Intro

I have been using many e-ink e-readers (formerly called e-books) for many years, but they are basically 6 inches in size, KPW2 (mine), KPW3 (my daughter’s), and iReader (my wife’s). It is okay to use them to read text, but they are not nearly good enough to be used to read comics, pictures, or PDFs. Therefore, I also use a 7.9-inch iPad mini2 as an auxiliary device. When my daughter first started using her KPW3, she had to read many English textbooks in PDF (there were no e-books or paper books available), and it was quite difficult to read scanned PDF books on a 6-inch KPW3. I could only put it on my 9.7-inch iPad Air to read it, so we had to limit her iPad usage to prevent eye strain. At that time, I was thinking, if there was an e-book with the screen size of a mini2, that would be perfect. However, Kindle did not respond to my request, and other e-book brands also skipped this size and went directly to 10 inches. I went to the store to try it out, and it was indeed very comfortable to read. However, it was not portable at all, so it was not suitable for my daughter to use for study. Plus, the most important thing is that it was too expensive at the time.

When I saw the 7.8-inch BOOX NOVA review by the auntie, my heart was immediately moved. I made more effort and wrote more original articles, hoping to increase the chance of getting chosen. Sure enough, thank you very much, Auntie Zhang.


Appearance

The BOOX NOVA comes in a plain black package and the device is also black. There are no other color options currently available. I think the white option that Kindle tried out is also a good color and it feels more youthful than black. I recommend that BOOX add more color options.

The supported formats for this e-reader are clearly stated on the package box, including commonly used formats like PDF, EPUB, MOBI, TXT, DOC, etc. It also supports image formats BMP, JPG, PNG, and importantly, it supports common audio formats like WAV and MP3. That’s right, you can read a book while listening to music.

The parameters of the product are also marked on the back of the packaging box, including a 7.8-inch Carta screen, with a resolution of 1404×1872 (300PPI). This resolution is very high and supports capacitive touch, and the screen also supports two-color temperature backlighting. Uses Android 6.0 system, its processor is a quad core with 2GB of memory and 32GB of storage, which is more than enough for an e-reader. In addition, its battery is 2800mah, and its interface is the latest type-c. I think there are no deficiencies in terms of hardware.

Though there are only the power button on top and return button on the bottom of the front of the whole fuselage, and there is no headphone jack and volume key, it is actually built with Bluetooth and can link to Bluetooth earphones.

The power button in the top is responsible for turning on/off and sleep, there is an indicator light on the button. The red light shows when charging.

The screen of the iPad mini2 is 7.9 inches, and the Kindle paperwhite 2 is 6 inches, which seemingly shows no difference to the screen size to the mini2, after all, they are only 0.1 inches apart. However, the gap between mini2 and KPW2 is obvious.

System

The Android customized system of BOOX NOVA is user-friendly, the distribution is relatively reasonable, and the operation is quite simple. The default first page is the library, the local library, where all the books in the reader will be displayed in all the recognizable formats. When you insert the books from the computer, it will be displayed in real time. You can open the book you want to read here directly.

The second is the bookstore, which is BOOX’s online bookstore. You can search for and download books there.

Third is the built-in storage, which is like a folder and has two folders by default, of which the Books folder is a shortcut.

I even found a “Books” folder in the “Internal Storage” of the computer, and built several folders in it according to the format of the e-book to test the supported formats. The “Books” folder corresponds to the library, and the self-contained books are in this folder.

The fourth is the applications page, where all installed applications are located. Below are the applications I have installed. Some were downloaded and installed through the built-in application market and some were downloaded on my computer and then copied to the reader for installation.

The BOOX Nova not only has adjustable brightness, but also adjustable color temperature. This is the first time I’ve encountered this, and I tested it out. I think the color temperature is adjusted through the backlight, which should be more power-hungry; coupled with my prior use of the KPW2, I didn’t choose warm light for everyday use.

The built-in apps are a bit limited, and they’re mostly related to reading.

For example, Qidian Reading, which used to be used more, this is available directly in the app market.

Same as on Android phone

However, the reading experience is not very good. The left side below is the starting point reading, and the right side is the first automatic default above. You can see that when reading in the starting point reading APP, the background color has a dark shadow. I don’t know if it is related to the refresh problem of the ink screen. If it can be overcome, I think it will be a better experience, like the system default on the right. The same problem also occurs in other comic apps.

In the third built-in storage, there is also a music folder, so I copied a few 320kbps mp3 songs to try it. The built-in music app can recognize them automatically. The sound effect through Bluetooth headphones is not too different from that on mobile phones. There will be occasional pauses. This may be because of Bluetooth signal interference, which can also occur when the mobile phone is connected.

In addition to the data cable connection, there are also WIFI wireless file transfer APPs, as shown in the figure, which can be used in the local area network with a browser, which is convenient.

The last is set by the system, which is mainly power management and support WiFi Bluetooth.

After using it for two weeks, I think the Android system customized by BOOX is quite easy to use. I think the only problem is that the reading experience of third-party APP is not as good as that of the built-in one, so I hope this problem can be solved in future system updates. Speaking of system updates, I was prompted to update the system when I turned it on after I got it, and I was reminded to update the system again a week later. It seems that BOOX officials are still making improvements.

read


I basically classify e-books into two types: text and pictures. Text-based e-books allow you to adjust the font size, and come in formats like TXT, mobi, AZW3, Doc, and EPUB. Picture-based ones, such as PDFs and comic book mobis, don’t allow you to adjust the text size and can only be viewed by zooming in on the image. As a result, the smaller the screen, the worse the reading experience.

Text type

I mainly read TXT and mobi, and a small number of Kindle AZW3 and epub, and PDF is very few. I have tried them all, and all the formats officially claimed by BOOX are indeed supported.

If it is a text-type e-book, then the font can be adjusted, many reading apps have this feature, which is necessary. However, looking at it on a 7.8-inch screen and looking at it on a 6-inch screen feels completely different.

Compared with the 6-inch KPW3, the font is almost the same size, you can read more; if your eyesight is not good, you can use a larger font for the same content.

However, some people can probably accept differences in text size. However, the fact that the image shows its huge advantages.

Images

First of all, the BOOX Nova supports pure images such as JPG, PNG, and BMP. I also copied a few pictures to try it. The monochrome is still very good.
But if there are too many colors, however, it’ll look like a mess, since this is not in color, and can only be expressed through the differing darkness of black.
Therefore, if your book is an image type, don’t be too hopeful. After all, this is the weakness of the black and white ink screen. You can wait for the color ink screen. So I think it’s okay to look at earlier black and white comics, but if you want to read color comics, forget it.
Even reading old comic books is a case of reviewing the past and learning about the new.

contrast

For big comics, the advantages of big screens are not particularly evident.

However, for books with small characters, a 6-inch screen is a disaster, while a 7.8-inch screen can provide a good reading experience. I used the iPad mini2 before, and it was a bit uncomfortable after a while. During the trial period, I felt that it was more comfortable than the mini2, but unfortunately, after my wife saw it, she confirmed its destination. After the evaluation is over, it belongs to the daughter. She needs a lot of original PDF English books. The KPW3 screen was too small before, and the reading experience was not good.

I briefly compared the page-turning speed. I tested it with PDFs that are difficult to turn pages, the first one is with mini2, the second one is with the KPW3, at normal speed, I think the BOOX NOVA’s page-turning speed is smooth and fast.


Battery Life

Let’s talk about battery life. I tend to think of e-ink readers as devices that never need to be plugged in. After all, one of the main advantages of an e-ink display over an LCD screen is its power efficiency. Still, Link’s Android operating system does offer Bluetooth connectivity, and to truly test its battery life, I listened to audiobooks while reading and timed the results. In the setup shown below, with Wi-Fi turned off, Bluetooth turned on and paired with a pair of headphones, volume set to medium, and the screen brightness set to a low level (just enough to provide a little backlighting you can read without any backlighting if you’re reading in sunlight or in a well-lit environment), I tested the Link’s battery life twice, once by reading and listening for 46 minutes, which drained the battery by 6%, and again by reading and listening for 82 minutes, which drained the battery by 9%. That works out to a battery drain of about 15% over 2 hours, which in turn works out to about 13 hours of battery life while listening to audiobooks. If you use the Link solely for your daily commute of about 2 hours round trip, you could probably get about a week of use before needing to charge it, which is pretty good.

Because of the size of the screen, I think this 7.8-inch size should be considered a more suitable size for reading. My hands are relatively large, so I have no problem reading with one hand, but for women, it may not be very convenient to operate with one hand. In comparing the current e-book with the previous e-book border, I think it will also develop into a narrow border of mobile phones in the future. That size should be more suitable for one-handed operation. I hope it will not be like the iPad, when it can be made with a narrow border, the screen is made larger, so that the mini size is cancelled. On the contrary, I think that making a narrow border and eliminating it to 6 inches is the real thing.


Final words

Finally, I hope in the following system updates, the issue of the background shading when reading books with the book reading application can be solved. Like the system’s built-in, it would be better.