> The hardware for the gen 2 is pretty good in my opinion.
My 5 year old android-tablet has more ram and cpu than the gen2 remarkable. So I assume they outsourced parts to the cloud simply because it's not running well enough on the tablet itself.
> the rest of the system is linux
Linux, especially on tablets is very exotic. There is no way to benefit from the big ecosystem on android or iOS. Everything must come from the users, the company or regulary desktop-linux, which is not optimized for tabled or eInk. Linux is a good selling point for hackers and nerds, but irrelevant for casual users.
The reMarkable is not supposed to compete with an Android tablet, think of it more like a Kindle you can write on.
The hardware is perfect for the target audience and there are very few comparable products, but the software is pretty bare-bones and most people have issues with it.
I assume the hardware targets battery life rather than performance; the lack of on-device features is quite deliberate. As far as cloud offloading goes, the only thing which seems to match that framing is the handwriting recognition, which is honestly pretty rubbish and I'd happily live without.
Your Android tablet probably does not last for two weeks of daily use on a single charge. The reMarkable 2 is power-sipping, especially with wireless disabled, without compromising note-taking or PDF-reading experiences.
My 5 year old android-tablet has more ram and cpu than the gen2 remarkable. So I assume they outsourced parts to the cloud simply because it's not running well enough on the tablet itself.
> the rest of the system is linux
Linux, especially on tablets is very exotic. There is no way to benefit from the big ecosystem on android or iOS. Everything must come from the users, the company or regulary desktop-linux, which is not optimized for tabled or eInk. Linux is a good selling point for hackers and nerds, but irrelevant for casual users.