Two-minute evaluate
What's the Onyx Boox Nova Air 7.8-inch for? Whether or not you purchase the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite or the fundamental Amazon Kindle, even the finest Kindles don’t do a lot. You learn books on them. The top. So whereas a few of the finest ereaders do definitely embody the likes of Kindle and its rival Kobo, they’re primarily about bookstores. The Onyx Boox Nova Air 7.8-inch isn't about that in any respect. Certain, it does embody entry to a web based bookstore of public area titles, however a mere handful. More importantly it helps an excessive amount of book codecs that the Kindle goes nowhere close to – comparable to EPUB, PRC, CHM, CBR and CBZ – but the Nova Air isn’t nearly studying. It is a hybrid E Ink pill that’s a lot about writing. Though it bears some similarities to the bigger Onyx Boox Nova 3 Shade, the Nova Air is a purely mono machine that’s principally about refining and increasing the E Ink expertise fairly than breaking new floor. It’s lighter and thinner than the Nova 3, weighing simply 235g, and its smaller 194 x 136.5 x 6.3mm measurement makes it maintain in a single hand, and to journey with. It additionally has a POGO pin connector on its backbone that permits it to hook up with a brand new cowl case that provides page-turn buttons. That may please some readers who hate digital page-turns, however when used bare the Nova Air is all about gestures. The truth is, the one exhausting button designed-in to the spotty magnesium alloy chassis is an on/off change on the highest. On the undercarriage there’s a USB-C slot to refuel its built-in 2,000 mAh battery, a small mic and two tiny audio system. Nevertheless, the Nova Air’s largest bodily advance is an all-new WACOM stylus. Ridged and with a protruding nib, it’s simpler to each maintain and use, with the Nova Air’s sharp-looking 1872 x 1404, 300 PPI E Ink Carta Plus display proving the best floor to put in writing on. Regardless of having a Moon Mild 2 entrance gentle system and a layer of protecting glass, which successfully creates a small hole between pen and ‘paper’, the Nova Air is super-quick to obtain characters and there’s loads of distinction and definition. Add the same old Onyx Boox goodies – comparable to an Android 10 working system (albeit a primary pores and skin) and the ensuing entry to third-party apps on the Google Play Retailer like Dropbox and rival studying apps like Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Libby, and the Nova Air begins to look one thing akin to a brand new sort of hybrid e-ink machine. It’s not likely massive sufficient for annotating PDFs and paperwork, however if you wish to learn ebooks, get them onto a pill with none fuss, and take exquisite-looking digital notes, the Nova Air simply made selecting an e-ink pill an entire lot simpler.Onyx Boox Nova Air worth and launch date
Launched in mid-2021, the Onyx Boox Nova Air comes from a protracted line-up of productivity-focused E Ink readers. The Boox Nova Air worth is ready at $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$529. It comes with a magnetic WACOM stylus within the field and, if you could find a bundle, one among two protecting circumstances; Normal Sleeve ($39.99 / £29 / AU$53) and Magnetic Case ($59.99 / £43 / AU$80). Each can be found individually.
Design
- Slim at 6.3mm
- Non-compulsory Magnetic Case provides bodily buttons
- Improved WACOM stylus
Tremendous-slim at 6.3mm and weighing simply 235g, the 194 x 136.5 x 6.3mm Nova Air may be very straightforward to journey with. Though the unusually spot-patterned rear of this magnesium alloy product has sufficient grip to make it easy to carry one-handed there are a few all-new circumstances out there. The primary possibility is the Normal Sleeve slip that fastens magnetically but consists of area for the WACOM stylus, too. That stylus will be magnetically related to the Nova Air’s facet, although it’s not a super-strong magnet. Throughout our evaluate it did tend to fall off.
The second possibility is a brand new Magnetic Case that provides bodily page-turn buttons. It really works due to a brand new POGO pin connector on the Nova Air’s backbone. Readers who hate digital page-turns on such units will find it irresistible, although when used bare the Nova Air’s touch-gestures work effectively. In any other case it’s a product nearly bereft of bodily buttons, with simply an on/off change on the highest and, on the underside, a USB-C slot between a mic and two tiny audio system. The latter are for enjoying podcasts and audiobooks – and there’s even a built-in text-to-speech possibility for all ebooks.
Show
- 7.8-inch E Ink Carta Plus display
- 1872 x 1404 pixel decision
- 300 PPI
The Nova Air is constructed round a 7.8-inch E Ink Carta Plus display that boasts a 1872 x 1404 pixel decision. That equates to a 300 pixels per inch show. It proved to be pin-sharp throughout our evaluate. Throughout our exams we discovered the display to be exceptionally paper-like to each write on and skim. For the latter there’s an anti-glare movie on Asahi protecting glass that makes studying in direct daylight do-able with out having any detrimental impact on studying or writing.
That’s stunning as a result of it does imply the pen is raised barely above the ‘paper’ when writing, although it didn’t appear to make a lot distinction throughout our writing exams; the Nova Air is super-quick to obtain characters and there’s loads of distinction and definition to scribbles. For studying, viewing angles are vast and there’s additionally an adjustable entrance gentle system referred to as Moon Mild 2 that illuminates the web page when the lights are low. That could possibly be at house on a winter’s day or in a dimmed cabin in-flight. It’s flicker-free so it is actually comfy to make use of, although most comfy with the brightness on a low setting. That’s all the way down to the consumer as a result of though an ambient gentle sensor prompts Moon Mild 2, it doesn’t change its brightness in accordance with gentle ranges.
Studying and writing
- Straightforward on the attention
- A number of customization choices
- Nice new stylus
The E Ink studying expertise on the Nova Air is each comfy and extremely customizable. You'll be able to management the scale of the margins, the textual content, the crop, the orientation, distinction and sharpness. It’s even potential to bleach a watermark within the background of an book or doc. As at all times on E Ink screens, the Nova Air studying expertise entails varied balances of velocity and refresh fee flashes relying on what setting you go for. Here they embody Regular Mode (sluggish refresh however no ghosting), Velocity Mode (quick refresh and minimal ghosting), and A2 Mode (refresh charges so quick which you can even watch ghosting-heavy movies on YouTube). On the Nova Air there’s additionally a brand new function referred to as ‘Snow Field’ that entails a partial refresh to clean-up the web page with out the distraction of a full refresh.
For writing and drawing there are a number of brushes, shapes and layers to select from and a extremely helpful handwriting recognition function built-in the Notes app. A significant bodily enchancment over earlier Onyx merchandise is the marginally chubbier WACOM stylus included within the field, which works very well with the show. In addition to being ridged and 9.5mm vast, so simpler to carry, it has a wonderful pointed nib (although there are 5 more nibs included within the field that may be swapped-out) that recognises 4,096 levels of strain. Along with the show’s palm-rejection tech it makes for a extremely correct, slick and involving digital note-taking expertise.
Software program
- Android 10 OS
- 8-core 1.8 GHz processor and 3GB RAM
- 32GB of reminiscence
In addition to being an open-source machine that helps nearly any file format you may consider (TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, EPUB, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, PDF, DjVu, MP3, WAV, CBR and CBZ), the Nova Air utilises an Android 10 OS. Don’t anticipate a smartphone-like expertise, however as an alternative a fairly primary OS that integrates parts of Android 10 into it.
The proviso is that the Google goodness doesn’t fairly come able to go; you first should enable it (Settings > Functions > Enable Google Play). It's also possible to log-in centrally to Evernote, Dropbox and OneNote, if you must.
The native OS itself is cut up into six self-explanatory areas; Library, Retailer, Notes, Storage, Apps and Settings. The Library will be fed books and paperwork both downloaded from the Onyx Retailer (which is mainly a bunch of public area classics), the numerous (many) different book apps out there, or through a QR-code powered primary file trade from a smartphone or pill.
That latter function is akin to Airdrop and really handy. Notes are the place digital scribbles are saved – full with impressively correct scribbles-to-text OCR performance – and Apps embody a link to the Boox App Retailer.
In there you may discover dozens of reading-centric apps comparable to Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Libby, Hoopla, Google Play Books, Goodreads, Moon Reader, PocketBook Reader and Gutenberg Reader. You’ll additionally discover a couple of save-for-later web browser apps like Flipboard and Pocket (however not InstaPaper). There are additionally a couple of audio guide apps, particularly Amazon’s Audible, Audiobooks.com and LibriVox. You'll be able to connect wi-fi earbuds to the Nova Air through Bluetooth, however there’s no headphone slot so hard-wiring wants to make use of a USB-C adapter. The app choice additionally comprises the likes of BBC News, Guardian, New York Instances and The Economist (amongst different publishers), although maybe a very powerful of all are Google Chrome and the baked-in NeoBrowser browser, so you may entry no matter you need over Wi-Fi. For note-taking there’s Evernote, One Be aware, Microsoft Phrase, Google Drive and Write Plus (in addition to Gmail, Outlook, Dropbox and Trello), however there are few caveats; utilizing the stylus is far more fluid throughout the baked-in Notes app. Nevertheless, in our evaluate utilizing a wi-fi keyboard with the Nova Air through the Author app labored surprisingly effectively. Regardless of a couple of tiny tough edges in what's a really primary OS, the 8-core 1.8 GHz processor and 3GB of RAM-powered Nova Air proves a slick machine.
Battery life
- Constructed-in 2,000 mAh Li-Pol battery
- Recharges through USB-C slot
- Final for about two weeks
One of many joys of ereaders is their lengthy battery life – at the very least in comparison with an LCD pill – and the Nova Air continues that custom. It boasts a 2,000mAh Li-Pol (lithium polymer) battery that's topped-up through that USB-C slot on the Nova Air’s undercarriage. A 100cm USB-C to USB-A cable is included within the field.
That battery lasts for about two weeks, although precisely how lengthy will rely solely on the refresh fee you utilize and the way usually you will have Wi-Fi switched-on. In the event you plan to fill it with a couple of books and take it on a visit, there’s most likely going to be no have to recharge it.
Must you purchase the Onyx Boox Nova Air?
Purchase it if...
Do not buy it if...
First reviewed: November 2021
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