This is the Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus. Onyx sent this to me earlier this year,
probably when they realized I was about to review the Kindle Scribe and they wanted me to get
it in my hands so I could tell you about it. This device is actually kind of interesting.
What makes it interesting is that it is an Android e-ink tablet. This device actually
gets you a lot of the benefits that you get with other e-ink tablets like the Kindle Scribe,
for example, battery life being one of them. The battery life on this thing
can last me one to two months of continuous use, which is crazy for an Android tablet.
One of the things I really like is the solid metal aluminum construction. It's very similar to the
Kindle Scribe, but this device came out before the Kindle Scribe. You have a magnetic pen that
just attaches right to the side of it. However, I would say its magnets are not as strong as what I
find with the Kindle Scribe. The pen is also not as grippy as the Kindle Scribe, which I prefer.
This is the premium pen from Onyx. I definitely think it is always worth
it to get a pen with an eraser button. It's just a more natural and intuitive
experience. Just flip the thing over and erase, just like you're used to with a regular pencil.
One of the big benefits you get when going with this over another e-ink tablet is the
note-taking capabilities. Onyx just has way more options. I'm just opening this notebook up right
now. You can do things like layers, change the canvas size, draw shapes, and use the lasso tool.
They also have a text-to-speech AI feature. They have baked so many things into the notebook here,
which is really nice for power users who want to have more flexibility than what you find
on something like the Kindle Scribe, which is a little bit more simplistic.
The only thing I knock Onyx for here is that they kind of just drop you in here and they
don't really explain how any of it works. So if you're someone who is not as into technology,
good luck figuring out all of this stuff on your own. It's not hard, but it is time-consuming to
figure out what everything does and push a bunch of buttons. Some of their terminology
doesn't quite mean and translate to what it actually does. For example, "AI recognition" is
another thing. It is using machine learning, so I guess it's kind of AI, but I wouldn't
necessarily think that's what that feature is by just looking at the "AI" icon on the processor.
However, the speech-to-text feature overall seems to work relatively well.
I've used this and gone through my notes before. Another cool thing is that the
AI feature recognizes when you're checking off stuff on a list. It actually brought
that over in the AI recognition feature, which is very, very cool.
For some people who just want to write notes and that's literally all they want is for
this thing to replace pen and paper, a lot of these features are going to be
overkill. Something like the Kindle Scribe is more simplistic. Unfortunately, though,
the main reason why I don't use this as my main note-taking device is the startup time.
Once this device is off, it takes about 35 seconds to power on to the point where you can
get into a notebook. That's just way too long for something that you're trying to replace regular
pen and paper with. The Kindle Scribe takes like a second or two to boot up. That's why I personally
wouldn't recommend this for note taking. If you are somebody like me, who wants to be able to just
get into a notebook, jot something down quickly, and then get back out and go do something else,
you're not going to be able to start this thing up as quick as a Kindle Scribe.
Now, another thing to compare is this device to the Kindle Scribe, which I absolutely believe.
Onyx did a terrible job with the case they sent me. Uh, this case is absolutely awful in terms
of build quality. It's one of those snap cases. So it's just this crappy plastic that they built
with it, and you have to take the thing and just snap it in, which works fine. But then,
look at the build quality here, they just have these like... It's not even magnetic. It's like a
sticky tab that just closes in on it. Not a fan of that overall. It's just kind of made out of this.
I think this is a fake leather material, maybe real leather. I'm not big into leather either
way. You do have the ability to prop it up in a configuration there. But overall, I wouldn't say
this is the best case I've ever seen for one of these E-ink displays. And the worst thing about
it is getting the Onyx books out of this case is like, I feel like I'm going to break the plastic
on it each time. Like, you can do it, but you got the two corners here out, but then the other two
are still in there and I'm just like, "Okay, it worked." I wish the construction used magnets
here, that would feel a little bit more premium. This kind of feels cheap to me, the case, though.
When you close it, it will put that on Xbox into standby mode. So at least they did get that right.
Now, another big differentiator with this product over other E-ink tablets is that you have access
to the Play Store, and having access to the Play Store is actually one of my favorite things about
the Onyx. For example, I can actually put the Kindle app on here. So if I have a book I want
to read or something, or if I just want to have my same Kindle experience with a larger screen
but allow me to do more with note-taking as well as getting Android apps on here,
that is something you can do. I also have downloaded news apps. I think E-ink
screens are just way easier on your eyes than something like an iPad or computer display,
especially if you're trying to read late at night and you don't want to read on something that's
emitting a lot of light into your eyes. I've got a video coming out that will explain how to sleep
better with smart lights, but one of the things I talk about in that video is when you have a
device that shines a lot of bright light into your eyes, it suppresses melatonin production,
which is what signals to your brain that you're ready to fall asleep. And so that's why I prefer
E-ink devices, and for this device, I can put all of my regular news reading apps I have on
my Android phone on here. So New York Times, Wall Street Journal, I use Pocket to save articles,
right? You could do all of that on here. And like the app experience because it is an E-ink screen,
it's not great, a little slow to load. Obviously, you're not going to watch a
video on here because the screen refresh rate of E-ink devices just is not good enough,
still to be able to watch videos or do a lot. And even when you scroll here, right? You see that.
There's quite a bit of lag. There's quite a bit of lag when you scroll, but it does allow you to get
into your news and magazine content and read it on an E-ink display, which is one of my favorite
use cases for this device. And that's one of my major knocks on the Kindle Scribe and all Kindle
devices is that I think it's just very hard to get news and magazine content onto those devices. And
because this is an Android tablet, you get other Android features as well, like split screen,
and you can also send Bluetooth devices to this. So yes, you can listen to audio via this device.
Now, one of the only other features I wish this had compared to the Kindle Scribe is
an auto light that has a display temperature sensor that will just automatically ramp up
and down the light guide here. I wish it had that in here. It does seem to,
although you do get an adjustable warm and cool light, which is really nice, and you do have the
ability to customize gestures. So, for example, you can put the education bar on the bottom that
you may be used to from your Android device. That works really well, and you can sync your
notes and files that you put on this device to Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive.
So, those have been my thoughts after six months on the Onyx Books Note Air 2 Plus.
I think overall, if you're just looking for a device that has an E-ink display
that you can read books on, and that you can also use as a note-taking device,
and you don't need a lot of the features I talked about in here, and you just want it to replace
a notepad you're using at work, I would recommend going with the Kindle Scribe,
just because its startup time is much better than this device. And overall,
I think the Kindle Scribe's build quality and design is a bit nicer than this device as well.
However, if you are someone who sees the benefit of using an e-ink display,
but you like the idea of being able to get news, magazines, apps,
and any other apps that you can get on the Google Play Store. This would be a
pretty good device to get if you want to see more content on e-ink devices like tablets.
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For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder.
Thanks for watching.