E-ink tablet or notebook: what really helps you think

Paper or e-ink, you write by hand, and that changes how you think. You can't write down everything, so you choose, shorten and put things in your own words. Arrows, boxes and small sketches come along naturally.

Both also keep you away from the rest of screen life. A notebook has no notifications, and most e-ink tablets are deliberately plain. So the question is less "hand or keyboard" than: which tool fits your day? What research says about writing by hand, and what it doesn't, is in the guide Why writing by hand helps you remember.

• No battery, no start-up: open it and write, on a train, in a basement or on a building site.
• Any pen works: fountain pen, pencil, ballpoint, highlighter.
• Cheap and replaceable: a lost notebook is annoying, but it isn't an expensive device.
• You remember where things were: "top left, next to the sketch". Many people find things on paper by their place on the page.
• The catch: paper isn't searchable without help. Tasks sit between thoughts, events don't reach your calendar by themselves, and full notebooks end up on a shelf.

As of November 2026. Well-known device families include reMarkable, Kindle Scribe, Boox and Supernote. What a device can do depends on the model and its software, so check the maker's site.

• Many notebooks in one device: light in the bag, no stack on the shelf.
• Erase and move: reorder pages, move parts around, start clean.
• Search and convert: some models can search handwriting or turn it into text, others only with extra software or not at all.
• Export: many devices can share pages as a PDF or an image.
• The catch: the device costs many times more than a notebook, needs charging, and ties you to the maker's pen and software.

A study from Japan compared paper, tablet and smartphone directly: Umejima and colleagues (2021), Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. Participants wrote appointments from a conversation into a calendar, on paper or on a device, and were asked about them in an MRI scanner an hour later.

The paper group showed more activity in brain regions linked to language, imagery and memory while remembering. The difference in results was small: they did better only on the simple questions. It is a single study with a small group of young adults and a simple task. It is a hint, not proof that paper is always better.

Choose paper if …

• you want to write quickly anywhere, without thinking about a battery or a device,
• you want to keep your favourite pen and notebook,
• you want to look at people in a meeting rather than at a device,
• you want to spend little.

Choose an e-ink tablet if …

• you want to carry many notebooks, PDFs and drafts in one place,
• you often erase, reorder and rearrange pages,
• you want to annotate PDFs right on the device,
• the device is worth the price to you.

For many people the honest answer is: paper for the day, and a way to make it useful afterwards.

Axsuro takes away paper's catch. You photograph the page with the iPhone and Android app or upload the photo in the browser. Axsuro reads every line, makes it searchable, and turns lines with a marker into tasks, events, meetings or documents. Tasks and events wait for your Confirm.

This works with pages from an e-ink tablet too: export them as a PDF (up to 50 pages, one page per PDF page) or as an image, upload them, and Axsuro reads them like paper. So you don't have to decide forever.

How to set up a paper notebook for it is in Leuchtturm or Moleskine with Axsuro, and a comparison with a tablet app is in Axsuro vs Goodnotes.

• Why writing by hand helps you remember: what research says, and what it doesn't
  Do you remember handwritten notes better? What Mueller & Oppenheimer 2014, its replications and a 2024 meta-analysis show, and why reviewing matters most.
• Goodnotes vs paper: notes on a tablet or on real paper
  Goodnotes vs paper with Axsuro: what handwriting on a tablet does well, what paper does better, and how to decide which one suits the way you work.
• Leuchtturm or Moleskine with Axsuro: how to set up your notebook
  Your Leuchtturm1917 or Moleskine stays as it is. Set it up with Axsuro: a date, markers, headings, a photo, and every page you write becomes searchable.