reMarkable Paper Pro Earns Calm Tech Certification
Here’s Why We Think It’s Amazing
I’m incredibly excited to award Calm Tech certification to reMarkable Paper Pro, an innovative paper tablet with a color display.
I recently completed the certification process during an in-person visit to reMarkable’s headquarters in Norway, where the design team walked me through the entire entire consumer experience — buying, unboxing, setting up, and fully using the device, reviewing each moment against a 81+ point evaluation process.
I felt the Paper Pro was special from the moment I first opened its shipping box. Even the product’s packaging, composed of FSC certified compostable material, was relaxing — a fresh break from the stressful explosion of foam pellets and plastic bubble wrap that typically associated with high tech products.
The next morning, after calculating the Paper Pro’s score, I found that the device had earned certification, well, remarkably well. It achieved one of the highest scores of any product we’ve audited!
Calm Tech Design Highlights of reMarkable Paper Pro
Digital e-ink: Case has written often about the overabundance of blue lighting disrupting natural sleep cycles. The Paper Pro’s digital ink display makes it possible to use the device in bed without disrupting natural circadian rhythms.
Optional connectivity: Use the device with wi-fi enabled or with no Internet/5G connection at all, emailing your work whenever you’re online — without a subscription. This stands in sharp contrast to most competing “smart” devices that always require connectivity.
Focus mode: Press one button, and the entirety of the Paper Pro user interface goes away, so you can simply be in your project.
All these features and more make reMarkable a digital tablet that not only improves sketching, note taking and creative work, but is also an ideal enhancement to overall well-being.
A Calm Tech Approach to Profitable Companies
Calm Tech Institute is excited to follow reMarkable’s development over time, especially since they have seem to thrive in ways that are complementary to Calm Technology principles. reMarkable’s company culture is clearly flourishing, with a talented, fun team of people excited about the future, who also think deeply about how humans can work without always being tethered to their laptops. While reMarkable is future-oriented, they also keep the human past in mind — the Calm Tech ideal.
Originally crowdfunded in 2016, pre-selling the first line of units to backers, reMarkable’s business model is refreshingly traditional: They make money from selling high quality products that consumers find valuable.
That may seem obvious, but all too often, tech companies — especially those backed by VC funds — are pressured to monetize their user base through less wholesome means, as if these customers were a financial abstraction. (While reMarkable is partly backed by Spark Capital, a VC firm with a good portfolio of longer term companies, it’s clear those investors gave the startup time and space to realize their vision.)
As a result, reMarkable is now a 550 person company that’s profitable, with an operating net of $31M, which they largely reinvest into R&D. It reached unicorn status in 2022. Showing that a Calm Tech-like approach to companies isn’t just good for employees — it’s simply good business.
reMarkable Paper Pro is the sixth product to earn Calm Tech Certified™ this year, joining our honor roll of attention friendly products. In 2025, we hope to bring on many more.
Have a product you’re interested in certifying? Get in touch. New to Calm Technology? Schedule a workshop to introduce the concept to your team!
