Onyx Boox Nova Air C review: An enthusiast's e-paper tablet that struggles to compete

The company has one foot in the world of tablets and the other in the world of e-readers. This has resulted in an interesting mix of highly versatile e-readers that can be used as tablets. E-ink devices were limited to display panels. Thanks to the efforts of the E Ink Corporation, we now have e-paper technology that is capable of displaying colors.

The technology of the color e-readers is new. The first and second generation of colorized Onyx Boox tablets were called the Poke 2 Color and the Nova3 Color. The third iteration of the Boox Nova Air C was just released.

I cautiously began testing the Nova Air C sample I received from Onyx Boox. I kept my hopes in check while trying to keep an open mind. The Onyx Boox Nova3 Color was my favorite tech device of the year, but it couldn't compete with the best tablets on the market.

Price and availability

The Nova Air C was launched by Onyx Boox. The colorful e-reader and tablet can be purchased from a number of retailers. You can buy the Nova Air C in the US for $420 and in the UK for 400. The Onyx Boox Amazon store is out of stock in most regions.

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The Nova Air C does not come with a magnetic case, just like the Nova3 Color. You will have to pay an additional $60 for the magnetic case. The Boox Pen Plus stylus and spare tips are included in the box.

The best Onyx Boox Nova Air C deals are here.

The Nova3 Color had a 7.8-inch display that could show 4,096 colors. The Nova Air C has the same 7.8-inch panel with 4,096 colors, but this time it was the On-cell Kaleido Plus Screen. The table will have better contrast and saturation with the front lights on. If you turn them off, you will still get better contrast and saturation. The Nova Air C is lighter than the Nova3 Color and has smaller bezels, but the physical home button is no longer there.

Even though it looks easy on the eyes, it makes your reading experience even more enjoyable. The comic books, graphic novels, illustrated texts, and book covers look great next to the regular black and white Kindle Paperwhite or any other e-reader from Amazon. It's fun to highlight text, write down notes or draw on your e-book in other colors than white or black. It makes browsing on the internet a richer experience.

The Boox Nova Air C has a Wacom layer on top that makes it compatible with any Wacom stylus and allows 4,096 levels of pressure. You get a Boox Pen Plus stylus along with the tablet, and it has a really satisfying marker that feels really good to write with. The overall size and build of this excellent stylus is comfortable to hold for a long time. The side of the Nova Air C has a Boox Pen Plus attached to it.

The papery look and feel of the large e-ink panel is a plus. If you are tired of staring at bright screens, you will like the Nova Air C's subtle color display. The e-ink tablet has a feature that you have to enable first. After you turned them on, it was smooth sailing from there. You can install anything from the Play Store, including a great e-book app, if you want to, and enjoy reading your favorite titles or listening to audiobooks.

The Boox tablet has an e-book reader. I think the Boox NeoReader is fantastic. You get a lot of different things, such as line spacing, color contrast, warmth, and access to dictionaries in various languages. The Boox Pen Plus can be used to highlight text and do more in color.

If you enter the split-screen mode, you can read two files at the same time, or use a notepad or translator in the other screen, if you choose. You don't need to worry about conversion or compatibility with NeoReader, it supports many file formats.

If you don't like the Boox Notes app, you can use any of the best drawing apps like MediBang. There is a reason why you would want to consider an alternative.

You can also install other apps such as Telegram and Bilibili Comics. If you want, you can install the apps on your phone if you want. Because we tend to rely on the services of Google, it is great that their core apps work well on the Nova Air C.

I found it easy to use my laptop and Boox tablet side by side, playing music on the Boox while connected to a speaker, sending tabs to it, and taking down notes. Sharing files between my devices was easy thanks to the convenient auto-sync facilities of Google Drive. Boox created a code that I could use with my phone to access the file, even though I was too lazy to do that.

The Nova Air C's gesture navigation is as easy as any other device and you can change to good ol' buttons if you are an old soul. There is a ball that you can place anywhere on the screen to improve accessibility. From the bottom left corner of the tab, dedicated E Ink settings can be accessed, bringing even more color options for the display.

They put a lot of thought into the software. Bug fixes and new features to the Nova Air C and all other Boox devices are something to be appreciated.

The Boox Nova Air C is very good at what it does. If you catch my drift, I have a doctor's hand. My cursive looks like it is trying to run off the page and into space. It was able to understand that. I had some fun using the handwriting input feature as my normal input method, I adore handwriting input in keyboards. A simple task such as naming a file or entering a search query on the internet becomes exciting with a fine stylus in hand.

I used the Boox Pen Plus to write different languages, translate some of my documents from Arabic to English, and test the waters with what little Japanese I retained from college. The conversion was fast and smooth. I wrote a short story on the fly because it felt so good to write with the comfy stylus. The marker tip makes the display look like you're writing a novel while also saving paper.

The Wacom-layer adds support for 4,096 pressure levels, so you can change your strokes with a normal pen. The Onyx Boox Nova Air C is an excellent writing tool for writers of all trades.

What you won't like

When it comes to videos, the ghosting issues from the Nova3 Color have improved, but this improvement is barely noticeable. You still don't get watchable video and washed out colors don't make the idea appealing. Anything with real-life content looks blurry, dull, murky, and barely recognizable.

I think watching animated media is okay if you are in a bad situation. You will never be able to watch more than a few seconds of any other video content on the Nova Air C.

The first and second images are image 1 and image 2.

Onyx Boox Nova Air C animated video sample

Onyx Boox Nova Air C real-life video sample

Image 1 of 2

Onyx Boox Nova Air C animated video sample

Image 2 of 2

Onyx Boox Nova Air C real-life video sample

There is a big problem with the software. There is no guarantee that the app you download from the Play Store will work on the Onyx Boox. You may not be able to access all of the functions of an app.

The Nova Air C has an annoyingly slow E Ink device at times, which is why you should be more careful with the apps you use. The old Snapdragon 662 and 3GB of RAM are not powerful enough. Even serious drawing projects can be laggy.

I tried to sketch out a portrait with the Notes app, but it couldn't handle more than three layers. After I added the fourth layer, everything slowed down and I couldn't see my pen strokes until a few seconds later. The striking color difference between the colors I thought I was using while sketching was shocking. I drew with a blindfold on, guessing at the shades and strokes, and hoping they would turn out alright in the end.

I am just a casual artist, but from a professional standpoint, it is hard to work on something when you have no idea what colors you are working with. Imagine working with pastels and finding out that the shades were neon, which is what happened to me. It's difficult to see the etches and strokes immediately.

There are some quirks that I have a bone to pick with. The Nova Air C does not have a microSD slot. If you plan on using the tablet to its full potential, you need at least 32GB of storage. Yes, you can use a OTG or a thumb drive, but how many people have the time or energy to use it? It is an unnecessary hassle and leaves you to rely on cloud storage. When you want to store something on-device, that doesn't help. You might want to store your music offline for on-the-go play outs, as internet access isn't always available. It is not feasible to store your entire library in too much space.

The Nova Air C does not have a physical navigation button. The device has a touch screen that you have to use to navigate. If you want to alter the volume or take a picture, you need to purchase a magnetic case with two buttons.

Can we talk about the price? It angers me that you don't get the magnetic case for free after shelling out four bucks. The total cost of owning a Nova Air C tab and case is around $500. I could just get the Tab S7 FE or the Apple iPad 2021 for the same price.

I believe that the Nova Air C's battery life could be better. I got about a day and a half out of it with heavy usage. This included playing music while drawing, using the internet, keeping the brightness at max levels, and keeping the wireless speaker on. This may be impressive for an excellent cheap Android tablet, but the Boox tablets E Ink display should give us a longer uptime. It left me wanting more.

The Onyx Boox Nova Air C has a measly 2,000mAh battery. That is a decent amount of juice for an e-reader, but is it really an e-reader? Third-party apps and fancy extra functions consume more battery life. You can kiss that dream goodbye if you wanted to make the Nova Air C last as long as you wanted.

Competition

It is difficult to determine an exact alternative that offers everything the Nova Air C does. The Nova Air C is a weird cross between drawing tablets, e-readers and full-fledged Android tablets. The competition depends on what angle you look at it from.

Any latest generation Amazon Kindle can provide you with a brilliant E Ink display that mimics the look and feel of paper. The waterproof e-readers from Amazon have become even more attractive now that they support ePub file formats. You can't install third-party apps or view anything in color because they have a very restricted ecosystems.

Wacom One or Wacom Cintiq is better in every way that you can think of if you want a drawing tablet. The Nova Air C does nothing better than the accuracy of the stylus, the depiction of colors and shades, and so on. Designers who want a professional drawing tool will not benefit from the colorful creation of Onyx Boox.

For all other uses, a flagship Android tablet will serve you better than any other device. The Nova Air C is a great device, but if you want the best, you can pitch in a little more money. The Apple iPad is one of the notable competitors.

Should you buy it?

You should buy this.

• You want a color e-reader that can do a lot more
• You want access to the Google Play Store
• You don't care about video playback
• You are a casual artist

If you buy this, you shouldn't...

• You need a professional drawing tablet
• You want a tablet for video consumption
• You have a constricted budget
• You don't have the patience for slow performance

The E Ink tablet is very confusing to figure out. It performs well as a reading and writing tool. There aren't many e-readers that can do everything the Nova Air C can. There are too many tablets that are capable of doing everything this one does and more, with better execution.

This is an enthusiast's e-reader at an enthusiast's price. The percentage of people who will buy this is small. Too many problems make it hard to recommend. If you asked me if I would spend my own money on the Nova Air C, I would probably only say yes if I had the extra cash and nothing to do with it.

The e-paper tab works well for an art enthusiast just starting out in graphic design. As an intermediate or advanced artist, I would much rather save a little more and invest in something even more versatile and capable, like the Wacom Cintiq.