BOOXTablet Note Air 4C 6G 64G E Ink Tablet Color ePaper Notebook

First, it's a bit of a stretch to call this a "tablet". Yes, it runs Android. Yes, it's the size of a tablet. But if you buy this thing hoping to watch Youtube videos, you'll be sadly mistaken.However, if you're looking for a device that works as an eBook reader, note-taking device, and news/email reader, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.I come to the Books Note from the Kobo Elipsa. Both were bought for the same reason. I wanted a large screen book reader that would also allow me to take notes for work in PDF format that could then be uploaded to my work computer. The Elipsa was a good ebook reader, but the note-taking functionality was painful. There was a significant amount of lag in the stylus while writing, and the stylus was battery powered (and required "AAAA" batteries, which can be challenging to find).Let me preface this by saying that, yes, the Note Air is at least one (or maybe two) generations newer with its e-ink technology. Which leads to smaller/thinner screens, performance enhancements, etc. It feels surprisingly thin in the hand, but it has a good heft to it, and the "build quality feel" (highly subjective), "feels good." Even though the screen sizes are similar, the Note Air feels significantly less bulky. The screen pixel size spec is identical to the Elipsa when in black-and-white mode, and is twice the size of Elipsa pixels when in color mode.In most ways that's where the direct comparison ends. The Note Air gives you so much more control over how the screen operates that it's almost scary. As we noted above, since the Note Air runs a modified Android, you can actually go to the Play store and download apps. The Note Air allows you to individually configure how the screen works with each app, how frequently it refereshes, etc. You can also force an immediate refresh if you're seeing ghosting.The eBook reader app works very well. I left it on default settings and the font was easy to read, linespacing did not appear cluttered and refresh going from page to page was NOTICEABLY faster than the Elipsa. The one gotcha is DRM. I'd expect most people reading this to know, but the built-in eReader app for the Note Air doesn't work with DRM'ed epubs. There are multiple ways around this, however:1. You can go to the App Store and download the Kindle, Nook, or Barnes & Noble reader of your choice, synchronize all of your books, and away you go.2. As the wise say, you can become familiar with Apprentice Harper and his facinating work.The note-taking app, on the other hand was just out-and-out phenomenal. When I first opened the stylus that came with the Note Air, I looked for a battery level, couldn't find one, and hoped that it had enough battery left to let me test. And then I found out that the stylus was Wacom-compatible and was completely passive. No need to charge the stylus. Having used active styluses on iPads and Pixel tablets, this was more of an earthshattering revelation than it should have been. The digitizer on the Note Air is FAST and accurate, and it feels like I really am writing on paper.The only gotcha with the stylus is that, since it's passive and requires neither circuitry nor battery, it's very light, and I dislike the longitudinal lines or ribs they put on it. They reduce comfort in long writing sessions.Battery life is great - I use the thing probably 3 - 4 hours a day as either an eReader or a note taking device, and I can comfortably get 3-4 days out of a battery charge. I know some have complained about the Boox cover/sleeve/case, as it does not have a hole in front of the charging port. This means you need to either leave your case open (or remove it altogether) for charging. I expect they did that to prevent accidental damage to the USB4 port, but regardless, it's not a big deal to me.Last, color - the color accuracy/saturation is very good for an eink device, but that's damning it with faint praise. When it comes to eink technology, we're still in the 1990's dithered era of digital images. Even though I'll freely admit that a picture on my Note 4 doesn't hold a candle to the same picture on my Pixel Tablet, it's better than any color picture I've ever seen on any other eink devices. However, when it comes to things like cover art for my library, things look perfectly fine.Last thing is synchronizing content to and from the Note Air. The easy path is to go to the referenced boox website and set up an account. You only need either a cell number or an email. It wants you to give both, but one or the other will work. Once that is done, you can open your Note Air on your home's wifi system, and drag-and-drop content to or from the tablet to your desktop. Note that this is browser-based, so it works on all operating systems (Windows, MacOS, and Linux). Supposedly, there's a better synchronization app available for Windows only, but that's not an option for me.Bottom line: if you want an ebook reader that you can take notes on (and can annotate books), this is the device you've been waiting for. If you want a regular tablet, you'll hate this device.

I needed a note taking device that wasn't a glass front back lit oled screen device feeling like I'm writing on a skating rink while burning my retinas out. Something I could leave beside my keyboard like a notebook. I wanted to be able to run Android apps, like OneNote and Obsidian. Other Android apps were just icing on the cake.This device fits the bill very well!It has some quirks here and there that I'm figuring out with it's software, but I'm not really complaining. That's the only reason for 4 rather than 5 stars.I do wish the price on these types of devices was lower, but without mass adoption it's understandable.One real potential complaint is that with color eink, and this device uses the latest version, the screen with no backlight is a fairly dark grey. That said, using the backlight doesn't seem like using a backlight... If you bump it up to around ~50% and the color temp to around the same, it doesn't really look like it's being back lit in a medium dim lit room. Also, it doesn't use the battery up like I thought it would doing so. I use around 7%/day of battery with it on for 6-8 hours.The colors aren't as vivid as you would expect with an OLED device, no where close. The refresh rate is also in the same boat. That's not the point of the device. Just be aware of it.There's no wow! out of the box experience. It's a solid note taking device with a very robust set of features that you can also run android apps on. I think some people use them for artistic stuff, but I think that would be limited due to the lack of color saturation.It's a tool more than a tech gadget. And it's a very good tool.

I hate that I like this devise as much as I do. It is an EXCELLENT digital notebook that enables me to upload digital notes to many of these new AI note taking platforms through Google Drive (NotebookLM). Furthermore, with the fingerprint reader, it is very easy to open on a whim without needing to punch in my pin. The battery life is not too bad given the technology. If you want better you'll need to make some concession. The screen and color are actually not bad at all. It doesn't have the flicker of the Remarkable and it easy to see.The main con for me is that is periodically restarts if hasn't been used for awhile and sometimes after it has just been charged. Nothing flow breaking as it starts quickly but it is a little off putting.