I really want to love color E-Ink, but it’s just not ready yet

[phillynews215]

I’ve spent the last decade chasing a very specific kind of device. My love for all things E-Ink is well documented, and for years I’ve wanted a device that can combine the benefits of E-Ink with the versatility of a full-fledged tablet. I want a single device that can swap out my paperback, take notes as responsively as an old-school notepad, and handle a modern digital workflow without breaking a sweat. It sounds simple enough. We’ve had E-Ink readers for years, and we have had tablets for even longer. The logical endpoint, the holy grail, would be a fast and fluid color E-Ink reader. Imagine a screen that can render comic books in full color, handle highlighting for PDFs, and manage color-coded calendars, all while giving me the benefits of all-out sunlight readability and battery life. Sounds perfect to me.

I’ve spent years chasing a device that can merge the magic of E-Ink with the flexibility of a real tablet.

On paper, the Boox Note Air 5C is exactly that device. It’s certainly not the first color E-Ink tablet on the market, but it does strike an effective balance of hardware, software, and support to seemingly bridge the gap between a Kindle and an iPad. It runs full Android, has a stylus that can get pretty close to the Apple Pencil experience on my iPad, and it does this in full color. So far, so good. But after using the device for the last few weeks, I’ve come to a frustrating conclusion. As incredible as the technology package is, it breaks pretty much all the rules that make E-Ink so special.




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