They charge what the market will bear they can get away with.

I don’t understand: why must it be eInk? I know glass displays aren’t the best because of reflection but an iPad gets super bright and takes a keyboard. You can easily find a used one for $100-150

E-ink in general is expensive from what I’ve seen. I was pricing out building a little project and found even the tiny displays (a few centimeters on the diagonal) were ~US$50. If you look for anything big enough to be more than a low power always on display, it gets quite expensive quite quickly. Add on the cost of development for completely unique software because the off-the-shelf stuff is mostly not compatible, and the other general hardware costs for making it a product instead of a project, and the pricepoint is not that wild. Hopefully they come down over time.

Allow me to suggest the humble typewriter. There are dozens of us (dozens!) who enjoy the tactile feeling of hammering out a few pages with no electronics or distractions of any kind.

Kobos used to be cheap as fuck but I hear that one company owns the patent for e-ink screens and they’re bilking the manufacturers

https://www.waveshare.com/7.5inch-e-paper-hat.htm?gQT=2

You can use these with the raspberry pi (50 $). Im pretty sure you can find cases online but you will have to 3d print them somewhere.

So, Ive recently gotten back into writing and been thinking about how much more fun it would be to write Outside.

I know it’s not what you’re looking for but since it’s the tools I’m using for the exact same purpose you’re mentioning, maybe they’re worth suggesting?

There is no copy paste, no edit, no syncing either but depending what you wish to write, you may not need that—I certainly don’t, and I even prefer this to more high-tech solutions for my purpose.

• It’s dirt cheap. Less than 30 cents for the Bic (I buy mine in bulk, normal price should be approx. 1.5€), and less than 3 euros for the notebook itself and they both offer at the very least a few weeks worth of writing autonomy. I reckon most countries should have local manufacturers for those tools (less shipping and less waste are always a nice option). Here in France, I like to use the French Bic ballpoint pens and the French Clairefontaine notebooks/papers (it also helps that they’re excellent products)
• It works great under the sun, on the beach, at the pool, or under the rain. Ballpoint ink is waterproof and quality paper (like in this notebook) can work under the rain and it can even be immerged under water. It will buckle but it will be usable (and readable, if one is using a ballpoint or a pencil) after it dried.
• Highly portable. It fits in any pocket (and small bag), and the Bic sits nicely within the spirals so no risk of losing it and I never need to search for it.
• It needs no charging. It needs no software or firmware updates. It has no bugs.
• It works great with any pen you fancy, be it this cheap Bic pen or some multi thousand € fancy fountain pen.
• One can use it to write absolutely anything. Poetry, the next best-seller, a secret plan to conquer the world, a list of errands,… You can also use it to sketch, to mindmap, to outline, and so on.
• It’s not unbreakable but one will need to put in some real effort. Meaning the thing can take a few beatings without any issue. Plus, if it’s too damaged, it’s cheap to replace.
• Thieve appeal? None. Try letting a tablet or a phone, even a cheap old one unsupervised on any table in a public space…
• Privacy? OK, it’s not encrypted but at the very least no corporation is spying on my notes, ever. And I’m free to write anything I fancy, without worries.
• Backups? None. I don’t need any since I use for quick notes that I then reuse back at the desk: ideas, dialogues, short descriptions (a few keywords will often do it’s rare I need to write complete sentences), or stuff like that. Even stuff I want to write about in my journal (that stays at home) I will simply write a few quick words so when I read them back later one I will remember what it was all about.
• Icing on the cake? Zero distraction. No social, no games, no Notifications to distract me, and no endless settings and tweaks for me to use as an excuse to fool around and to not be writing ;)

I know it’s low-tech and not trendy at all, but it works great and have been doing so for… centuries (for the notebooks in its current form) if not for millennia (handwriting) and has been used by many authors whose work we’re still enjoying/admiring to this day.

1. Its niche to want such a device
2. E-Ink is currently only made by a single company.

I have an inkplate 10, software is a bit lacking but everything is FOSS and the hardware is quite nice. They have smaller ones too, though I personally want bigger. It’s also possible to jailbreak Kindles from what I hear.

Well, the refresh rate is due to the e-ink technology. There is still a mechanical component to it, so what you can experience today is actually blazingly fast.

The other part is that having the display glass itself is not enough. You’ll need a driver chip. And one that drives an e-ink display fast is neither easy nor cheap.

Being used to drive Porsche’s all the time, you could ask why are these Lamborghini’s so unaffordable?

I take my alphasmart anywhere I’m planning on writing. The only looks I’ve ever gotten were followed up with “what is that?”

It may have been an educational device but it’s a fabulous distraction free portable writing tool.

Eink charge around $30 for their lowest-spec screen. Device builders have to price that in, along with the niche market, and the fact that those who want to use Eink are unlikely to be replacing it for several years.

The Ratta Supernote A6X2 Nomad is 329USD, cheaper than the devices you found. The A5X2 (bigger) is 505USD though.

Devices I’ve owned:

• reMarkable 1 (boo subscription!)
• reMarkable 2 (boo subscription!)
• Supernote A5X (happy with this one)

I currently own the Supernote A6X2 and I’m super happy with it. I use it almost every day to diagram stuff for programming. I also read technical books on it. The Supernote A5X (the previous version) was also very good. I just ended up liking the smaller size better.

My favorite feature is that Supernote does NOT require a subscription! The device also has plenty of other features. You can read PDFs and ebooks, of course. You can even install the Kindle app on it, though you can’t install any Play Store app. The palm blocking is good. There are gestures to help you write faster. There’s a shape tool. Different pencil sizes, highlighters. Paper backgrounds. Hand writing recognition. And you don’t need to buy replacement pen tips!

Supernote cons vs reMarkable:

• The Supernote isn’t as polished as the reMarkable. The Supernote definitely isn’t bad, especially the newer A6X2, but it does feel a notch below reMarkable in terms of the build feel.
• If you really, really, REEEEAAALLY want to pretend you’re writing with a pencil and paper, then the reMarkable will be closer to that. Writing on the Supernote is just different. It’s more like writing on a notebook with a pen.

Rumor has it they’re expensive to manufacture. Add to that a small market and some patents and you get elevated prices.

Amazon might sell Kindles below cost because it drives book sales on their platform, but it’s hard for anyone but Amazon to make that model work.