I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge reader. I might read three to four books a year. I do enjoy a good comic book binge a few times a year, though. In this vein, I’ve always felt that an e-ink display of an e-reader made more sense than a full-fledged tablet for me. Unfortunately, most of these are only black and white, but finally the tech has come around to bring more vibrant colors to these devices. One such new e-reader is the Boox Note Air 3C.
Design
The first thing that really stood out on opening the box of the Boox is the fit and finish of this e-reader. Most of this market is dominated by cheaper materials like plastic housings. This is not the case AT ALL with the Note Air 3C. The e-reader screams premium build quality with a full aluminum chassis. I wasn’t expecting this to feel so good out of the box, but Boox nailed the materials here.
The Note Air 3C revolves around the 10.3 e-ink screen. This is also made from a more premium glass with a secondary cover lens over a traditional plastic variant. The Kaleido Carta 1200 glass is capable of a full array of up to 4,096 color gradients and has a max resolution of 2480×1860 in black and white with color outputting 1240×930.
The sides of the devices are relatively slim on ports, breaking up the unibody aluminum frame. This is going to date my nerd, but it reminds me of an older HTC device from a build aspect. On the left of the Note Air 3C is a dual speaker grill and USB-C for charging/data, assuming you are holding it in the natural portrait orientation.
To the top of the screen is a flush power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor. The only other notable is on the right side is a magnetic induction strip for the included pen to store and charge. There’s also a magnetic case that has a loop to keep the pen secure while in transit. The entire package is well-thought-out and shows that Boox took its time designing the Note Air 3C.
Software
Another great feature of the Boox Note Air 3C is that it runs Android 12 and the Play Store natively. This gives you all the options to read content that you could possibly think of having. The default Neoreader and library features are very good for anything you own DRM-free, but being able to install Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and Play Books all on the same device makes it nearly unmatched.
Boox has been working on its operating system and managing the screen tech for several generations now, and the Air Note 3C is the best I’ve seen from the company. There is definitely still some ghosting and other UI quirks that are just a part of e-ink readers, but they have mitigated that as much as possible.
Graphics heavy reading like busy comic books or magazines are the only time I’ve seen this outside of video playback. On the same note, however, video is manageable. Watching YouTube or online videos would bring previous generations to a screaming, frozen halt, but the Note Air 3C can handle it fairly well. It’s never going to go toe-to-toe with your iPad, but I watched the latest Deadpool trailer without the Air 3C stalling out.
The pen inputs is another positive for Boox here. The note-taking, annotation, and general sketching you can do with the Note Air 3C is really good. I normally don’t use this a ton on my iPad, but the more paper-like display made this more appealing.
Battery life
Boox doesn’t offer a true estimate for, but I’ve been getting a week of usage per charge with the Note Air 3C. This makes it a very compelling option and the first tablet hybrid I’ve used consistently as a tablet. It lasts so long in standby that I don’t have charger anxiety every time I pick it up. I simply grab the Note Air 3C and pick up where I left off a few days ago.
Conclusion
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As mentioned, this is the most I’ve used a tablet as a tablet. Traditionally, to make it worth the purchase, I’ve used iPads and Android options as more of a laptop replacement first and tablet second. The Book Note Air 3C has been comfortably used as a tablet and made me want to use it more and more. The fantastic reading experience combined with the note-taking make it a superb e-reader capable of tablet things.
The one knock I’d give the Boox is at $500, it’s got to be almost a needed purchase. The competition of something like the Amazon Kindle Scribe make it harder to pull the trigger. But if you love note-taking and reading on a more flexible Android platform, I’d argue it beats the Scribe and even the ReMarkable 2 hands down when all the included accessories are considered. It can literally be both of those devices in a single package, and even at $100 more may be worth it to you.
Purchase the Boox Note Air 3C from Boox.com
