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Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition review: a creative tablet that comes at a serious cost
8:00 pm | November 3, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Tablets | Comments: Off

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition: two-minute review

The Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte edition is a tablet aimed at creatives, with an emphasis on illustration, thanks in no small part to the Tandem OLED PaperMatte display.

The display is indeed impressive: it’s vibrant while at the same time being easy on the eye. Video, photos, drawing and text are all equally displayed vividly and clearly. There’s a slight graininess and soft-focus effect to the picture, but I didn’t find either detracted from the experience.

The gold finish on the PaperMatte Edition is subtle with a scratchy pattern that might not be to everyone’s taste. However, I found it suited the overall design well. I was also impressed by the build quality, which is up there with some of the best tablets, with every panel and join being close to perfect. The power and volume buttons are also of a similarly high standard.

The Glide Keyboard case, however, is more of a mixed bag. While it fits well onto the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition, opening and closing it is difficult, thanks to the extra hinge mechanism that’s necessary to house the M-Pencil 3 charging compartment. It was always awkward to open and close. And while the keys and trackpad feel premium, the material around them appears to show signs of peeling, which spells trouble for its longevity. The case also fails to protect the camera.

One of the major issues with the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition, though, is related to software. Google’s lack of support for Huawei devices means its apps aren’t natively supported, requiring workarounds that are hit and miss in their success. While I was able to get Google apps installed via GBox, they didn’t always perform as expected, and games failed to work outright. Huawei’s official storefront is frankly no substitute for the Google Play Store, as it’s severely limited in scope.

Huawei’s own apps included here can be quite useful and perform well. GoPaint and Petal Clip are very well designed creative apps, with the former letting the M-Pencil 3 shine. However, others have their issues (outrightly failing to work in the case of the Music app).

Gestures both on the touchscreen and on the trackpad are responsive and allow for useful functionality. Typing with the Glide Keyboard is fine, although some software issues hamper the experience. Air Gestures, however, failed to work consistently enough to be useful at all. The M-Pencil 3 stylus offers the most enjoyable way to interact with the tablet: it provides smooth, seamless strokes and although there’s a slight dragging sensation, it isn’t enough to detract from its natural feel.

Battery life on the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition is impressive, lasting several days from general and varied use. Super charging is also available, getting you back up and running relatively quickly: it took me about two hours to get from 5% to full capacity.

Huawei devices are always tricky to recommend. Due to the unique restrictions placed upon the Chinese brand, the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition doesn’t function like your typical Android tablet, with various app restrictions being enforced. However, if you can get past that, or you only want to spill your creative expressions onto a glorious display, then this might be for you. However, at this price, it’s hard to recommend it wholeheartedly given its various foibles.

Close-up of power button on Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition

(Image credit: Future)

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition review: price and availability

  • £799 (about $1,069 / AU$1,553)
  • PaperMatte edition is gold only
  • Same price as the latest iPad Air

The MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition costs £799 (about $1,069 / AU$1,553) and only comes in gold. There’s also a non-PaperMatte edition in black, with a lower capacity (256GB rather than 512GB), for £699. Both versions include the Glide Keyboard. Huawei is currently offering UK customers a promotion of £100 off, as well as a free inclusion of the M-Pencil 3, on its own storefront.

Compared to the best tablets around, the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition sits somewhere in the middle in terms of price. iPad Pro models can certainly be more expensive, but they do pack in far greater power. And the latest iPad Air 13-inch starts at the same price as the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition, although that model will only get you 128GB of storage, and all only have 8GB of RAM.

In the wider realm of Android tablets, again the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition occupies the center ground. Samsung Galaxy tabs can exceed the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition in price, but there are also budget offerings, such as the OnePlus Pad Go, although this model isn’t compatible with a stylus, nor is there an official keyboard case for it.

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition review: specs

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition and Glide Keyboard on desk

(Image credit: Future)

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition review: display

  • Vivid and clear
  • No glare
  • Slightly grainy texture

The 12.2-inch OLED PaperMatte display is very clear, making it easy to read text and view colorful imagery. However, there is a slight graininess to the finish, which becomes more apparent the closer you are. There’s also a slightly softer focus compared to other tablet displays, meaning it isn’t as pinpoint sharp.

Personally, though, I found it to be vibrant enough to view HD and 2K content without issue, thanks in part to its 2800 x 1840 resolution. Reading text is very easy on the eye, thanks to the PaperMatte technology and its high contrast, lack of harsh backlighting (despite the 2,000 nits maximum brightness) and slight softness to the rendering. The matte finish also means glare isn’t a problem for the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition; no matter where I tried it, it would always present a visible image.

The bezels are also very thin, with the display making full use of its allotted real estate. There’s also a distinct lack of smudging, as fingerprints leave next to no trace, as they can on other tablet displays.

The screen is silky smooth to the touch, with finger swipes being effortless to perform. The same is true when using Huawei’s M-Pencil 3: scribbling and drawing with it is a joy, although there is the slightest hint of scratchiness at times but not enough to ruin the experience. Overall, strokes are fluid and precise – thanks in part to the 144Hz refresh rate – and register exactly where you want them to.

  • Display score: 4 / 5

Side view of Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition and Glide Keyboard

(Image credit: Future)

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition review: design

  • Unique gold finish
  • Thin but relatively heavy
  • Awkward Glide Keyboard folding mechanism

The MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition sports a minimal design, fairly typical of most tablets. Its gold finish has a scratch-mark pattern that may divide opinion, but I don’t think it’s too garish. Overall, the fit and finish is excellent, and I spotted no flaws in the construction, while the buttons feel premium and operate with precision and ease.

In the hand, you do feel the weight of the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition, but it’s still just about within reasonable bounds; you shouldn’t have a problem carrying it for long stretches. However, the edges are quite sharp, making it uncomfortable to hold, so this is a tablet better used on a desktop.

The profile of the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition is very thin, which adds to its portability credentials. The same is true even with the Glide Keyboard attached, which is equally as slender. That slenderness, however, comes at the detriment to the camera, as the lenses protrude slightly beyond the bounds of the Glide’s case, offering them no protection against slams or drops.

Perhaps the biggest weakness of the Glide Keyboard, though, is its folding mechanism. There’s a slot to accommodate and charge the M-Pencil 3 that features a double-hinge array, so when folded flat, the stylus is stowed away safely. However, that hinge is very stiff and needs to be opened up for the tablet to sit upright when in use. This makes for awkward opening and closing and, even after a week with it, I still couldn’t operate it smoothly.

The Glide Keyboard magnet that holds the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition upright offers two viewing angles. While it’s strong, a word to the wise: when laying down, make sure your knees aren’t too high if you plan on resting the tablet on them, otherwise the weight of the tablet will force it shut.

Although the Glide Keyboard is well made for the most part, the material around the keyboard itself didn’t feel premium, and even appeared to be losing adhesion, as air pockets were visible beneath it in places, which doesn’t bode well for its durability. The trackpad, though, is smooth and durable, and just the right size to be practical without eating into the keyboard real estate.

The M-Pencil 3 is also well designed, taking cues from the Apple Pencil with its all-white finish and indentation on one side. As well as being stored in its aforementioned slot in the Glide Keyboard, it also clips magnetically to the top of the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition, although it won’t charge in this position. This is far from convenient, as retrieving the M-Pencil 3 from the charging slot is awkward: you can either fish around the back of the tablet while it’s standing upright, or prise up the bottom from its magnetic hold to retrieve it. These are both less than elegant solutions.

  • Design score: 3 / 5

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition review: software

  • Creative native apps
  • Some glitches
  • Support for popular apps problematic

The selection of pre-installed software on the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition verges on excessive, but the hit to performance and storage capacity is thankfully negligible, and isn’t as bad as the bloatware present on other Android tablets.

Huawei’s own suite of apps on the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition is, unsurprisingly, catered to the artistically minded, geared towards getting the most out of the M-Pencil 3. GoPaint is one of the standouts, despite being hidden away in a folder on the second page of the home screen. Anyone who’s dabbled with Procreate will be in familiar territory here, as it offers a near-identical interface and feature-set.

There are also two notes-based apps: Notes and Notepad. These allow for more drawing and scribbling, and come with some useful templates, including even music staves. However, if you’re looking to type your notes, then neither of these apps are fit for purpose, with a measly text box tool being your option. Considering the abundance of third-party note taking apps out there, though, this isn’t much of a problem.

There’s also Petal Clip, a surprisingly in-depth photo and video editing app. This allows you to create animations from images and from videos, with various adjustments, filters and animations to play around with. There are also templates for creating short clips, mainly themed around romance for some reason, but are effective nonetheless for effortlessly livening up content.

Disappointingly the browser app is pretty basic, even lacking common keyboard shortcuts many will be accustomed to. Still, sites do load promptly and general speed isn’t far behind more popular variants. Huawei’s other first-party apps fared less well during my time with the tablet, with glitches occurring frequently. The Music app, for instance, refused to play any music and kept crashing every time I tried to do so.

The real drawback of Huawei devices, though, is the lack of native compatibility with Google and many other apps, due to western sanctions on the Chinese brand. Huawei does have its own AppGallery storefront, but the lineup is sparse, and the Google apps it offers are not the true apps; instead, they run on a platform that essentially loads their mobile site counterparts.

There are various repositories available from which you can install Google and other apps absent from Huawei’s ecosystem, but I had limited success with these, as many refused to install or run, or instead ran but stopped working shortly afterwards.

GBox proved to be the best solution to circumvent these restrictions. This is an environment that claims to get Google apps working on Huawei devices. Once I downloaded the app from the GBox website, I was able to install and use the Google Play Store, along with all the Android apps you know and love.

However, even here, apps downloaded via this method aren’t flawless. In Google Docs, for instance, I was unable to scroll pages, with the typical two-fingered drags resulting in highlighting text instead. Spellcheck as you type also appeared to be missing, and there were times when single taps of the space bar failed to actually create a space. These drawbacks really hamper productivity.

More generally, some apps refused to appear on the home screen once downloaded from the Google Play Store. Also, various games I installed from the Play Store failed to work, either instructing me to download them from the device’s official app store (where they weren’t available), or that a store key was missing.

Also, Google Chrome isn’t available from GBox either. You can download it via the Google Play Store, but after installing, it again requests installing from the AppGallery – and, again, Chrome isn’t on there.

Another issue is that split-screen functionality isn’t available between two apps downloaded from GBox (or the Google Play Store via GBox). You can split a screen between a GBox app and a non-Gbox app, but it's a serious setback to those who want to focus on productivity that two GBox apps can’t be stacked side-by-side.

What does work better, though, is floating windows. I found that any app could be turned into a floating window, allowing you to put it in the corner and keep it on top while other apps are open, or minimize it to a small tab at the side of the screen, ready to be expanded again. Floating windows also offer a workaround for apps that only support portrait mode, as it allows you to view them the right way up in landscape – you won’t be able to make them fullscreen, but you can still resize them to a large degree.

  • Software score: 2.5 / 5

Close-up of Glide Keyboard attached to Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition

(Image credit: Future)

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition review: performance

  • Great for creativity
  • So-so productivity credentials
  • Gestures are a mixed bag

In terms of speed, the Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition is plenty powerful enough to handle light productivity, entertainment and creativity tasks. The Kirin T91 Octa-core chip and 12GB of RAM make for seamless performance for the most part, with only the occasional slowdown. Google Docs and Sheets were swift when creating and editing in these apps, while streaming video on Twitch, Youtube and Netflix was also a close to flawless experience.

The sound quality was also a pleasant surprise. As with most tablets, it won’t blow you away, but audio on the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition was more impactful than I was expecting, creating an admirable sense of space. It also rendered all frequencies clearly while keeping distortion at bay.

When I did manage to install games that actually worked, they performed well too. PUBG Mobile ran smoothly, albeit at a low frame rate and with compromised graphics, but it was still perfectly playable. There was no discernible lag or stuttering, and the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition didn’t heat up in the process either.

Typing is mostly a pleasant experience on the Glide Keyboard, thanks to the wide keys and damped feel. On screen, however, there are few issues. The cursor doesn't move forward when you press space, although a space is registered once you continue typing, which can be a little disconcerting. There were also occasions where the predictive dialog box obscured the screen. And despite what I did to change the keyboard layout, the @ symbol was nearly always mapped to the quote marks key, rather than the 2 key.

The usual trackpad gestures are present. You can swipe with two and three fingers to perform various actions, from navigating menus and pages to switching apps and returning to the home screen. You can also zoom by performing a pinching movement. However, I was disappointed at being unable to drag items around by merely tapping the trackpad; instead, you have to press down the trackpad first before you can drag, which is far less practical when moving items large distances across the screen.

Some mouse gestures also fail to emulate their touchscreen counterparts with the same effectiveness. For instance, opening the multitask view by swiping inwards from the right on the trackpad did several times result in me going back on the web page I had open at the same time, which is more than inconvenient.

As for those touchscreen gestures, they work more seamlessly. They are responsive and smooth, and there are some unique gestures available too. Along with the usual two and three finger actions, there are also knuckle taps, a handy addition that allow you to take screenshots or perform other actions which are configurable in the settings. Again, these work accurately and seamlessly.

The same can’t be said about Air Gestures, however, which are meant to recognize the opening and closing of your hand in front of the camera to perform certain actions. Most of the time, though, I failed to get these to work, no matter where I positioned my hand.

  • Performance score: 3.5 / 5

Back of Glide Keyboard attached to Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition

(Image credit: Future)

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition review: battery

  • Several days of use
  • Quick charging
  • ePaper tablets have it beat, though

The Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition features a 5,000 mAh battery, which is impressively long lasting. During my tests, it went for several days while performing typical user tasks. In comparison, the latest iPad Air lasted eleven and a half hours according to our tests, although that figure halved when dealing with more intense tasks. Charging the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition is a quick process too, thanks to its super charging feature. Charging from 5% to 100% took about two hours.

If you really want something that will last, the reMarkable Paper Pro can go for two whole weeks between charges. That is an ePaper tablet, though, explicitly designed for reading and note-taking, and not much else.

  • Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition?

Buy it if…

You want to draw
The optional M-Pencil 3 is very responsive and smooth, making it a joy to get creative with the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition.

You want a clear display
The PaperMatte display is vivid and clear, making it easy to read text and watch video content.

Don’t buy it if…

You want good app availability
Google and many other apps don’t work natively on the Huawei devices, and the workarounds are far from perfect.

You want powerhouse performance
Although it's perfectly capable of servicing your everyday needs, those after more productivity pedigree may want to look elsewhere.

Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition: Also consider

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2024)
For the same price as the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition, you could get the entry-level model of the latest 13-inch iPad Air. You’ll only get 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but in our Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2024) review, we noted its incredible performance across all areas, including creative and artistic workloads. Plus, you also get access to Apple’s excellent app selection and ecosystem. If you already have an iPhone, an iPad certainly makes more sense for cross-platform functionality.

OnePlus Pad Go
If you’re after a budget-friendly tablet and don’t intend on using a stylus, the OnePlus Pad Go is a worthy choice. Performance is very good at this price, and it doesn't suffer from the same Google app compatibility issue as Huawei products. The display is super sharp for viewing content with ease, but, as we noted in our OnePlus Pad Go review, it can be quite reflective, making darker images hard to see. There’s no official keyboard case available for it either.

How I tested the Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition

  • Tested for one week
  • Tried preinstalled and third-party apps
  • Performed various tasks

I tested the MatePad Pro PaperMatte Edition for one week. During that time, I performed various tasks, including general browsing, light productivity, and gaming. I used it with and without the Glide Keyboard.

I made sure to try out as many of its features as I could, from the preinstalled apps to its overall functionality. I tried where I could use third-party apps, although this proved difficult at times due to the restrictions in place over Google apps on Huawei devices.

One aspect I was unable to test was its screen mirroring and projection capabilities, since these are only compatible with certain Huawei and Honor devices running HarmonyOS, EMUI 10 or Magic UI 3 or later.

Read more about how we test.

First reviewed October 2024

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: a rapid but somewhat unrefined gaming tablet
6:00 pm | October 31, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Tablets | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: Two-minute review

Not content with all but cornering the market in affordable gaming phones, Nubia has now turned its attention to addressing an even more niche market: that of the gaming tablet.

Following the limited launch of the Red Magic Tablet in 2023, the Red Magic Nova Tablet stands as Nubia’s first globally available gaming tablet, and is positioned as a full-sized tablet with top-level gaming performance at a mid-market price.

The Nova largely delivers on that promise, offering a level of gaming performance that punches well above its weight. This machine flies through high-end games on top settings, and although its 10.9-inch 144Hz IPS LCD isn’t the best screen on the market, it is able to keep up with the tablet’s monstrous Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version processor. That’s good news for any games that can hit 120fps or higher.

There is the slight sense that Nubia hasn’t quite thought this whole gaming tablet thing through, though. For example, you have to suspect that committed gamers will be pairing up a Bluetooth controller, so a kickstand or a bundled-in case with a stand would have been useful.

Elsewhere, while performance is extremely impressive, our gaming benchmarks suggest that the Nova Tablet isn’t quite as stable across extended intensive sessions as you might hope. It’s nothing to worry about with today’s most advanced games, though, where everything flies.

Meanwhile, Nubia’s custom UI continues to need work, though Game Space remains a solid way to tweak and optimize your gaming experience.

All in all, the Red Magic Nova Tablet comes across as an extremely capable, keenly priced tablet that perhaps hasn’t yet reached its final form. Those looking for the best tablet performance for less than $500/ £500 should definitely consider it, and we’re excited to see how Nubia’s Red Magic sub-brand refines and develops its gaming tablet vision in future products.

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: price and availability

The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • From $499/ £439
  • Open availability from October 16, 2024

The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet went on sale on October 16, 2024, though at the time of writing, stock has run out due to high demand, and the device is listed as being available to pre-order on Red Magic's official website. Red Magic has, however, told TechRadar that stock will be replenished in November.

Nubia’s Red Magic sub-brand has always supplied outstanding value for money, and that continues to be the case with its first global gaming tablet. Pricing starts from just $499/£439 for the model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

There’s also a second, more premium model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage available for $649 / £559.

You won’t find another Android-based tablet with this level of performance for such a low price. The OnePlus Pad 2 gets closest, offering the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and a similarly swift 144Hz display at a price of £499.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE gets closer to the Red Magic on price, starting from £449. However, it doesn’t even approach the Nova Tablet on raw performance.

It’s possible to buy a tablet that outstrips the Red Magic Nova Tablet for raw performance, but you’ll need to switch over to team Apple to do so. Even then, the mighty M2-powered iPad Air, which starts from $599 / £599, sports a puny 60Hz display, and lacks the Red Magic’s meaty cooling system for sustained gaming.

  • Value score: 5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: specs

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: design

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The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
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The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
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The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Standard tablet shape and size with mostly metal body
  • Signature semi-transparent window and RGB
  • No 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Would benefit from a bundled case or an integrated kickstand

Nubia’s Red Magic gaming phones are pretty chunky and angular, but the Nova’s design is more in line with what you’d expect from a regular tablet. It’s got that familiar flat-edged form factor, with an all-metal body and tightly rounded corners.

At 7.3mm, this isn’t the thinnest tablet on the market, but nor is it distractingly thick. By the same token, a weight of 530g is only a little heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE – though Nubia’s use of the word ‘dainty’ on its website is a bit of a stretch.

It’s only when you turn the Nova Tablet over and look at the back that it makes its gaming aspirations known. Nubia has applied its familiar semi-transparent finish to the thin band running between the camera module and the opposite edge of the tablet.

Those aren’t actual components you can see through the transparent material, just a fancy bit of circuitry accented by a gold color. You also get a little diagram sketching out the internal heat pipe, with the words ‘Cooling System’ helpfully printed on it. Nubia has also advertised the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version chip in a similar manner.

One genuine component on display is the cooling fan, which can be seen alongside the rear camera. This lights up in full RGB when in use, as do the words ‘Red Magic’ in the opposite corner. It’s not exactly subtle by normal standards, but relative to the wider gamer aesthetic, it’s all quite low-key.

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The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
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The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)

The tablet feels nice to handle, with a power key partly recessed on the left edge. This doubles as a fingerprint sensor, and it performs quickly and reliably. As always, it’s never quite as intuitive an experience as the same system on a smartphone, but there is also a basic facial recognition system in place.

I’m a little puzzled by the omission of a 3.5mm headphone jack on the Red Magic. Given the size and thickness of the tablet and its gaming focus, providing the means for latency-free personal audio would seem like an obvious step.

Indeed, it feels as if Nubia hasn’t quite hit upon the final form of the gaming tablet just yet. It makes sense that the Nova lacks the capacitive air trigger buttons of, say, the Red Magic 9S Pro, as gamers are going to be pairing it up with a Bluetooth controller rather than holding it like a phone (though the idea of some rear-mounted capacitive controls is an intriguing one).

With this in mind, I’d argue that having a case with a decent kickstand would be more than a nice extra here, entering into ‘must-have’ territory. The company assures me that an optional cover should be available for the Nova Tablet’s global launch (alongside a stylus), but I wonder if such a thing should come as standard, even if that meant a slightly higher asking price. This feels like the kind of tablet that would really benefit from one. There’s even a case to be made for the device itself having a built-in kickstand, rather like the Nintendo Switch.

  • Design score: 3.5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: display

The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • 10.9-inch IPS LCD with 2.8K resolution
  • Rapid 144Hz refresh rate
  • 550 nits peak brightness

The Red Magic Nova Tablet employs a 10.9-inch display, which doesn’t feel as large as it once did. Not with the likes of the OnePlus Pad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus bursting past the 12-inch mark.

It’s nice and sharp at 1800 x 2880 (Nubia calls this resolution ‘2.8K’), but the stand-out spec is a 144Hz refresh rate. The OnePlus Pad 2 also hits this mark, but it’s not what you’d call a typical refresh rate for a tablet. True, most mobile games won’t even hit the heady heights of 120Hz, but it’s nice to see a little headroom here nonetheless.

This refresh rate is paired with an 840Hz touch sampling rate, which means that it’s nice and responsive for those speedy multiplayer action games, should you not be using a paired Bluetooth controller.

Image quality is solid rather than spectacular. What with this being an IPS LCD, it lacks the pop and punch of an OLED, but that’s still not the kind of component you’ll typically find in a mid-priced tablet.

I would have liked the Nova to get a little brighter, though. Nubia cites a top brightness of 550 nits, which is fine. In practical terms, I frequently found myself cranking it up to the top brightness even when viewing the tablet indoors. This yielded a comfortable viewing experience, but a little more would have been welcome to help overcome those instances of glare or reflectiveness.

The screen is flanked by four symmetrically arranged speakers, with assistance from DTS-X Ultra Sound for a so-called “3D audio experience”. The resulting output is clear and loud, though we’re not talking about anything approaching iPad quality here which, given that price tag, is wholly understandable.

  • Display score: 3.5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: performance

The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Slightly faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ‘Leading Version’ chip
  • 12GB or 16GB RAM of LPDDR5X RAM
  • 256GB or 512GB UFS 4.0 storage

Nubia has used the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version chip here that powers its latest gaming smartphone, the Red Magic 9S Pro. This is a slightly overclocked version of the chip that runs most of the best Android phones in 2024. In other words, it’s one of the very best mobile chips on the market. In benchmarking terms, it’ll top or at least match anything running on Android, and you’ll need to invest in an Apple M2-powered iPad Air or an M4-powered iPad Pro to flat-out beat it.

General performance is unimpeachable, especially with either 12 or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM backing it up. I’m testing the top spec, and I couldn’t make it sweat at all in general usage.

Of course, it’s not in regular scenarios that this tablet needs to be judged. This is a machine that’s built for gaming performance, and there isn’t much to worry about on that front either.

It’ll run both Genshin Impact and Wreckfest on maxed-out graphical settings with more or less perfect fluidity. That’s to be expected, because both of those games are a few years old now.

This speaks to a wider issue with dedicated mobile gaming devices. Mobile games themselves haven’t really pushed any technical boundaries for quite some time – at least not on Android – while mobile processors continue to get more and more powerful. The end result is that even a half-decent mid-range smartphone can play these more visually opulent games pretty well.

Where these gaming devices can set themselves apart is with sustained performance. Those top-notch off-the-shelf chips, when paired with bespoke cooling systems, can run faster for longer. To that end, Nubia has equipped the Red Magic Nova Tablet with a 20,000 RPM cooling fan.

Interestingly, you don’t get the accompanying open vent of the Red Magic smartphone series. This device instead uses the extra internal volume to create an extended but closed loop for cooling. Allied to that is a nine-layer cooling system, together with a 103mm-long 3D heat pipe.

It all sounds very impressive, but I was a little concerned about the performance stability of the Red Magic Nova Tablet. I ran a couple of 3D Mark Stress Tests, which simulate extended gaming performance through 20 consecutive minute-long graphical tests, with the tablet set to maximum gaming performance via the Game Space UI.

The results were mixed. The high-end Solar Bay Stress Test, in particular, ranged from 72% (fairly stable) to 26.5% (downright unstable), indicating that at least some degree of throttling is taking place over time. Switching between Rising and Balanced performance modes didn’t seem to make any difference here, either.

Even that top mark of 72% is far from blistering. It’s about what I got with the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus – a capable performer for sure, but also not a gaming specialist with a particularly extensive cooling system. True, the Red Magic scored higher marks in general, but it was no more consistent with it. I should also note that the tablet would occasionally run uncomfortably hot by the end of these tests.

Interestingly, I found similarly less-than-stellar results in these tests on the Red Magic 9S Pro smartphone. No other tablet or phone series has such a meaty cooling system, so could this indicate some inherent thermal limitations with the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version?

We should always bring it back to the games regardless, and in real-world use, I didn’t run into any throttling issues when gaming for extended spells. After an hour of Wreckfest running on maximum graphical settings, I didn’t notice any big drop in frame rate.

Nubia has included a single 50MP camera on the rear of the phone. Suffice it to say, if no tablet is particularly great for taking pictures, then a mid-priced gaming tablet definitely shouldn’t be relied upon. It’s an appropriately bare-bones offering with no OIS, though it does at least support 4K video at 30fps.

The 20MP selfie camera is similarly limited, though at least Nubia hasn’t resorted to using a terrible under-display example, like with its smartphones. It’ll do fine for video calls.

  • Performance score: 4.5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: software

The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Red Magic OS 9.5 on Android 14
  • Ugly but functional UI
  • Game Space UI lets you fine-tune your gaming setup

Software has always been a bit of a weakness with Red Magic devices, and that hasn’t changed with the transition to a larger tablet form factor. You’re getting the same Red Magic OS 9.5 that ran on the Red Magic 9S Pro smartphone, layered over the same Android 14 OS.

It’s not an attractive UI, despite Nubia having corrected a lot of its worst aspects such as clumsy screen-filling widgets and poorly translated text. It still feels a little unfinished, as evidenced by the odd syntax-mangling Game Space notification.

I’d rather not have to deal with Nubia’s custom feed to the left of the main home screen, which pulls in randomly chosen news stories, as well as the kind of game recommendations no self-respecting gamer would entertain.

On a similar point, there are two folders dedicated to Hot Apps and Hot Games on the home screen. Needless to say, none of the applications contained within look remotely ‘hot’.

With all that said, Red Magic OS 9.5 is perfectly smooth and functional. It runs at a consistently speedy lick, and doesn’t flood the home screen with third-party apps. Yes, there’s an extraneous web browser, and yes, Booking.com sneaks its way in again. But both are at least stashed away in the app tray.

There’s no physical switch to activate Nubia’s Game Space app here, unlike with the brand’s gaming phones. It’s still there, though, running along in the background while playing games, as well as being accessible from the drop-down notification menu.

You can use this app to tweak fan, CPU, and GPU settings, and to set up screen recording. You can also tweak screen sensitivity settings here, as well as play around with screen ratios, among other things. It’s a powerful tool for gamers looking to set their favored game up just so.

Ultimately, Red Magic OS 9.5 is a perfectly functional UI that’s easy enough to work with, if tough to truly love.

  • Software score: 3.5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: battery life

The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet positioned on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • 10,100mAh battery
  • 10 hours of light gaming is possible
  • 80W charging gets it from 0 to 100% in an hour

Nubia has equipped the Red Magic Nova Tablet with a monstrous 10,100mAh battery. That’s bigger even than that of the OnePlus Pad 2, which is a bigger device.

The official estimate for battery life here is up to 10 hours of uninterrupted gaming on a single charge. However, this would presumably be with the display refresh rate set to 60Hz, the brightness kept relatively low, and a fairly undemanding game being played. I suspect that this isn’t a particularly representative scenario for your average committed gamer.

For my own usage, with the brightness and refresh rate cranked up to maximum, I couldn’t get anywhere near that figure, regardless of the game. After 30 minutes of Warzone Mobile, the battery life had dropped by 17%, which maps out to around three hours of gaming.

Even with lighter fare, I couldn’t get close to that stated figure. After 30 minutes of Slay the Spire, that percentage had dropped by 12%, suggesting it would have lasted four hours.

In more normal usage, with a little light gaming, some web browsing, and light app usage, you could very well get through a full working day on a single charge.

With such a large cell, there’s always the worry about charging times. Nubia has mitigated this with 80W charging support, and it even includes the brick in the box.

I couldn’t quite match Nubia’s estimate of a full charge in 55 minutes, but it still only took a smidgen over an hour in my testing. A quick 15-minute splash got it to 36%.

  • Battery score: 4/5

Should I buy the Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet?

Buy it if...

You want the fastest tablet possible for less than $500/£500
In terms of performance bang for your buck, the Red Magic Nova Tablet beats all comers.

You’re a committed mobile gamer
The Nova Tablet is set up for gaming, with top-level performance and a suite of game-enhancing tools.

You dig the gamer aesthetic
Nubia hasn’t gone too hard on the gamer aesthetic, but you still get a ‘cool’ semi-transparent motif on the back with some RGB lighting.

Don't buy it if...

You’re a fan of clean UIs
Nubia’s custom software is a little on the ugly side, straying too far from stock Android.

You want the ultimate gaming tablet experience, money no object
It might be fast and gaming-focused, but an iPad Pro remains a better gaming tablet overall.

You want a genuinely mobile gaming device
The Red Magic Nova Tablet isn’t too big or heavy, but it’s still not ideal for gaming on the move.

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet: also consider

OnePlus Pad 2
The OnePlus Pad 2 is perhaps the most direct competitor here, with its £549/£499 pricing, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 power, and larger 12.1-inch 144Hz display.

iPad Air (2024)
The latest 11-inch iPad Air is more expensive than the Nova Tablet at $599 / £599, and its 60Hz display isn’t massively gamer-friendly, but it’s more powerful and has access to a bigger library of high-end games.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE
The Galaxy Tab S9 FE is similarly priced and a classier all-round operator, but it lacks the Nova Tablet’s gaming chops thanks to inferior power and a 90Hz display.

How I tested the Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet

  • Review test period = 1 week
  • Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
  • Tools used = Geekbench 6, GFXBench, 3DMark, native Android stats, bundled Nubia 80W power adapter

First reviewed: October 2024

Onyx Boox Go 10.3 review: a versatile alternative to the reMarkable 2
7:49 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers eReaders Gadgets Tablets | Comments: Off

Onyx Boox Go 10.3 Monochrome: one-minute review

Onyx has been aggressively pushing out new ereaders and e-paper writing tablets for a while now – the brand released the unique and compact Onyx Boox Palma and the Boox Note Air 3 series in quick succession, then followed it up with a new series called Go. This includes the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 ereader and the Boox Go 10.3 writing tablet that launched together, and a smaller Go 6 ereader that came later. It’s nice to have choices but, at the speed that it’s churning out new models, is Onyx making great products to keep up with the competition?

With the Boox Go 10.3, the Chinese brand has done better than what it did with the Go Color 7, which had too many software flaws when I tested it. The Go 10.3, on the other hand, is a far better device that looks remarkably like the reMarkable 2.

As the name suggests, it’s a 10.3-inch dedicated e-paper writing tablet and, like its Scandinavian counterpart, writes like a dream. Stylus input is fantastic with no lag whatsoever. With different pen and brush choices, plus different nib thicknesses, it will easily work as a digital sketch pad too.

While the reMarkable 2 was designed to remove distractions from the creative process, the Go 10.3 isn’t so discerning – you get full access to the Google Play Store on account of it running on a trimmed-down version of Android 12, plus there are a lot more features in the note-taking application than on a reMarkable. It’s important to note that not all third-party apps will allow stylus input, so you’ll need to decide which ones will be the most useful to you.

It can also double up as an ereader thanks to the baked-in library app (NeoReader), something the reMarkable doesn’t quite master. However, lacking a screen light – just like the reMarkable – you’re not going to be able to use it for nighttime reading.

What I find most impressive here is that Onyx has trimmed its user interface down to make it a lot – and I do mean A LOT – more streamlined than on its previous e-ink tablets, but it still requires a slight learning curve. If you’re willing to put that time in, it could well be the better e-paper writing tablet for you, especially since the price difference between it and the reMarkable 2 isn’t all that different.

The Onyx Boox Go 10.3 e-ink writing tablet and its stylus on a wicker stool

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Onyx Boox Go 10.3 review: price & availability

  • List price: $379.99 / €419.99 (about £355) / AU$699
  • Ships with a stylus and magnetic sleep case from the Boox Shop
  • Available to buy directly from the Boox Shop or third-party retailers

Launched in June 2024, the Boox Go 10.3 e-paper tablet carries a list price of $379.99 / €419.99 (about £355) / AU$699. When purchased directly from the Boox Shop, this price includes the stylus and a beige magnetic sleep case, but the latter may not be available as part of the bundle in some markets when bought from third-party resellers.

Given the reMarkable 2 has a similar price tag, now available for $379 / £389 / AU$639 bundled with the base Marker – which is a small drop since the reMarkable Paper Pro was launched – the Boox is quite well priced. In fact, it’s cheaper than the company’s own Onyx Boox Note Air 3, which retails for $479 / €549.99 (around £445) / AU$749 at full price.

However, without a screen light, it’s a little hard to recommend over other writing e-paper tablets like the Kobo Elipsa 2E ($399 / £350 / AU$629) and the Amazon Kindle Scribe (starting price of $339 / £339 / AU$549). If you want something far more portable than the 10-inch tablets, the Kobo Libra Colour will set you back $219.99 / £219.99 / AU$359.95 plus an additional $69.99 / £69.95 / AU$119.95 for the Kobo Stylus 2 purchased separately – that's good bang for buck considering you get a good color display and the full suite of Kobo writing features.

• Value score: 3.5 / 5

A drawing of a turtle on the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 e-paper tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Onyx Boox Go 10.3 review: specs

Onyx Boox Go 10.3 review: Design & display

  • Beautiful, slimline design in white and grey
  • 10.3-inch E Ink Carta 1200 screen with no frontlighting
  • Built-in speakers and mic

The Boox Go 10.3 takes a lot of its design cues from the reMarkable 2 but there are some differences that make the Onyx tablet smaller, lighter and potentially more durable. For starters, the Go 10.3 has a textured rear panel that feels very much like faux leather but is plastic. It offers a lot more grip than the glass on reMarkable 2, and makes the Boox lighter in comparison. This also means that the Go 10.3 doesn’t need the little nubs that the reMarkable uses as feet to protect its rear panel.

The aluminum edges of the Go 10.3 are rounded, leading to slim bezels that sit flush with the glass screen. The lower bezel, which is broader on both the Boox and the reMarkable, is comparatively smaller on the Go 10.3, making it the slightly shorter tablet and potentially shaves off a tiny weight too. The flip side to that is the Go 10.3 is more prone to accidental screen touches as compared to the reMarkable 2. Personally, I prefer the bezels on the reMarkable 2, with the metallic finish and white borders – epitomizing Scandinavian minimalism – compared to the light grey on the Boox.

Keeping the rest of the design looking sleek, the Go 10.3’s power button, placed on the top right edge (compared to the top left on the reMarkable), sticks out only marginally, so you can find it by feel. The bottom edge houses the USB-C port in the middle, with speaker and mic grills on either side of it.

The Boox branding on the corner of the white bezel of the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 tablet

The Boox Go 10.3 lying atop the reMarkable 2 (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

The Go 10.3 is now arguably the thinnest writing tablet in this class – its thickness is only just enough to enclose the aforementioned USB-C port – measuring just 4.6mm. That’s just a millimeter less than the reMarkable 2 which, until now, has held the title of the thinnest e-paper writing tablet. The Go 10.3 tips the scales at a mere 375g, which is lighter than the reMarkable 2 (403.5g) and the 2022 Amazon Kindle Scribe (433g). Despite that, it doesn’t feel fragile in the hand.

As the name suggests, the Boox boasts a 10.3-inch display, which uses the E Ink Carta 1200 screen technology. That’s now a generation behind with the Carta 1300 already in use in the Kobo Clara BW and Amazon adopting it in its 2024 range of Kindles. Where the Go 10.3 one-ups the reMarkable 2 is in screen resolution and overall contrast – you get a 300ppi display here (compared to 226ppi), while a side-by-side comparison shows that the blacks are blacker on the Boox. This makes text appear sharper on the Go 10.3 as compared to its competition, although the contrast on the Kobo Elipsa 2E (which also has a 227ppi screen resolution) is much better than the Go 10.3, which makes the latter a superior ereader.

That said, the reMarkable’s screen has a better anti-glare coating than the Boox – during my testing I frequently had issues with overhead lights creating bright spots on the Go 10.3, which made reading at certain angles quite difficult.

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The USB-C port and speaker grille on the lower edge of the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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The power button on the top of the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Thanks to the glass layer on the screen, writing on the Go 10.3 is a pleasure. I’d say it comes close to the reMarkable 2 and the Kindle Scribe – which are my favourite e-paper tablets to write on – with the Boox coming in a very close third. It ships with a stylus, which is a basic pen that doesn’t have the eraser functionality – for such a premium tablet, I think that’s a glaring omission.

If you’re buying the tablet directly from Onyx, you’ll also get a magnetic sleepcover for the Go 10.3. It’s a lovely-looking beige faux-leather folio, with a fold on the rear panel to convert it into a stand. However, the flap that keeps the folio closed is a separate piece that attaches magnetically and is easily dislodged when taking the tablet in and out of the bag. In fact, if you fold the cover back completely, the flap magnetically sticks to the front panel and comes away with it when you close the folio. It’s a small thing but I found it so annoying that I stopped using it after a couple of days into my testing.

Unfortunately you’re likely to lose the stylus without the folio case. While the right edge of the Go 10.3 is magnetic to secure the stylus, it’s too darn weak to be of any use. The curved edge doesn’t help either, reducing the amount of surface area the pen gets to secure itself to.

• Design & display score: 4 / 5

The Onyx Boox Go 10.3 placed beside the reMarkable 2

The Boox Go 10.3 beside the reMarkable 2 – the former is slightly shorter and thinner (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Onyx Boox Go 10.3 review: Software & user interface

As mentioned earlier in this review, the Boox Go 10.3 runs a custom, trimmed-down version of Android 12 that focuses purely on reading and writing. Importantly, Onyx has also used this focus to streamline the user interface on the Go 10.3, which makes it a much easier Boox tablet to use than any I’ve tested before.

I suspect it’s this better UX that has eliminated a lot of the software issues I had with the Onyx Boox Go Color 7, or the company put all its efforts into the bigger flagship tablet and didn’t test out the smaller ereader enough before release. Whatever the reason, it means the Go 10.3 is a superior writing tablet that can give the reMarkable 2 a run for its money.

So while you won’t get the smartphone experience here, you will be able to download third-party apps from the Google Play Store, which makes the Go 10.3 a more versatile writing tablet than anything from the competition.

Android OS and apps

  • Customized Android UX
  • The most streamlined UX of any previous Boox writing tablet
  • Not all third-party apps are usable

All current Boox devices run on a customized version of Android – Android 12 in this case – which is how you’re able to get access to the Google Play Store. Despite the OS being a little out of date compared to what you’d get on the latest Android phone, it’s not an issue for an e-paper tablet.

The Boox already has full support for Evernote and OneNote, as well as easy syncing to cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive, but you can also download and use other apps that you prefer. One thing to keep in mind is that not all of them will offer stylus input if the developer hasn’t allowed for it on the Android version of that particular app, or there could be input delays when rendering the writing on screen, which happened to me when trying Evernote.

Another thing to keep in mind when using an e-paper tablet like the Go 10.3 is that not all apps are optimized for this kind of display. Practically every app on the Play Store will have been developed for use on an LCD or OLED display – so a smartphone or a multimedia tablet – and E Ink’s screen tech doesn’t respond as well. Firstly, the screen refresh rate isn’t fast enough for most non-productivity applications, so while you can watch videos on YouTube in black and white, it’s not the best experience. You can play some mobile games (again, in black and white), but your graphics won’t be as clean as on your phone or regular tablet, and that’s despite the Go 10.3 using a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor paired with an Adreno 610 GPU.

The native library application on the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 e-paper writing tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

What I really like about the Go 10.3 over other similar Onyx Boox note-taking tablets is the overall user interface – it’s a lot cleaner and streamlined here, and isn’t plagued with the same software glitches I found when I tested the Boox Go Color 7. The only problem is that the default Fonts folder in the Settings isn’t connected to the Storage tab where it needs to live – so anyone sideloading fonts will need to create a new Fonts folder under Storage to make them work on NeoReader (the native library app).

The main applications are arranged to the left, making navigation simple, and an easy swipe up from the bottom bezel exits the app you're on. The system settings are also more streamlined, but there are still plenty of customization options within the System Display tab and Gestures. The latter is similar to what you’d find on other Android devices which, I personally think, is a bit of an overkill for the Go 10.3 but I’m sure other users would appreciate the various options.

As with other Boox devices, there’s also a NaviBall, which is optional to use. Tap on this circular icon and it will open a selection of up to nine configurable buttons to trigger up to 30 different functions.

The Apps tab on the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 e-paper writing tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

You also have the Control Center on the Go 10.3 which is an easy way to access specific features like the AI assistant, Boox cloud storage, Kids Mode, Split Screen and, importantly, the E Ink Center. The last option is the most useful in my opinion as this is where you can control a lot of the system settings for the device, especially adjusting the refresh rate from a choice of four speed settings. Better yet, you can set individual apps at different refresh rates to suit.

The one feature on any Boox device that’s been the least useful is the built-in bookstore. You’ll typically find titles that are already in the public domain, but considering you can always use the Kindle or Kobo app on the Go 10.3, you can ignore the Store tab entirely. You can also use the native browser to make purchases online.

One thing to note here: like the Boox Go Color 7, the Go 10.3 doesn't register on a Mac device's Finder application, which makes it hard to transfer files via a cable. It does, however, register on a Windows machine, but I found that existing files cannot be found via the usual pathways. The best way to use this Boox tablet is via cloud sync.

• Software score: 4 / 5

The white stylus that ships with the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 writing tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Writing & productivity

  • Native note-taking app is great but might be overkill for some users
  • Broad support for note apps and cloud services
  • Excellent stylus input

When it comes to writing, the Go 10.3 has excellent stylus input – there was never any lag during my testing. That said, I did have the input fail a few times on the native Notes app (where a line appeared on screen the moment the stylus touches it), and a full restart of the tablet was needed to fixed the problem. I’ve encountered this issue on the Kobo Elipsa 2E as well, but the latter allows for just that page to be refreshed, which solves the problem quicker than on the Boox.

Despite being a grayscale device, there is support for a handful of colors on the Go 10.3. You’ll see the options when you choose a pen or brush type in the Notes app and, when exported – as a PDF or PNG file – you’ll see those colors displayed on your computer.

There are five pen types to choose from, each with up to five thickness (width) levels.

There’s a heck of a lot of other functionalities within the Notes app itself, so you really don’t need a third-party application for writing or drawing, unless you’re syncing them to a specific cloud account.

You can add shapes and layers for, say, flowcharts and you can insert links to notes as well. The AI icon helps convert handwritten notes to text and, for the most part, the conversion is correct unless your handwriting is literally chicken scratches. Similar to the reMarkable 2, the Go 10.3 is excellent for annotating PDF files – you can fill forms and sign on the device, then export to your computer or a cloud service of your choice. There’s also image-to-text support (OCR) available if you need it, which will make pretty much anything within the powerful Notes app searchable.

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A note with handwriting recognition enabled on the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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The stylus and its cover for the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 writing tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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The Onyx Boox Go 10.3 stylus on a drawing

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Each document can have up to 500 pages, but I found that the bigger the notebook gets, the slower it is to reopen the next time you want to access it on the Go 10.3. This happened with a 7-page document, and the largest I had during my testing was 10 pages, so I’m not entirely sure how well a 100-page document will perform, let alone 500 pages. The aforementioned 10-page document even crashed once during my testing period.

The one thing I wish the native Notes app had was an easier way to delete individual pages within a document. This functionality exists, but is hidden away: you need to tap on the page number displayed on the top right corner, which opens the individual pages on a side panel. There, you need to spot the three dots for each page and then select ‘delete’. It’s a lot easier to do this on other writing tablets like the reMarkable 2, the Kobo Elipsa 2E and the Kindle Scribe.

Another missing feature for multi-page documents is tap-to-turn – you have to use the arrow icons on the top right corner to navigate page by page, or open the side panel to reveal all the pages.

If you’re a digital artist, the Go 10.3 will make an ideal sketchpad. There’s 4,096 pressure sensitivity levels that can capture nuances of the stylus quite well, with brush strokes looking quite detailed on the E Ink display. That said, there’s no tilt support on the Go 10.3, which you will get on the reMarkable 2.

• Writing and productivity score: 4.5 / 5

Reading

  • Native library app is full featured
  • Default Fonts folder is not linked for use
  • Lacks a screen light for nighttime reading

Like the native Notes application, the baked-in NeoReader is also full-featured and has been built for e-paper screens. Text is sharp and very readable on the grayscale display and the customizable Floating Toolbar is handy for quick access to shortcuts. However, comparing the 300ppi display on the Go 10.3 with the 227ppi Kobo Elipsa 2E shows a marked difference in contrast – the lower resolution screen has darker text, which makes it stand out more without the frontlight on.

A comparison of the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 display (left) with the Kobo Elipsa 2E (right) showing the same page of an ebook

The Boox Go 10.3 (left) is fine to read on but lacks contrast when compared directly to the Kobo Elipsa 2E (right) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

On the Go 10.3, however, the lack of a light – which it borrows from the reMarkable 2 – makes it hard to use as an ereader for nighttime reading. So if you want your e-ink tablet to double as both an ereader and a note-taker, you might be better off looking elsewhere.

And while there’s wide font support, the NeoReader only has a single (unnamed) serif option available for use without dedicated weights or stylization (like bold and italics). While you can sideload a plethora of fonts, they don’t get saved within the default Fonts folder – instead, you need to create a new one within Storage for the additional fonts to be enabled within the library app.

If you happen to already have a Kindle or Kobo account, I personally recommend them over NeoReader, although the customizations here will be limited to what the two platforms allow on their Android apps. The page setup, though, is cleaner and makes reading a nicer experience. And, as I’ve previously mentioned, the built-in bookstore isn’t worth checking out at all.

• Reading score: 3.5 / 5

Onyx Boox Go 10.3 review: Performance

  • Minimal ghosting compared to other Boox tablets
  • Responsive screen
  • Decent battery life, but significant drain in sleep mode

The combination of the mid-range Snapdragon 680 CPU and the Adreno 610 GPU is plenty to keep the Go 10.3 ticking along real nicely. During my testing, I noticed no issues with core tasks like writing and reading.

It’s arguably one of the best writing experiences I’ve had on an e-ink tablet, with absolutely no stylus input lag, although I found some multi-page handwritten documents can take a little longer than expected to open. One of my documents, which was 10 pages, even crashed, although I think I’ll put this down as a one-off as it happened just once. That said, launching Android apps is quite fast for a device like this and can match some budget phones or traditional tablets.

Individual apps can have their own refresh rates set, which is excellent, although even at the fastest speed, some apps might stutter. This includes the browser which, when scrolling through rapidly, will have a few hiccups. That’s natural, though, as it’s just how e-ink screens are.

One improvement I’ve noticed on the Go 10.3 compared to other Boox tablets is the lack of ghosting. During my testing, I experienced only the mildest when I was using the browser, but had no issues when using the Notes app to write or draw. I did have the occasional overlay when using the NeoReader but, again, it was significantly less than other Boox devices.

The Google Play Store on the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 e-paper writing tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Without a screen light, the 3,700mAh battery can go quite the distance – depending on how much you use the Go 10.3, it can last 2-3 weeks on a single charge. However, there is a significant drain when the tablet is in sleep mode. I found it can drop anywhere from 2% to 10%, depending on how long it stays inactive. Onyx gets around this issue by allowing you to let the device power down completely after a day or two of inactivity (you can select this in the Settings pane), but even then I found a little battery drain. While this issue might be fixable via a future firmware update, it can mean that a full charge could last no more than a week.

Moreover, if you use the built-in speakers for listening to audiobooks or music, you might end up draining the battery a little faster than when using it for just writing and reading. And while sound quality isn't the best for music, it's perfectly adequate for audiobook narrations and can get quite loud within a small room. I personally prefer using one of the best wireless headphones for listening on any e-ink tablet.

Topping up the battery isn’t too bad – I found the Go 10.3 went from 20% to full in approximately two hours. This is when plugged into a 65W wall charger and using a high quality USB-C to C cable (not the provided one) – it will be slower to juice up if you plug the device into a PC, laptop or a docking station, or if you use a USB-A to C cable.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

The settings option on the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 e-paper writing tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Should I buy the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 e-paper tablet?

Buy it if...

You want the lightest, thinnest e-paper writing tablet

Thinner and lighter than even the reMarkable 2, the Boox Go 10.3 is arguably the best-looking 10-inch e-paper writing tablet I've tested. It's just a shame that the stylus doesn't secure well to the side or the top of the device.

You want access to Android apps on your e-ink tablet

There are plenty of 10-inch e-paper writing tablets to choose from these days, but the ability to use third-party Android apps might just prove to be advantageous to some users.

You want to do more than just read and write on the e-ink tablet

It might not support stylus tilt functionality, but the Boox Go 10.3 is still wonderful to draw on. And writing is just as great, if not better, with no input lag to complain about. Better yet, it's got built-in speakers, so you can listen to music or audiobooks (even stream via the Android app of your choice).

Don't buy it if...

You want your writing tablet to double as your ereader as well

While you can read on the Boox Go 10.3 just fine, the lack of a frontlight means it's not much use in the dark, when many an avid reader would love to wind down with a good book.

You need more than 64GB of storage

For an expensive tablet, it's a shame that the Boox Go 10.3 has no expandable storage – especially since there are other Boox devices that come with a microSD tray that can support up to an additional 1TB of data.

You'd prefer a more budget-friendly option

Most 10-inch e-ink note-taking tablets are expensive, but if you don't mind opting for a smaller device, like the Kobo Libra Colour or the Kobo Sage, you can save a lot of money despite having to purchase the stylus separately.

Also consider

reMarkable 2

It might be getting a little long in the tooth (having released in 2020), but this Scandinavian writing tablet nails productivity perfectly. No distractions, minimalistic user interface and a remarkable (pun intended) writing experience. If you have some extra cash, the keyboard folio can be real handy.
Read our in-depth reMarkable 2 review for more details

Amazon Kindle Scribe

While there's a new (2024) edition of the Scribe available now, the original Amazon writing tablet is a little cheaper and a very good alternative if you want a 10-inch e-ink note-taker. It's the only such device to support Microsoft Word documents natively and it's screen is arguably one of the most well-optimized displays I've tested.
Read our full Amazon Kindle Scribe review to learn more

Kobo Elipsa 2E

It's not the smoothest screen to write on, but the note-taking features in Kobo's Advanced Notebooks is par excellence. Handwriting recognition is also one of the best I've tested and, to me, this is arguably the best alternative to opt for if you want both an ereader and a writing tablet in one.
Read our full Kobo Elipsa 2E review for more information

If you prefer something smaller and cheaper, you can opt for the Kobo Libra Colour – you'll get a 7-inch color display and the full Kobo writing suite, but you will need to purchase the stylus separately.
Check out our in-depth Kobo Libra Colour review to learn more

How I tested the Onyx Boox Go 10.3

  • Used the device for approximately two months
  • It became my main writing device during that time
  • Did some reading and listened to some audio files as well

A notebook cover labeled Cocktails on the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 writing tablet

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

The first thing I did when I took the Go 10.3 out of its box was to sign into my Onyx account to sync existing notes across from previous Boox tablets I've used. I then signed into my Google account to transfer some ebooks to the tablet and access the Play Store.

Previous experience with Boox devices had already taught me to avoid the built-in bookstore, so I promptly downloaded both the Kindle and Kobo Android apps to access the libraries I've built up on those two platforms. I also downloaded a couple of benchmarking applications to determine what CPU was being used (Onyx doesn't make it very clear on its site) and check the battery stats.

The Go 10.3 then became my daily note-taker – I used it for a lot of work-related notes, including jotting down points for this review – and, even though I'm no artist, I did try drawing some simple sketches. All my notes are synced to my Google Drive account for access on a laptop or PC, and I also exported a couple of documents to cloud storage as PDFs for printing.

Given this is a writing tablet first and foremost, I tested the native Notes app thoroughly, but also tried out Evernote briefly.

Read more about how we test

[First published October 2024]

Apple iPad mini A17 Pro (2024): a premium mini tablet experience that still captivates
4:03 pm | October 22, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets iPad iPad Mini Tablets | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024): one-minute review

The variety in iPad sizes is impressive. You can get everything from a 13-inch giant iPad Pro down to an 8.3-inch iPad mini. Most people probably live in the middle with the popular 10.9-inch iPad Air or the new 11-inch Air, but that little one with the 8.3-inch Liquid Retina Display has its adherents.

It's an almost pocket-friendly device that's popular with pilots, artists, ardent notetakers, social media scrollers, students, and readers. It's the color reading screen for those who don't want to read comics on a black-and-white Kindle (though that new Colorsoft does change things, am I right?). It's sometimes the second multipurpose slab in your arsenal, small and light enough to join you on vacation, and it's sometimes the perfect back-porch streaming companion.

The iPad mini is also a product that's been on the bubble. Many worried that Apple might simply cancel it. It was among the last two iPad holdouts to not get an M-class Apple silicon chip, and also the last mobile device to still include the 'mini' name (RIP iPhone mini) – the only other Apple product with that designation is the Mac mini.

Instead of killing it, Apple has essentially done a brain transplant, upgrading the previous model's A15 Bionic mobile CPU to the much more powerful A17 Pro. The choice is surprising, because Apple seems almost anxious to stuff its latest Apple silicon into every new device (see the M4-running iPad Pro); but this time Apple tapped the brakes a bit. There's nothing wrong with the A17 Pro, which is the same chip you'll find in last year's iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. It's Apple Intelligence-capable, and has more than enough power for a screen of almost any size.

Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

If I have a frustration with the latest iPad, alternatively known as the iPad mini 7th Generation or iPad Mini A17 Pro, it's that it's virtually identical in every respect to the three-year-old iPad mini 6th generation. Apple didn't bother to upgrade the design, the screen, the cameras, or the speakers. The only hardware change that expresses itself on the outside of the tablet is one you can only see if you have an Apple Pencil.

The new iPad mini supports just two styluses: the Apple Pencil USB-C and the new Apple Pencil Pro. I wouldn't expect it to support the original Apple Pencil, but I am a little surprised that there's no support for the Apple Pencil 2. You can't even properly seat that Pencil on the charging base that sits on one long edge of the iPad, because Apple has reengineered the hardware underneath.

It's a small thing, really, and you will appreciate all the cool stuff you can do with a Pencil Pro, like squeeze it or use gestures to change tools and Scribble. And with 18.1 and Apple Intelligence, you can even Scribble to Siri.

What might matter most to iPad mini fans, though, is its ability to support Apple Intelligence. Only the A17 Pro and above (along with all M-class Apple chips) supports it, but you need to be running iPadOS 18.1. If you buy this new iPad, it will likely arrive with iPadOS 18 and, like my test unit, not yet support Apple Intelligence. That speaks to the general frustration many of us have when it comes to Apple's own brand of AI. It's dribbling out slowly, and still lacks core features like Siri with app access, user activity knowledge, contextual awareness, and ChatGPT access.

Some of these features may arrive by the end of October; others might not arrive until 2025. It's a mystery to me why Apple is moving so slowly in this regard. Eventually, I got a developer beta of iPadOS 18.1 onto the iPad mini, and it performs just as well as I hoped, enabling you, among other things, to quickly summarize notes or change the tone of an email with Writing Tools, have your Notifications summarized, and even get a priority look into your inbox. Hand-writing queries to Siri is pretty much tailor-made for the iPad, and you can be more precise when cleaning up photos.

Even without Apple Intelligence, the iPad mini is an excellent tablet. It's also a premium device, and priced like one, starting at $499 / £499 / AU$799 for 128GB of storage. At 9.7 inches, that iPad was larger and heavier (it weighed a pound and a half). The nice thing about the modern iPad mini is that the screen isn't much smaller than the one on the OG iPad, but it's a much higher resolution, and the device is so much smaller and lighter.

Few tablets are as versatile and powerful as the iPad mini. I used it for all kinds of work, creative, and entertainment activities and was never disappointed. It remains one of my favorite drawing devices.

If you own an iPad mini 6th generation, hold onto it and upgrade to iPadOS 18. Even without Apple intelligence, you'll be happy. If you've never owned an iPad and think the new iPad Air 11-inch and 10.9-inch iPad 10th gen are too large, and a 6.9-inch iPhone 16 Pro Max is too small, perhaps the iPad mini is the sweet spot you've been looking for. Plus, it supports a stylus, and even though the iPhone screens are getting mighty big, that's one thing they still don't offer.

Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) review: price and availability

  • Pricey for its size
  • Fresh new colors

Apple unveiled the iPad mini A 17 Pro on October 15, 2025. It starts at $499 / £499 / AU$799 for 128GB of storage – that's the same price as the 2021 iPad mini in the US, but a £20 increase in the UK and AU$50 more if you’re in Australia. It costs $150 / £170 / AU$200 more than a 10th Gen iPad, which only has an A14 Bionic, and $100 / £100 / AU$200 less than the base iPad Air. There are cheaper mini-tablet options on the market, like the 8-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD, which starts at $99.99 / £99.99 (it's not currently available in Australia), although you're only getting 32GB of storage, a pair of not-so-great 2MP cameras, and a Hexa-core CPU. Apple is essentially asking you to pay a premium price for a well-equipped product to perform premium and professional tasks. The new iPad mini is available in four colors: Space Gray, Blue, Purple, and Starlight (somewhere between silver and rose gold).

  • Value score: 4 / 5

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024) review: specs

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024) review: display

  • Still a brilliant and colorful screen
  • 500 nits max

Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

When Apple first introduced the iPad mini 6th generation in 2021, it was a big deal not only because of the wholesale redesign that brought the mini more in line with the iPad Air 4th Gen, which was released a year earlier, but also because was fitting a relatively large screen into a much smaller body.

The new mini also came with new display technologies, introducing the 326ppi Liquid Retina Display and LED backlighting to the mini line.

It's an excellent and responsive touchscreen that offers a wide color gamut, and, of course, Apple Pencil support. It has an antireflective coating, and is somewhat resistant to fingerprints. I'm not thrilled that the peak brightness is stuck at 500 nits when Apple's other mobile devices are pumping out, under certain conditions 2,000 nits. Still, this is a three-year-old technology, so I should not expect 2024 display updates.

Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

My experience with the iPad Mini A 17 Pro was, in many ways, no different than with the 6th Gen model, and this is a good thing. As before, everything looks fantastic on the 8.3-inch display; games, photos, movies, apps, and web browsing are all great (I especially enjoyed perusing photos of baby animals on National Geographic – it tells me we're all hardwired to love baby animals, and I totally believe it).

The iPad mini truly shines, though, when you add an Apple Pencil. The mini now only supports the Pencil Pro and Pencil USB-C, and only the former can magnetically charge on the edge of the iPad Mini. The pens are optional extras though, so you'll pay an additional $129 for the Pro or $79 for the USB-C model – I think they're a worthwhile investment.

Apple Pencil Accessory

As an amateur artist, few things make me happier than drawing on an iPad, usually in Procreate. I alternate between drawing on a large 13-inch iPad Pro and the pint-sized mini, and even though the screen on the latter is comparatively small, I never find it constraining.

I can understand how some might think the 8.3-inch screen is too small a canvas or not large enough to multitask, but I'd have to disagree. I spent hours drawing the puppy you can see below in Procreate, and I did most of it on a split screen. I dragged the Safari browser window with my reference images up to the left and gave two-thirds of the screen to Procreate. It's enough space, I promise you.

Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

One of the reasons why sketching on the iPad mini works is the feel of drawing with an Apple Pencil on the screen. Even though the screen is perfectly smooth, the Pencil tip provides just enough friction to make it feel like I'm drawing on something other than glass. In some apps, I can hover my pencil over the screen and see the cursor or drawing dot move with the Pencil. I can also squeeze it to change tools.

The Pencil is not just for drawing. For those who don't want to type, you can scribble words in various fields and, depending on the quality of your writing, the iPad will convert them to text. In Notes, I used the new Math Notes to write equations and had the iPad solve them for me in something that looked like my own handwriting. I wrote '200+36=' and the iPad quickly returned '236'. When I added a line under my original equation and the number 2 under that, Math Notes automatically knew to divide by two and updated my sum to '118'. Impressive – and fun.

With Apple Intelligence you'll be able to double tap near the bottom of the screen to open the Siri Text window, but instead of typing you'll write in your query with the Apple Pencil.

  • Display score: 4.5 / 5

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024) review: design

  • This looks familiar
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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

I've spent quite a bit of time examining the new iPad mini 7th gen from every angle, and there's virtually no difference between it and the previous model. I'm fine with that – this is a good and solid design. The 100% recycled aluminum chassis is thin, 6.5mm, and light, just 293 grams. To put that in perspective, the iPhone 16 Pro Max weighs 227 grams, so Apple's smallest iPad is just 66g heavier. I have big hands, and I can comfortably hold the 7.69in x 5.3-inch tablet in one hand; I usually have the Apple Pencil in the other.

The bezel around the screen is perhaps a bit thick by modern iPad standards, and I'm surprised that the FaceTime camera still lives on the narrow side of the display (Apple moved it for the iPad Pro). This means that if you want to make eye contact during a call you need to look at the left side of the iPad mini.

On one short edge is the very effective Touch ID (also power and sleep) button that I use not only to unlock the device but to sign into myriad accounts. Opposite it are the two volume buttons, and in between are a pair of speaker grilles; the other half of the stereo speaker system is on the other side of the iPad, which also houses the USB-C port.

The iPad mini offers no water resistance and doesn't have a dust rating. If you plan to take it to the beach, buy a case. There are still four colors to come from, but joining Starlight and Space Gray are new Purple and Blue shades. At first, I was very drawn to the Blue, a sort of light anodized take on the color that can change depending on how the light hits it, but Apple's latest take on Purple is surprisingly airy in lower light and can really pop when under direct light. These two new shades and Starlight – perfectly match the new AirPods Max.

  • Design score: 4.5 / 5

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024) review: cameras

  • Decent 12MP cameras
  • Centerstage
  • No telephoto

Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The iPad mini is just small enough that I could imagine people carrying it and taking pictures wherever they go. With a single 12MP wide-angle camera on the back, it will get the job done, and the photos it produces are rich in detail and color. However, they don't hold up to close scrutiny as well as photos from the iPhone 16 Pro Max's 48MP main camera.

The front camera takes nice selfies, but not portrait-mode shots. It's far more useful as a FaceTime camera and, when I used Centerstage, the ultrawide camera auto-cropped the frame to follow me around. It's a nice feature, especially if you like to walk and talk while conducting Facetime calls.

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Apple iPad mini A17 (2024) Camera Samples

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple iPad mini A17 (2024) Camera Samples

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple iPad mini A17 (2024) Camera Samples

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Apple iPad mini A17 (2024) Camera Samples

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Apple iPad mini A17 (2024) Camera Samples

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple iPad mini A17 (2024) Camera Samples Selfie on FaceTime Camera

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
  • Camera score: 3.5 / 5

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024) review: software

  • Control Center customization
  • Home screen and widgets are more customizable
  • Calculator
  • New Photos app
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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The iPad mini A17 Pro ships with iPadOS 18, which brings with it many of the same features you'll find on iOS 18, including a customizable Control Center, the Photos app redesign, the new Passwords app, updated Messages, and the aforementioned Math Notes (one of my favorites).

Apple Intelligence is coming, too, bringing writing tools to help you craft better prose in almost any situation, Siri with a completely new look, and, eventually, better insights into how you use your iPad.

Aside from what's coming with Apple Intelligence, none of these changes will radically alter your iPad experience, though I do think most of them will make it better. I'm still on the fence about the Photos app, which is so different that I can't seem to find anything. At least it now includes natural language search queries that should make finding photos across vast libraries far easier.

In my brief time with Apple Intelligence on the iPad mini, courtesy of a developer beta of iPadOS 18.1, I was mostly impressed. Similar to the Apple Intelligence experience on the iPad Air, iPad Pro, Mac, or iPhone, it's currently a well-rounded set of firsts.

You can summarize notifications automatically, which makes it easier to triage them after your device has been in sleep mode overnight, or while you have 'Do Not Disturb' engaged during a long meeting. I especially like how it summarizes Slack and Group messages, generally providing a good gist and summary. The same goes for Mail in Apple's own app or third-party ones in Gmail.

The Apple Pencil Pro (or the Pencil USB-C) really shines when it comes taking notes, and while it's not an Apple Intelligence feature, Smart Script is still really impressive in use, as it cleans up your handwriting in a way that matches your style. I also still desperately wish I had Math Notes when I was growing up.

Maybe the most purpose-built part of Apple Intelligence for the iPad is Scribble to Siri, though, and it's handy for those times when you're taking notes or just using the Apple Pencil. You can double-tap on the bottom of the screen and start writing in the Siri box that appears to get answers – it could be a question about your calendar, the weather, a sports score, or even a smart home command.

Of course, there are still many Apple Intelligence features we're still waiting for, from the completely redesigned Siri with personal context and the ability to work within apps deeply, to Genmoji, Image Playground, and ChatGPT integration. When those do arrive, the iPad mini will be able to handle them all, and will be the cheapest way to get any of these or future Apple Intelligence features.

  • Software score: 4.5 / 5

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024) review: performance

  • A17 Pro is a generation back
  • Still has ample power
  • Double the RAM
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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

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Apple iPad Mini A 17 Pro (2024) REVIEW

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While I'm surprised the iPad mini 7th generation is not running on top-of-M-class Apple silicon (not even a now last-gen M3), the A17 Pro is no slouch. Plus, it's the first A-class chip that could support Apple Intelligence.

Adding a Pro-level chip to the mini is almost a recognition of the iPad's mini place in the creative and professional world. Pilots run apps like ForeFlight on it to plan trips. It's a complex and rich app that's not for the faint of heart (me) or a lightweight CPU. The iPad is also a popular drawing and image editing platform, and running pro-level image editing app Adobe Lightroom on it is no problem.

Apple iPad mini A17 Pro benchmark

(Image credit: Future)

Similarly, I edited four streams of 4K videos at once in Adobe Premiere Rush. And when it came time to unwind, I played Asphalt Legends Unite, Madden NFL 25 Mobile, and Fallout Shelter.

The performance boost you'll see in the new iPad mini is borne out in its Geekbench 6 numbers. The CPU scores are all measurably higher.

It's not just the CPU that's powering all this performance – Apple has doubled the RAM from 4GB to 8GB. Most people believe this has to do with Apple Intelligence support, which appears to require at least that much RAM to perform Apple Intelligence's generative AI tasks locally (some tasks will still have to be done in Apple's encrypted Private Cloud Compute).

  • Performance score: 4.5 / 5

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024) review: battery

  • A long work or play day

Apple rates the iPad Mini 7th Gen at about 10 hours of battery, and in my anecdotal tests that's about right. It's not great battery life, and I wonder if we might have gotten more had Apple made the switch from the A17 Pro to a more efficient M2.

In our Future Labs tests, the new iPad mini managed around 10 hours and 36 minutes.

There's no wireless charging, which is a shame since this iPad seems like the perfect size to rest on a Qi MagSafe charger. At least the iPad ships with a woven USB-C cable and a nice 20W adapter.

  • Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024)?

Buy it if…

You want the most affordable Apple Intelligence Experience
The iPad mini might be expensive for its size, but it's also a rare sub-$500 Apple Intelligence experience.

You want a powerful iPad that doesn't weigh you down
This 8.3-inch device is light, thin, and very powerful.

Don’t buy it if…

You're on a tight tablet budget
This is a lot of money for the smallest iPad, especially when you can get an 8-inch Amazon Fire HD tablet for $100 / £100.

You'll never buy an Apple Pencil
The iPad mini is wonderful, but it truly flourishes with an Apple Pencil Pro. If you'll never invest in one, perhaps look at a different tablet.

iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024): Also consider

Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 Plus

With storage expandable up to 1TB and a cheaper price than the Pad Go (if you go for Wi-Fi only version), the Galaxy Tab A9 Plus is a similarly capable media playback device. The display isn't as sharp, with a 1920 x 1200 resolution, but it does feature Samsung's useful split-screen multitasking abilities.

Amazon Fire Max 11

Another budget 11-inch tablet, the Fire Max 11 has the same 2.2GHz Octo-Core chip as the Galaxy Tab A9 Plus. The display has a resolution of 1200 x 2000, and it has an expandable storage capacity up to 1TB. Like the Pad Go, it also features Dolby Atmos capability. It is more expensive, though, and Google Play isn't supported. You'll also have to pay slightly more if you want the ad-free version.

How I tested the iPad Mini A17 Pro (2024)

  • Drew
  • Watched TV
  • Played Games
  • Browsed the web
  • Edited movies
  • Edited photos

I used the Apple iPad mini A17 Pro as I would any other iPad, for every activity I do throughout the day, including Slack, email, conducting video meetings, drawing, editing, videos, and photos, playing games, and watching the Mets lose through the my favorite streaming platform.

I also spent several hours with the iPadOS 18.1 developer beta installed on the iPad mini seventh-generation, testing the currently available Apple Intelligence features, to get a sense of how they perform here.

Read more about how we test.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2024): Super fast and bigger, but refreshingly familiar
6:18 pm | October 16, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers eReaders Gadgets Tablets | Comments: Off

The Kindle e-reader was the original ‘Amazon device,’ and the heart of its e-reading lineup has long been the Paperwhite. So much so that Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of devices, described it as the “most loved Kindle” and the one that, as he admitted, owners with the current or previous-gen models are hesitant to upgrade.

That reluctance notwithstanding, Amazon has set out to make the best Paperwhite yet, with the all-new Kindle Paperwhite and more premium Kindle Paperwhite Signature. There are a lot of similarities between the two – both are thinner, lighter, and faster than the previous Paperwhite, with a better, larger 7-inch display that’s designed to be easily readable in any conditions.

It’s still only black-and-white, though – you’ll need to opt for the new Kindle Colorsoft if you want a color display for comics and the like – and is only for reading – get a Kindle Scribe, or maybe a Remarkable, if you want to write.

Panos Panay, head of Amazon Devices, holding the new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition.

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

The new Paperwhite's colors are fantastic, and Raspberry is certainly my favorite. While I haven’t read a book on it yet, I got to spend some time with the Signature Edition at Amazon’s hands-on launch event. So, let’s talk through the new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition.

Pricing and Availability

If you’re a Kindle lover, here’s some good news – the new Paperwhite and Paperwhite Signature Edition are shipping now. The Kindle Paperwhite costs $159.99 / £159.99 (we’re waiting for Australian pricing to be confirmed) and comes in a matte, soft-touch Raspberry, Jade (a green), or Black.

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition costs a bit more at $199.99 / £199.99 (again, we’re waiting for Australian pricing to be confirmed) and comes in metallic variants of those same three colors – aptly named Metallic Raspberry, Metallic Jade, and Metallic Black, which have some extra sparkle thanks to aluminum flakes being sprinkled in. That extra spend also doubles the storage to 32GB, and adds wireless charging capabilities and an auto-adjusting light sensor.

Both are shipping now, and Amazon has also debuted a bunch of new cases, including color-matched ones.

Kindle Paperwhite (2024): One Minute Review

The rear of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition in Raspberry.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

As soon as I lifted up the new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition – technically now the 12th generation – it was clear that Amazon has focused on refining an already successful model. It’s the most popular e-reader in the Kindle lineup, and the one we’ve recommended for most people, at least with the last generation.

It’s still very comfortable to hold with just a hand, and while the back is more reflective on the Signature Edition, it’s still easy to get a grip. Amazon says the Paperwhite weighs in at just 211 grams, which is a good bit under half a pound at just 0.47lbs or 7.5oz. I found it easy to navigate the interface with just one hand, though I think most folks will use both. You’ll still turn pages, scroll through your library, and adjust settings like font size, brightness, or warmth, by touching the screen.

The thinness here shouldn’t be underestimated either – it’s super portable, and at just 7.8-millimeters thick, which is a small but considerable decrease from the 8.1mm of the previous Paperwhite. Just take a look at the photos; it’s thin, and it has a good center of gravity for easily holding it. It’s also still waterproof, so you can safely read in the bathtub or by the pool, and with an anti-reflective coating over the display, it’s easy to see the screen even in bright sunlight.

The new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2024) in Raspberry.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The display here is a bit bigger than on the last-gen Paperwhite, and feels more front and center thanks to thinner bezels all around. It measures 7 inches diagonally, up from 6.8 inches on the previous version, and has 300 pixels per inch (ppi) resolution. Amazon says it also boasts a higher contrast rate, making it easier to read displayed text in any lighting.

I found that the text looked plenty inky, and it was easy to make out what was on the page… err, screen. The same goes for scrolling through Manga or a Comic on the Paperwhite; this is still very much a screen that’s easy on the eyes, and it’s even easier if you have the Signature Edition, thanks to its light sensor, it will automatically adjust the brightness and temperature throughout the day for better clarity.

What might be most impressive, though, is the speed, and how close to instant the new Paperwhite feels. Thanks to a new custom processor under the hood and a new Oxide back panel, the Paperwhite can refresh and update the E Ink display in record time. It’s 25% faster – at least what Amazon promises for both models – and it really shows when scrolling through a library or zooming through pages.

The Kindle Paperwhite simply flies. Unless you’re a speed reader, being able to quickly flip pages may not help, but it should make the Kindle Paperwhite feel more like a real book, or faster, since it can update what’s being displayed even quicker. This could make a really big impact, especially if you’re upgrading from an older model.

The new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2024) in Raspberry.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

You’ll also have plenty of room to store your books and other documents, with 32GB of storage on the Paperwhite Signature Edition or 16GB on the standard model. Remember, you can offload books to the cloud as well, should you run out of space.

The only physical button for the Kindle Paperwhite still lives on the bottom, slightly off-center to the right, next to the USB-C port. You’ll use this to jump into the Kindle’s interface from the lock screen’s E Ink lock screen or to put the Paperwhite to sleep. The USB-C port may not see much action either, as Amazon promises up to 12 weeks of use on a full charge, and judging by my experience with previous models, it may last even longer, depending on use. This is also an improvement of the previous generation, which topped out at 10 weeks. You can also charge your Kindle wirelessly if you get the Signature Edition, which is convenient as you can simply lay it on a charging pad to ensure it’s always topped off.

All-in-all, with a larger display to let you see more of whatever you might be reading (it’s likely a reread of Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen for me, or diving into The World’s Worst Assistant by Sona Movsesian), an even lighter design that does indeed suggest ‘paper’, faster performance, and even better battery life, there’s a lot to like here.

And at $159.99 / £159.99, or $199.99 / £159.99 with the bells and whistles of the Signature Edition, it’s a bit more than the previous generation, which was $149.99 for the standard and $189.99 for the Signature Edition. We’ll need to spend a bit more time with it, and do some serious reading, but from our early impressions, fans of previous Paperwhites will be happy with the latest one, and those looking for a Kindle that can go anywhere will be equally pleased.

Amazon Kindle (2024): Pushing the basics
5:45 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers eReaders Gadgets Tablets | Comments: Off

It wouldn’t be a Kindle family without a junior member. Arriving alongside a new Kindle Paperwhite, a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, first ever color Kindle – the Colorsoft – and a next-generation Kindle Scribe that’s been dubbed a 2-in-1 by Amazon device’s chief Panos Panay, is the all-new entry-level Kindle.

The new Kindle costs $109.99 / £ 94.99 (we’re waiting for Australian pricing to be confirmed). It remains pretty basic – although there is a new color option, a sage-green shade that Amazon calls Matcha, but if you’re alright with a few compromises, there’s no doubting the portability and appeal here.

I got to spend a bit of time with the newest, most affordable Kindle on the block, and while it looks nearly identical to its predecessor aside from the fresh paint job, Amazon has made some upgrades to arguably the most important aspect of the Kindle experience – what it’s like to read on the device.

Pricing and Availability

Whether you’re hunting for a gift or simply want a new Kindle, Amazon isn’t making you wait. The all-new core Kindle is up for order now in either Matcha or Black priced at $109.99 / £94.99, and it starts shipping now. We’re waiting on Amazon to confirm pricing and availability for the e-reader in Australia.

Amazon Kindle (2024): One-Minute Review

The new Amazon Kindle (2024) in Matcha.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Amazon’s entry-level Kindle still features a 6-inch E Ink display at 300ppi (pixels per inch), but it can now get as bright as the Kindle Paperwhite and offers higher contrast, just like the other new Kindles. In my brief demo, text was inky black, and I could comfortably read what was on the page without feeling any eye strain. Further, considering that lighting in the hands-on space in which I got to try out the new Kindle was varied and frequently changing – at times there was bright glare from the sun and at other times no sun at all – I could still make out what was on the display at most angles. However, if you want supreme viewing angles, you’ll want to opt for the Paperwhite or Paperwhite Signature Edition. Still, with the improved brightness – now matching the more expensive Kindles – you can better enjoy reading in a range of conditions.

If you want to read in bed after a long day's work, the Kindle is fit to do that too, with four LEDs built in to illuminate the display. You cannot adjust the warmth of light here; it’s just standard LEDs for backlighting whatever you’re reading. Turning the light on and off and adjusting brightness is done onscreen with your fingers. That’s also the same method for controlling everything else. You can tap the right of the screen or swipe from right to left to turn the page forward, and do the opposite to go back a page, tap at the bottom of the display to adjust how the book is displayed, and at the top for everything from quick settings to going to the home screen.

There’s also the promise of faster page turns and general navigation, with Amazon promising a 10% speed boost. We’ll need to spend a bit more time with the new Kindle, and likely put it head-to-head against the previous generation, to fully test Amazon’s claims, but the reading experience felt plenty fluid in my hands-on time, and I didn’t notice any hiccups or speed bumps.

The new Amazon Kindle (2024) in Matcha.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

You’ll still find the power button – which is the only physical button – on the bottom of the Kindle next to the USB-C port. Amazon again promises battery life of up to six weeks, which is half the battery life of the new Paperwhite and two weeks less than the Kindle Colorsoft, although still plenty long enough. There’s still 16GB of storage inside, which should equate to plenty of room for all your e-books.

It’s essentially the same compact e-reader as before, measuring 6.2 x 4.3 x 0.32 inches / 157.5 x 109 x 8mm. That last spec is only 0.2mm thicker than the Paperwhite, meaning this is still plenty thin, and it won’t weigh you down either at just 5.6oz / 158g. The coolest part of the design, though (aside from, in my opinion, the new Matcha color), remains the fact that the Kindle can fit in most jacket pockets or a small bag. That’s pocket-sized reading, pardon the pun.

Going by size alone, the new Kindle is very demure – and judging by Kindle Tok (a trending term on TikTok), I think the TikTok community will be on board – but for me, the new Matcha color is really delightful. It’s cutesy, in keeping with the demure trend, but it’s also just a nice shade, and a welcome pop of color amid a sea of mostly black, grey and silver tech. It’s truthfully a pale sage-green, and I prefer it over the Denim that the last-generation Kindle was offered in.

The new Amazon Kindle (2024) in Matcha.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

At $109.99 / £ 94.99, it’s not just an affordable e-reader from Amazon, but it checks off the basics in a familiar build that still screams Kindle. If you can live without a bigger display that you can adjust the warmth on or a super long battery life, it’s still the core e-reading experience from the brand.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024: An excellent 2-in-1 eReader gets annotation and a healthy infusion of AI
4:15 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers eReaders Gadgets Tablets | Tags: | Comments: Off

If the main thing holding you back from buying the 2-in-1 Amazon Kindle Scribe was that it wouldn't let you scribble on books or in the margins, I have some good news for you.

Amazon's latest Kindle adds markup capabilities (of a sort) and throws in a subtle yet spiffy redesign for the big-screen eReader and notetaker and its stylus companion. There's even a small yet important helping of generative AI.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Pricing and availability

Amazon unveiled the 2024 Kindle Scribe on October 16 along with a new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and its first color E Ink device, the Kindle Colorsoft. The Kindle Scribe lists for $399.99 and will ship in December.

The look of it

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Amazon Kindle Scribe has never been your typical Kindle e-reader. At 10.2 inches, the screen is more than three inches larger than the biggest Kindle screen (currently the new 7-inch Paperwhite). In addition to touch, it supports high-precision pen input thanks to a Wacom Digitizer panel below the surface.

The new Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 edition doesn't change any of that. Size, weight, and specs are the same as last time, but the reader does look different all the same. The metal body is now a brighter green and, in an unheard-of move, Amazon surrounded the display with a wide white border.

As Amazon's Kindle VP Kevin Keith told me, it is much harder to hide things like components and sensors behind a thick white bezel. Still, I get the intention; that white border is intended to make the thin and light e-reader look even more like a giant white piece of paper. It's a pretty good effect.

The Pen probably got a bigger redesign, with refined looks and now an elastomer eraser nub on the back end that feels like a real eraser when used on the Scribe's screen.

Display: 10.2

Storage: 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB

Dimensions: 196 x 230 x 5.8mm

Weight: 433g (Pen: 17g)

Am expansive display

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The E Ink display remains a wonder. It has just enough roughness to feel like paper and that's especially effective when you put the new stylus to work on it. There's just enough friction to feel like you're dragging a real pen across paper.

When you combine it with the 300 ppi resolution and near-zero latency, it's easy to forget that you're writing and drawing on a digital panel and not real, if slightly gray, paper. These capabilities are largely unchanged from the original Scribe, though the redesigned pen does feel better in the hand, and the eraser is now fun to use. Though I was surprised that when I erased digital ink, the little rubber nub seemed to leave some actual elastomer crumbs on the display – this may be taking verisimilitude a tad too far.

While my hands-on time was brief, it was enough that I could try out writing, reading, and drawing on the large display. It's all quite satisfying, but it's also not necessarily what defines this new Amazon Kindle Scribe.

Intoducing Active Canvas

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The new Kindle introduces Active Canvas, which finally adds some in-book notetaking to the Scribe experience. It was not live yet on most of the demo units I tried, but I got a few solid demonstrations and think that this will please those who thought the original Scribe was lacking this key feature.

Active Canvas is simple. If you want to annotate a book, you can just start writing right on top of the section in the book. As you write, the text under where you're writing fades away, and then a box appears, and the book text automatically flows around it. You select a check to set the box, which you can then resize, but more importantly, that annotation remains anchored to the text in the book. I watched as an Amazon rep resized the font, and the annotation held fast.

Amazon is also adding expanded margins for annotations that will similarly anchor to positions in the book. That feature, which I did see working in demos, will ship sometime after Amazon ships the Scribe.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

A dose of AI

The Amazon Kindle Scribe wouldn't be a new product in 2024 if it didn't get a little dollop of AI. In this case, it's a two-pronged attack: Refinement and Summarization.

Again, I could not try these features out for myself, but I did watch closely as another Amazon rep demonstrated them.

Refinement seems tailor-made for me and my very messy handwriting.

The Scribe has extensive note-taking features, but I find it fairly useless if all my notes are not organized or clarified in some fashion. The Refinement feature is a good first step. It uses a cloud-based generative AI to read and clean up my notes.

The process, which starts with you selecting a little quasar-like icon in the upper right corner of the screen, takes 15-to-20 seconds and sends the encrypted data to Amazon's Bedrock Gen AI server. The system returns an incredibly cleaned-up version of your notes. They look handwritten, but that's because they're now in Amazon's custom handwriting font, which can be easily resized.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

This process certainly makes the notes more glanceable, but I think it's the Summarization feature that will change things the most for avid Kindle Scribe notetakers.

It goes through the same process of selecting the AI icon, but you then have to choose if the system is to summarize the current page or all your pages in that note file. I, naturally, would always choose the latter.

What's returned looks like a brief, handwritten, and concise summarization of what can be quite lengthy and messy notes. Unlike your own handwritten notes, it's the kind of thing that you might be comfortable sharing with coworkers.

Amazon uses a variety of LLMs (large language models) to figure out all handwritten notes. When I asked Amazon Kindle VP Kevin Keith which LLMs it was employing he demurred, telling me instead, "We continually look for the best models, and that's what's great about Bedrock. You can change out different models."

There was, by the way, no mention of Alexa AI or Alexa AI integration in these new Scribe tools, which is a shame but perhaps we'll see it in future Scribe and its Gen AI updates.

The pens' the thing

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Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Because Amazon Kindle Scribe uses Wacom digitizing technology, the Scribe Pencil needs no power source. So, while you can magnetically attach it to the side of the e-reader, it doesn't need that connection to juice up. The pen could be unattached for months and still work.

That's pretty impressive when you consider all this pen can do. It's got a high degree of pressure sensitivity, tilt recognition, and a newly redesigned eraser. In my experience, the latency was essentially zero. It kept up with fast and slow strokes.

It's fun to use, and that big canvas cries out for an illustration. It's also nice that the pen ships with the Kindle Scribe.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Battery life

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Amazon Kindle Scribe is rated for 12 weeks of battery life, but that's if you keep the WiFi off. Your battery life will also vary based on how often you use the lights to illuminate the reflective screen in the dark and how much you annotate your books. Still, battery life will invariably be "weeks" and not "days" or "hours" with a Kindle.

Unlike some of the smaller Kindles like the new Paperwhite and Colorsoft, the Scribe is not water resistant, so just keep that in mind if you take it to the pool or beach.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024 Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft: The color Kindle you’ve been dreaming of is finally here
4:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers eReaders Gadgets Tablets | Comments: Off

Color me not surprised but genuinely pleased that Amazon has finally delivered its first color Kindle.

In the 17 years since the first Kindle first arrived, e-reader display technology has moved at a glacial pace, especially when compared to, for instance, the iPhone, which was released that same year. While that product has seen significant updates across every aspect of the mobile device, Amazon's Kindle has more or less tried on different outfits, from the giant DX to the oddly-shaped Oasis. Amazon and its display partner E Ink gradually improved the pixels per inch to a robust 300 and the contrast ratio to something approaching paper (marked with the breakthrough product Paperwhite). Along the way, we got touch screens and far better LED support lighting for when there isn't enough sunlight.

Nothing, though, has felt like a breakthrough or something that might fundamentally alter our Kindle e-reader experience. Not until today, that is.

I get that a color screen in our world of Ultra HD, Super Retina, and QuadHD displays might seem quaint but delivering color on an e-reader is no trivial matter. E Ink display technology is the opposite of active. It's a physical technology where tiny black and white balls are energized to turn to the black or white side to generate an image. Once the image is on your E Ink screen, it takes zero energy to keep it there. E Ink displays generally only use battery power when refreshing the screen. It's why your Kindle battery lasts weeks instead of hours (WiFi and the LED lighting will eat up the most juice) and why these screens are not intrinsically designed for full color.

And yet, I just spent an afternoon with Amazon's new Kindle Colorsoft and was pleasantly surprised at the richness of color. While it is nowhere near as vibrant as an LCD or OLED display, it is a significant step forward for e-reader technology.

Pricing and availability

Amazon announced the Kindle Colorsoft on October 16 along with a new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite 12 gen, and Kindle Scribe. The Kindle Colorsoft lists for $279.99 with 32GB of RAM and ships on October 30.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

It's Paperwhite plus color

Amazon's first color e-reader is still built on the foundation of what is ostensibly its best Kindle: the new Paperwhite Signature edition. That means it has the same 7-inch screen (up from 6.8 inches), wireless charging, and a thin and light, virtually waterproof chassis. It's still a 300 ppi Oxide backplane display, and in black-and-white mode, it offers page turns that are virtually as fast as those of the non-color display.

The 4000-color capabilities come by way of a filter co-developed with E Ink that uses Nitride LEDs to assign pixel-level colors. This is in contrast to the color E Ink Gallery 3 display on the new Remarkable Pro, which uses colored particles to generate on-screen colors. Amazon Kindle VP Kevin Keith told me Amazon chose the color filter because the other technology suffers from too much flashing, ghosting, and latency.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft specs

Display: 7 inches

Resolution: 300 ppi (150 ppi color)

Dimensions: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8 mm

Weight: 219 grams

Amazon chose to move forward on a color Kindle now because it saw the opportunity to build a better color filter with E Ink and rebuild the display stack to support it. In other words, Amazon saw a chance to do a color Kindle its way. "Everything we do is customized. None of it is off the shelf. It's all customized by our display engineers and every level of the stack is created by our team," said Keith.

Part of that stack is the new oxide backplane (also found in the new Kindle Paperwhite), which replaces the amorphous silicon of previous models. This change improves the refresh speed (on the Kindle Paperwhite, it's by a full 25% faster than on the last model, but it's' slightly slower here and noticeably so on the color images) and the contrast ratio.

It turns out that the oxide backplane and Nitride LEDs were also crucial to maintaining the contrast. "The [color] filter pulls down the contrast ratio a little bit," Kieth told me, "and we were able to use the backplane and the LEDS to boost the contrast back up. If we hadn't done that, it would dramatically make the reading experience worse."

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Even though Kindle e-readers eat most of their energy on page refresh, and you would think faster refreshes would eat more power, the opposite is true. The oxide backplane has a higher peak voltage than amorphous silicon, 24v versus 15v, which helps it drive faster page refreshes and richer contrast. One Kindle engineer explained to me that because the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Colorsoft are spending less time building these pages, they're saving energy.

There is, however, a battery hit. The Kindle Paperwhite is now rated for 3 months of battery life, while the Kindle Colorsoft, which has a slightly larger battery, offers up to 8 weeks. I know that's still a lot of use for one charge, but it is worth noting that the color display comes with a cost.

Keith told me the Nitride LEDs are more color-friendly than the white LEDs used on previous Kindles. "Then we use these coatings to focus the light through individual pixels instead of mixing colors together. The Nitride LEDS are key to that but it's also with these coatings that they put through the display stack that enables the focus to happen." Put another way, Keith explained, it's focusing the light through individual pixels of color instead of just a spray that mixes color together.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

A color experience

With each generation, Amazon's best Kindles get closer and closer to a paper (or paperback) experience. Like the Kindle Paperwhite Signature on which it's based, the Kindle Colorsoft is about 2mm larger than the last Paperwhite, but it's also thinner and lighter. The larger screen, going from 6.8 inches to 7 inches diagonally, is simply icing on the cake of an ultra-thin book-like experience.

The new color display brings living color to all the book covers in your Kindle Library. It doesn't matter if you downloaded the book last week or five years ago; if it had a color cover, then the book jacket will be in color today on the Kindle Colorsoft.

If you're like me, then you spend most of your time reading lots and lots of black-and-white text on your Kindle. Sometimes, I scroll through my Kindle Library and pause on one of the few graphic novels because I sometimes read these colorful tomes on an iPad. When I consider reading them on the E Ink Kindle, I always pass because I can't see the point of reading them in the comparatively dull monochrome.

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Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

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Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

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Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Naturally, the experience on the Kindle Colorsoft is significantly different. It's built to deliver a relatively rich color experience that dives below the surface of a cover and into, for instance, the richly drawn and colorful panels of a Deadpool comic book.

Viewing the panels in direct sunlight and indirect light, I thought the colors looked good and warm but not particularly vibrant. They're clear and easy on the eyes (no blue light!), but you should not expect the visual punch you'd find from, say, an iPad, iPhone, or Samsung Galaxy Tab display. E Ink, even color ink brought to you by some clever color filter, will never be the same as a backlit display.

It's a level of color that I think works as a proxy for print. It has that kind of feel and holds up to the same kind of scrutiny.

Unlike true print, though, the Kindle Colorsoft screen supports pinch and zoom. I found I could zoom in and use gestures to move around a graphic novel page. Granted, the redraw on some of this was a bit pokey; you could see the Kindle Colorsoft screen doing its color work. Keith told me the system automatically does more flashing with color to remove ghosting. "If we don't do that, you'll start to see images behind images," added Keith.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Hands On

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

In another experience, I viewed a National Geographic book full of wildlife imagery. Again, the images are sharp and colorful but a bit muted. I also read some anime that looked pretty good. One thing I did do with a couple of the Kindle Colorsofts was raise the brightness to 100% to try and improve the vibrancy. After my all-too-brief hands-on time, I learned that while you cannot turn off color mode on Colorsoft, there is a color vibrancy setting; I have no idea if that's on by default, though.

The color abilities even play out in highlighting content, offering four highlighter colors. Those colors are not just for variety. You'll be able to search based on highlight color, and if you open your Kindle app on the iPhone or iPad, those same highlighted colors will appear there, too.

While I was generally pleased with the color performance, there is no escaping one important and niggling fact: color mode is only 150ppi. That's right – half the resolution you will see when reading a monochrome book on the same device, and everything looks so good at that reduced resolution is an achievement in itself.

It's hard to draw conclusions from my limited hands-on time, especially because the lighting situation was so inconsistent. Bright light bouncing off skyscrapers and into the demo space was a kind of harsh yet indirect light that didn't necessarily suit the Kindle Colorsoft's new screen technology. To truly assess the color and overall image quality, I need to move this device to my test bed, or rather bed, where I do all my Kindle reading.

You see, that's the real test for Kindle Colorsoft. Can I comfortably and enjoyably read these new color images from the comfort of my favorite reading spot.

reMarkable Paper Pro review: the writing tablet that’s just for writing, now in color
3:00 pm | September 4, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Tablets | Comments: Off

reMarkable Paper Pro: Two-minute review

You don’t own the reMarkable Paper Pro, it owns you. This is a tablet with a single purpose – to capture your ideas. It does that almost perfectly. There are other things you can do with the reMarkable Paper Pro, but it won’t do anything as well as keeping your thoughts and ideas organized and flowing.

It does this by doing almost nothing else. The reMarkable Paper Pro is the follow-up to the reMarkable 2, a monochrome writing tablet with an E Ink display and a Wacom-licensed EMR stylus. The earlier reMarkable earned fans by offering simplicity and a distraction-free environment. It's so well designed and pleasant to use that it becomes addictive, and that’s why I keep using it. 

I bring my reMarkable 2, and now my reMarkable Paper Pro, to every event I cover as a journalist. It’s not just because I love flashing the most pretentious, manicured, single-minded tablet you can own; it’s because the reMarkable feels free and easy in a way my laptop cannot. 

When I have to type notes on a keyboard, I feel constrained. I need to sit. I need to follow the rules of the document app. I can’t easily create and organize notes in the way I want, not without fighting the app.

When I use my reMarkable, I can put my ideas to paper the way I like, and I still get to save everything to Google Drive. In fact, reMarkable has finally relented, and you can now edit documents from the reMarkable app, away from the tablet. That’s been a long-requested feature from reMarkable’s devoted fan base.

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Paper Pro finally gives the most-requested features to reMarkable fans, including a front light for reading in the dark (seriously, you can’t read the reMarkable 2 in the dark), and – drum roll please – a color E Ink display!

I wasn’t expecting a color reMarkable this year, because the color E Ink tablets I’ve seen haven’t been spectacular. reMarkable has incredibly high standards, and the company seemed in no hurry to launch a new, sub-par product.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is a different color E Ink panel from anything I’ve seen before – I’ll talk later about the technology that brought reMarkable out of Kansas to the Land of Oz.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is electronic paper (ePaper), pure and simple, and it’s best not to expect too much from this tablet. It’s the best ePaper you’ve ever used. Since the reMarkable 2 launched in 2020, the company has spent a great deal of its effort improving the writing experience beyond all expectations. There's no perceptible lag between the pen and the ePaper. Writing feels like writing, as it should.

If that doesn’t appeal to you, you may be outside of reMarkable’s target audience, because the reMarkable Paper Pro is truly a luxury device for people who want the feeling of writing on paper, with the convenience of digital storage. This is not a versatile tablet. The list of things the reMarkable cannot do is longer and more surprising than the list of what it can.

There's no web browser on the reMarkable Paper Pro, because the company says the primary goal of the Paper Pro is to help you avoid distractions. To that end, not only can you not browse the web, you can’t even check the time. There's no visible clock on the Paper Pro. No web windows, no clocks – it’s like a Las Vegas casino, if Vegas was about creativity instead of gambling.

Why is there no clock? Because reMarkable knows this won’t be your only screen, or even your second screen. This is the device you buy after your iPhone and MacBook, instead of a distractingly bright and colorful iPad.

Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (2024)

The reMarkable Paper Pro is the anti-iPad (Image credit: Future)

The company is unapologetic about its spartan attitude. It takes pride in rejecting far, far more feature requests than it grants: around 95% of the features that users request are rejected, according to reMarkable reps.

If you want a tablet that does a lot more, get an iPad. If you want an E Ink tablet that does a lot more, like running apps and a browser, get an Onyx Boox Note Air 3. If you want an E Ink tablet that's good for reading books, buy an Amazon Kindle Scribe.

The reMarkable Paper Pro will have none of that silliness. This tablet is not for reading, and it’s not for apps, and if you want those things in an ePaper tablet, it’s not for you, either.

reMarkable Paper Pro review: price and availability

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Starts at $579 / £559 / AU $929 with a Marker
  • New Type Folio available at launch for $229 / £180 / AU $330 extra

The reMarkable Paper Pro is very expensive, especially considering how much this tablet doesn’t do. An Apple iPad costs from $449 / £499 / AU$749, without an Apple Pencil of course, and Apple’s tablet can do just about everything. The reMarkable Paper Pro, on the other hand, seems positively archaic by comparison. 

That’s entirely the point, and the design and materials are deceptively advanced, as I’ll discuss below in the Design section. This is an ultra-premium, luxury device, even though it lacks features we normally associate with luxury tablets. 

Depending on your region, reMarkable might try to sell you a tablet without a Marker, but don’t buy it – or rather, buy the Marker. You need it. The reMarkable Paper Pro isn’t a very good reading device. Also, unlike the reMarkable 2, the new Paper Pro doesn’t use Wacom’s EMR technology for its pen. The Marker is now proprietary reMarkable technology, so you can’t just get the tablet and then buy your own cheaper pen. A Samsung S Pen will not work with the reMarkable Paper Pro, as it will with a reMarkable 2.

You really should use a case or folio with this tablet, and the reMarkable Book Folios are very nice, whether you choose the recycled fabric or the leather. The newer Book Folios have a strap to hold the Marker in place. If you don’t like these covers, just wait a bit, because I’d expect a robust market for third-party covers will pop up on Etsy, just as it did for the reMarkable 2.

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

If you want to type on the reMarkable Paper Pro, in addition to writing with the Marker, reMarkable is offering a Type Folio keyboard for $229. Just like the tablet itself, the Type Folio keyboard is incredibly thin. With the Type Folio attached, the reMarkable is about as thick as most tablets with a basic folio cover. The Paper Pro is a larger tablet than the reMarkable 2, so the older Type Folio will not work with the new reMarkable.

The reMarkable 2 will still be available, now for even less. A bundle starts at $379, which is a drop from the previous $399 / £399 / AU$679 pricing, though still more than the Kindle Scribe, which sells for $339 / £329 / AU$549.

Unfortunately, reMarkable will not be accepting any older tablets as a trade-in for the new reMarkable Paper Pro. This is a big mistake, but for a company that started on Kickstarter, I get it. It’s not like reMarkable makes a new tablet every year and encourages regular upgrading. If you have the reMarkable 2, just keep it, it’s still great.

  • Value score: 4/5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: specs

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

reMarkable Paper Pro review: display

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • New E Ink Gallery 3 display isn't being used in other tablets
  • Color is built into the pixels, not a separate layer

If you’re not familiar with E Ink, you should know about ePaper first. Unlike an LCD or OLED computer monitor, ePaper is a category of display that is designed to emulate paper. You can read an ePaper display outdoors in bright sunlight because it reflects light. An ePaper display also usually looks the same whether it's powered on or off. 

There are a few different types of ePaper technology, and reMarkable uses an ePaper display from a company called E Ink – the screen tech is also called E Ink. Amazon’s Kindle e-reader tablets all use E Ink displays, and so do the reading and writing tablets from Kobo and Onyx

E Ink is an amazing technology. Where your phone screen lights up and makes a picture when electricity passes through it, E Ink doesn’t light up at all. It makes a picture with tiny, almost microscopic balls. These balls sit in tiny little wells, and when electricity is applied, they rise to the top so you can see them. 

The benefit of E Ink displays is that they can consume less power, because the screen will draw a page of words and then… do nothing. It sits still while you read, and it doesn’t require any juice. The screen only uses power when you have to turn the page, or scroll down. This makes it ideal for applications like reading and writing, where there isn’t a lot of page-turning and scrolling.

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

E Ink is very bad at displaying video and any task that requires a lot of movement on-screen. The screen cannot refresh nearly as quickly as a phone screen. Your phone's display can update at up to 120 times per second, while the fastest E Ink screen can barely top 10-15 frames per second – and even then, it’s drawing a lot more power than an E Ink screen was intended to use.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is a brand new E Ink screen, at least for tablets. The E Ink Gallery 3 technology has been used in digital signage commercially, but it hasn’t been used in a successful writing tablet. reMarkable is calling its brand of Gallery 3 E Ink the Canvas display.

There are other E Ink color tablets, like the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C and the Kobo Libra Colour. Those tablets use an E Ink Kaleido screen. The difference is where the color sits. On the Kaleido display, you have a black-and-white E Ink layer, just like any e-reader. Then you have a layer of color that sits just above the black-and-white layer.

The Kaleido display can refresh quickly, but the color has to allow the black and white layer to be visible beneath, so it uses a lower color resolution. The color does not look very saturated. If you see one of these screens in person, they almost have a layered effect to the color that seems off compared to color print or a similar medium.

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

Macro close-up of the reMarkable Paper Pro's E Ink display (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The new Gallery 3 E Ink panel on the reMarkable Paper Pro, on the other hand, puts the color in the same layer as the black-and-white. This gives you better color resolution and a sharper image, but it takes the display longer to draw and update color. In fact, E Ink told me that while the black ink can refresh in 350 milliseconds (ms), the color ink can take anywhere from 500ms to 1.5 seconds to finish drawing, for the most accurate color.

We’ve been waiting four years for a new reMarkable tablet, and the addition of color was highly anticipated by fans, though I was skeptical, as I’ve seen tablets that use color E Ink ‘Kaleido’ panels. I can’t say that the reMarkable color display is perfect, but it definitely looks better than the E Ink competition, and it adds a layer of usefulness.

The colors are still faint, even though reMarkable has added a light to the new Paper Pro tablet. The light is very dim, just barely bright enough power to let you read in the dark. Unlike the Amazon Kindle Scribe, which packs a bevy of LED backlights, the reMarkable Paper Pro gives you a meager candle for reading, and little more.

That said, if you know where to look for the quality, you’ll find it. The reMarkable Paper Pro looks like paper and ink. The display may seem a bit grey, but it looks bone-white compared to other ePaper tablets. The ink color is highly visible and looks like real ink, no matter what color you now choose. The display feels great for writing – not so much like paper, but like expensive stationery. All around, this is a writing tablet for connoisseurs of writing tablets.

  • Display score: 4 / 5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: Design

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Thinner than an iPad Pro, even with the new lights
  • Accessories are a must, not a maybe

The reMarkable Paper Pro is an incredibly well-built device, and it has a premium finish and design that is truly… impeccable. Even though the new reMarkable Paper Pro has a larger battery than the reMarkable 2, a fully-lit display, and new color E Ink technology, it remains one of the thinnest tablets you can buy, if not the thinnest. 

The new iPad Pro that Apple brags is its thinnest product ever? That 5.3mm fatso needs to lose a couple tenths of a millimeter if it wants to brag against the 5.1mm reMarkable Paper Pro, or the even thinner (and still available) 4.7mm reMarkable 2. 

The latest reMarkable is larger than before, so unfortunately the older accessories like the Type Folio won’t work. And you’re definitely going to want a case for this tablet. It feels solid, but it's so thin and light that I’d hate to put its durability to a stress test. The reMarkable folios are all very high-quality, and I expect third party options will appear before long. 

  • Design score: 5/5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: Software

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Not so much software, more like paper with some features
  • No apps, no home screen, just notes

The reMarkable Paper Pro keeps things very simple. You have notes (called Notebooks) and folders. That’s it. You can tag your notes, then search those tags later to jump to a specific notebook or section in a book. 

There is no app store. There is no home screen with widgets and icons. You can see your folders, and you can click on the folders to see the notes inside them. That’s all. I love the simplicity. If you’re tired of saving photos or files on your phone, then having no idea where they went, the reMarkable Paper Pro is a soothing balm. You will never lose anything, because it’s simply right in front of you. 

When you write a note, you can handwrite or type text. There's an onscreen keyboard for typography if you don’t buy the Type Folio. 

The Paper Pro can convert handwriting to typed text, but the feature is very rudimentary. It was able to recognize most of my writing, but when it could not figure out my chicken scratch, it just skipped that word. 

Worst of all, the final product is ugly and hard to correct. In fact, a huge weakness of the reMarkable software is how difficult it can be to edit, change, and move things around, especially typed text. It's very hard to select the right word, or a group of words, because the screen can feel unresponsive. It is almost impossible to create a proper layout using type – you’re better off just drawing what you want. 

Sadly, there are very few helpful drawing tools, either. There is no help making straight lines, and nothing to make shapes. You can’t create stickers to add to your documents, which would be a boon for journaling fans.

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

Close-up of the highlighter tool on the color reMarkable Paper Pro (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

You can write in color, or paint in color, or highlight in color, but the color features are just as limited as everything else. Don’t expect the reMarkable Paper Pro to be your new drawing tablet. The color options are scant and unalterable. You can’t tap to fill a space with color, for instance.

You can’t even pick your own colors. You get the colors reMarkable has chosen, and that’s all. No color picker, no blending colors. Colors are for organization and ideas, not, well, coloring.

Actually, that’s not true, because I downloaded a PDF with some mindfulness exercises that include coloring, and though my color options are limited, I can still have fun making pretty pictures. You can load any PDF or ePUB document onto the reMarkable Paper Pro, either through the mobile or desktop app, or using a Chrome extension that converts web pages into PDFs. Once you have a document loaded, you can draw and color upon it to your heart’s content.

  • Software score: 2/5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: Performance

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Amazing pen response, with new pen technology
  • Screen can feel very sluggish with touch, especially swipes

The reMarkable Paper Pro has a lot more power than before, but for what? The most advanced feature, and maybe the only advanced feature, is handwriting recognition, a technology that predates the earliest iPhone. 

Actually, I’ve talked to developers who work with E Ink who tell me that the screen technology is astonishingly difficult to program, so perhaps the improved performance is driving the more complex color display. 

The problem is that the reMarkable Paper Pro feels very slow. Not when you’re writing. Writing works at light speed. The new Marker uses an active technology, powered by a rechargeable battery, that makes response time even faster, according to reMarkable. Writing feels very fast and fluid, with absolutely no discernible lag. 

Navigating the reMarkable Paper Pro, though, feels like a serious drag. Swiping to the next page often took multiple swipes. Scrolling could be unresponsive on longer documents, and pinch-zooming might not work on the first attempt. 

Once you have your document template set up, everything feels snappy. Writing, drawing, and coloring with the new brushes works with perfect fluidity. It feels like writing on real paper, not writing on a laggy screen. Once you’re done, have some patience, because it could take a while to send your file, or navigate to the next folder. 

  • Performance score: 3 / 5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: Battery

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Two weeks of battery life, even with the light continually on
  • That's because the light is very dim

Before you get impressed by the two weeks of battery life that the reMarkable Paper Pro can offer, remember that an Amazon Kindle with an E Ink display can last more than a month with steady use. The reMarkable is impressive, but it isn’t the best ePaper device for battery life. 

It’s still much better than competing devices from Onyx, like the Onyx Boox Air 3. Onyx pushes its E Ink displays to the limit, and Boox tablets can actually display videos, or browse regular web pages, or even run games, like any other Android tablet (almost). Pushing E Ink faster drains power very quickly, though. E Ink is meant to be slow and steady, not fast. 

The reMarkable Paper Pro charges via USB-C, and it comes with a charging cord. I’m not sure how fast it charges because the battery lasts two weeks, so I didn’t mind a slower charge-up. 

  • Battery score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the reMarkable Paper Pro?

reMarkable Paper Pro writing tablet

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Buy it if...

You want a premium digital pen and paper experience
At its heart the reMarkable Paper Pro is simply electronic pen and paper, with all the benefits of the cloud. If you embrace that simplicity, you’ll love it.

You need freedom from distractions
There is no web browser, no games, no app store, not even a clock to tell you how long you’ve been procrastinating.

You’ve been waiting for a color reMarkable with a light
A color screen and a light are by far the two biggest requests I hear from vocal reMarkable fans. Those folks get their wish with the Paper Pro.

Don't buy it if...

You want to read books, or do anything else but write
The reMarkable Paper Pro can read PDF files and ePUB books, but it's better for marking up documents than for reading a novel.

You’re going to complain about what it can’t do
Look, the reMarkable Paper Pro can’t do a lot, that’s the point. It’s time to simplify! If you can’t get with that, buy something complicated.

You lose pens all the time
The Paper Pro Marker pen is proprietary, so there are no cheap third-party options, and it’s easy to lose since it only attaches magnetically.

Also consider

Amazon Kindle Scribe
If you read more than you write, get the Amazon Kindle Scribe, which gives you access to Amazon’s huge Kindle library, without all the distractions of an iPad or Android tablet.

Read our full Amazon Kindle Scribe review

Apple iPad 10.9
If you need a lot of distractions, or a more capable tablet, the Apple iPad is the same price as the reMarkable Paper Pro, and it has a lot more colors. It’s very distracting, indeed, and it works with an Apple Pencil.

Read our full Apple iPad 10.9 review

How I tested the reMarkarble Paper Pro

I received the reMarkable Paper Pro a few weeks before this review was published, and I used it as my primary note-taking and journaling tool, both for work and personal use. I normally use a reMarkable 2 for these tasks, so I'm familiar with the tablet’s capabilities and limitations. 

I charged the reMarkable Paper Pro at the beginning of my review period and then didn't charge it again until I needed to take photos for this review, to ensure that reMarkable’s battery-life claims were accurate. After two weeks, I tested charging again on my standard USB-C charger. 

I connected the reMarkable Paper Pro to my Google Drive account for document synchronization, as well as the Google Chrome browser. I used the reMarkable app on my MacBook, Android phone, and iPhone. 

I gave the reMarkable Paper Pro to folks with more drawing ability and artistic talent than I have and asked them what they think. I did not tell them what tablet they were using. I also downloaded a number of third-party PDF files from Etsy to try them with the reMarkable Paper Pro.

I used the reMarkable Paper Pro with reMarkable’s Book Folio and Type Folio cases, typing extensively with the keyboard. 

Read more about how we test.

  • First reviewed: September 2024
Onyx Boox Go Color 7 review: this Android ereader isn’t the page-turner I expected
10:08 am | August 15, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers eReaders Gadgets Tablets | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Onyx Boox Go Color 7: Two-minute review

I’ve reviewed quite a few Boox ereaders over the last few years and have always been impressed by their design and the versatility of having Android as an operating system. The Go series carries on this tradition with the 7-inch Boox Go Color 7 ereader, which is essentially a color version of the Onyx Boox Page.

They’re both quite similar physically, featuring page-turn buttons on the wider bezel, flush screens and a plastic build, but the Go Color 7 features a textured rear panel that makes it grippier to hold, and that’s a good thing as it’s quite a thin device (6.4mm / 0.25 inch thickness). The texture also means you won’t see any fingerprints on the rear of the ereader but, sadly, the smooth front panel is a magnet for smudges.

Onyx says that the Go Color 7 is water resistant, but doesn’t provide any rating to suggest how much moisture it can survive. My suspicion is that it might just be splashproof and not submersible as the Kindles and Kobos are, but that’s better than the Page which has no waterproofing at all.

Physically, the Go Color 7 is a lovely device, although I personally would have preferred a little space between the two page-turn buttons, but that’s me nitpicking. What really lets this ereader down is its usability.

For starters, the black-and-white text, which has a resolution of 300ppi, lacks contrast and sharpness as compared to the Kobo Libra Colour, despite both ereaders using the same E Ink Kaleido 3 screen technology. Adding weight (or Enhancement as Onyx calls it) does absolutely nothing. Colors face a similar problem, and they’re noticeably more muted on the Boox compared to the Kobo, and any text in color comic panels, for example, isn't as sharp. If you make adjustments to the color, which Onyx lets you do but isn’t possible on the Kobo, they reveal a lot of texture on the page background that detracts from the reading experience.

That’s not to say the readability is bad – it could be better – but it’s compounded by a whole lot of other software flaws. For example: tap-to-turn doesn’t auto rotate when you turn the device (when you swap hands); the default fonts folder isn’t linked to Storage to make sideloaded fonts work easily; and you have to jump through hoops to use a wired connection for file transfers when using an Apple PC (MacBook or iMac).

These issues become cumulative and make using the Go Color 7 far from enjoyable and hard for me to recommend, at least not till Onyx releases firmware updates to fix some of the software problems that plagues this ereader. It also means that despite the versatility of having the Google Play Store at your fingertips, the higher price tag compared to its Kobo competitor doesn’t add any value.

A graphic novel page displayed on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Onyx Boox Go Color 7 review: price and availability

  • Announced June 2024
  • Launch price of $249.99 / €279.99 / AU$459
  • Available to buy directly from the Boox Shop and at select retailers

The Boox devices aren’t known for their affordability, but can offer bang for buck because of how versatile they can be on account of running Android. So it’s not surprising that the Boox Go Color 7 comes into the market with a price tag of $249.99 / €279.99 (about £239) / AU$459, which is the same price as the Boox Page (the B&W version of the Go) in the US and the European Union, but AU$40 more expensive in Australia. If you purchase it directly from the Boox Shop, it’s possible to get a little discount, but I think the Kobo Libra Colour offers more bang for your hard-earned buck.

With writing capabilities and a more optimized display that offers both superior sharpness and color saturation, in my opinion the Kobo Libra Colour for $219.99 / £219.99 / AU$359.95 is the better device. Even if you pay extra to buy the Kobo Stylus 2 to take advantage of the note-taking features, it’s still the better purchase on account of its more intuitive user experience and fewer software issues.

• Value score: 3 / 5

The native library app on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Onyx Boox Go Color 7 review: specs

Onyx Boox Go Color 7 review: design and display

  • Slim design with plastic build
  • Page-turn buttons
  • 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 display doesn’t seem to be optimized for reading

With a similar aesthetic to the Boox Page, the Go Color 7 has a lovely slim profile with an even thickness of only 6.4mm (0.25 inches). That’s just marginally thicker than the Page (6mm / 0.24 inches), but they both weigh in at a mere 195g and don’t put any pressure on the hand or wrist during long reading sessions.

The Go Color 7 takes it a step further by offering a little extra grip via a textured rear panel, which I found good to have as it makes holding the device a little more secure than the Page. However, I personally prefer the asymmetric thickness of the Kobo Libra series and the Kindle Oasis – this ensures your thumb is more securely placed on or near the page-turn buttons and is a little more ergonomic. With the Go Color 7 and the Page, I found I had to keep shifting my grip marginally every few minutes to avoid building up fatigue in the thumb joint and wrist. So while the slim profile is lovely to look at, it’s not ergonomic for single-hand use. I also think Onyx should consider adding a small gap between the two buttons – an issue I also had with the Page – to make each easier to find by touch and improve the ergonomics.

Etched branding on the rear of the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

Subtle Boox branding on the rear of the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

What I really love about the buttons is the ability to customize them on a per-app basis. You can set one of three specific functions for all the apps you have on the device (including those downloaded from the Play Store), choosing between page-turn for library or reading apps, set them to scrolling (which is great for web browsing), or use them as volume controls for music or audiobooks. You can even set secondary functions for long presses if you want to via the Settings pane.

Despite having the page-turn buttons, you can use tap-to-turn via the screen if you prefer. However, I found that this functionality doesn’t auto-rotate when using NeoReader (the native library app). It does work for third-party reading apps like Kindle or Kobo, however.

Along with the page-turn buttons, the Go Color 7 also features a single speaker and a mic, housed at the top and bottom of the edge bordering the broader bezel. There’s even a microSD tray that can add more storage to the already-available 64GB. This is handy if you like audiobooks – audio files are typically larger than ebooks, so can eat through onboard storage quite quickly. The top edge houses a small power button.

I was sent the black Go Color 7 for this review, but there’s a white option as well which, I think, looks nicer – all the buttons are silver, adding a little life to the otherwise featureless plastic build. I also think that smudges and fingerprints will be a lot less visible on the white than on the black – the textured rear panel picks up nothing, but the top, smooth bezels are magnets for any oily substance on your fingertips.

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A thumb near the page-turn buttons of the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

The page-turn buttons are close together on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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The USB-C port, speaker and microSD tray on the side of the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

A speaker and a microSD card add value to the Go Color 7 (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Image 3 of 3

The rear panels of the Onyx Boox Page (right) and the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (right)

The smooth rear of the Onyx Boox Page (left) shows fingerprint smudges more than the textured rear of the Go Color 7 (right) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

The 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 display is currently the best color e-paper screen tech available and has been used on my pick of the best ereader you can buy right now – the Kobo Libra Colour. The difference here is that the screen is set flush with the bezels on the Go Color 7, which makes it a little more reflective compared to the sunken display on the Kobo. It also means it picks up a lot of fingerprints when you use the screen for functions like tap-to-turn or the keyboard.

The screen is front-lit, with both white and amber LEDs, so you can adjust from cold to warm hues as you see fit. However, there’s no way to make this transition automatic at a specific time – as is available on the Kindle Oasis and several Kobo models – so that you read in colder light during the day and warmer light for evening or nighttime reading. That said, no Boox tablet has this feature, but you can always find your preferred brightness, then add in a little warmth to suit your needs and leave it at that.

I did, however, find that the screen light isn’t as bright as I’ve seen on other ereaders, Boox models included. For example, a side-by-side comparison with the Boox Page shows the latter can get a lot brighter at full bore, while the Go Color 7 looks like it’s barely at half brightness even though I’ve got the light turned up to the maximum. This isn’t a huge concern, but it could make a difference to some users when reading in certain light conditions.

My biggest concern with the Go Color 7’s display is its lack of sharpness in grayscale and comparatively low saturation when reading in color. I go into more detail in the User Experience section of this review, but it seems like Onyx hasn’t optimized the E Ink Kaleido 3 screen correctly for use. In comparison, the Kobo Libra Colour is sharper and the colors look better on the same screen tech.

• Design & display score: 3.5 / 5

The power button on the top of the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Onyx Boox Go Color 7: Software

  • Slim version of Android 12
  • Full access to the Google Play Store
  • Microsoft OpenAI Azure GPT-3 available as an AI assistant

Onyx has been using Android as its operating system for a long while, with full Google Play Store access on its devices. The latest version of the OS to be used in Boox tablets is Android 12, which might seem outdated and can be deemed a security concern, but I doubt anyone will be using an ereader like the Go Color 7 for any sensitive transactions.

If you’ve used an Onyx Boox device before, you’ll be quite familiar with the setup on the Go Color 7 – nothing has really changed on that side of things. You get easy access to the library app, the bookstore, device storage, apps and settings via a navigation menu on the bottom of the home screen, and you can experiment with each of them quite easily. The bookstore, however, is not ideal as there’s really not a lot of options available to purchase, so you’re better off using the native browser to purchase content online, which then gets saved to the device.

Image 1 of 3

The Apps pane on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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Text enhancements for comics and graphic novels in the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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Settings available when reading a comic or graphic novel file on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

There’s a lot going on in the Settings pane, and that can take some time to wrap your head around, but there are settings for each native app as well, accessible when you open them. That said, some of these individual settings are hidden away, which isn’t ideal. The Apps pane is arguably the most intuitive section on the device, and it lists the Play Store separately. You just need to sign in and you’re ready to download any app you see fit for use on the Go Color 7 – in my case, I had the Kobo reading app installed, along with a couple of benchmarking applications I used to get more information on the device. I also downloaded a Mahjong game app for a bit of distraction.

There’s a customizable Floating Toolbar in the library app that I really like. It gives me quick access to some shortcuts, particularly the font styling and menu options for each book. While you can sideload fonts, you will need to create a new Fonts folder within the Storage pane for them to get activated – the existing Fonts folder listed in the Storage menu is not linked correctly and doesn’t work – just one of Boox’s many software failings on the Go Color 7, but this issue plagues all of Onyx’s tablets.

A hand holding the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

You can use a wired connection to transfer files, but I found that Apple devices like MacBooks and iMacs don’t register a Boox device – it’s only possible on a Windows PC. Again, another software issue. I’ve found that the best way to add content to the Go Color 7 is wirelessly by either using BooxDrop or signing into a supported cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive. However, files downloaded via the cloud don’t seem to get stored anywhere on the device – when plugged into a Windows PC, I found the library to be empty despite having ‘downloaded’ a bunch of EPUB files. Checking the breadcrumbs on the device for the files also show no pathways. I even tried an app called File Manager+ to find the files, but to no avail. So while I can open and read the files I’ve transferred, I actually can’t find them within the device’s internal pathways – another software issue that I haven’t come across on other Boox tablets previously.

To change things up on the Go Series of Boox tablets, Onyx has added an AI Assistant app. This is essentially Microsoft’s OpenAI Azure GPT and you can get it to write you a short story or start a simple conversation. It works fine, but I think it’s superfluous – I never found the need to use it, but did so only for testing purposes.

• Software score: 3 / 5

A graphic novel page displayed on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (left) and the Kobo Libra Colour (right)

Colors on the Kobo Libra Colour (right) have a touch more saturation than the Go Color 7 (left) and a lot of grain/texture is visible on the Onyx too (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Onyx Boox Go Color 7: User experience

  • Nice to use in one hand
  • Clunky, overwhelming interface
  • Screen not optimized for readability

One of the best things about a Boox tablet is the native file support, which is handy because you can sideload a heck of a lot of files to read on the Go Color 7. New here is the addition of one used in China for some academic journals, so while it may not have wider appeal, it takes the document file support to 20 – one more than the older models of Boox tablets.

However, having extensive file (and font) support only goes so far if the screen itself hasn’t been fully optimized for reading – the main function that the Go Color 7 should be good at. I found that despite the 7-inch screen having a 300ppi resolution for black-and-white text, the displayed page lacked sharpness and contrast. Edges are fuzzy when compared to the Boox Page and the Kobo Libra Colour, and the latter uses the exact same screen tech.

Onyx allows you to add weight to the text – it’s called Enhancements and is available in the NeoReader (the default library app) settings – but it does absolutely nothing. And I do mean nothing – as you slide to enhance text, there is no visible change at all. This isn’t a problem with the Boox Page, it works just fine there, even for sideloaded fonts. And a side-by-side comparison with the Kobo Libra Colour revealed a marked difference in contrast between the two competitors that you can see in the image below.

Two comic screenshots from Boox Go Color 7 and Kobo Libra Colour

A closer look at the difference in color saturation and page texture between the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (left) and the Kobo Libra Colour (right) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

The optimization (or lack thereof) of the screen also affects the color saturation which, compared to the Kob Libra Colour is lacking. However, unlike the text Enhancements, the color customizations work. Some users might like the changes these offer, but I personally didn’t like any of the tweaks I made, but I should note that this was because I also had the Libra Colour in front me at the same time and much preferred the default color settings there – so I will admit to a bias in this case.

I tried adjusting the screen’s light to see if that helped with the display issues but the Boox frontlight system isn’t as bright as what you’d find on the latest Kobos or Kindles. Moreover, the light on the Boox is a lot bluer than on a Kobo or Kindle, which I personally didn’t find pleasing. That said, the Boox allows much more warmth to be added to the frontlight compared to a Kobo or Kindle, which can turn a page entirely yellow. If that’s not to your liking, you can opt to read in dark mode, which will reverse the grayscale display colors but not affect anything in full color.

The dull screen of the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (left) beside the brighter screen of the Onyx Boox Page (right)

The Onyx Boox Page (right) has a brighter screen light at the same setting than the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (left) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

The device can be set to automatically rotate orientation when you swap hands, which also swaps the page-turn buttons accordingly. What it doesn’t do is automatically change the tap-to-turn functionality, which is strange as it works fine on the Boox Page – another software failing on the Go Color 7.

This isn’t the first software issue I’ve listed – all the previous issues I’ve noted previously in this review have a cumulative effect on the user experience, making it rather difficult to recommend the Go Color 7 to anyone looking for a new ereader. Some of these niggles can be solved via firmware updates but Onyx isn’t very good at fixing existing problems, so I won’t be holding my breath.

A page of an ebook displayed on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (left) and the Kobo Libra Colour (right)

The image doesn't do it justice, but the text on the Kobo Libra Colour (left) is sharper than the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (left) when using the exact same font (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

As with all Boox tablets, the user interface requires some getting used to – there’s a lot happening here and it would be nice if Onyx could figure out a way to simplify the settings. Some important settings – like those from NeoReader – are hidden away while there are other not-so-important features that take center stage – like choice of servers (which automatically connects you to the closest option as soon as you set up the device). Using NeoReader as the default library app is also not the most enjoyable – there’s a lot of information included on a page that can be distracting. I’m referring to the battery, time, page numbers and the like shown on the screen when you’re reading. You can choose specific combinations of these, but I found them all to be overkill for a library app – I would prefer to be given the option to select individual bits of information that I want to see rather than combinations (or pairs) of them, just so I can reduce the clutter on a page.

I no longer expect finesse from Onyx’s user interface but what makes these little niggles stand out even more is the Go Color 7’s other software flaws.

• User experience score: 3.5 / 5

Text styles and enhancements for ebooks on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Onyx Boox Go Color 7 review: Performance

  • Not a lot of ghosting
  • Impressive battery life
  • Snappy screen responsiveness

Despite the software problems plaguing this ereader, the Go Color 7 performs well – so well, in fact, that this is the first Onyx device that I’ve tested that hasn’t made me complain about ghosting. That’s not to say it’s entirely gone, but of all the very many Boox tablets I’ve tested over the years, this has the least amount of ghosting issues. It’s most prevalent when using the AI Assistant app, where the keyboard invariably has an underlay of the graphics visible when the app is first opened, and then the shadow of the keyboard remains when the AI-generated response is displayed. That said, I think the AI Assistant app is superfluous on an ereader and really didn’t use it much, so the ghosting didn’t bother me overmuch.

The Go Color 7 uses the 2.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor that has been used to previously power budget phones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11, Samsung Galaxy A53, Oppo Reno 7 and Realme 9 – when used in a low-power device like an ereader, it’s more than enough to run it smoothly. Paired with an Adreno 610 graphics chip, the Boox Go Color 7 has the exact same specs as the note-taking 10-inch Onyx Boox Note Air 3, which also performed quite well in our tests.

I didn’t notice any lag in opening apps, nor were there any problems with rapidly switching between apps or features. The screen is very responsive, whether you’re tapping to turn a page or typing something via the on-screen keyboard. In fact, it has one of the fastest response times when using the on-screen keyboard to type – it’s still not quite real-time and I don’t expect it to be, but it’s as close to that as is possible for an e-paper display to be.

The Onyx Boox Go Color 7 beside the white Kobo Libra Colour

The black Onyx Boox Go Color 7 (left) beside the slightly larger, white Kobo Libra Colour (right) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Like other Boox devices, you can, in theory, watch videos and play some mobile games on the Go Color 7, but don’t expect refresh rates and graphics like you’d see on your phone or tablet – E Ink screens aren’t optimized for real-time responsiveness. Even a simple task like scrolling through social media or even the Play Store can cause a few little hiccups as the refresh rate is not high enough for these kinds of tasks. That said, it’s good enough to play something like Solitaire or Mahjong, or browse the internet.

And even with internet usage, there’s more than enough battery life to last you a few weeks before requiring a top-up. There’s a decent 2,300mAh battery pack in the Go Color 7 and, in my tests, that gave me about 5 weeks of use before the level dropped to 19%, and included approximately two hours of reading each day, about 80 minutes of browsing or mobile games and about 3 hours of audio listening. This was also with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on at all times, the frontlight set at a little over 50% brightness and the system refresh rate set to 5 taps. That’s not too bad considering I also saw about a 12% battery drain while the device was sleeping across the same time period of 5 weeks.

Topping up the battery takes approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes – that’s with the device plugged into a 65W wall charger and using a USB-A to C cable. If you use a PC dock to plug in the Go Color 7 for a charge, note that this will take a very long time as a dock may not offer the 5W of power needed for normal charging speeds. For example, during my testing, the Go Color 7 took about 9 hours to go from 0% to 100% when plugged into an Anker PC dock.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Fingerprint smudges on the broader bezel of the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

Smudges and fingerprints are visible on the smooth broad bezel near the page-turn buttons (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Should I buy the Onyx Boox Go Color 7?

Buy it if...

You want a slim, lightweight ereader

The Go Color 7 is one of the slimmest 7-inch ereaders I’ve tested. It’s also compact and quite light, making it ideal for carrying around.

You like the option of having physical page-turn buttons

The advantage of having physical page-turn buttons on an ereader is that it makes it easy to use single-handed. The Go Color 7 takes it a step further by giving you the option to customize the buttons for other functions, and on a per-app basis too. That’s a lot of versatility.

Don't buy it if...

You care about user experience

As nice as it is physically, the Go Color 7 has too many software flaws that make the user experience far from enjoyable.

Value for money is important

It’s not too expensive for a color ereader, but it doesn’t offer as much as some of its competition. For example, you can get writing features, better sharpness and more saturation from the Kobo Libra Colour at a slightly lower price.

Also consider

If this review has you wondering if there are other options you can check out instead of the Go Color 7, take a look at the three alternatives below. They're great alternatives at approximately the same price point, although note that the Kindle option listed here is from 2019 and Amazon has slowly been removing it from some markets.

Kobo Libra Colour

Arguably the best color ereader on the market, with a streamlined, easy-to-use interface and the note-taking features, the Kobo Libra Colour is also slightly cheaper than the Go Color 7.

Onyx Boox Page

It may not have a color display, but if that’s not an issue, the Boox Page is a better Onyx choice than the Go Color 7. It doesn’t suffer from all the same issues as its Go-series cousin, and has sharper text and a brighter light for better readability.

Amazon Kindle Oasis

It’s a little long in the tooth now, but if the page-turn buttons are important to you, then the Oasis is one gorgeous ereader with a metal chassis. In terms of overall performance, it will be a little slower than newer models, but it’s the ereader that pioneered the asymmetric design that’s perfect for single-hand use.

How I tested the Onyx Boox Go Color 7

A book cover displayed on the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 while lying on a pile of physical books

(Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
  • Used as daily ereader for approximately 7 weeks
  • Sideloaded books, music files and fonts via cloud transfer
  • Use the AI Assistant to write short stories

As soon as I received the Go Color 7 for this review, I signed into my existing Onyx account to sync files and documents I had on my previous device, then logged into the Google Play Store. I downloaded the Kobo app to access my purchases so I could read and listen to them on the Go Color 7, then downloaded a couple of benchmarking applications – CPU X and Geekbench 6.

I ‘bound’ my Google Drive account to the device to access ebooks I have saved on the cloud, but also used the desktop version of Onyx’s BooxDrop to sideload more content for reading. I had a mix of ebooks and comics, plus a few audiobooks and music files on the device.

I used the Go Color 7 for approximately 7 weeks as my regular ereader, during which time I charged it twice. I also compared it directly with the Onyx Boox Page and the Kobo Libra Colour, both of which I’ve previously tested for TechRadar.

I didn’t find a lot of use for the AI Assistant application but used it a couple of times by asking it to write me short stories based on a premise I provided.

Read more about how we test

[First reviewed August 2024]

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