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BOOX Note Air 3 C
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As I previously mentioned, I bought the BOOX Note Air 3 C, the color eInk tablet, primarily for reading comic books. Even though the tablet was recently released in October, 2023, none of the reviewers actually touch on reading comics or magazines.
For comic book readers, you’re going to have to use the Kindle App. Several years ago, Amazon bought out their comic competition, ComiXology, and slowly dismantled the company and took their guided-view technology.
While the Kindle App works incredibly well on the iPad Pro, it was not usable on the Boox Note Air. The app was designed to do all sorts of animation and make transitioning page to page beautiful with its lifting pages, etc… just does not work at all on eInk. In fact, any sort of animation, moving pictures, will suffer because eInk cannot refresh fast enough, so you will constantly see the previous images (called ‘ghosting’).
I spent my first day tweaking the Kindle App, changing the refresh mode, changing saturation, changing brightness… nothing worked.
I can’t take the credit for it, as I was looking for answers on my phone and saw that someone else had figured it out. He is not a Kindle App comic reader, so he bought a 99-cent comic to test out. He was appalled by the ghosting. He was able to make it usable by going into the e-Ink center in the Control Center drop-down, and selecting Refresh Mode: Regal, and under More Settings, changing the value of Animation filter time to 300. I don’t understand why it works, but it does work! This setting saved me from going insane.
This brings me to the software that runs Boox. There is a bug in the operating system (OS) that is preventing Kindle from full refresh page every page. No matter what setting you use, it just won’t force refresh.
The OS is actually Google’s Android 12, but it has a Boox custom user overlay. They basically stripped out animation and kept it to a minimalist look of blue, black, or white. Unfortunately, some things didn’t work for me. For example, the default Onyx keyboard has the return key (the Enter key) as the lower-right key (below the right shift key), which doesn’t make any sense from someone who is trained on a US layout that the Enter key is above the Shift Key. I think it is because Onyx is from China, and we’re losing some things in the translation.
There are quite a few ways to get comics onto your device. Most people, like me, will just have Kindle re-download comics on you own on the device. It has ‘whispersync’ so it’ll remember where you were last at, if you read on a variety of devices.
If you have your own PDF or CBR files, you can ‘Booxdrop’ (air drop or wireless transfer) or plug in your Boox into your PC or you can pre-load these files on a MicroSD card. Boox is pretty flexible about allowing you to add or remove files.
Boox comes with its native reader called Onyx Reader, which works really well on the tablet, because it was design specifically for eInk. You can always download your favorite comic book reader, I can recommend CDisplayEx, which costs $5 on the Google App Store.
Having read a few comics on the Boox, I can tell you the best-looking ones are the books that uses muted, earth-toned colors, or black and white comics (such as manga). Books like V For Vendetta looks amazing on eInk, simply because David Lloyd’s artwork uses a washed-out light color that complements his art style. Same thing can be said for Batman: Year One (the current re-colored collection), as the colors looks like it was water-based and the palette is dark, muddy, and dirty, which works well with David Mazzucchelli’s inky Alex Toth-style.
What doesn’t look good are colorful, bright comic books, like traditional super-heroes in bright colorful costumes. It just won’t translate well on color eInk. It has potential, and I can see a future, when the technology gets better, that you can see a true representation of actual real colors. To give you an example, I’ve taken a photo of a sketch that I see on the tablet. When you export the photo and see it on a real screen, the colors aren’t even close!
If you just want a tablet for reading books only, I think the Kindle Scribe (even at the expensive $340) is your best option with the latest Carta eInk technology. I saw it with my own eyes, the black and white is true white contrast to the black eInk. For reading comic books, the best experience has been with my iPad Pro 12.9, simply because it’s speedy and on a very large beautiful display. The Boox just cannot match the iPad.
The only reason why you would even consider the Boox Note Air 3 C (the C stands for Color), is that you want color eInk. eInk is pretty amazing. The way it works is once the image is rendered, the display stays that way… like printed paper. Since it’s like paper, you need to be in a bright room or use a lamp. The Boox has a built-in glow light, which you will constantly need to use.
After all my negative experience with eInk, if you’re still interested in getting your own eInk tablet… just understand that the color tech isn’t quite ready for prime time. Go in with your expectations in check.
For me, once I got Kindle to work, I was pretty happy with it. As soon as the Gallery 3 (the 32,000-color display) is available in a larger 10-inch or larger screen, I will be first in line to purchase that. The current 7-inch screen is just too small for a full-page comic book. I can say this with confidence, as text on some comics are too small on a 10 inch (but is readable on my 12.9-inch iPad). That two or three inches makes a huge difference.
Here is a break down for prices:
For comic book readers, you’re going to have to use the Kindle App. Several years ago, Amazon bought out their comic competition, ComiXology, and slowly dismantled the company and took their guided-view technology.
While the Kindle App works incredibly well on the iPad Pro, it was not usable on the Boox Note Air. The app was designed to do all sorts of animation and make transitioning page to page beautiful with its lifting pages, etc… just does not work at all on eInk. In fact, any sort of animation, moving pictures, will suffer because eInk cannot refresh fast enough, so you will constantly see the previous images (called ‘ghosting’).
I spent my first day tweaking the Kindle App, changing the refresh mode, changing saturation, changing brightness… nothing worked.
I can’t take the credit for it, as I was looking for answers on my phone and saw that someone else had figured it out. He is not a Kindle App comic reader, so he bought a 99-cent comic to test out. He was appalled by the ghosting. He was able to make it usable by going into the e-Ink center in the Control Center drop-down, and selecting Refresh Mode: Regal, and under More Settings, changing the value of Animation filter time to 300. I don’t understand why it works, but it does work! This setting saved me from going insane.
This brings me to the software that runs Boox. There is a bug in the operating system (OS) that is preventing Kindle from full refresh page every page. No matter what setting you use, it just won’t force refresh.
The OS is actually Google’s Android 12, but it has a Boox custom user overlay. They basically stripped out animation and kept it to a minimalist look of blue, black, or white. Unfortunately, some things didn’t work for me. For example, the default Onyx keyboard has the return key (the Enter key) as the lower-right key (below the right shift key), which doesn’t make any sense from someone who is trained on a US layout that the Enter key is above the Shift Key. I think it is because Onyx is from China, and we’re losing some things in the translation.
There are quite a few ways to get comics onto your device. Most people, like me, will just have Kindle re-download comics on you own on the device. It has ‘whispersync’ so it’ll remember where you were last at, if you read on a variety of devices.
If you have your own PDF or CBR files, you can ‘Booxdrop’ (air drop or wireless transfer) or plug in your Boox into your PC or you can pre-load these files on a MicroSD card. Boox is pretty flexible about allowing you to add or remove files.
Boox comes with its native reader called Onyx Reader, which works really well on the tablet, because it was design specifically for eInk. You can always download your favorite comic book reader, I can recommend CDisplayEx, which costs $5 on the Google App Store.
Having read a few comics on the Boox, I can tell you the best-looking ones are the books that uses muted, earth-toned colors, or black and white comics (such as manga). Books like V For Vendetta looks amazing on eInk, simply because David Lloyd’s artwork uses a washed-out light color that complements his art style. Same thing can be said for Batman: Year One (the current re-colored collection), as the colors looks like it was water-based and the palette is dark, muddy, and dirty, which works well with David Mazzucchelli’s inky Alex Toth-style.
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Starfire (vuart)
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If you just want a tablet for reading books only, I think the Kindle Scribe (even at the expensive $340) is your best option with the latest Carta eInk technology. I saw it with my own eyes, the black and white is true white contrast to the black eInk. For reading comic books, the best experience has been with my iPad Pro 12.9, simply because it’s speedy and on a very large beautiful display. The Boox just cannot match the iPad.
The only reason why you would even consider the Boox Note Air 3 C (the C stands for Color), is that you want color eInk. eInk is pretty amazing. The way it works is once the image is rendered, the display stays that way… like printed paper. Since it’s like paper, you need to be in a bright room or use a lamp. The Boox has a built-in glow light, which you will constantly need to use.
After all my negative experience with eInk, if you’re still interested in getting your own eInk tablet… just understand that the color tech isn’t quite ready for prime time. Go in with your expectations in check.
For me, once I got Kindle to work, I was pretty happy with it. As soon as the Gallery 3 (the 32,000-color display) is available in a larger 10-inch or larger screen, I will be first in line to purchase that. The current 7-inch screen is just too small for a full-page comic book. I can say this with confidence, as text on some comics are too small on a 10 inch (but is readable on my 12.9-inch iPad). That two or three inches makes a huge difference.
Pros
| Cons
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- $500 - BOOX Note Air 3 C
- $500 - Bigme inkNote Color Lite
- $340 - Kindle Scribe
- $560 - iPad Pro 2020 (Used)
Yours,
Weekend Gamer
Book vs Boox vs iPad |
| vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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