Jack of All Trades: Boox Note Air 3C - Color E-Ink Tablet REVIEW
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Here it is: The Boox Note Air 3C, the long-awaited successor of the Boox Note Air 2 Plus.
Same as before, it’s a 10.3 inch E-Ink tablet with Android, but it got a few tricks up its sleeve, like the newer Android 12-version and the C as in Color in its name.
So the Note Air 3C is a Color E-Ink tablet and we’re going to have a close look at what this means, if it’s worth the excitement and check out what else is going on this latest Boox Note Air tablet.
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🔗 LINKS
► Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C (affiliate): geni.us/wanrL
► Onyx Boox Note Air 3 (affiliate): geni.us/sU8GUr
► Onyx Boox Tab Mini C (affiliate): geni.us/xXOXy
► Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C (affiliate): geni.us/9mV3
► Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C Review: • I'm Switching To Color...
► Onyx Boox Tab Mini C Review: • Compact(ish) Color E-I...
Check out the absolutely brilliant LCARS screen by meWho here: www.mewho.com/titan/
🎬 CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:40 Build Quality & Hardware
04:44 Storage & CPU
05:33 Kaleido 3 Color E-Ink Display Quality
08:00 Frontlight Quality
09:06 Weird Shadow on the Screen
09:35 Boox Super Refresh Technology
10:55 Writing Feel, Pen, Pen Latency, Pressure Levels
12:14 Android 12 with Boox UI & Google Play Store
13:57 PDF-Functions
14:54 Notetaking App, AI-Tools & Pairing a Bluetooth Keyboard
16:40 Data Privacy Concerns
17:25 Library & Reading E-Books
18:06 Text-To-Speech-Function Demonstrated
19:02 Battery Life
21:16 Conclusion
🖖WHO AM I
I'm Chalid, and I've been a fan of e-ink technology for a very long time. I've been reviewing e-ink devices since 2010. After more than 100 different e-reader tests for my German website, this channel is dedicated to sharing my experiences with the latest e-readers, other e-paper devices, and sometimes other tech in English as well.
🔗 DISCLAIMER/DISCLOSURE
The tips, tricks and experiences shared are for guidance only; any actions taken based on these are solely at your own risk. Some links in the description contain affiliate links, which means that if you buy something through these links, I will receive a small commission on a purchase at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you so much for supporting the channel.
🔖 TAGS
E-Ink Kaleido 3, E-Ink Kaleido, Boox Note Air 3C, Color E-Ink Tablet, E-Ink Tablet, Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C, Boox Note Air 3 C Review, Boox Note Air 3 C Test, Boox Note Air 3 C In-Depth Review, Boox Note Air 3 C Hands-On, Onyx Boox Note Air 3C, Boox Note Air 3C Review, Boox Note Air 3C Test, Boox Note Air 3C In-Depth Review, Boox Note Air 3C Hands-On
#boox #eink - บันเทิง
Thank you for your reviews. I really enjoyed learning the pros and cons. I think I’m going with the Boox Air Notes 3c. It seems to have the features I want and none of those I do not want. Originally I was looking at the Bigme inkNote Color +, but didn’t like the differences when the page sizing was changed when reading PDFs. I will use this device with both English and Japanese text, so that is a deciding factor.
Very useful and good review. I agree with your take (and many others) on the downsides of not making the super refresh optional and the frankly “smaller than it should be” battery. Apart from those issues - and for me, annoying ghosting when showing colour, even in HD mode, always requiring a manual refresh to clear it once you have moved to a “ghosted” colour page :( - the Note Air C is a great device and has replaced my usage of the Note Air 2 completely.
Looking forward to your in depth review of the Boox OS which all of us Boox device users will benefit from seeing - in addition to Voja’s great series!
I own the Note Air 3c. And the battery life is not that bad. Yes, it is shorter than any other devices on the market, but it is significantly longer than the battery life on my ipad. Yes, the front light consumes power, but the screen itself when it is not in "use" does not. And I am doing the same thing I do with my kindle oasis: I put it in flight mode when I don't need the connectivity.
If you could have only one, the Oasis or the Boox?
@@treyg855 I have two different use cases. I don't use the Boox as an ebook reader (beside PDFs and ebooks with illustrations). It is too large for my taste. The oasis has the better form factor as an ebook reader.
Can you check the battery details? Some na3c have been shipped with a larger battery it seems.
@@treyg855 Scribe is better for comparison.
Very helpful review. Thanks.
Chalid, thank you for an amazing review! Have you, by chance, tried to use it as additional monitor/screen to the Windows laptop/PC? I do understand that's really niche use, but Im also thinking about using a tablet this way as well
Thanks :) You need additional apps to use the tablet as an external monitor. I've demoed it here with another Boox device: th-cam.com/video/hTPefE69h2o/w-d-xo.html&si=FRE-1rR36QxUBmbL
It workss alright, but you need to factor in a slight delay, that wouldn't be as pronounced as with a dedicated E-Ink monitor.
As for the other question: Browsing the web works perfectly fine. No issues here - you can also install other Android browsers (like Firefox including extensions) as well and change the E-Ink mode if needed (for quicker refreshes).
@@ChalidRaqami Thank you a lot!! Yeap, Spacedesk is good, used it on my oooooold Android 8 tablet :)
Hi! Thank you for your exceptional reviews, i appreciate them a lot!
I was wonder if the screen for a strong use on note taking (since i'm a student i will use it pretty much only on that), is prone to get riuned, and if there are some replacement in this case.
Thak you again ❤
Thanks! The Note Air 3C and Note Air 3 both have a screen protector on there. Those are plastic and can get scratched. There are third party protectors available, but the writing feel isn't as good in my experience. But you can swap a damaged screen protector for a new one.
The screen itself is sitting on a glass-plate, so the biggest threat to these kinds of screens are dropping the tablet. Other than that, I haven't had any problems with E-Ink screens over the last 10 years.
But I always recommend getting Boox devices from local sellers or Amazon, just in case you need warranty repairs, which I've read Boox can be complicated to deal with directly.
great review! would you be able to comment on the color reproduction difference between the Tab Ultra Pro C and the Air 3C??
Thanks! I'd say colors on both devices are exactly the same. However, the Tab Ultra C Pro is a bit crisper because it doesn't have that paperlike screen protector, which ever so slightly blurs the screen. But that's only noticable if you look very closely. But the Note Air 3C on the other hand has the brighter frontlight.
How the tablet handles really big PDFs (10MB CAD drawings)?
And question on using it with web browser for reading news / articles? What's your experience with it, any downsides?
If you annotate a PDF and store it on Google Drive, are the annotations visible (editable?) when you open the document on an iPad and Mac?
Hi, I am looking for a color e-ink tablet. I must write notebooks at university and read text books from my teachers on PDFs. I thought the color can be a good thing. Are Onyx devices tough in your opinion? I want to be able to put in a backpack with their book case at least with no worries. In addition, Note A3c or TUC Pro? In which use case do you suggest the second? Thanks
The problem with kaleido 3 is, if you want color you have to use frontlight and if you use frontlight it drains your battery. I had it a short time and the battery lifetime was worse as on a lcd tablet. Which is kinda ironic since this is a big sellingpoint for eink. My main use were comics though. The colors also seem to be a bit off. it also felt they were even in the very mutes version not true to the original. Some blues where just black.
Trying to figure out specifically how it relates to the Boox Tab Ultra 3 C
Android 12 was already 2.5 years old and two generations behind when the Note Air 3C came out. For a tablet that sells for 500 bucks, that isn't great, especially since time has shown that we can't expect any Android update from Onyx.
Android choice is largely a problem because it's drivers. If you've ever wondered why it takes months to see an android update on your phone, you'll start to understand. Until the hardware suppliers to Onyx produce drivers supporting the latest android, you get the best you can get. Not saying Onyx isn't doing enough to push this problem upstream but they make a small number of items and then move on so the incentive isn't there to update older models.
@@TheMarkRich That doesn't explain why their latest tablet came out with Android 12 when Android 14 was already out. It isn't a question of update here: the OS was waaay outdated from the get-go.
As for their having no incentive to update, that means they don't really care about their customers. On my old phone, many apps no longer worked because their latest version didn't work on my old Android. That's why this time around I bought a Samsung phone (a cheap one, an A14): it'll get two OS updates, plus security updates until 2027.
@@sinoceltit does explain it. If the hardware onyx sources, and remember that needs to be at least a year ago for development time supports only a certain android version, that's what it'll be.
Yep, it's not great they keep releasing older versions and I don't expect any Android upgrades either.
But playing devil's advocate for a moment: Android on E-Ink (and Boox) is so heavily customized, that you don't really see a lot of difference between any of the available versions. And at least this time around it got the September 1, 2023 security update. So I suspect most users don't mind too much, as long as Android apps keep working.
@@ChalidRaqami security updates are good and what matters keeping risks low. My problem with Onyx android use is the refusal to publish the source code of the modified version. That is against the rules of asop use and common to many Chinese manufacturers using android on music players, tablets and ereaders. It may just be laziness for some but onyx refused. Something to hide? Probably not, but it doesn't help with trust.
My question is the search button.. can i search my specific note or word on the history?
Can this note tab take notes on a PDF Kindel or screen capture?
Since the primary use case of the device is note taking and reading, they could have omitted the higher refresh technology to give better battery life. I don't like to have another device which I need to charge daily.
refresh tech is very important for note taking.
I invest quite a bit of time using my Samsung S7/S8 tablets. I bought a Boox Note Air 2 Plus for reading, taking notes and occasionally browsing the news. It works exceptionally well for that use case. I'm seriously considering the Note Air 3 C, but to be honest, the shortened battery life is probably a show-stopper for me. I get several days between battery charges on the Note Air 2. Not sure I'm willing to drop down to single day charge capacity just to get a washed out bit of color and a mild performance improvement. If I didn't already have the Note Air 2, I might consider the Note Air 3 more seriously, but right now... I'll probably stick with what I have.
I'm not in a position to buy 2 tablets, so am considering a Tab S8 and Boox Note Air 3 C. Do you like drawing on the Samsung? I'm trying to decide between the 2.
Excellent question that I can easily answer. If a person can only afford one tablet and your choices are the Tab S8 or the Boox Note Air, the S8 is the clear winner. Do I like 'drawing' on the S8? I'm not an artist, so that would be a more difficult question for me to answer. I can say that I do a lot of writing and yes, I do enjoy writing on the S8. Writing on the Note Air is an excellent experience, so perhaps an artist would better enjoy drawing on that tablet as well (versus the S8).... BUT... I can absolutely assure you that in every other way, the S8 isn't just a little better than the Note Air.... it is better by orders of magnitude.
I am fascinated by the potential of e-ink and Boox represents the pinnacle of the current state of technology in e-ink. That said, e-ink tech absolutely pales in comparison to almost any modern day, traditional LED/LCD/OLED tablet. E-ink does provide a more 'natural' writing/drawing experience, but it is so limited in almost every other way that the user of these devices is forever left with the perception that they are involved in some kind of ongoing product 'beta test'. The reason for this is that e-ink was never intended to provide the same, overall compute capability we have on traditional tablets.
E-ink provides three significant advantages over LED/OLED tablets. Those advantages are.... much better battery life, a more 'paper like', natural writing experience and a better (easy on the eyes) reading experience. The introduction of color e-ink requires so much power, that the advantage of extended battery life is now gone. Frankly, much of the 'writing experience' can be replicated on traditional LED/OLED tablets by simply applying an inexpensive screen surface cover. That leaves the 'easy on the eyes' experience as the only real advantage of e-ink over LED/LCD tablets.
I'm not trying to talk anyone out of buying the Note Air 3-C, but I can confidently offer that if you can only afford one tablet, it probably shouldn't be e-ink. I appreciate the better known TH-cam reviewers who focus on e-ink and frankly, those reviewers caused me to give e-ink a try. Well... I've done that. I bought the Kindle Scribe and the monochrome Note Air 2. I can now say that I appreciate some of the capability that e-ink brings to the table. That said, I can also say that many reviewers absolutely and seriously downplay the problems with e-ink devices anytime the user tries to do more with an e-ink tablet other than reading, writing and drawing. Those problems are not insignificant.
I can offer a reasonable alternative that you may enjoy, but you need to hurry and take advantage of the current holiday sales.
The S8 is currently on sale at BestBuy for the same price as the Note Air 3-C ($499). That's $300 off the full price of the S8 and a great deal. The Kindle Scribe is also on sale at Amazon. This means that during the holidays, you could buy the S8 AND the Kindle Scribe for the same money you would otherwise spend on just the S8. While the Kindle Scribe lacks much of the full 'notebook' functionality of the Boox products, it still remains best-in-class for the purposes of reading, writing and battery life.
If you want to save even more money, the Samsung S9 FE (11") is on sale for $399. If I had zero tablets but only enough money to buy the S8, I wouldn't do it. I would buy the S9-FE tablet (also at BestBuy) and, with the savings, also buy the Kindle Scribe. In my humble opinion, that option is the best you could hope to achieve during the holiday sales. You'll get two really great tablets (e-ink and traditional) for about $700 total.
You can save even more money by NOT buying the Samsung and Amazon covers for those tablets. For less than half the cost, you can buy third party covers that work very well for the S9-FE and the Kindle tablets. While you're at it, you may also want to consider one of the 3rd party keyboard/cover folios available for the Samsung tablet. The Kindle, sadly, cannot use a bluetooth keyboard, but the Samsung works great for that purpose. If your budget can edge up another $100 bucks, get the S8 (11") and the Kindle. You'll have the best of both worlds without making the myriad of compromises you'll be forced to make when buying only the Boox Note Air 3C.
Best luck to you and have a very Merry Christmas!
@@horseman1956 Thanks soo much! I also actually am not an artist and definitely will do more writing that actual art, but I do sketch out non-art engineering ideas / diagrams.
I really really appreciate the detailed reply!
@@horseman1956 Wow this comment did it for me regarding what e-ink tablet to buy, i just want to take notes beside reading books, not having to worry about battery life and be distracted even by other apps. I'll be buying the Kindle Scribe. Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts.
With battery life that short, I begin to question what the point is of using e-ink at all. You can get virtually the same easy-on-the-eyes effect with an OLED screen but without any of this device's drawbacks, and for a similar amount of money. I suppose it's easier to read outside, but that's one occasional use-case benefit in exchange for being crippled in every other use-case.
With EInk you can only see one screen that is lit from above - the other screens shine directly into your eyes.
Yeah, it's definitely a trade-off - and I don't like it too much either. I do think that E-Ink is easier on the eyes in general, but I agree that battery life was/is also one of the main selling points.
I definitely wouldn't have minded, if they didn't include the Super Refresh Technology here for better battery life. To be honest, I actually quite surprised they did, because it closes the gap to the Tab-devices maybe a bit too much.
You can go black and white with this device and just use color when needed which will increase your battery life, but If you are truly trying to go paperless look at what supernote has to offer or remarkable
I am an academic and I am seriously considering buying an e-ink tablet just for systematic note-taking and easy-on-the-eyes paper reading. In these terms, what is the comparison of this device to remarkable 2?
I don’t have a remarkable, only Boox devices, but even though the remarkable is quite a bit cheaper, it is, IMHO, so limited in what it can do. No front light - though admittedly brighter screen than the unlit Kaliedo screen of the Note Air C; very limited functionality without having to pay a subscription fee for that; no Android apps (Kindle and others); and even though it’s distraction-free, you can achieve that with the Boox by turning off notifications and going into air flight mode. If you don’t need colour and don’t want the finger reader lock and super refresh - heavy on battery life :( - or rather faster action of the Note Air C, I’d seriously consider the monochrome Note Air 2/Plus with its much better battery life.
Is it rootable right now? You are only genius who help with stuff like rooting eink tablets
I haven't tried it yet, but will do at the end of the year. I suspect it's doable the same way as I described in my root-video for the Note Air 2 Plus. I'll post a video tutorial once I manage to root it.
Hello, I recently bought this tablet and there are things that I don't like, such as the color resolution making it unsuitable for reading comics, yes you can read them but the experience is worse than on the iPad since, for example, in the suit Spiderman you can't see the lines of the spider web. Another thing that I don't understand and maybe someone can help me is why the pen works correctly in the native notes app but it has a latency that makes it unusable in an external app such as concepts?
Good point with the resolution and fine lines. That can definitely be an issue. What can help to compensate for such things (sometimes) is adjusting contrast levels, image sharpness etc. It's not perfect, but at least a little better.
Regarding the pen's latency: That's unfortunately an issue with all Android E-Ink tablets. The ~20ms latency is mainly true for the built-in note taking app and usually a couple of selected apps for which the system was optimized for (e.g. OneNote). But whatever app the manufacturer didn't account for, there's usually notable lag.
Why does the tab mini c have more vibrant colors? Was the backlight on?
The 7.8 inch E-Ink Kaleido 3 displays are generally more vibrant right now. In the shot where I mention it, both have the integrated LEDs enabled.
Does the Note Air 3C case fit the Note Air 2 Plus?
No, unfortunately not. The Note Air 2 Plus is just a tiny bit too large for the case, so the sides aren't fully covered (just barely). And the magnets are also positioned differently, so it's not held in place.
Good review. I think I'll hold off on buying until they fix their shady connections to Chinese servers 👍
I wish it had page buttons
Does the vividness difference between Note Air 3C and Boox Tab Mini C because of the settings? Or because it's smaller it produce more vivid color?
No, it's not the settings. I've tried to replicate the saturation of the Tab Mini C on the larger Note Air 3 C by changing the settings, but wasn't able to come close.
I suspect the color filter is a tiny bit different, but can't say for sure because my microscope is broken :-/ Maybe the gap between the RGB subpixels is smaller or the transparency-level of the color filter is a bit less.
But either way, it's definitely a noticeable difference if you ask me.
What is the point of buying an eye friendly device, if at the end you have to use the frontlight ? Is it really better for your eyes than a LCD display with blue light filter activated ?
Good question... there's no definitive answer unfortunately. I'd say generally the luminescence of an e-ink tablet's frontlight is lower than you'd operate most phones or tablets. So that alone should make it better.
Another advantage of e-ink displays are the (almost) missing reflections. Even at lower brightness levels you don't really need to look past those. I only noticed how strenuous that actually is, after switching to reflection-less displays. You can of course operate LCDs at a very high brightness to eliminate reflections, but than you're increasing blue light emissions as well.
An E-Ink Carta display with a better reflectance is the way to go imho, if you want to lower artificial light exposure.
What I don’t get is why you need a color temperature slider on an eBook. Because E-Ink was made as an eye saver in the first place. Could you explain why we need a color temperature slider?
I use "orange" light when I read late in the night before falling asleep in bed. It's so much better than white light
Even with a front-lit E-Ink display, the white LEDs transmit blue light, which is said to be problematic for a couple of reasons - like potentially disrupting your sleep pattern. So the idea behind the color temperature adjustment is to eliminate that completely. I actually have a video planned to cover that very aspect in a bit more detail.
I work in financial planning and would love a digital notepad to take notes on. But I wanted colour so that I can highlight some words.
But I can't justify the cost unless it has more than one use, in this case an ebook reader.
I mostly buy ebooks from Booktopia, and occasionally kindle.
Has anyone tried the Booktopia and Kindle apps on the note air 3 C? Do they run ok?
The Kindle app works fine and I also just installed and quickly tried the booktopia app (v 9.13.1), and that ran without any issues as well.
Awesome thankyou so much
Can you listen an audiobook on audible and read an ebook “at the same time?
Yes, that's possible thanks to its multitasking capabilities.
Hi, pressure sensitivity of Norris Digital Pencil is ruining handwriting, any way I can disable pressure sensitivity in Note 3C
Not that I know of. Can you describe the problem a bit more? I've seen EMR interference with other pens, so the screen reacts before the pen touches the screen.
If that's not the issue, you can try switching to another pen type in the software. The ballpoint pen type isn't pressure sensitive for example.
@@ChalidRaqami it worked, i switched to fountain 🖋️ pen which is not pressure sensitive. Problem is onenote remains very laggy and whole interface misbehave always, so you can only use default note taking app
Can you run this e ink tablet while it’s charging??
Yes, works without any issues
IT HAS AN SD CARD SLOT ok man... i might end up getting it
Is there a way to switch to B&W only to keep it locked at 300PPI?
No, not directly on the device - and if it was possible, the screen would still be darker than a regular E-Ink screen, because the RGB pixels are always visible.
If you only want B&W generally check out the Boox Note Air 3 (without the C). That was released recently and comes with a regular B&W E-Ink screen. Working on the review of that one right now.
is the battery of that better ?@@ChalidRaqami
what is the scars you have in the background?
Do you mean the LCARS? That's the website mewho.com - check it out, it's awesome (not made by me)
Just tried this in a shop today, it is far less functional than I expected, uploaded a 8 page pdf to read, the fine control with PDF compare to any normal tablet is horrible. For the price and value, I think it is probably better to listen to whatever I need to "read" and print out necessary documents to read if needed, in the end, it might still be way better for the environment.
Why does it happen that the colors on the TAB mini C are more intense than on the note air 3C? They are the same type of screen. It shouldn't happen. But in the image you show, the difference is evident. Thanks!
I have the note air 3 c as well. I believe the difference is that the light is brighter on the mini c which makes the colours more visible.
They use different color filters. It is not up to Boox but to Eink, which provides all panels.
Mini C does not have a matte screen protector.
I can only speculate, but even under the microscope, with both frontlights turned off, the Note Air 3 C's subpixels are less saturated - and blurrier. So the display stack with the paperlike screen protector is likely at least partly to blame.
And is it possible to remove that cover from the reader?@@ChalidRaqami
how's the language kanji etc., ?
Can you shed some light on battery life some more . Like if I use TH-cam what's it and if I read comic with colour on what is. If I do comic without colour what is , just go with 0% back light and 100% back light . And what if am writing with colour pen how long will it last and similarly when using monochromatic part what is
you have a very austrian accent 😂