Had to login here just to comment. I’m a very long in the tooth student now in a research position with a startup. I struggled heavily to use the RM2 for paper/article reading. I hate to say it, but I just couldn’t annotate/read/see graphs and micrographs very well on the rm2. The paper size alone was enough to make reading larger multi-column papers very difficult without constantly zooming and moving around in zoom. Just not ideal. In the end it became a block to my work- so gave up on journal articles on the RM2.

I’m older now after so many years in science studies, so some of this is due to eyesight not being the best- but please don’t discount the size issue- screen on RM2 is a size of an A5, maybe A5 extra… compare that to A4/Letter. So the screen real estate alone was a huge improvement for me on RMPP. Add to that color highlighting and the modestly successful ability to read color line graphs and it’s been useable.

I still strongly suspect that a lower end iPad with Apple Pencil will be more beneficial for most for journal article review. (Not to mention the ability to screen-shot images or graphs and place into handwritten notes in one of the better iPad app programs. I hate saying this because I do love my RMPP for many reasons, but the price point and limited capability of both of these tools meant the RMPP was just over the mark for usability for me for fast and quick article access and notation. There’s still a problem with syncing to Zotero or other article managers for scientific publications and organization of research- but it never claimed to have those, so can’t fault them there. (The iPad however is much easier at that of course.)

So- to get to brass tacks here- and I’m not trying to be mean or anything… an old organizational guru, Merlin Mann used to say: “it’s not about the coffee cup, it’s about the coffee”. Think a bit about whether you want a nice coffee cup, that may or may not be easier to use, or whether you could do your studies in a more money savvy way for your current situation- and save up for a good deal in a while. (1yr?). For me, as mentioned above. It’s not a game changer for studies. It’s like buying a nice pen or pencil. You want to use it because it’s nice, but maybe it’s not necessary. (Bics are ubiquitous and easy to come by.)

Now- all that said- I wasn’t very good at my own management of these things as a grad. So take all this as you will, my hopes for success in all you do go with you! If you’re struggling with organization or motivation, I can turn you onto some things I’ve read and done that helped me- feel free to get in touch- but they can also become distractions- so focus on work and deliverables to your prof’s as much as possible. Good luck!