BOOX Tablet Go Color 7 Gen II E Ink Tablet 4G 64G Support Active Stylus InkSense (Black)

So far I’m loving my go color 7 gen 2. I use it as an ereader only. I knew exactly what to expect by the looks of it, color is better than another one I tried out. I like that its light weight. I do wish the back light was a bit better, but I still get the job done. Battery life is alright, nothing compared to kindle. But I can still get so many days out of it. I don’t let the battery get to low either. The size is perfect. After fiddling with the settings, it functions great. I like the refresh feature. I have not problems reading. It downloads the apps just fine.

First, while many of other Onyx Boox tablets are compatible with 3rd party EMR-compatible pens, someone made the decision that for these Boox Go 7 tablets, they will use USI 2.0 pens instead of EMR pens. For those not familiar with USI 2.0 pens, they have many disadvantages. (1) They have a hard plastic end, so it's like hard plastic writing on glass, not a very comfortable writing experience. With EMR pens with their rubber tips, they have a very smooth feeling when writing. Perhaps I can find a screen protector which will help with the feeling of plastic on glass, but if it needs a screen protector to improve the writing experience, they should have included it with the tablet. (2) USI 2.0 pens need to be charged. That makes EMR pens amazing because you don't have to worry about charging them or turning them one. With the USI 2.0 pens, you have to make sure it is charged and then make sure it is turned on. (3) Many EMR pens support the back end of the pen acting like a eraser. This doesn't appear to be the case with the Boox Go 7 tablet and USI 2.0 pens, (4) I bought a 3rd party USI 2.0 pen and while it "works", it actually doesn't leave a smooth line when I am writing, but it leaves a series of dots. Ugh. Perhaps the pen I am using is not sending a continuous current through the tip, so the tablet thinks I am lifting and positioning the pen on the screen multiple times while writing. The tablet should know it's unrealistic for a user to be lifting and placing the pen back on the screen so many times in a short period of time, so it should treat this as a continuous line or at least have an option to design the behavior this way. These are just the negatives that have to do with the pen. One reason I was attracted to Boox tablets was because it is running Android and actually comes with Google Play Store. My use case for this tablet is to make it a place for my 93-year old mom to write down notes. For my 93-year old mom, the UI is not intuitive. Therefore, I wanted to actually run some other Android apps like a customized launcher. And while the normal Androids setting is not accessible through what is provided by Boox, I can load a launcher which provides access to the standard Android settings panel. From there, I can override the default launcher... But guess what? After a little bit of time, it reverts back to the Boox launcher. Ugh. In addition, when I load other apps, from the customized launcher, the apps are no longer available. In Google Play Store, after installing, it provides a button to enable the app. After enabling the app, after some time, they get disabled again, and I must enable again in Google Play... Or use the Boox launcher to launch the apps. This also makes widgets and other programs which run in the background useless because eventually they will be disabled. Since the use case is to have this as a tablet for my mom, the font settings available through Boox settings were insufficient in making this a tablet which my mom can read. However, through the Android settings, there is more flexibility in getting the right fonts, including the ability to make the default fonts bold. And finally, the tablet seems unresponsive at times, like when I want to scroll to see further options in an app, it just completely ignores my gestures. I have no idea why. Also, to make the screen bright enough for my mom, I am setting the maximum brightness but it drains the battery so quickly. This basically defeats the purpose of going to an e-ink tablet to reduce the frequency of needing to charge the tablt. So in summary:The negatives:1. USI 2.0 pen instead of EMR pen- Feeling of pen on screen is not a comfortable experience- Pen has to be kept charged and turned on vs EMR pen- Pen is leaving dots on screen instead of continuous line2. Cannot use custom launcher, always reverts back to Boox launcher3. Android apps can be installed but are continuously being disabled4. Out of the box font settings are insufficient for someone with poor eyesight5. Setting brightness high enough for someone with poor eyesight drains the battery quicklyThe nice part of the tablet is the form factor. I like that there is one bezel which is used for holding the tablet. It's also very lightweight like many e-ink tablets are. If someone though were to invent a case which is similar in concept where a wide bezel on one side, then there'd basically be no reason to try to use a Boox tablet for my particular use case.

This is a surprisingly usable color e-ink tablet which runs full Android. Color support is definitely adequate for reading materials with color graphics (see photos).Don't get this device unless you actually need color. The display is darker than pure B&W devices - it's like your book was printed on light grey paper instead of white paper.The native document reader is well thought out and has a lot of customizability in button functions and screen tap locations; it meets my expectations for a tablet ebook reader. It also comes with a Chromium-based web browser which I found satisfactory.I really like that this runs Android and has wide app compatilbity. I installed Google Docs, which was a major use case for me, and it works quite well for reading documents. Surprisingly, you can actually run YouTube on this and videos will play with a usable frame rate if you select the correct e-ink update mode. I'm not sure why you would ever want to do this, but kudos to the manufacturer for the technological feat of getting it to work!I can't comment on the various cloud sync apps, because I haven't used them yet; I just plugged in the USB cable and used ADB to load files, the old-fashioned way. It looks like it also supports MTP file transfer, but it does NOT emulate a USB mass storage device.So far battery life has been mediocre, but I've also been playing with a lot of settings and using the web browser. Battery life may improve when I settle into a more passive use of reading books.Supposedly this device supports a stylus, but the only compatible stylus, the "BOOX InkSense Active Stylus for Go 7 Series" is not in stock at any retailer in the United States and cannot be purchased yet at this time. If I'm able to obtain one, I'll leave a review on the stylus.

After owning Kindles for years and deciding to upgrade to the Kindle Colorsoft I went through trial and error… After buying and returning 4 defective Colorsofts I thought I’d tray a Paperwhite again. 3 Paperwhites later due to more defects I gave up and started hunting beyond Amazon Kindle products. Especially with the Amazon download option changes made recently.Boox. I discovered Boox and tried a Palma 2. fell in love instantly! When I learned the Go Color 7 gen ii was on the way I ordered from Amazon as soon as it was available. Sure enough! This ereader along with the Palma 2 have been excellent! The wide range of use has been excellent. The by app basis of settings changes needed really haven’t been an issue for me. So much info is available on Reddit. It took a moment, but the small learning curve was no problem for the benefit an Android eReader is providing. Oh and I haven’t seen any dead pixels when reading in apps that have dark mode. Great quality compared to Kindle!I highly recommend this device! I’d say make sure you get the Asurion extended warranty/insurance when you buy it. So far no issues! It is so good!