Last week I posted about a new device from Onyx that turned up on the FCC website called the Boox Go 10.3, and now it has officially been released. That was fast.
The Boox Go 10.3 has some cool things going for it, like the fact that it’s the first eNote other than the Kindle Scribe to have a 10″ 300 ppi E Ink screen. It also runs Android 12 and has Google Play built-in for installing apps. The price is also pretty reasonable at $379.
However, there is one thing that some folks just aren’t going to like about the Go 10.3, and that’s the fact that it lacks a frontlight, which seems like an odd choice in this day and age. But this is Onyx we’re talking about! They’ll most likely release a “Pro” model in a few months with a frontlight and some other upgrades.
Other than the higher resolution screen and the lack of a light, the Boox Go 10.3 is a lot like the Note Air3 from a specs and features standpoint, but it has a different design so it’s quite a bit smaller and lighter. It’s only 4.6 mm thick, and it weighs in at 375 grams, which is 75 grams lighter than the Note Air3.
Introducing BOOX Go 10.3
BOOX Go 10.3 Unboxing
The Boox Go 10.3 is priced at $379 and it’s available to pre-order from Onyx’s Boox Shop. It’ll most likely turn up on Onyx’s Amazon store later this month as well. The US shipping date is listed at “around” June 28th on Onyx’s website.
Boox Go 10.3 Specs
- 10.3-inch E Ink Carta 1200 display.
- Resolution: 2480×1860 (300 ppi).
- Boox Pen Plus stylus included.
- Capacitive touchscreen.
- OS: Android 12 with Google Play.
- CPU: 2.4GHz octa-core.
- 4GB RAM.
- 64GB storage space.
- WiFi (2.4GHz + 5GHz).
- Bluetooth 5.0.
- USB-C port with OTG support.
- Battery: 3,700mAh Li-ion Polymer.
- Rotation sensor.
- Dual speakers and mic.
- Supported document formats: PDF, DJVU, CBR, CBZ, EPUB, AZW3, MOBI, TXT, DOC, DOCX, FB2, CHM, RTF, HTML, ZIP, PRC, PPT, PPTX.
- Dimensions: 235 x 183 x 4.6 mm.
- Weight: 375 grams.
- Price: $379 USD.
No frontlight is disappointing. I was waiting for a non Kindle ereader with a 300ppi 10″ screen. Oh well, maybe a future model.
I’m tempted, I adore my Leaf 2 because of its high contrast sharp screen and this looks like it could be a blown up version of it. But I’ll wait to see how it actually looks in reviews, it is designed for writing so it may have a textured layer/screen that reduces sharpness.
It might still make sense – many people consider reMarkable 2 as the best note-taking e-ink device since it really feels like you’re writing directly on the surface; a frontlight layer takes away that. This new Boox thing is like reMarkable, except its hardware is quite a bit better in every direction and it’s a bit lighter and cheaper (with pen included and no silly paid subscriptions). Though of course hardware is not everything.
Android 12? Such an almost ancient OS. Why?
And no SD card slot…who will buy this crap?
I wish Boox would rather update all the devices they released in the last years to Android 14 instead of releasing new devices every other month or so.
That’s just how it is with Android ereaders, and Onyx does not update the Android versions after the fact (they did a time or two in the past but they don’t anymore).
Yes, disappointing that a large ereader without a frontlight is released in 2024. Kobo did that with the Ellipsa in 2021, which was not good even then.
How about the reader part of an ereader: a clear, frontlit screen for reading, rather than a compromised device for part writing, part reading, each so-so ?
The original Elipsa has front lights, it just doesn’t have the amber LEDS that the Elipsa 2E has.
Yes, my error, it was the “warm” light the gen 1 Ellipsa was missing. It would be nice for a next gen Ellipsa to get a 300 ppi screen.