You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/story-of-seasons-a-wonderful-life.2298/

Having written reviews for the past six years on GBAtemp, I’ve garnered a small reputation for myself amongst regular members. To some I might be the person who covers visual novels and otome games. To others I might be the person obsessed with weird tech and won’t stop talking about it on the front page. To a choice few however, those who scour the holy thread of recently purchased items, I’m known for one thing above all: as a fine collector of the game Harvest Moon DS. Sitting with more than 40 copies in my collection at this point, I have an undying adoration for the game and its setting, and I’ll take any chance I can to tell people about it. Set 100 years after the events of A Wonderful Life, it shares the same cast of characters (don’t ask how) in the same, if somewhat scaled up valley. With hundreds of hours played on what I consider to be the pinnacle of the series, I became intangibly excited when I saw its predecessor receiving the same remake treatment as Mineral Town before it. Having never played the original game when it launched on GameCube and PS2, can the remake captivate me as it’s captivated so many others though?

The setting of A Wonderful Life is one that’s going to be fairly familiar to fans of the genre. Your father recently passed away, and you’re headed out to the countryside to build the farm they never could. It’s not quite the usual hand-me-down farm from grandpa, but it’s close enough. With that bit of exposition out of the way you’re thrown straight into a character creation screen, and it’s really quite impressive out of the gate. You pick your skin tone, face, eye colour, hair colour, hair style, and outfit. If you’ve played Pioneers of Olive Town, much of this will sound familiar, and I really do think it’s great to have this degree of customisation in a game like this that expects you to relate with your player character. Adding to this as what I believe to be a series first, the game lets you pick the pronouns townsfolk will address you with, notably including a they/them option. It might sound like a minor addition, but it just goes that one step further in allowing the player to feel a part of the world. It’s the kind of thing that will really mean a lot to some people.

With your character made, you arrive at the farm in Forgotten Valley (formerly Forget-Me-Not Valley) to a few text tutorials from your neighbour Takakura and an optional trip around the valley to meet everybody. After that, you’re pretty much free to live your life. And that’s the thing about A Wonderful Life, you really do live a life.

Most farming games that I would call traditional like the aforementioned Harvest Moon DS, or the more modern Stardew Valley, see you taking each day at a leisurely pace with no real limits. You can take a year or you can take 20 years to figure things out depending on what you prefer. A Wonderful Life sets out a different idea, and while it’s not one that’ll be to the taste of everybody playing it, I do think it’s interesting. The game is split between chapters, with each chapter being a set number of years. Between each chapter you’ll see a leap forward in time, with the environment and the characters within it changing and aging. The whole experience is entirely unique, and it’s one I came to enjoy more than I initially thought.

On paper I would call time limits a bad thing in what is otherwise an incredibly casual game. It could lead to you rushing through tasks and feeling like you’ve not got enough time to get to everything you want to. That just isn’t the case though. Despite each chapter being on a time limit and each season being an incredibly short ten days, the days themselves go by at a rate of a minute per second, starting as early as 5am. Add to this a more interesting day cycle with weather changes happening throughout and you have a much more interactive and interesting day by day experience.

It can be a bit of a culture shock going back to what is ultimately feels like a faithful remake though. While you do get some modern touch ups in terms of UI design, which is great by the way, and general signposting, there’s a lot of that 2003 “charm” preserved. It’s a similar fault that I pointed out in my Mineral Town review, but it really is just a great remake in terms of keeping the original spirit of the game alive. Despite seasons being some of the shortest in the series, years end up feeling incredibly long, especially as you’re starting out. It did manage to strike a reasonable balance for me, with there being enough to do between wooing potential partners and making some initial capital to get off the ground. From the second chapter, things start to pick up a bit and your attachment to the player character only grows as they do.

There are certain time-sensitive events, with the important one being the necessity of marriage before the end of the first year. I do appreciate how the game guides you to this fact naturally by having Takakura bring it up in his dialogues that you should find a partner quickly. It’s never explicit that you need to marry in the first year, but playing what I would consider normally, it’s not difficult to hit at all. Focusing my effort on Lumina, I had proposed to her by the end of Spring. Even splitting your focus between the eight available marriage candidates, you’ll have time to spare to make your ultimate choice.

It’s here I also want to celebrate that there are eight marriage candidates regardless of your gender. Following on from the changes made in Mineral Town, this change isn’t necessarily unexpected, but a joy to see all the same. Having my female protagonist go from wooing the charming Matthew to her eventual wife Lumina had me smiling throughout. Much like the addition of the they/them pronouns, this kind of change just goes that one step further in allowing people to feel a part of the world and identify with the characters as they see fit.

Farming here is a fairly standard affair, if slightly stuck in the past as mentioned earlier. The key change between this and other games in the series is the fact that many crops will be able to grow through a number of seasons, in oppose to being stuck in just one. This makes a lot of sense given the shorter seasons, and I do appreciate this added bit of versatility. I don’t know how I feel about turnips growing in summer and autumn though. As a Harvest Moon DS aficionado, these were always the first things to be planted. Having to wait a season for them just didn’t sit right with me. Back on a serious note though, the farming matches the larger tone of the game. It’s slow, but it never felt frustratingly so. Animations feel fluid and fast enough that ultimately end up feeling like a bit of a theraputic routine. If you go a little too hard on the crops, you have easy access to top up your stamina too via the local bar. The valley all slots together nicely to have you moving between different areas and, in turn, talking to different people as you progress.

Forgotten Valley itself is absolutely stunning, and after exploring it in 2D on the DS for the past 17 years it brought a tear to my eye to see everything so seamlessly connected without loading zones in a gloriously-styled 3D environment. The area is smaller than on the DS, and it makes a lot of sense with A Wonderful Life obviously releasing several years before the version I’m familiar with. Even so, there’s plenty I recognised and I had a blast running around. For fans of the original game, I can imagine this touch up being just as magical as it was for me.

Throughout the valley you’ll also find a number of small minigames, and something I really wasn’t expecting was the ability to setup a stall to sell your goods in the middle of town. You can still put your crops into the shipping bin, but this stall will serve as your only means of selling other items like the flowers you might spot growing in the wild. It can be a little frustrating that you can only sell items one at a time, but I did find myself enjoying the interactions with townsfolk as they wandered past. If nothing else it has me wanting to set up shop and play Grand Bazaar again.

I’ve had an absolute blast playing through A Wonderful Life on PC, and this being my first experience with the title has made it feel all that much more special. This is a game like no other in the series, and if you’re happy with a slow and finite narrative, it’s one I cannot recommend enough. A part of me still wishes it was Harvest Moon DS that got its time in the Sun, but after the experience I’ve had, I really can’t bring myself to question the decision. It’s truly a wonderful game.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/ultimate-hacking-keyboard-v2.2287/

Back in 2019 I took my first step into what I still consider to be an incredibly exciting world: the world of split mechanical keyboards. Despite being my first steps I was entirely enthralled out of the gate, praising the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard for its comfort, software, typing experience, and ease of use. Roll on 2023 and we’re back to look at its latest iteration, but just what have Ultimate Gadget Labs changed to make this one worth a second look?

Let’s Get the Basics Down

For those who missed my original review, allow me to get you up to speed on exactly what the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard is. The UHK is a split keyboard powered by open source software designed to be ergonomic and improve productivity. I praised it for the relative ease of adaptation, great software, and impressive customisation choices at checkout, and kicking off our look at the V2, I’m glad to see these things really haven’t changed.

Looking at the site, you get the choice between eight switches, eight layouts (these made up of different keycap sets for ISO and ANSI), and five case colours. That’s 320 different configurations to pick from depending on your needs if I’ve done my maths right, but that isn’t where it ends for the V2. Now featuring hot-swap sockets, you’re able to take your board further or just change your mind as to how you want to type on it down the line without having to disassemble the board and desolder the switches. While I enjoyed the Cherry MX Clear switches I had in my V1 board, I do wish I could’ve swapped these out after a year or so of use if only to refresh the board a little. With the V2 I decided to do this out of the box to create what I would consider my Ultimate UHK.

Starting with Box Red switches on a UK layout board with a white case, I went out of my way to get this looking and feeling as good as I possibly could. But there were a few things worth noting when I started this journey. First of all, the V2 board now features per-key RGB lighting. This pairs incredibly well with the included shine-through keycap set, but the keen-eyed among you will notice that these are north-facing RGBs. These do have their benefits in generally giving a better shine-through lighting effect, but this comes at the cost of keycap compatibility, with Cherry profile keycaps having a few issues. The RGB lighting is indeed really clear, and it is at least utilised well by the default keyboard configuration to justify its north-facing nature. For those new to the UHK experience, this lighting is a great asset in adjusting to the layout and the numerous layers function layers the keyboard has.

Unlike most keyboards that might just have a function layer, the UHK makes the absolute most of its 60% layout by coming with three: function, mod, and mouse. How this ties into the RGB is that keys that are mapped on each layer will light up differently while their appropriate key is being held, giving you meaningful visual feedback as you adjust. Most of these keys also show their default additional functions on the south side of the keycap, so you have that to fall back onto as well. Having used the V1 UHK on and off for more than three years now, I opted to forego the back-lighting and go so far as to replace the keycaps with something a bit brighter to match the white frame. For those curious, these are the DSA profile Magical Girl keycaps from Mintlodica in the Millennium colour scheme, and I have to admit I didn’t quite do enough research into the unique keycap sizes the UHK requires. With a good chunk of keycap profiles, you’ll find each row is angled a certain way, usually giving you a slight V shape from the side. Generally this isn’t an issue, but because the UHK has an unusually short 1.5U backspace key and 1.75U return key, you might struggle to find keycaps that fit both the row and width. On top of this you have two less common 1.75U keycaps required for the spacebar. In short, I got lucky. DSA as a profile is uniform. This means that any keycap will happily occupy any row of the keyboard without sticking out weirdly. Because of this profile, I also had ample 1.75U keys that could fill the spacebar slots, and every other key I could have needed to populate the board. It did take a little getting used to having concave spacebar keys, but it was a quick adaption. I really love how it turned out.

While I was uprooting the keycaps, I also made the decision to put in my own switches, opting for Gateron’s Ink Black V2s for a heavy linear keypress. I had already made this decision prior to the board arriving and had these at the ready, and installing them was as simple as using the included keycap and switch puller to remove, you guessed it, the keycaps and switches, and putting the new ones straight in. Thanks to the hot-swap nature of the board, this was an incredibly simple endeavour. I will admit I was quite surprised at how nice the Kailh Box Red switches were that came with the board though. While they were a little lighter than my general preference with a 50gf actuation force (vs 60gf for the Ink Black Vs2), they were smooth out of the box and genuinely a joy if you’re a linear fan. They’re currently sat in a box and I plan to put them into a cheaper custom build down the line.

The Price of Making it Mine

I really appreciate how simple it was to make this keyboard my own, but it does go to highlight a missed opportunity for Ultimate Gadget Labs in their lack of a barebones kit for the UHK. For those like me who are going to be spending £100+ on a nice set of keycaps and a further £50 or so on switches, it’d be nice to have the option to save some money when buying the keyboard for parts we might not actually need. Unfortunately this isn’t something that’s going to change due to the switches being used to test the keyboards at the end of the assembly process, but it’s a shame all the same. At $320 this isn’t a cheap keyboard, and being able to knock even a little off that would naturally make it more appealing.

There is still more to talk about though, because $320 will only get you the keyboard. Like the original UHK you’re going to have to pay an additional $75 if you want the attachable beech wood palm rest, and I would call this an essential part of the keyboard if you’re planning to use it tented. While it does cost a chunk, I can at least vouch for its quality and comfort over extended periods of use. The palm rest I have for my V1 UHK has stood up well over time, and though it’s scratched a little, it’s still doing well.

The tented layout, if you weren’t familiar with the terminology, is having the keyboard raised in the centre. This is something that’s only really possible on a split board and allows for your hands to rest incredibly comfortably on it. Thanks to the easily-detachable feet though, you are able to swap between layouts really quite fast. If for example you decided you wanted to join the keyboard halves together and use a positive tilt (what you see on most standard keyboards with the back raised), it’s as simple as twisting the feet out, and twisting them into their new position. It takes a minute at most and is really seamless, especially when compared to the V1’s feet that required screwing in. This is a keyboard that gives you a really good number of options, with both positive and negative tilting possible if you’re not ready to try the tent just yet. These options go beyond the physical though, with the driver software only improving since we last looked at it.

The Software Behind the Keyboard

Much like in 2019 this driver software is completely optional, with any changes made saving onto the keyboard itself instead of requiring a background process. This is already a win in my books, but it’s only made better by how easy to use and powerful this software actually is. UHK Agent is the standard keyboard driver software should aspire to, and it elevates what the UHK itself is capable of immensely. You have all your basics presented cleanly and in a way that’s easy to use. You can create macros, you can swap out what keys do, you can update the firmware, and you can also configure the lighting. The board comes with a considerable 32 MB of internal storage, so you have a good degree of freedom to add lengthy macros or a huge number of keymaps to swap between as you see fit. With the default configuration of six full keymaps and three simple macros, you’re looking at about 4.5 MB of space being taken up. By clearing out unused keymaps (assuming you won’t be swapping between Qwerty and Colemak frequently) that goes down to just 0.9 MB, with your used space showing up in the Configuration page of the software.

While this is a 60% keyboard and is on paper lacking a number of keys you might find useful, UHK Agent gives you incredible power in just what you can map. I the three standard function layers earlier in the review: Fn, Mod, and Mouse. Put simply, Fn gives you media controls, Mod gives you your F row and a myriad of missing keys (arrow keys included here!), and Mouse allows you to control your mouse using the keyboard, with things like mouse speed again configurable in UHK Agent. You get a lot out of the box, but should you be craving more, UHK Agent will allow you to assign up to 11 total function layers within one keymap. I can’t fathom why anybody would need so many, but when it’s rare to see more than one in most pre-built offerings, it’s something definitely worth mentioning.

I really appreciate the simplicity in mapping modified keypresses too. Where, as mentioned, the Mod layer transforms the number keys into the F keys, I realised I didn’t really want F4. All I, and likely anybody else, uses F4 for is closing apps by holding Alt down at the same time. So I just changed that. Now Mod+4 is the same as me pressing Alt+F4. It’s as simple as adding a modifier to it and saving it to the board. The default layout is something I would recommend people stick to for the most part to learn the ropes, but once you’re comfortable you have so much power at your fingertips.

Living my Best Modular Life

There is yet more to talk about however with the long-awaited release of modules. For those with great memories (or who decided to read my V1 review prior to this one), you’ll remember my excitement for these all the way back in 2019. Each keyboard half features a rail and set of pogo pins, and it’s on these you can mount one of the unique UHK modules. On the left half you can add a cluster of three keys, while on the right half you can pick between a trackpad, trackball, or trackpoint. Put simply, these are everything I hoped they’d be, with the trackpoint being my module of choice to provide an incredibly intuitive and easy to reach mouse from the comforts of the keyboard. Much like the rest of the keys, you’re able to customise both the key cluster keys and the functionality of the mouse clicks via UHK Agent should you wish to change it. The mouse modules also allow for both vertical and horizontal scrolling by holding the Mod key while using them. Coming from a trackball mouse anyway, I didn’t really feel a learning curve with these and have really had a blast using them. It’s worth adding too that these modules are entirely compatible with the V1 UHKs, which is really good to see for those who might have bought that module on the promise of them. My only real fault with them is that they don’t come in colours to match the casing options, but after using the keyboard for a month or so now I’ve come to like the contrast of the black more than I had originally expected to. These modules, much like the rest of the keyboard, aren’t cheap. At $65 apiece you’re adding a lot of money to an already-expensive board, but I would recommend picking up one of the mouse modules all the same if this board does interest you. It’s been a huge part of what makes this keyboard stand out from its predecessor to me.

Moving onto a few more rapid-fire upgrades from the V1, we now have a new braided cable to connect the keyboard halves, a white light on the layer text window on the top of the left half, and a USB C connector as opposed to the V1’s Mini USB. You’re also covered pretty well if you lose or break a part of the keyboard with Ultimate Gadget Labs selling replacement feet, switches, keycaps, cases, cables, and even plates. It seems the only thing they aren’t selling is a new covering for the display, which I may have mistook for a screen protector and peeled off slightly. Live and learn!

Closing Thoughts

To cut to the chase, do I think the second iteration of the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard is worth buying? 100%. Do I think this is going to be a keyboard for everybody? No. Split keyboards in themselves are a niche, but for those already deep into the mechanical keyboard world and wanting a unique and powerful split option, I honestly cannot imagine something topping this, especially if like me you enjoy the standard staggered keyboard layout over something more touch typing-oriented.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/leadjoy-m1b-ios-gaming-grip.2282/

On the surface the M1B borrows a lot from the Backbone One. Both are telescopic grips that will attach to your iPhone using the standard Lightning connector, and both come with an attachable bit of rubber to allow a fairly wide range of phones to better fit the grip. They both share analogue triggers and a pass-through Lightning port to charge your phone while playing, and they both share a fairly standard Xbox layout. There really are a lot of similarities, with the only notable omission being the 3.5mm headphone jack that’s on the Backbone and unfortunately absent here. Aesthetically the M1B does fall slightly behind with its embossed face buttons looking a little cheap due to being completely black but that in itself isn’t a deal-breaker.

The asymmetrical analogue sticks are both Joy Con-style ones, complete with R3 functionality. While I do prefer the larger analogue sticks you can find on some grips, the Joy Con sticks have become somewhat of a de facto in these lower profile controllers, and they do get the job done. If nothing else you’ll likely know what to expect and know whether you’ll like them before buying. The face buttons I feel may be more divisive than the analogue sticks though, with each of them having next to no travel distance before a defined click. While they do manage to feel incredibly responsive, I’m really not a fan of the instant actuation or the click itself. The buttons work fine, but my preference is more of a muted bump like what you might find on the Switch Pro controller or the other major console players. It’s something PowerA have done well on things like their MOGA XP7-X, though that unfortunately hasn’t seen an iOS release to date.

This instant clicky feel extends beyond the buttons and onto the D-Pad. I get on with this more than the buttons, with it feeling a bit like a budget PS Vita D-Pad. It’s easy to roll between the four directions, and I didn’t experience any phantom up or down inputs while trying to hit left and right in platforming games.

Oddly the only buttons that have the kind of bump I was really wanting were the two bumper buttons. Frankly they feel great, if not slightly out of place for being the only things on the controller not to click. The triggers are also a fairly standard affair for this kind of grip feeling a little flatter than I’d like with a short travel distance. The whole controller comes together in a way that I’d definitely describe as functional, but also not quite to my taste. It feels cheaper than I’d have liked, and considering this sits only $30 cheaper than the Backbone One it takes inspiration from at $70, I expect something that feels a bit more premium. At something closer to $40 I could see this being a good pick, but for the extra $30 I’d probably go with the more established Backbone if you’re looking at these controllers in isolation.

The M1B does have one more trick up its sleeve, though it’s not one I view in a particularly positive light: Egg-3DS. Sound familiar? Much like GameSir’s X2 Android controller, the M1B grants the owner access to an exclusive emulator, this time a 3DS emulator for iOS. On paper this is really cool. With iOS not having as accessible routes to emulation as Android with somewhat tedious sideloading usually required, I can see how this might be appealing to some. Making use of Apple’s TestFlight system, LeadJoy allow you to download the emulator with no real restrictions. The app works fine, and on my iPhone 13 Pro Max I was able to play Fire Emblem Awakening and Ocarina of Time 3D fairly well. It supports up to 3x resolution scaling, custom emulation speed up to 1000% (though I doubt much will be hitting that somehow), and a few different screen layouts. It’s all fine, but it’s somewhat because of this app that I’d really advise steering clear of this controller. The app functions fine, but you’re ultimately left paying a premium for a mediocre controller and access to closed source app that more than likely “borrows” from Citra. It’s all incredibly shady, and really not something I would want to support. With iOS 17 rumoured to bring simpler sideloading and apps like EmuThreeDS rapidly developing, you’re much better off waiting and putting a little more money down to support a better product.

Can I recommend the M1B? The honest answer is no. Were it just a mediocre controller priced a little too highly I might recommend picking it up on sale, but that isn’t the case here. These kinds of closed source peripheral-locked emulators are nothing but harm for the larger homebrew community, and shouldn’t be encouraged. Your money is better spent elsewhere.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/remarkable-2-type-folio.2277/

It’s no secret that I love the reMarkable 2. Reviewing the tablet back at the start of 2021, I praised it for for doing one thing and doing it well. This was the tablet that was always in my bag, and was always my go-to for taking notes. Since my original review though, the reMarkable team have been committed to the device in releasing a fair number of updates, with some of these being incredibly impactful on how you use the can tablet and integrate it into your workflow. Before looking at the Type Folio itself, I thought it’d be a good idea to get you up to speed on what’s changed in these past two years, and how that impacts the usability of the tablet. If you’re not interested in this and want to skip straight to the Type Folio, you can scroll down to the second heading.

Let’s Get Up to Date

The updates prior to July of 2021 this were generally minor improvements throughout the system, but 2.9 stands out as your first major addition since my initial coverage. The standout here is the ability to share your reMarkable screen with the desktop app wirelessly. It’s a surprisingly seamless implementation with less input delay than I would’ve thought. Though the main use for this is sharing notes in a meeting or something stoic along those lines, the black and white nature of the reMarkable sets this up really well for some fun on streaming software like OBS. It was a simple task to set the white background to be transparent and then switch the black ink up to any colour I wanted, doodling over my screen as I streamed.

The updates following screen sharing kept up the momentum well, doing a great job in adding to the larger flexibility of the device by adding support for Google Drive and Dropbox (2.10), and later OneDrive (2.11). While I never had an issue with reMarkable’s own cloud solution, this did a great job of expanding the device’s limited memory. Instead of having to use a PC to move my random sudoku books and epubs that I might have wanted on the reMarkable, I could now keep them in my OneDrive and pull from that when needed. It’s not exactly seamless with you needing to copy files to the system memory before being able to open and not syncing without you manually uploading them. Having said that, it’s a feature that’s still appreciated, and the reMarkable has no issues opening things like spreadsheets, which is neat. The screen sharing of 2.9 also saw an update in 2.10 to enable sharing via USB, which is again a welcome addition.

Hiding between 2.10 and 2.11 is one of the more controversial updates to the device, with the addition of a paid subscription service called Connect. Though owners of the reMarkable 2 prior to the launch of this got a free lifetime subscription, a lot of really good features ended up being paywalled, and I personally think the subscription model as it was presented here was a bad move. Remember that screen sharing? Cloud integrations? You’ve got to pay for those now, and at $8 a month for the full featureset, it isn’t what I would call cheap. You even lost out on the handwriting conversion that I praised in my original review. I can understand a subscription model to some extent, and I really don’t think I would have minded it if it meant the price of entry for the device was lowered to reflect that people who really enjoy the device would continue paying a subscription. This wasn’t the case though, and locking the non-reMarkable cloud services behind a paywall never sat right with me.

I will jump ahead and say they did thankfully reevaluate this subscription model, with external cloud serve integration now being standard, as well as screen sharing and the handwriting conversion. It’s now a $3 per month service that gives you unlimited cloud storage on reMarkable’s servers, access to mobile and desktop note taking (we’ll come back to this shortly), what’s basically an extended warranty, and some discounts in the store. While the price of the reMarkable remains the same, I can get behind this kind of subscription. It subsidises the server costs for those who want to use them, it’s priced low enough where you’ll probably not notice it, and the offers are really quite meaningful for those invested in the ecosystem. There’s only been one offer so far, but it’s a fairly good $50 discount on the Type Folio we’re reviewing here if you were already subscribed to Connect. That’s more than a year’s worth of subscription money, so it really could turn out to be good value if reMarkable release future accessories or extend these discounts to things you might be reordering like marker tips.

The latest major update was 3.0, which released around October of 2022, and this is the one that really sets the stage for the Type Folio, though it’s obviously been around half a year since then for that to really come to fruition. The first part of this update is the continuous page, and looking back it’s a feature I can’t believe the reMarkable 2 didn’t have sooner. Instead of each page in the notebook being the size of the screen, you can now scroll down (seemingly) infinitely, and a bit to the right. On top of this, you’re now able to formally rotate your display, which will also rotate the templates you’re using.

What update 3.0 really introduced though was the desktop and mobile note taking apps. These apps aren’t the best if I’m being blunt. You aren’t getting parity with things like OneNote or Notion, but it does go a long way in adding to the ease of use and fostering a really fluid way of working. More options are rarely a bad thing, and I’m happy to see the company not shackling themselves to their focused writing ethos where that might hold them back from releasing interesting features. I’m hoping the PC and mobile side of things continue to receive updates. Though they work fine, they are missing fairly simple things like being able to move written text around a page. On top of that, it’d really benefit from something as simple as having the text snap to lines if they’re present in the template (though it should be noted text isn’t snapped to lines on the reMarkable itself either). Small things like this really do go a long way in building a premium experience, and this is more important here with these apps only being available to Connect subscribers.

As a bit of a smaller improvement, they also added an option to have converted handwriting be put onto a new page instead of forcing you to email it out. This is a great feature, and being able to do this on-device makes using the Type Folio more more seamless when moving between that and hand writing.

Since 3.0 we’ve seen a few minor updates come through but we’re pretty much up to date on what the reMarkable can do. It’s not been entirely positive for the device since we first covered it, but it’s good to see the company taking notes as they’ve gone along and walking back on things that haven’t been so successful. Even without the Type Folio, I think the reMarkable 2 is in a stronger position than in 2021, and I can recommend it again based on my extensive use of it over the past two years. It is in my mind still priced too highly, but based on what I’ve seen, it has both the longevity and support to be worth that if you’re a heavy writer. And it’s after all of this we’ll get to the actual subject of this review: the Type Folio.

This is something I’ve wanted for a while now, but having missed the pins on the side of the device after putting it straight into the case, I was fully expecting a reMarkable 3 instead of a new folio. I was expecting a device with maybe a little more memory, perhaps utilising some of the improvements we’ve seen to e-ink recently with a few colours, and Bluetooth to give you access to keyboards and other accessories. On one hand I’m a little disappointed to still be working in black and white (really, just having red and blue would be life-changing), but it is good to see they’re continuing to support the device in genuinely meaningful ways after three years. I didn’t want the reMarkable 2 for typing, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been eying up a Pomera device for just this purpose.

And Onto the Folio!

I think we’ve had enough preamble anyway. Let’s start looking at what’s on offer. There are two parts to this story: the hardware, and the software supporting it. Starting with the hardware, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for the standard Book Folio at a glance. It’s largely the same design, coming in the same two black and brown colours. One small change is that the reMarkable logo on the front is debossed in oppose to embossed, and naturally the case is a bit thicker and a bit heavier to fit the keyboard. Neither the thickness or weight have had an impact on my usage of the reMarkable 2, with it still fitting in the same bag space it previously did, and still being plenty holdable in terms of weight.

Opening it up is where we start to see a few changes. Before looking at the keyboard and its mechanism, I’ll just mention that the inner material does appear to be different from the Book Folio, feeling a little more plasticky and smooth. It’s not necessarily bad, but it is different. The reMarkable 2 fits into the Type Folio the same way as it did the Book Folio, and the case still works well here.

The reMarkable 2 features four bumps on the back that can be used to guide the device into the correct position, with it all being held in place using magnets in the middle and near the spine. The tablet connects to the keyboard really quite cleanly using a set of pogo pins, meaning use of the keyboard is quite seamless with no additional charging and the like required. From a bit of Googling, it appears people have been able to jerry rig a keyboard connection to the device for a few years now with it being fairly standard USB OTG, but it’s obviously only recently that’s been useful with the typing-oriented updates.

With the keyboard sitting under the tablet, it’s really easy to just use this as you always have: as a notebook. When you don’t need the keyboard, it’s entirely hidden and out of the way, which is exactly what you’d want. When you do want it though, it’s a fairly simple move to bring it into view and have the tablet propped up. This all works using magnets, both holding the tablet in place over the keyboard, and identifying when the keyboard is being used. The magnets that hold the display up when typing are particularly impressive, which came as quite a shock to me. I figured this would be a Surface-esque setup where you could only really do typing at a desk, but it’s sturdy enough where I’ve been plenty comfortable with it on my lap. If you are at a desk though and wanted a more reclined viewing angle, you’re able to move between what my eyes would say are around a 45 degree angle and a 60 to 70 degree angle. This more reclined angle is particularly good if you wanted to annotate as you write, making the screen far more pen-accessible.

I really do think the reMarkable team hit this one out of the park in terms of delivering a great feeling keyboard in a form factor that doesn’t compromise on the key use case for the device. It feels purely additive, with the only real compromise being that of weight. Going by my kitchen scales, the reMarkable 2 with Type Folio comes in at 879g. Comparatively, it’s 420g with no case and 646g with the Book Folio. As a fairly typical noodle-armed person, I haven’t had any issues holding the reMarkable with Type Folio case for note taking or document reading. I can’t speak for everybody here though, and your experience will naturally vary.

Your Digital Notebook as a Digital Typewriter

Moving on from the hardware, the software is a mixed bag. As mentioned at the start of this review, we’ve seen a flurry of updates delivered over the past two years, with the most recent of these adding the core functionality required to get this keyboard going. It’s not quite a complete experience yet, but it is clear they’re moving closer to that ideal. April’s update released to add the option for bold and italic text, and while these are basics you would have hoped were in from the start, I’m glad to have them.

Your reMarkable 2 word processing features aren’t much more advanced than Notepad on your Windows PC. You have a very select number of options available to you in being able to pick between three text sizes, as well as make bullet point lists. Each of these different formats are bound to Ctrl + 1 through 4, which is quite nice. You can also annotate your typing with the pen as usual, and highlight text cleanly. That’s pretty much it though, and frankly it is lacking. I don’t feel it should be a huge ask to have something like a spell checker or a dictionary on something like this. Even the option to underline text is absent outside of grabbing your pen and doing it physically. To me personally these aren’t dealbreakers since the reMarkable 2 is my way of writing a first draft, with the text moving into an app like Scrivener for checking and further processing. Despite that, I want to see more from this device. It’s capable of more while sticking to reMarkable’s distraction-free ethos, and I hope the team use the money from selling these Type Folios to continue with meaningful updates. With the regular almost-monthly updates, I’m hopeful for this, but you should always buy a device for what it is, not what it could be.

Closing Thoughts

So one burning question remains: is the Type Folio worth the £179 ($199) reMarkable are asking for it? I really don’t have an answer to that, at least not one that’ll satisfy everybody. As somebody who already owned the reMarkable 2 tablet, that additional money is a worthwhile investment for how much I enjoy typing, and how much I’ve wanted an e-ink typewriter of sorts for years. I do however understand that I am a niche case. What the reMarkable team have come up with is no doubt a premium and well-built solution, and if the price doesn’t put you off, I feel it can be worthwhile. It only enhances what was already a great experience; much like the tablet it finds itself attached to, it does one thing and it does it well.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/rog-flow-z13-acrnm-rmt02.2275/

I’m not exactly quiet when it comes to my love of portable gaming. Moving from traditional handheld consoles to Nintendo’s hybrid Switch, and later into the portable PC world, there’s just something to love about being able to game on the go. Perhaps the most curious of this portable gaming market is the niche of gaming tablets. With ASUS really being the only players in this form factor and power profile, just how much are they stepping up their game from the Flow Z13 we previously looked at?

An Upgrade on Paper

So before going any further, let’s get some key specs out of the way. We have a 13th generation i9 CPU in the 13900H paired with an RTX 4070 Laptop series GPU and 32 GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Add to this a 165 Hz 1600p screen, that being 1440p in the 16:10 aspect ratio, and you really have a device that steps up its game in every way from my old 2022 Z13. It’s genuinely impressive how much they’ve managed to fit into this form factor even if there have been a few compromises along the way, but we’ll touch on those later.

Much like the 2022 Z13 tablet we get a 1 TB 2230 M.2 SSD that’s incredibly easy to access with a single screw under the kickstand and swap out. Again following on from its predecessor though, we see non-upgradable RAM, and a non-trivial time if you want to open it up to attempt to fix anything should it break.

Looking to IO we have the exact same layout as before. You have your XG Mobile external graphics interface (that itself features a USB 3.2 Type C if you’re not using an XG Mobile) alongside a more traditional Thunderbolt 4 USB C port. On the opposite side you have a USB 3.2 Type A port, 3.5mm combo jack, physical volume rocker, and a power button. And finally, hidden under the stand we have a UHS II Micro SD card slot. On paper very little has changed, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s not pushing any boundaries with its IO but it’s certainly enough to cover most bases. While some kind of video output would be appreciated, most people will be covered by the USB C ports supporting DisplayPort, or the XG Mobile interface should the budget allow it. One small tweak comes from the power button, with it no longer being a fingerprint sensor. I quite liked this in the 2022 Z13, with it grabbing your fingerprint on turning the device on and carrying it through to the Windows home screen, something we’re actually seeing again with the ROG Ally. It has been replaced with Windows Hello and it does work fine, but it could be seen as a regression all the same.

One last thing worth mentioning in the box is the inclusion of a slightly stylised stylus for use with the tablet. Functionally I believe it’s identical to the ASUS Pen, meaning it’s lightweight and charges pretty quickly using a USB C port hidden towards the top of the pen. It’s about as responsive as you’d expect from a Windows stylus and has two buttons on the side. I had good fun using this for some lighter games like Bloons TD6, Luck be a Landlord, and naturally some DS emulation.

Benchmarks and Performance

In terms of what you can expect from performance, it’s good. It’s almost certainly the best in its form factor, but you should taper your expectations a little. While the RMT02 does pack a 4070 Laptop GPU, it’s operating at power levels far below what the card itself is capable of. The card being rated to run at between 35 and 115W, the 50W (plus 15W from dynamic boost) of the RMT02 sits pretty much in the middle. What this means is that while it does stand as a notable step up from the 3050 Ti in the 2022 Z13, and assumedly the 4060 in the 2023 Z13 that I unfortunately don’t have to hand, it will fall short of 4070s in larger gaming laptops. In this kind of form factor, it’s a delicate balance between performance and heat, but I think they struck it well.

For the benchmarks below, I ran the 2022 Z13 and the RMT02 through Geekbench and Cinebench on the CPU side. For the GPU I decided to use Geekbench again, as well as a few in-game benchmarks in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Hitman 3. It should be noted that for both of these games I’m looking at the highest available settings with DLSS disabled, and that you can naturally get higher framerates by tweaking the settings. With Hitman 3, I also looked at the average FPS with and without ray tracing, again set to its highest configuration. Alongside the tablets, I also decided to include my 2022 Z13 when docked to the RTX 3080 Laptop XG Mobile. For those who have been looking at XG Mobile units with the coming ROG Ally release, this is comparable to the RX 6850M XT card that’s soon to be available, albeit slightly slower in newer games thanks in part to be being the oldest XG Mobile (released in 2021 vs the 6850M XT releasing in 2022).

The results shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. While the 4070 isn’t running at its best, it’s still 65 to 70% better than the 3050 Ti on Geekbench scoring, and doubling the framerate in the 1080p game tests. I did also include the average framerate when running at the device’s native 1600p, and it really does perform well. I’m glad ASUS decided to stick with 1600p this time around instead of overreaching on a 4K screen that really won’t be utilised to its fullest. At 1600p you will be able to utilise the higher framerates the screen is capable of, though you’ll likely have to drop your settings to something closer to medium to really reach the heights of 165 Hz.

It also probably shouldn’t be a surprise to see the XG Mobile beat out the internal 4070. With gains between 10 and 20% in framerate, you’re seeing the full 150W capabilities of the 3080. It’s nice to see this dock still stands up being the oldest in the range, but I don’t think that power uplift is really worth the price of entry here. You’re only likely to get significant gains by investing in 2023’s XG Mobile that comes packing a Laptop 4090 GPU, and when that alone costs £2000, I’d probably recommend bumping your game’s graphics down if you find it running poorly.

The CPU also sees a nice generational increase in performance, coming out about 10% higher in single core performance across both benchmarks, with multicore performance being boosted by 10% in Geekbench and a more impressive 40% in Cinebench. Having used the RMT02 for around a month now, there’s not been anything from my library it wasn’t capable of handling, and it coming with three months of Game Pass Ultimate means you’ll have plenty to try after turning it on.

The Acronym Factor

Here though there’s more to talk about than just its performance. After all, this isn’t just an ASUS ROG device. This is an Acronym device. For those who don’t know, myself being among you until recently, Acronym are a pretty big name in tech apparel. That is to say tech-oriented clothing. They have some interesting design philosophies, and while I don’t think they’ll gel well with everybody, I do feel there’s a lot to like.

Having previously partnered with ASUS in 2020 to release a custom Zephyrus G14, they came together again to design something significantly more bold. Much like their clothing, I don’t think this design will be for everybody, but to me it is stunning. Gone are the days of plastic. Here we have a full aluminium body with thick flat edges. Each corner has a notch that I assume would mitigate the impact of a drop (I didn’t want to test this), but also serve to elevate the screen a little. This is something I appreciate as somebody who uses these devices with their included keyboards detached most of the time. The back of the tablet has a really funky machined aluminium design, and I think they did a spectacular job in making it easy to grip from all sides. The kickstand also sees some improvement and can now comfortably hold the tablet in both portrait and landscape orientations.

The keyboard is thicker and more rugged, featuring a unique font and some accented keys to fit with the Acronym brand. It all comes together really cohesively, and tied up with the notches mentioned earlier also functioning as mounting points for an included harness. Clothing is Acronym’s domain, so making the tablet wearable isn’t as out of character as you’d expect. It functions well, and in an ideal world I could see myself using this a lot. Reality however is a little different, and walking around with something like this exposed seems more likely to make me a target than anything. Wearing it with the keyboard side facing outwards is lower profile than I would’ve expected, but it’s just a lot of money to be leaving on-show.

Despite the additional ruggedness of the keyboard, I will note here that I did somehow manage to break it. The trackpad at least. Everything else is completely functional and there’s no visible damage, it just doesn’t work, and it doesn’t appear to be a software issue either. With the keyboard sharing an interface with my 2022 Z13, I tested it on that with similar results. I’ve gone through ASUS repair processes before in the UK and they have been quite accommodating, so assuming this is a one-off caused by cosmic rays, it’d probably be a simple fix. It does however raise potential issues in terms of longevity if this has happened after a month; it’s a blemish on an otherwise great device.

I really do love this design, and I’m a little upset to see it come from a collaboration in oppose to it being a mainstay product. The 2023 revision to the Z13 is already out there and it looks no different to the 2022 model I have on hand. It’s still a good tablet, but this is leagues apart in terms of both build quality and feel. This does come at a cost though, and with a £3000 price tag, this is a niche product within an already-niche category.

Closing Thoughts

Put simply, this is my dream tablet, but it’s one I’ll likely never buy in part to its price, and in part to what I assume will be its limited availability as a collaborative release. ROG and Acronym have come together brilliantly to deliver on a device that can’t be matched in its field. By no means it a mainstream product, but for those wanting to push the tablet form factor to its modern limits, look no further. It’s a premium you pay, but you get what you pay for.