This Sony e-ink tablet will retail for $700 and attempt to replace paper as the preferred medium for writing

Sony’s answer to global warming and deforestation is the huge, DPT-RP1 , an e-ink tablet that you can write on.

Until now, e-ink has only seen popular use in Amazon’s Kindle eBook readers. The primary difference between e-ink and traditional display technology is the fact that e-ink displays aren’t backlit, consume power only when the display is to be refreshed. For all intents and purposes, e-ink really is the closest digital analogue to real ink.

These properties make e-ink ideal for electronic paper applications. However, e-ink displays aren’t cheap and issues with resolution and low refresh rate have also hampered widespread adoption. They’re also limited to single colour displays.

The DPT-RP1 embodies all of these strengths and weaknesses. It features a resolution of 1650 x 2200, which is good, but this is on a 13.3-inch screen, which is large. The large screen size means that the price of the device is also high. The Verge pegs it at a little over $719 (around Rs 46,500), which is high when you consider that a brand new iPad with 32 GB of storage will cost half that amount and does a great deal more.

The DPT-RP1 isn’t really meant to be a tablet, however. It’s meant to replace paper.

Sony describes the device as being as thick as 30 stacked sheets of paper and weighing just 349 g. It’s powered by a Marvell IAPI40 64-bit IoT processor and packs in 16 GB of memory. Connectivity is offered via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB.

Unlike the Kindle, which is only meant for reading, the DPT-Rp1 includes support for a stylus, which you can use to write as well as annotate content on the tablet.

The RP1 only supports PDF files, but Sony has provided a desktop app that can be used to convert web sites and documents to PDF and then send them directly to the device.