The Boox Note Pro is now available. Sister model of the Onyx Boox Nova Pro, it has a larger 10.3-inch screen and runs on Android 6. The ability to write with a stylus on PDF documents makes it a good e-reader for reading PDFs.
Equipped
with a Carta screen and a lighting technology that allows you to
adjust the warmth of the front light, this e-reader seems to have a
very good potential. What about it?
Hardware: beefy CPU, 4GB of RAM…
On
the hardware level, we have a
10.3″ E-Ink Mobius Carta screen with a resolution of 1872 × 1404
pixels,
a quad-core processor of 1.6 GHz 4GB RAM & 64 GB (!) of internal
memory, integrated lighting with the possibility of adjusting the
warmth (more or less yellow color) and the usual connectivity of the
brand’s models: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n & BT 4.1. The battery is 4.100
mAh, which gives 4 week autonomy between two recharges in standby, in
real use it depends but a good week of autonomy is easily achieved.
The
Quad-Core processor makes it one of the most powerful e-readers on
the market, which is logical since unlike most e-readers it runs on
Android, which is more resource intensive. However, with 4GB
of RAM
(the main upgrade compared to the Boox Nova Pro in addition to the
screen) even
the most demanding applications run without any problem!
Software:
Android 6 + PlayStore!
The
e-readerruns
on Android 6, and it is possible to install the PlayStore and most
Android applications.
However, an e-reader of this type is not a tablet: the screen does
not have the refresh
rate
of a conventional LCD screen; it is not suitable for watching videos,
for example. You can feel it when using the PlayStore: while most
applications run without any problem, some free applications with
advertising are really unusable… Pay applications (or free
software!) will then be more enjoyable. Anyway, it
is possible to install the applications of the different eBook
merchants: Kindle, Nook, Kobo and to find the books of these
merchants on your e-reader.
In
use, the e-reader is quite reactive; the software provided is well
finished and stable. Reading eBooks in different formats does not
pose a problem, even for PDF documents, which makes it one
of the best devices for those looking for an e-Ink reader adapted to
the PDF format.
The
ability to take notes with the stylus is interesting, and although
the built-in software to turn these notes into text doesn’t work so
badly, it is faster for those who want to use this device for writing
to use a Bluetooth keyboard (not included with the e-reader).
Reading PDFs with a Boox Note Pro
With
its large 10.3-inch screen, the Boox Note Pro seems to be a good
e-reader for big PDF readers. In use, the integrated software shines
with all digital file formats, including PDF, and it’s easy to see
why. Pages turn quickly, even large files open well and no slowdown
is felt. It is easy to mark passages with the stylus, even on
documents with complex images or mathematical formulas.
Of
course, it is possible to install an alternative reader like Koreader
or any other PlayStore software, but it is not necessary: the
integrated software does everything a PDF reader needs, and the
screen size allows to read most documents natively, without having to
worry about margins, nor to optimize the document display 100%
by cropping (removing margins) and other reflow (reformatting the
document, like an ePub).
So
it is indeed a very good e-reader for reading and annotating PDFs,
and the quality integrated lighting is a real plus for those who want
to be able to read at night, compared to Boox Max 3 which has a
larger screen (13.3 inches) and runs on Android 9 but does not
benefit from lighting…
Given
its low availability and the release of the Boox
Note 2 (see our article) which runs on Android 9 and benefits from a
Mobius screen,
which can be slightly folded and therefore should be more
solid in the long run, as well as lighting,
it may be interesting for anyone thinking of opting for the Boox Note
Pro, to take a loan interest in the Boox Note 2 which may appear to
be a more sustainable investment despite its slightly higher price.
Conclusion:
This e-reader is interesting, especially for academics, researchers, engineers or other people reading large quantities of PDF documents. For those who would like to take notes or use the stylus to make drawings, the ReMarkable is clearly more suitable for this purpose. On the other hand, for those who don’t want to take notes but read books mainly in ePub format, a more basic e-reader (and not running on Android) will be sufficient, and will offer better autonomy and better guarantees on the long term (see for example the very good Kindle Oasis 3, or the mythical PocketBook / Vivlio Inkpad 3).
There are, however, a few black spots to consider. First of all, its price may seem high for an e-reader, its 7.8-inch little sister costs about 300 euros while the Boox Note Pro costs more than 500 euros. Moreover, this e-reader comes with Android 6, which is quite old and if the Onyx Boox Note 2 (also in 10.3 inches – but with a Mobius screen rather than a Carta one) and the Boox Max 3 (in 13.3 inches) from the same manufacturer are running on Android 9, there is no indication that this one (for the moment quite reactive in its updates) is planning a software upgrade to Android 9 for the e-readers sold on Android 6. This may be a problem in the long run, or for those who want to use the e-reader to surf the Internet, in which case regular installation of security updates is clearly recommended…