Before drawing hasty conclusions, you need to know that the e-ink tablet market is in turmoil and ONYX, a Chinese company, one of the few in circulation that still believes in this sector, has benefited from a lot of interest. The BOOX Note Air 2 Plus, in fact, is an Android e-ink device, with good customization.
What is an e-ink device doing with an Android operating system? It is a convenient extension of the performance of an e-reader, provided that its limits are kept in mind, starting with the display which, being in black and white, imposes a decisive choice between the downloadable apps. In short, you cannot expect to use the BOOX Note Air 2 Plus, nor other e-readers, to entertain adults and children with games or other similar contents.
Writing
Where it excels, however, is in the absolutely satisfying writing experience, which closely resembles a pencil, even in the hiss that comes out while writing: everything refers to writing with a graphite lead on a sheet of paper. Also thanks to the pen which has 4,096 pressure levels and no need to be recharged but also to the display. The screen, in fact, is 10.3 inches, with a resolution of 1872×1404 and solid metal frames. The total weight is 445 grams, it never represents a problem, you are never embarrassed, indeed the sensation is that of holding something extremely solid and well made in your hands. Even if it doesn’t have the importance it can have in a classic smartphone or tablet, inside the ONYX BOOX Note Air 2 Plus we find a respectable processor. It is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662, an octa-core that never gets into trouble thanks to the 64 gigabytes of storage memory and 4 gb ram.
An integrated light and excellent autonomy
By registering with your ONYX account you get an additional 10 gigabytes of space to best store thousands of documents and hundreds of books which you can enjoy even in the dark thanks to the light integrated in the frames. The operating system, on the other hand, is a customized version of Android 11, more than enough to keep everyday operations at bay. On the left side we find: a loudspeaker that allows us to listen to podcasts, audio books or our recorded vocal notes thanks to the microphone always present on the same side, where we also find a USB-C port for recharging but also for connecting to the PC, to a external memory or headphones.
The autonomy is impressive: with the 3,700 mAh battery, it even lasts for a few weeks, even if a lot depends on the type of use. In fact, if you get carried away and tinker with the pre-installed Google Play Store to download and delete compatible apps, from those for notes to messaging or e-mail, or if you listen to lots of music, you can go down a lot but hardly under two weeks.
Verdict, availability and price
Among the functions that we liked the most, the conversion of notes into text is the master. Despite not having a scribbler’s handwriting, the system almost never ran into trouble, converting our scribbles into text with astounding speed.
And we are at the conclusions: the ONYX BOOX Note Air 2 Plus is certainly an instrument suitable for students and professionals, with enormous potential in terms of multimedia.
He does everything right if we don’t ask him for what he doesn’t really have: that is, the playful part. It was designed and built to satisfy in other areas. Texts are written and sent without the need for keyboards, emails are checked, messages are exchanged like on a smartphone but with a different satisfaction. In short, it is a work tool that can excite, something that certainly doesn’t happen to us so often now. The price is 520 euros.
Pros and cons
PRO
- Note-to-text conversion
- User experience
AGAINST
- Little oleophobic display
Source-tg24.sky.it