3 methods this Android E Ink pill outshines my Kobo

Boox is an fascinating firm. The China-based E Ink gadget maker sells so many products that it is troublesome to determine what one is best for you. There’s the tiny, phone-like

Palma 2
, the dear, stylus-equipped Note Max, after which the extra e-reader-like Go collection, together with the Go Colour 7 (and shortly, the Go Colour 7 Gen II).

Given the Boox Go 7’s 7-inch coloration display dimension and general design, the $250 pill is designed to compete immediately with e-readers like

Kindle’s Colorsoft
and

Kobo’s Libra Color
. Whereas I am nonetheless loyal to my Libra Colour as a result of I admire its single-use simplicity, over the previous few weeks I’ve jumped into Boox’s versatile, Android-powered E Ink world.

There are fairly a couple of issues I do not like concerning the E Ink pill that I will cowl in an upcoming story, but it surely’s additionally stunned me in a couple of methods, significantly with regard to how versatile it’s.

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The tiny e-reader has a number of points, but it surely helped me overcome one in all mine and skim extra.

Getting access to Android apps is extra helpful than I anticipated

There’s nonetheless simply sufficient friction to forestall me from doomscrolling

I all the time discover it troublesome to focus on studying longer-form content material on my smartphone, pill, or laptop computer. The siren music of the endless doomscroll or a random

YouTube
video all the time calls out to me, and I discover myself ditching no matter I am studying way more shortly than I might like. For this reason I have been large on single-use e-readers just like the Kobo Libra Color. Regardless of their limitations, they hold me targeted and, in flip, really studying.

However after spending a couple of weeks with Boox’s Go Colour 7, I perceive the attraction. All through the day, I will typically take down Notes in Google Hold, whether or not it is grocery lists, duties I want to finish, and even Pocket-lint headline or story concepts. Because the Go Colour 7 is powered by Android, I can simply open up

Keep
and write down no matter I must with out having to tug out my cellphone. The expertise is not precisely clean, even once you flip up the app’s refresh charge (extra on this later), but it surely works and has me turning to my cellphone rather less, which I admire.

This brings me to my subsequent level. A part of what makes the Boox Go Colour 7 work is that you may’t comfortably use it as an E Ink Android pill (The Verge’s David Pierce had comparable ideas concerning the Palma). Social media apps are a laggy mess and YouTube movies look terrible on the Go Colour 7 E Ink show, no matter how excessive you flip up the display’s refresh charge. However a podcast on Spotify or Pocket Casts, or launching Firefox to shortly look one thing up? Boox’s Go Colour 7 can simply deal with these duties in the event you flip the app refresh charge up.

Perhaps you are uninterested in typing in your passwords manually and need to set up

1Password
on the E Ink pill, identical to you’d on a smartphone? You are able to do that too. There’s simply sufficient friction right here to forestall me from diving into apps I do not need to be utilizing once I’m targeted on studying, however the Boox Go Colour 7 remains to be succesful sufficient for easy duties like brief note-taking or listening to a podcast. This implies I am snug leaving the home with simply Boox’s Go Colour 7 if I need to do some phone-free studying at a close-by park.

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Accessing my library of Kobo books was simpler than I anticipated

Simply obtain the app and also you’re in

sw

One of many causes I’ve by no means thought of switching to a Kindle is as a result of I have already got a reasonably substantial library of Kobo books. Fortunately, making the bounce to Boox’s gadgets is straightforward in the event you’re

coming from Kobo land
. All I must do is obtain the Kobo app from Google’s Play Retailer and signal into my account (after all, with the assistance of 1Password), and my library is there. I am even in a position to pick-up books the place I left off on my Palma 2, or Kobo Libra Colour, making the studying expertise that rather more seamless.

This additionally makes putting in apps like Libby, which is usually utilized by libraries, very simple, alongside Pocket (which you

can also use with a Kobo
), Google’s eBookstore, Moon+ (which is actually common with Boox customers), and extra. The truth that the Boox Go Colour 7 runs Android opens up app compatibility that is a lot wider than e-readers from Kindle and Kobo.

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I’ve by no means used a E Ink pill that is this customizable

You possibly can actually make Boox’s Go 7 your personal

Aside from Kobo’s app for some motive, you possibly can customise precisely what you need the Boox Go Colour 7 two aspect buttons to do. That is one thing I’ve actually appreciated over the previous few weeks. On prime of that, every app’s refresh charge could be custom-made.

I’ve shortly discovered that the Kobo app does not want a quick refresh charge, but when I am utilizing Pocket Casts or Firefox, I’ve to show up the refresh charge significantly for the app to be usable. To do that, choose the three-line settings possibility beside the refresh button on the backside of the Go 7’s navigation menu. You possibly can then choose between Regular, Pace, A2, and Regal. You may also change different settings like an app’s DPI and coloration by long-pressing on its icon and deciding on Optimize.

Perhaps you need to change the system-wide font? You are able to do that within the settings. Maybe the usual

Android System Bar
is an eye-sore for you. Don’t fret, simply make it solely seem once you swipe down on the show. You may also change the Residence Display to launch a number of totally different choices, together with your apps or settings. It is even attainable to vary what number of presses you want to make on the display earlier than it does a full-system E Ink show refresh (the default is 10).

I will have extra on Boox’s Go Colour 7 quickly, together with among the key points I’ve skilled with the E Ink pill over the previous few weeks.

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