Onyx Boox Note 5

One big bane and a few minor kinks. Otherwise a very useful device. Much love – Who ever love reading will definitely like the idea of android plus e ink. Heaven. All the various reading resources, digital library and kindle app. Also loading other reading materials from online. Also all the different dictionary browser app you can download to read materials in other language. Can’t emphasize how much this helps me. I read… Read more

many materials in my second language and the lack of digital dictionary support is a pain. Having android on e ink is heaven.

Little detail Kindle user may be happy to know that kindle app will not recognize this device as a black and white device. So you can send books full of colours to boox which amazon otherwise will not let you send to black and white kindle.

Easy on eyes. I love the warm light option although I think the warm/cool light bar is kinda switched. It is really easy on the eye, and I can it isn’t stressing my eyes as much.

Good size but bit heavy on one hand. The size makes me able to read some large format material easily, especially those that don’t have auto “word wrap” function. I read a lot of materials like that, so it is a very big bonus. Unless you have very large hands though, can’t really hold it on one hand to read for a long time.

Notes Note taking is easy and I love that I can set a few different type of “writing type” ( highlighter, pen, pencil, etc ) on the ‘toolbar’ so I don’t need to keep going back to swap every time I want to change something. ( as seen in picture ) The syncing of notes is also done very easily by tapping a button. I much MUCH prefer this over the automatic syncing function some digital paper have as they aren’t always smart enough to know you want the syncing to be done NOW. With boox. It is all in your control as it should be. The pen for taking note writes a bit squeeky. I have another digital paper without android and their pen nibs can fit into boox pen nibs and I changed it just to have a better writing feel.

Colour exporting This is a black and white e ink and not one of those new coloured ones. However, they do provide many different colours for note taking ( see picture ). While the colours aren’t shown in boox, ( just different shades of gray.) nor do they label the colours…. ( I am not kidding ) they have this colour code thingy as seen in the picture after you select the colour. I am convinced the person who designed this is a robot or something who sees colours in code. Us humans just have to memorize the colour placement, so we know what colour we are using when the note are exported. I would deduct this as half star but that isn’t an option in the review setting unfortunately, so just to be fair, I let it remain.

User experience Interface across the board take some getting use too. Quite a bit of learning curve as it is not your typical apple and android type of “tablet”. So some might feel it is not as intuitive. To be able to use google play on it, you need a few steps to set it up which instructions can easily be found online.

Protection Lack of choice of casing and cover in the market, though it may be because this product is still rather new. I got a cool magnetic one, which is only attached to the device via 4 magnet corners and covers like a book. Would it damage the device if I drop it? Have not happen and will not try.

Mobile App The boox app downloaded on my mobile for accessing files on your boox is total beep. It is clearly not made for mobile screen size. It is an app that seems to just load a site to your account. The site isn’t made or mobile viewing too, just the old stagnant big page which you must swipe up down left right (on the right places too) to get to buttons you need but not quite sure where. The mobile app to me is the bane of this purchase. Having said that. Once you carefully study all corner of that app and knows what are where, it is still as annoying having to swipe up down left right ( on the right places ) to get there. The log in page of the app is just as horrible. On the occasion that the app does log you out for whatever reason, logging back in is a pain. Someone needs to fix this. This app almost single handed took all responsibility for the whole lack of 1 star to get the full marks.