E-readers and e-ink tablets · Boox
An A4-sized e-ink tablet that owners keep for full-page sheet music and handwritten notes, accepting software that takes learning and updates that sometimes break things along the way.
The hardware holds up to rough company: one owner who has bought and sold a long run of Boox devices says the Note Max is far sturdier than the Note Air line, and another calls the hardware fantastic even while faulting the software. Only a few accounts raised build quality, so this is a signal, not a verdict.
Ghosting is the clear complaint: most owners who raised it were unhappy with screen artifacts and flicker, though one says the fast mode introduced in firmware 4.1 is smooth and free of it.
Pick up to three. You get a page with just those, side by side, on the subjects owners raised.
What keeps people on it is the page size. A musician who otherwise prefers a different brand uses the Note Max because sheet music fits at A4 without scaling, and a reMarkable owner bought one specifically because the smaller device could not hold a full page. The writing feel gets described as close to the best USI pens, and better than Boox's own EMR pens.
The adjustment is the software. Owners describe the interface as sluggish next to simpler note tablets and the system as tough to learn. Firmware updates are a recurring source of friction: one owner returned the device after an update removed the toggle that stopped pinch to zoom from firing mid-sentence, another found Gmail flickering and blanking in full screen after updating, and a third lost video playback in third-party apps while noting plenty of other improvements in the same release. One owner who wanted a frontlit successor was disappointed there is none.
Physically, the few accounts that speak to it are reassuring. A serial Boox owner reports the Note Max as one that has never broken, and another says it is noticeably tougher than the thinner Note Air models. What breaks is more often software: app behaviour after updates, and ghosting or flicker that some owners manage by switching refresh modes. One owner sold the device because the battery felt too small for the large display and processor it drives.
Long-term accounts are thin. Most of what we have comes from owners in the first stretch of ownership or from people comparing it against other tablets, and a couple of accounts raised in other themes (frontlight, performance) were more about the wider Boox lineup than this device's wear over time. We cannot yet say how it holds up over years.
Nothing with a clear majority yet. Owners who raised these subjects were split, or too few to judge.
Nothing has a clear majority against it yet. Counted from the owners who raised each subject, not from everyone. A subject is judged once at least 4 owners raise it.
The same owner, asked again at each point. Fills in as owners answer.
More in e-readers and e-ink tablets: reMarkable 1, Boox 7, Boox Palma 2.
Public discussions we read and summarised in our own words. Nothing here was submitted to Still Kicks.
Counted from public accounts by people who said they own it, and summarised by Still Kicks in its own words. Not a manufacturer claim, a lab test or an estimate.
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