Boox Note Air 3 - 48 hour impressions and comparison to Note Air 3c and Kindle Oasis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- #boox #eink #impression
It's now been 48 hours since I first opened up my new Boox Note Air 3 E-Ink device. I can say that I'm impressed! In this video, I'll show you what I've liked about it and how it compares to the Note Air 3 as well as the Kindle Oasis.
If you'd like to help support me and purchase a Boox Note Air 3c or Note Air 3 for yourself, please use one of these affiliate links to purchase one on Amazon:
Boox Note Air 3c: amzn.to/3TR8VpY
Boox Note Air 3: amzn.to/3TXt3qM
If you are a developer interested in Elixir and Phoenix, check out my LiveView course at BuildItWithPhoenix.com.
Finally, check out my website for more information (maybe including a written review of this device) at geoffreylessel.com.
00:00 - Intro
00:27 - Battery life
02:19 - Black and white vs. color
03:04 - DPI
04:17 - Frontlight
04:51 - Comparison to Kindle Oasis
05:41 - Minimum brightness
06:58 - Maximum brightness
07:44 - Oasis screen closeup
08:08 - Note Air 3 screen closeup
09:19 - Note Air 3c screen closeup
10:30 - Final thoughts - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Sorry for the random comment. Just clicked on this and... immediately your microphone setup and vocal quality are top 1%
Oh, thank you so much! I do take audio quality very seriously (and am slightly annoyed when I can't make it top 0.05%) and it is encouraging to know that care comes across to others. You made my morning.
00:00 📊 Gio provides impressions after 48 hours of using the Note Air 3, comparing it to the Note Air 3C and Kindle Oasis.
05:42 🌈 Color hasn't been missed; daily tasks like Kindle reading and web article reading are unaffected by the lack of color.
09:37 🔍 Initial concerns about lower DPI on Note Air 3 compared to 3C and Kindle Oasis were alleviated; configurable settings improved screen appearance.
12:56 💡 Frontlight comfort differs; Note Air 3 requires lower brightness than Note Air 3C for comfortable reading.
14:52 🔄 Gio compares screens at minimum brightness, noting the 3C as the darkest and evaluating whiteness against a piece of paper.
18:07 💡 Screens at maximum brightness are compared; Note Air 3 is brighter than 3C, and differences in color temperature are observed.
22:26 📷 Close-up screen comparisons are shown for Kindle Oasis, Note Air 3, and Note Air 3C at various brightness and warmth settings.
25:57 🤔 Gio expresses a preference for the Note Air 3 over the 3C, citing size, note-taking capabilities, and lack of missed features.
30:32 🎉 Final thoughts summarize impressions after 48 hours, with a teaser about an upcoming comparison involving the Supernote.
Thanks a lot for this e-ink reader review!
i was really hyped for the 3c but the colored screen doesnt justify the horrible battery life thats why i ordered the air 3 and im really happy with it. good to see someone finally comparing them directly im sure this will help a lot of people make their decision.
Thanks for the comment! I do believe I will be in the same boat with the Air 3. So far I've enjoyed my time with it and have been impressed by the battery.
How has the air3 been so far? Any let-downs?
@@ivvie1452 It's been great. I'm definitely not a power user yet but I've enjoyed my time with it. I think I may end up with the Supernote A6X2 Nomad in the end though.
@@geolessel i was looking at that one but it was out of stock. I liked the note system on Supernote, esp the stars! But it was out if stock for EU..
Do you switch off WiFi when you do not need it? It drains battery alot.
Wow what a great review. Exactly what i was looking for. Liked and subscribed nice work, sir
thank you for this video, I'm going to take the air 3. Looks amazing :D
Maybe it's because I work from home and am used to charging my devices regularly but I am impressed that I typically get about a week of battery out of my Note Air 3C. I use it daily for reading and note taking (started playing sudoku which has me using it a bit more). But I still get about a week on a full charge. I find it very rare that I actually need to use any of the lighting. I am fine with just the ambient light from my house which uses yellow tinted warm lighting). So that might be part of it. But I love my 3C for sure and do thoroughly enjoy the colors for digital planning and book highlighting.
I bought the 3C before the 3 was announced, but still within my return window. This was exactly what I was wanting to see - thanks for the detailed screen brightness comparisons. The 3C's screen is just dark and gray to my eyes due to the color layer. 300ppi would be nice, but I think I'm going to roll with the 3 after seeing this vid. 🙏
Thanks for the comment! I'm glad that I could help in your decision.
thanks for the comparison, as a fellow creator I appreciated your on the spot comment about flipping the blank paper over to the other side. haha, subscribed and liked. keep up the good work
LOL, thanks for the comment!
Perfect! Exactly kind of vid I wanted. I pulled the trigger on the NA3.
Nice! I hope you like it!
@@geolessel I love it so far. I do see times when I would appreciate color (highlighting), but I did not want to sacrifice a brighter screen.
@@ToddStanfield Awesome!
I appreciate your videos!!! I’m in the same boat… I’m trying to find a good e ink writer. I just got the Air 3, love the writing experience and brightness but also have the boox tab mini c and writing experience not the best, but love the size.
I returned my 3c as I couldn’t get on with the dullness. Almost old newspaper kind of look. But the 3 feels way more pleasing and crisp. And can be comfortably used without front light. Where as the 3c constantly needs front light imo
The videos make a 3c look brighter than it is. Notice myself when taking videos for Boox during my return process
"Old newspaper" is a great way to describe it! And yes, I have no doubt that the lights surrounding me make it look brighter than normal usage (which I think I do mention in the video itself).
Agree. I'm returning my 3c as well. The screen is terrible.
@@geolessel thanks for interacting with my comment! even without studio lights a brief video I took at home looked better than the in person view! So I love your side by side video as it helps to show the difference. Just wish I’d seen it before I’d purchased. As Boox restocking fee is a bit hefty imo and still waiting 😂 but very happy with black and white version
@@saadiyah22 Yeah, I've kinda given up on the NA3C.
Interesting comparison. I agree I am leaning towards the NA3 too.
I asked about the 227 vs 300 ppi difference on Reddit [can the human eye tell the difference?] and several people told me it was a huge difference! I wonder if Boox imagined that NA3 sales might damage NA3C sales. With no backlight warmth, the NA3 looks blue, but definitely brighter. If it is an LED backlight, I assume more yellow means less blue.
Now you're teasing us with the SuperNote, to make us come back here!
Oh wow, that is interesting. Maybe my eyes aren't good enough 😆 but I can't tell hardly ANY difference. Definitely no "huge" difference.
I can’t tell the difference tbh. Returned my NA3C and kept the NA3. It’s not as crisp as my really old kindle paper white… until… I get the refresh mode correct then feels just as good. If you’re reading even if it’s a webpage but might be long switch it to regal or normal and you notice the difference on the device it self. Let alone comparing to other devices.
Yes, the human eye can tell the difference. One is pixelated, the other one is not.
nice information.
Thanks for the video, I was initially oriented to 3C but after this video I will go for the 3, I have only one concern about the pencils, between the custom and the Pro 2 version, worth the 50 bucks investment with the pen? Thanks again!! 🙏
I have had the Air 3 for a few days. I am really pleased with it. I am not noticing the resolution difference between it and my kindle scribe. When I used a remarkable, the pen strokes seemed a little jagged vs the kindle, but although the Note Air 3 has the same jagged lines on pen strokes, they quickly get smoothed by the software and then look really good.
I am not keen on the pen they provide but have an alternative pen that I use anyway.
The case is okay, but not worth the extra £50 that Amazon are charging. It was worth it for me though as I wanted to be able to return the Note Air 3 is I didn't like it
You seemed worried that 227 ppi wouldn't be enough. I just looked it up, and the Kindle Oasis has 1264x1680 pixels, while the Note Air 3 has 1404x1872 pixels. Even though it has less pixels per inch, it has more pixels because it has more inches. That means if you have the same number of words on the page, it would look better on the Note Air 3. However, if you expect to be able to read a larger document with smaller words because you have a larger screen, you'll still have to zoom in like you would on the Kindle Oasis.
I'm guessing the Oasis is 1680/300 = 5.6 inches long, and the Note Air 3 is 1872/227 = 8.25 inches long?
Anyways, I ordered my Note Air 3 yesterday, and I am REALLY excited to try it out! I really appreciate that you did your tests with the backlight off - it looked so good I didn't even know the backlight was off until you said so! I'm not planning on using the backlight unless I'm reading in the dark.
No TH-camr has tested this yet, so I don't know why they haven't tried it. 3C is equipped with BSR technology, and 3 is not equipped. Then, try scrolling on a web page or playing a TH-cam video and compare how much of a difference there is. That's because I'm crazy curious.
I'm gathering a list of questions from these videos and will add this one to the list. I'm hoping to do a kind of Q&A video at the end of the week (or so).
I'm also really curious about the Boox Super Refresh which is only available on the 3C. I noticed this was a key difference between the two, listed at the bottom of the Boox store page.
@@cosborn Take a look at th-cam.com/video/pUxiXJgTU7g/w-d-xo.html to see some side-by-side refresh comparisons
thank you for the comparison, great work! after watching this i am convinced to buy NA3.
But i have a silly request if you wanna try out, could you try playing a youtube video on NA3? i would like to see black and white video performance with your perfect camera. it would be nice to see faster and slower screen refresh modes performance.
Not silly at all! I have had someone else ask about that and I have it on a list of things to cover in an upcoming Q&A video. I'm hoping to have that out sometime next week.
awesome! thanks. i have one more question. did you have any issues with palm rejection on NA3? like you did on NA3C?
@@thay_0 it does seem to be about the same.
3C looks warmer than the other 2. The other 2 looks way too cold, blue, must be quite the straining experience on the eyes VS 3C.
Just by seeing them through a video, could be a total different experience irl though.
Love these comparison videos, currently waiting on 3C which I'm planing to be using for math and physics classes. Eventually coding too, I guess?
Figured I would appreciate having a colored screen when it comes to reading/drawing different graphs etc.
Yeah, that's a good point about the warmth! Sometimes that warmth may be something you want. I typically prefer a more cold color temp but I would definitely make it warmer at night.
On of my planned use cases would be to connect the tablet to my Mac to use it a display for some coding. While I think I would prefer the normal 3, I think for desktop work some color and the better refresh rate are more what I need. I will probably do it like you and test the 3c first
That is a very interesting use case! Are you suggesting that you could use the tablet directly with the Mac as an external display? I didn't realize that was possible.
Thanks for the side by side comparison. Colour sounds great, but the dullness and loss of battery life don’t seem to justify it. It was also good to see the 300 dpi vs 227. I don’t understand why Boox did that for the Air 3, but it doesn’t appear to have a perceptible impact. I’m interested to hear your thoughts about the writing experience and battery life on the 3 versus the Supernote.
Thanks for the reply and for letting me know what you found valuable. I do have my Supernote sitting in its box on my desk waiting for me to open it. I'm excited to do so and see how it compares!
The reason Boox did 300dpi for the color version is that when it uses the color filter the dpi is lower; i think it's like 150 because of how the filter works. So probably it would have been much more noticeable when halving the 227dpi for color. Or else they just wanted the number to be the same as kindle and other readers haha.
@geolessel Great I'll be sure to check it out when you post the review.
@@HebrewLiteracy I did post the unboxing video here: th-cam.com/video/T9RUenIR09Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=y9rjNddpijm5oo2P. I'm hoping to have a usage review up in a day or two.
Hey, thanks for the note air 3 (c) videos! Have you noticed a difference in the writing experience between the 3 and the 3c? I was wondering whether the 3 would have a bigger lag without the BSR technology.
You're welcome! I have not personally noticed a difference. If I were to actively look for one, I _may_ be able to see it. But in normal usage situations, they are both more than fast enough for me.
This is great, I really appreciate the review, especially about the color vs B&W, the dpi/ppi and the white background. If I could offer some constructive criticism (not normal for TH-cam), it's that you say "umm" too much. It reminded me of a time when I was filmed during a presentation with an overhead projector (yes, I'm that old) and a 'click' pen. I clicked it more often than Gen Z says 'like'. I'm still surprised the spring in the pen didn't break. I don't mean to be a dick, I liked and subscribed. Edit: Kudos for the examples with "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon, I'd like it twice if I could just for that.
You may see a difference between the screens reading PDFs in split screen, but in normal usage it's not really noticeable
Ah, that's an interesting point and something I hadn't thought of. I may give that a try and see if I can tell any difference.
I dont need color for reading books, and i am a bookworm, i only use my e-ink reader for reading books
I have super ax2 for journaling, so amazing. Just ordered box page for oasis like reading and note taking ebooks. Curious if I’m losing any major benefit not having a pen. I feel that heavy ebook studying with notes I’ll just Bluetooth a keyboard in the office. If I’m not focused on writing do you think I lose annotation benefits without the pen? Thanks!
It is hard to say for your specific use case. I do enjoy having the pen while I'm reading because even if I don't take handwritten notes, the process of "highlighting" an ebook with a pen is very satisfying.
@@geolessel I appreciate your feed back. So it sounds like more of a preference than any added benefit. Never had a boox, just making sure I'm not losing an annotating trick with a pen with boox. Speed to highlight, and annotate is my goal... I'll try this Boox page out and see how it goes. Love my supernote for writing, but it's seems a bit slow annotating, and I must have a bright screen for reading
My Oasis DOES have a "Warmth" slider right below the Brightness slider in the pull down menu!!! 7:13 What firmware version is your oasis running? Mine is 5.16.8 with a long number in parenthesis and I have BOTH brightness and warmth settings.
Did you try with complex pdfs? I think this device can be a game changer for TTRPG pdfs.
It depends on your definition of "complex" but I did compare a technical PDF on the Boox Note Air 3, 3C, and Nomad here: th-cam.com/video/PkFbmtx8f7E/w-d-xo.html
@geolessel did a check. I meant TTRPG pdfs. Those pdf contains background image, foreground image, stylized texts.. since I don't buy physical books anymore but I have many pdfs, I need to have a good e-reader (my kindle isn't good to read the book during the sessions).
@@marcosrafaelmachado Ah yes. I did download and read a strategy game manual which had images, background images, fonts, etc. and it was great on both Note devices.
Update the firmware on your Oasis, it's had a "warm" slider for years, at least mine does.
Aha! Thanks for pointing this out. I have a tendency to go really deep into settings when I first get a device and then forget about them from then on.
LOL moment when you flipped the paper.
Haha, yeah, when I realized I did it it was kind of a head-slapper moment. I also noticed that I do it again a bit later. LOL
Everyone is saying the 3c's battery is bad, but nobody is saying how long it last
It is like a tablet
227 only? why? I do see this difference on my Kindles and will not accept anything lower the 300 so its a pass from me. unfortunatelly
Perhaps they will release a 300 dpi version soon. For me, my eyes, and my normal use cases, the difference wasn't big enough to really notice.
like
Thanks for watching!
Thank you, but none of them is my choice. I'd rather take Boox Page 👍
Would the battery life of the Note Air 3C to just display in black and white? If that’s possible, it seems like that to take advantage of the 300 DPI screen and maybe even extend battery life 🤔
The color screen is ridiculously dark, dull and just ruins the tablet. Go with the b/w version. The 3c is such a let down
been reading those comments for a while. complete and utter bs. it is noticeably darker but completely workable. at around 80% front light it's perfect. At 100% I am getting blinded.
I don't work, so I don't need/have a workflow.
You could prepare better. Why don’t you discuss the functioning of the Kindle app on the Boox when comparing? Having that vast difference in font sizes between the 3 and the 3c and the Kindle makes your review useless for a viewer interested in using the 3 as a reading device for Kindle books. And when showing us the 3 screen you failed to get in focus for more than a second.
Idk why seeing your hands mocing whilst your head and body are on thr right side feels so strange and puzzling haha
Way too small!
Thanks for watching. What is too small?