u/No-Sweet-1088

I came across the poster a couple of days ago and honestly… the design immediately caught my eye. I’ve never really used a tiny e-reader before, but the size and weight seem pretty ideal, easy to hold with one hand and read anywhere.

But then I saw the price on Taobao (~2399 RMB) and I kinda paused… that feels pretty steep for an e-ink reader, right?😭

For those of you who’ve used ultra-portable E Ink readers before, do you think products like this are actually worth the money?

https://preview.redd.it/99pm30k0jf2h1.jpg?width=1124&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b10d34648857f7b633a124b908fabbacf45fed0

https://preview.redd.it/9t9v1rzekf2h1.jpg?width=1124&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8883cd8351a1ac9790fb27602d3d2cf80bf4e78f

I’ve been using e-ink devices for years at this point.Back in college it was mostly Kindle for reading. Then after I started working, I needed something more like a digital notebook, so I got a BOOX Note.

It was okay. Not bad or anything. But I never really clicked with the color screen. It looked a bit too busy to me, and weirdly enough, it kinda made the device feel less “e-ink” in my head. More like another tablet I had to manage.

And that’s not really what I wanted.Most of the time I’m just using this kind of device for meetings, notes, reading docs, and organizing random work stuff. I don’t need it to feel like another entertainment screen.

Also, AI has slowly become a bigger part of how I work. Summarizing notes, going back through meeting stuff, organizing things after the fact… that kind of thing.

So last year I ended up switching to the AINOTE 2.And yeah, honestly, I like it more than I expected.

The whole thing just feels clean and quiet. It doesn’t feel like it’s constantly trying to drag me somewhere else. Notes, reading, files, settings，all the basic stuff is more or less where I expect it to be. I don’t feel like I’m digging through ten layers of menus just to do something simple.

I also like that it feels more like a workspace than another little entertainment device. No flashy animations. No constant notifications. No “hey look at this” kind of design.

Just a pretty simple setup for writing, reading, and keeping things organized.Which is kind of all I wanted tbh 😅

Small complaint though: some gestures and menus could be more obvious at first. Meeting summaries and a few other features took me some random tapping around before I actually found them. Not a dealbreaker, but yeah, there’s a learning curve.

Curious if anyone else feels this way about the AINOTE 2 or e-ink devices in general. Feels like most people probably prefer color e-ink screens tbh 😅 maybe I’m just in the minority lol.