I'm old enough to remember Good tablet They weren't designed for watching movies or bingeing on your favorite Netflix series. Long before the Apple iPad, there were pen-based computers, laptops without keyboards that used an attached stylus for input. They weighed a few pounds and cost thousands of dollars, but the time and paper savings made them worth the investment. Instead of filling out physical forms for expense reports and sales orders, you could type them on a pad and easily upload and tally them up when you got back to your home office.
I feel the same way about the Onyx Boox Go 10.3. It's a pure productivity tablet with a minimalist design and a great display. As with the Onyx Note Air 3C that I reviewed, finding it worthwhile is a bit of a do-it-yourself adventure. But if you have a use for it, the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 is one of the best tablets you can buy for note-taking.
Editor's Choice
Onyx Boux Go 10.3
The Onyx Boox Go 10.3 packs great functionality into a stylish form. The 10.3″ Carta 1200 display is crisp and easy to read, and it has an added stylus layer for pen input. Onyx bundles the Boox Go with a Pen Plus and magnetic case for added value. There's no front light, and the 3,700mAh battery should last for over a week on a single charge, depending on usage.
- Brilliant display
- Great design
- Great stylus input
- A little heavy
- Front light is not available
- No MicroSD card slot
Price and availability
The Boox Go 10.3 is available from Onyx and Amazon for $380. It comes in one configuration with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It also comes in one color, a beautiful silver and ivory combination. Thankfully, Onyx includes two accessories in the box: their Pen Plus stylus and a magnetic cover case. The stylus is essential to the experience, so I'm glad Onyx included one with the Boox Go 10.3.
What I like about the Onyx Boox Go 10.3
Great display with great design
The Boox Go is incredibly thin and well-built. It's a little on the heavy side at 4.6mm thick and 375g, but it's well-engineered. I've used a few Onyx products and they're all well-designed, but the Boox Go is in a class of its own. I love the eco-leather feel on the back of the tablet; Onyx claims it's reminiscent of a textured notebook, and I'll leave that to you to decide, but it's nice to have an extra grip.
You'd be hard pressed to find a better E-Ink device display than the Boox Go's 10.3-inch HD Carta 1200 monochrome panel. The 2480 x 1860 resolution and 300 ppi makes text incredibly readable. Onyx displays are generally high quality, but the Boox Go's excellent reflectivity and contrast ratio make for an entirely different experience. Content appears as if it's printed on the panel, and as I was writing notes I had a hard time convincing myself that it wasn't just a Sharpie mark on a page.
Normally I would cite the lack of a frontlight as a negative, but with the Boox Go, it didn't bother me. The display is so reflective that even the softest ambient light was enough to read the content. Unless you plan on seeing an eye doctor frequently, I wouldn't recommend using the Boox Go frequently in dark environments, but you can use it in situations where other non-illuminated displays would be useless.
Additionally, Onyx has perfected the touch sensitivity layer of the display. While the capacitive touch layer is standard, it's responsive and supports gesture navigation well, but it's the stylus touch layer where the Boox Go shines. Pen input feels natural and has 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, capturing the nuances of your handwriting. If you're an artist, you'll see fine details in your brush strokes, making the Boox Go an ideal sketchpad. Overall it's a great display and the main reason you should consider buying the Boox Go 10.3.
Software is also a strength of the Boox Go, and Onyx has made changes to improve the user experience. In addition to simplifying menus and streamlining the UI, Onyx is making the Boox Go easier to customize. Granular control over refresh rates for individual apps has long been a highlight of Onyx's software, but it could sometimes be cumbersome and unwieldy. To make things easier, the company is including pre-optimized refresh rate settings for a set of apps and popular Android apps, taking most of the guesswork out of the user's hands.
It's no secret how much I love Onyx's native apps. NeoBrowser is snappy and great for browsing the internet on an E-Ink device. Their Notes app remains one of the best ways to replace paper in your life; it's great for notes, sketches, and even calendar and scheduling features. PushRead is a well-designed RSS reader, and BooxDrop is handy for transferring and syncing files between multiple Boox devices (more on that later).
Onyx has jumped on the AI ​​bandwagon by adding an AI assistant. It's just a portal to the ChatGPT 3 dialogue box, but it's still handy on the home screen and great for answering quick questions on the fly. Android 12 may seem a bit outdated, but Onyx users know they're using a much-improved version so they'll never feel limited.
Despite its low-powered octa-core processor and lack of a front light, the Boox Go's 3,700mAh battery is as long-lasting as you'd expect – you can get over a week of use out of a single charge, although if you use the speaker a lot you might need to charge it more frequently.
The Boox Go has a built-in microphone and dual speakers for music and audiobooks. The microphone quality was surprisingly clear, and the playback from the bottom speaker was above average. For even better sound quality, you can connect your favorite Bluetooth headset or wired headphones via a USB-C audio jack adapter.
What I don't like about the Onyx Boox Go 10.3
I was shocked to find there was no MicroSD card slot.
I was surprised to find that the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 doesn't have a MicroSD card slot. As a productivity device, I expected it to have the ability to carry PDF files and e-books without using the cloud. BooxDrop is a great way to move files back and forth, but it requires an internet connection and limits you to the Boox Go's 64GB of internal storage. It's a strange omission, and I hope Onyx considers adding this feature in future generations.
As I've said before and reiterated, I hope Onyx develops a better store solution beyond just a collection of public domain works. Libby is a great alternative and works well on the Boox Go, and I understand there are other apps that allow you to purchase content on the device. But I would welcome a native solution similar to the Rakuten Store from the company. Cobo Clara Color .
Read Review
Kobo Clara Colour e-reader review: Attractive, colorful, and affordable
Clara Colour is attractive, inoffensive and just what you'd expect from an e-reader.
Should I buy it?
As we said, the Onyx tablet isn't your typical e-reader, so it's not always easy to find value in it. If you can use the extra features and versatility, the Boox Go 10.3 is a beautifully designed note-taking and productivity machine that has everything you need and nothing you don't.
It's a bit pricey at $380, but it's well worth it, and if you can appreciate a tablet with a design that evokes the pen pads of old, there's no doubt about it.
Editor's Choice
Onyx Boux Go 10.3
If you're serious about note-taking, it's hard to beat the form and function of the Onyx Boox Go 10.3. The stylus layer is precise and sensitive, perfect for artists and those wanting to express the nuances of their handwriting. The Carta 1200 display is perfectly readable even without a front light, and the design is a joy to hold.
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