reviewed, including the 13.3-inch Boox Note Max , the Viwoods AiPaper , and my personal favorite, the Supernote Manta , lack a front-facing backlight entirely.
Adding a backlight to an e-ink device always involves a trade-off (though not as significant as adding color): adding a light layer to the display stack can affect both the clarity and the distance between the outer screen and the inner e-ink display. When this distance is minimal, digital writing feels like writing with a pen on paper. Devices without a backlight can also be thinner, though in my opinion this is a much less important factor; beyond a certain point , e-ink tablets that are too thin can become quite fragile .
If the Paper Pro and Paper Pro Move didn’t have front lighting at all, they’d still be great devices. They do, but it’s too dim for many users and only mildly annoying, but it’s a relatively new feature that helps.