The Boox Be aware Air 5C Makes Me Extra Excited for the Subsequent Technology of Shade E-Notetakers

I do know you. Sure, you. You have been trying on the $630 Kindle Scribe Colorsoft or reMarkable Paper Pro with hungry eyes, however the value of each tablets was upsetting your abdomen. So that you’ve began trying elsewhere for a shade e-reader/e-notetaker. In your blind search, you’ve encounter the Boox Be aware Air 5C, and also you’re nonetheless left grimacing on the $530 asking value. What I can inform you is there’s a great motive you desire a system like this. It simply gained’t be the every thing pill you have been hoping it will be.

I got here to the Boox Be aware Air 5C after discovering myself entranced with the $400 Boox Palma 2 Pro. That e-reader is a smaller, phone-sized system in comparison with the usual 10.3-inch pill dimensions of the Be aware Air 5C. Each gadgets are utilizing the identical display screen know-how, the identical octa-core CPU, Android 15 as their working system, and each use a stylus. And someway, even supposing the Be aware 5C has a bigger display screen and related limitations, I’d far favor to make use of the smaller system over the bigger one, and never simply because it’s extra transportable.

The Be aware Air 5C doesn’t sport as robust a battery life as different related gadgets. That’s a giant flaw contemplating the longevity we anticipate from different e-notetakers. The 6.13-inch Boox Palma 2 Professional additionally comes with a particular programmable button that must be normal on all e-readers on the whole. Having to make use of a touchscreen with a slower refresh pace to alter E Ink settings or refresh the web page is much extra annoying than bringing it up with a single button press.

If all I wanted was an digital note-taking system that wouldn’t harm my eyes long run, then the Be aware Air 5C could be chic. The pen feels nice, and the default notes app feels responsive. The added shade makes highlighting PDFs, ebooks, or your personal notes extra expressive. I used it to document my notes earlier than an anticipated tabletop RGB marketing campaign slated for subsequent yr. For truly reading my favorite RPG books from this yr, it’s a combined bag. And which means the Be aware Air 5C might grow to be a $530 one-trick pony for some customers.

So why not simply get an iPad?

There’s an indefinable magnificence to E Ink screens. The display screen know-how isn’t something like your typical LCD contact panel. As an alternative, it makes use of {an electrical} subject to maneuver extremely small microcapsules round to create a picture. The Boox Be aware Air 5C makes use of Kaleido 3 E Ink, which overlays a shade filter on prime of the picture to generate the look of coloured paper. Gadgets just like the reMarkable Paper Pro Move use the slower, extra vibrant E Ink Gallery 3. Kaleido 3 can replicate 4,096 colours. Positive, that looks like loads on paper. In actuality, the picture gained’t look something like actual coloured paper. That’s essential to recollect in case you plan to make use of shade e-paper as your alternative on your comedian assortment.

What’s extra, Kaleido 3 is notoriously dim. The one useful means to make use of the Be aware Air 5C is by boosting the brightness as much as 100%. You even have the choice to alter the colour heat in case you are likely to learn or jot down ideas late at evening. For a lot of readers, sticking with a black and white e-reader, comparable to Boox’s own Go 6, will supply a less expensive and cleaner expertise. There, you’ll be able to depend on a quicker refresh pace to keep away from any indicators of ghosting, the place the E Ink capsules don’t fairly transfer in time and create a delicate bleed into following pages.

The display screen on the Be aware Air 5C has a delicate matte texture that gives light suggestions while you swipe with a finger or drag the included Boox Pen 3 Stylus throughout it. That pen is among the greatest highlights of the e-reader. It contains tilt sensitivity and stress detection. Utilizing it on the default notes app is easy and cozy. The again of the pen comes off to disclose two further alternative nubs as effectively. It simply beats the stylus included with the Boox Palma 2 Professional, and also you don’t have to spend something further to get it.

As for different facilities, there’s not a lot else. There’s a single USB-C slot for energy and a microSD card slot to reinforce the Be aware Air 5C’s 64GB of storage. I already talked about how a lot I’d admire some further bodily controls. What I’d additionally need is a greater pen attachment level. The system merely doesn’t wish to maintain onto the stylus—aka your entire motive you purchase this system over any common e-reader or an 11-inch iPad Air with the Apple Pencil Pro.

The whole lot you lose in comfort is for the sake of the display screen. I’m rather more enthused by shade E Ink than the black and white selection. Even a small spot of shade makes an enormous distinction in getting me to sit down down and skim. Colours make it far simpler to focus on PDFs or take notes. It’s a disgrace such know-how calls for such excessive premiums, particularly while you’re restricted to such a choose few tones.

An actual figure-it-out-yourself system

There are two variations of the Boox Be aware Air 5C. One, the $530 normal bundle, comes with the pill, further stylus ideas, and a magnetic case. The keyboard cowl bundle prices $640 (it’s at present going for much less on Boox’s personal web site) and features a equally textured case with a keyboard stuffed inside. So, had I found my subsequent distraction-free system for typing the following nice American novel? Positive, when you have such small palms that typing on a constrained keyboard is preferable to wider gadgets like a Freewrite keyboard.

Each the folio and keyboard cowl bear a pleasing burnt umber shade and a delicate e book cover-like texture. Nonetheless, I didn’t see a lot of the enchantment of the keyboard cowl. It folds up so you’ll be able to solely use the Be aware Air 5C in panorama mode. The keys are constrained by the ten.3-inch dimension of the pill, which makes for a cramped typing expertise. There’s no trackpad both, so even when the system helps Android 15, it gained’t help any of the recently added touchpad features. The shortage of a perform row means you continue to want to the touch the Be aware Air 5C’s display screen to alter brightness or quantity settings.

Really placing textual content onto the display screen won’t be as instantaneous as you’re used to with some other laptop computer or pill with a keyboard. The Be aware Air 5C helps three refresh modes: Regal, Pace, and “Easy.” The latter is the latest mode and is meant to make the shopping and typing expertise close to instantaneous. It’s barely quicker than the Pace refresh mode, but additionally leads to rather more ghosting, which can then require you to refresh your web page.

The magnetic case is an odd duckling. It adheres to the Be aware Air 5C with a easy magnetic attachment level and contains foldable wings that may allow you to stand it up vertically or horizontally. It additionally features a delicate, magnetic clamp that folds across the e book to maintain every thing in place. At first, I assumed this was precisely the type of factor I’d instantly lose (within the technique of writing that sentence, I appeared round and realized I left it within the different room). Then I spotted what I might truly use it for: ensuring I don’t lose the pen as effectively.

The stylus does a really poor job adhering to the e-reader, whether or not as a result of added pocket clip or poor magnets. Wrapping the fold round each the pen and canopy did the trick, and it didn’t even fall off after I shoved the entire equipment into my backpack. I nonetheless worry that, at some point, the pen will come unfastened.

What’s it like taking notes with 4,096 colours?

Over the previous few months (largely due to the Boox Palma 2 Professional), I’ve grow to be hooked on the volleyball manga Haikyu!!. The comedian pages that roll by on the Be aware Air 5C embody small shades of shade that seemingly are as a result of scanning know-how on apps like Crunchyroll Manga. These small imperfections surprisingly add to the faux-paper impact you get on E Ink.

Seeing the splash of shade while you open up the e book cowl is usually a calming expertise—far much less old-timey than on a black and white e-reader. How correct these colours are will rely upon every work’s palette. As an example, the duvet artwork to a title like Paru Itagaki’s Beastars on the Kindle app bears a detailed semblance to the real-life manga. The watercolor-like inks are already according to Kaleido 3’s washed-out colours, in order that is sensible. After I load my PDF of the indie TTRPG Mythic Bastionlands, these darkish tones additionally look very near what you get within the bodily e book.

Surprisingly, in some titles, I discovered that the “Vivid” refresh settings made ebooks lose rather more of the darker distinction than on the “Quick” setting. Nonetheless, there was no hope for representing each work that tickles my fancy. The comedian collection The Energy Fantasy by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard was a tragic facsimile of what it ought to seem like. It lacked the caustic tones of the art work hanging up in my residence. The TTRPG Slugblaster by Mikey Hamm, a piece so stuffed with deep cosmic purples, appeared far too pale, like a shade of mauve. This made white textual content too tough to differentiate in comparison with how it’s on the real-life web page.

You’ll want to modify to Regal refresh mode to get essentially the most definition of white textual content on a black background. Due to the colour choices, highlighting textual content is significantly higher than something you may use on an e-reader with a black and white display screen. Boox’s software program features a FreeMark software that may allow you to mark up the pages in some apps. It really works on Kindle, but it surely gained’t in different apps, together with, unusually, Boox’s personal NeoReader PDF viewer. You possibly can mark up textual content, but it surely lacks instruments to alter pen or marker kind.

An e-notetaker with poor battery life? Sure actually…

This e-notetaker weighs in at solely 440g, or lower than a pound. It’s skinny at 5.8mm thick. Yup, that’s what we anticipate from right this moment’s Kindle-likes. And with this way issue, I’m not compelled to contemplate battery life an excessive amount of. However with the Be aware Air 5C, I’ve to maintain a detailed eye on my battery gauge. Even when jotting concepts down or flipping pages in a e book, the system’s battery depletes precipitously. I can use the Be aware Air 5C intermittently for a complete day and nonetheless have sufficient left over to get it to a charger. Nonetheless, I’m used to gadgets like Boox’s personal Palma 2 Professional that may final for a number of days with common use.

In the event you deliberate on utilizing this e-notetaker as an artist, I counsel you keep on with a clearer OLED pill. The stylus is correct sufficient for penmanship, however E Ink is just too unreliable. Colours aren’t what you assume they’re. Making an attempt to fill in areas is just too inconsistent. I attempted the favored Android drawing app Krita on the Be aware Air 5C, and it was too laggy to even think about.

So that you’re left with just a few decisions. The Android-based Boox gadgets have all the advantages of being on such an open platform in comparison with gadgets just like the Kindle Colorsoft Scribe and the equally costly reMarkable Paper Professional. For that, you’ll have to cope with occasional jank. The Be aware Air 5C by no means didn’t boot, however navigating menus could be gradual and infrequently laggy. I desperately need only one extra bodily management on this system to make refreshing the display screen and accessing settings seamless.

Boox nonetheless promotes the $500 Be aware Air 4C on its web site. They’re the identical pill, although the older model is utilizing Android 13 and features a less-capable folio and pen (plus no keyboard). So in case you have been in search of the most cost effective shade e-notetaker, this system is within the operating, although there are different choices. There’s one other iteration of the Be aware Air 5C that’s a lot, a lot better. Maybe that may come quickly, or else we might lastly get a model of shade E Ink that actually ticks all of the containers.