Keyboards are all well and good, but nothing replaces the feel of pen and paper. Sometimes, the act of physically writing feels less ephemeral than jotting a note with your thumbs. But if you want to take your notepad on the go, actual pen and paper won’t cut it. The best writing tablets let you jot down important reminders, memos and more, and they integrate with cloud services so you can easily store and access your content.
The best writing tablets include the Remarkable 2 tablet, the Apple iPad Pro and the Kobo Elipsa 2E.
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The advantage to writing tablets goes beyond simply having access to all your notes from anywhere at any time. You can also organize, combine and edit notes. Some writing tablets, like our top pick, the Remarkable 2 tablet, let you grab blocks of your notes and move them around. Others, like the Amazon Kindle Scribe, let you open sticky notes to directly mark on your ebooks. As writers and editors, we’ve put the latest crop of writing tablets to the test, spoken with industry experts and have carefully combed through reviews to evaluate the best writing tablets. These are the best writing tablets you can buy today.
Screen size: 10.3-inch | Display: E Ink touchscreen | Operating system: Codex (Linux-based) | RAM: 1GB | Storage: 8GB | Processor: ARM 1.2 GHz dual core | Light: No
Best for: Distraction-free environment for taking and organizing notes.
The Remarkable 2 shines because it focuses on one thing—taking notes—and does it really well. Most tablets have extra apps and a constant flow of notifications that can distract you from your writing mission, but the Remarkable tablet removes those temptations to help you focus.
The Remarkable delivers a slim 10.3-inch E Ink display on a tablet that stands 4.7-millimeters, making it arguably the thinnest tablet on the market. The tablet is lightweight, weighing just 0.9 pounds for easy carry. It has no front or side light as found on other E Ink tablets, so don’t expect to write much in a dimly lit environment. It features with a stylus that when pressed to the display can write like a ballpoint pen, marker and pencil that you can use across a library of templates. You get 8GB of internal storage—which means you can take a library of digital notebooks on the go—and it stores notes as PDF, PNG or SVG files. If you want full synchronization and unlimited storage, Remarkable has its $3/month Connect subscription. You can use the Remarkable app to access your notes at any time from your phone or laptop. Also optional? The $199 type folio case.
What our editors say: “I use three devices daily: My laptop, my cell phone and my Remarkable 2 tablet,” says consumer tech and electronics editor Rebecca Isaacs. “The user-friendly OS makes it easy to take and organize notes, and I love that I can tap open my notes in seconds while taking meetings. It doesn’t come with a backlight—which is the only drawback I’ve found—but I appreciate that I can upload, sign and send documents quickly. I’ve been using the device since early 2021 and even with my library’s worth of notes stored on the tablet, I’ve barely used more than 1GB of storage. It’s my go-to note-taking device.”
Pros:
Distraction-free note-taking experience
Full integration with Microsoft, Google and other cloud storage
Great organization system within the Codex (Linux-based) OS
Best For: Making notes directly on books and documents.
The Rakuten Kobo Elipsa 2E is a great option for students wanting to jot directly onto a book’s page. It can handle 15 file formats as well, including ePub and PDF. Kobo’s interface is well-suited for borrowing library books through OverDrive, but you can also order your books through the Rakuten Kobo Store, too. The Elipsa has 32GB of storage for e-books, audiobooks, PDFs and other documents, one of the largest features you can get right now. It uses an E Ink display that’s easy on the eyes, and it has LED side lighting to illuminate the screen and adjust color temperature for those late-night study sessions.
The Elipsa 2E’s pen also makes this worthy of your consideration. It comes with a stylus that lets you write notes directly on e-books and documents, just as you would if you were holding a pen to page. The stylus has a a USB-C port on the side for charging, and it has a faux eraser on top. If you flip the stylus upside-down on the tablet, it switches into eraser mode. You can magnetically attach the stylus to the Elipsa 2E, a handy trick so you don’t lose it.
What our editors say: Tech editor Rebecca Isaacs tested the device and loved how easy it was to read books and take notes. “As a heavy note-taker and reader, I loved that the Kobo combines two of my most important daily routines into one handy tablet. It’s thin and light, so I can easily toss it in my bag for on-the-go moments. Plus, the backlight helps me work and read when I’m on cross-country flights.”
Pros:
Write directly on book pages
Includes stylus
Handles 15 file types
Cons:
Search engine not user-friendly for searching Kobo books
Best for: Kindle users who want to combine their books and notetaking into one device.
The Amazon Kindle Scribe is another two-in-one design tied to Amazon’s Kindle and Audible eBook ecosystem. The 10.2-inch screen provides enough space to comfortably read your favorite books as well as create to-do lists, write memos and take meeting notes. The note-taking software is task-focused; choose the page style from among the presets and then you can start taking notes. You can add comments to books and documents, but the Kindle Scribe does so by putting them into a digital sticky note instead of directly on the page. The included stylus clips to the edge of the Kindle Scribe magnetically.
If you have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you can use the Kindle Scribe to take notes and create comments on Word documents. Plus, thanks to the Kindle app integration, you can use your laptop or phone to pull up any marked-up documents for review. The LED sidelight is fully adjustable, so you can use the built-in warm light for reading or taking notes in low-light. We recommend the model priced here, with the Premium Pen (with virtual eraser and shortcut buttons) and double the baseline storage. These upgrades add $50 to the total cost, but they make the Scribe even more usable.
What our editors say: Consumer tech and electronics editor Rebecca Isaacs reviewed the Amazon Kindle Scribe and says, “If you’re considering an e-reader, the Scribe is worthwhile for students and workers who want to take notes and maximize that precious carry-on real estate while traveling. Plus, with that backlight, it can be easy to take notes while in dimly lit areas, airplanes included. For a relatively affordable price tag, the Amazon Kindle Scribe is worth your investment.”
Pros:
Friendly Kindle interface
Microsoft Office integration
Magnetic stylus
Cons:
Can’t write directly on the book and document pages
Best for: Reading and annotating color content on an Android tablet with a color E Ink screen.
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C combines the best of its grayscale sibling and adds a color E Ink display. It’s the first color E Ink display to add color to your notes. Choose your saturation level, refresh rate and even hue for the HD E-ink Carta display. For the most detailed of note takers, it’s easy to highlight and color code your notes, and you can design everything and anything in the notebook.
Because it runs with on Android, you can also add your favorite apps, and it effectively doubles as an E Ink productivity tool. Plus, with the over 4,000 different colors the tablet can display, you can create art on the Tab Ultra C, making it a solid option for artists.
What Our Editors Say: Tech Editor Rebecca Isaacs reviewed the device and said, “The tablet offers a plethora of distinct display refresh rates: HD, Ultrafast, Fast, Balanced and Regal. While some rate settings are designed for watching videos, others reduce the refresh rate in favor of showing finer display details. While using Discord, some preset refresh rates detract from my messaging experience with severe ghosting. Other display settings keep up with the notifications and changing screen for Google Docs and Microsoft Office. It boils down to your own needs.”
Pros:
Over 4,000 available colors for drawing, designing and more
Best for: Reading, taking notes and using your favorite (basic) Android apps.
The Onyx Boox Note Air3 tablet is a great choice if you want to have access to some of your main Android apps on the go. Like the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C on our list, the Note Air3 runs on the Android OS—Android 12, to be precise—so you can download apps like Kindle, Libby and more to double as a reading tablet. While you won’t get color with this grayscale model, you can get a color-based Note Air3 for $100 more if color is an absolute must.
In addition to the 10.3-inch screen, you get 64GB of storage for your notes, and 4GB RAM is speedy enough to pop in and out of apps for multi-tasking needs. Plus, with the build-in backlight, you can work for hours for late-night study sessions, on airplane and more.
What our editors say: Tech editor Rebecca Isaacs tested the Note Air3 and says, “For those that don’t need the power of the Tab Ultra C, the Note Air3 works well. The response on the page felt smooth and fast when writing and tapping in between apps. Plus, the Note Air3’s cloud storage and Google integrations meant I could review my Google cloud documents in real time before returning to my note-taking.”
Best for: Apple enthusiasts who want to keep their tech in one ecosystem.
The Apple iPad Pro 11-inch has a roomy 11-inch LCD display that’s perfect for writing notes and drawing using Apple Pencil. It has Apple’s latest M2 processor and comes with either 128GB of storage or 256GB of storage, depending on your needs. Apple’s ecosystem also features some great tools for note takers and those that prefer to hand write, including Notes and Books, which allows you to take notes and mark up your books. Because the Apple Pencil has built-in Safari integration, you can also mark up web pages with the iPad, too.
Because it’s a tablet first and foremost, the Apple Pencil comes separately and costs about $89. If you’re buying an iPad for its writing prowess, you need to invest in the Apple Pencil separately. Don’t let that sway you from splurging on this premium tablet, though. This writing tablet is perfect for Apple users since it connects seamlessly into the rest of the Apple device and iOS app ecosystem. It’s also great for students who want to have a seamless connection between their MacBook and their iPad so they can review notes on the Apple iCloud.
What our writers say: Apple expert David Phelan reviewed the Apple iPad Pro and says, “The snappy design on the tenth-generation iPad now matches the Pro, Air and mini. This 2022 iteration ups the display size, and it adds rounded corners to boot. Plus, the Touch ID moves to the top button, making it so much more convenient to unlock the tablet. Performance is fast and strong, easily enough for most people.”
The Forbes Vetted tech team is well-versed in all things digital, having written hundreds of articles in the category. A couple of staffers, including Dave Johnson, our executive editor, have even authored a books on tech-related hardware subjects.
Melissa Perenson, the co-author of this story, has reviewed e-readers since the release of the first Kindle, and she’s been an avid stylus user since the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone introduced the concept. The Forbes Vetted team has performed hands-on testing with every tablet on this list and has talked to industry experts and cross compared each tablet’s specs with the competition. We strive to offer accurate, trustworthy product assessments that are the result of our intensive research and hands-on testing.
Our writers and editors have years of experience writing about a broad range of consumer electronics and have the background and expertise to help you make the best buying decisions possible. The tech vertical is overseen by Rebecca Isaacs, the consumer tech and electronics editor at Forbes Vetted.
We know tech tends to become quickly outdated. To keep this piece fresh and accurate, it’s regularly updated; its current iteration was published in February 2024.
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