REVIEW – I really like e-ink units. Textual content is very easy to learn. They use little or no energy for essentially the most half. The tablets with handwritten note-taking skills are my favourite. My favourite one up up to now has been the reMarkable 2, however I’m at all times looking out for the subsequent neatest thing. One producer, Boox, at all times involves the highest of the listing each time I seek for articles or YouTube movies on what’s new. So when the Boox Tab Mini C got here alongside I used to be intrigued. Shade e-ink? Sure, please. I wish to see that! A full-fledged Android pill? Mm-hmm, inform me extra. Smaller type issue making it simpler to make use of once I’m out on enterprise journeys? I believe I could also be in love. To not be crude however is that this a case of excellent from far, however removed from good? I needed to know.
What’s it?
The Boox Tab Mini C is a 7.8″ colour e-paper Android pill that takes studying and drawing to new heights whereas providing many of the capabilities of an everyday Android pill system.
What’s within the field?
You possibly can take away this heading and part if it doesn’t apply to your evaluate.
- Boox Tab Mini C
- Magnetic protecting case
- Magnetic Pen Plus stylus
- USB A to USB C charging cable
- Fast begin information
{Hardware} specs
- Display screen: 7.8″ Kaleido 3 (4,096 colours) with AG glass flat cover-lens
- Decision: B/W: 1404 x 1872 (300 ppi) Shade: 702 x 936 (150 ppi)
- Contact: BOOX stylus contact (4,096 ranges of strain sensitivity) + capacitive contact
- CPU: Qualcomm Superior Octa-core
- RAM: 4GB (LPDDR4X)
- ROM: 64GB (UFS2.1)
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi (2.4GHz + 5GHz) + BT 5.0
- Entrance Mild with CTM (Heat and Chilly)
Software program Specs
- OS: Android 11
- Doc Codecs: PDF, DJVU, CBR, CBZ, EPUB, AZW3, MOBI, TXT, DOC, DOCX, FB2, CHM, RTF, HTML, ZIP, PRC, PPT, PPTX
- Picture Codecs: PNG, JPG, BMP, TIFF
- Audio Codecs: WAV, MP3
- Helps Third-party apps
Different Specs
- Button: Energy Button
- USB-C Port (Helps OTG or use as an audio jack)
- Constructed-in Twin Audio system
- Constructed-in Microphone
- G-sensor for Auto Rotation
- Battery: 5,000mAh Li-ion Polymer
- Dimensions: 194 x 136.5 x 8.3 mm (7.6″ x 5.4″ x 0.33″)
- Weight: Approx. 310g (10.9oz) (Magnetic Model)
Design and options
Let me begin by saying, I gained’t be capable to contact on each side of the Boox Tab Mini C. There’s simply a lot to this pill so don’t base your judgment solely on this evaluate. There are some nice reviewers on YouTube like my favourite, Equipment Betts-Grasp. There’s additionally a evaluate on the Tab Mini C’s huge brother, the Boox Tab Extremely, proper right here on The Gadgeteer with nice details about the capabilities shared by the 2.
The very first thing that struck my fancy was the colour e-ink show. When you aren’t used to e-ink or e-paper shows, you should know they’re nothing like LCDs in any respect, OK? It’s apples vs oranges, however now you possibly can see the colour of each on every. The 7.8″ Kaleido 3 display shows 4096 colours, which in my thoughts, is fairly wonderful for an e-ink display. Now you can take notes, spotlight, mark up paperwork, and extra in a number of completely different colours. That is nice for my job the place I have to mark up a doc for a number of completely different folks, so I can assign a colour for every one that receives the doc. Now they will differentiate on sight what’s necessary to them. I can even draw fast diagrams of kit on a job web site to have a reference once I create a coaching doc afterward. The display can be a capacitive contact display with 4096 ranges of strain sensitivity so if I had been a real artist, I might draw up some very nice diagrams with actual creative aptitude.
The dimensions is ideal for studying novels, although some could discover it too small for dense PDF information. I’m studying for enjoyment and I prefer it. It’s a lot smaller than the reMarkable 2 and barely bigger than my outdated Kindle Paperwhite. There are settings within the Management Middle that permit you to alter brightness and colour temperature that may be rapidly accessed by dragging one finger from the proper aspect of the highest of the display. So, you don’t should go digging round by the Android OS settings to entry them.
The Boox Tab Mini C has a metallic again, though it’s not specified what that metallic is.
I’m assuming it’s aluminum with magnets beneath which permits it to stay to the duvet. You simply plop it down onto the duvet and voila! It stays put simply nice. It’s been on a number of flights and out and in of a number of luggage and by no means fallen out. When not utilizing the duvet, the case has a slight tooth to it so it’s not slippery. It has a pleasant matte end.
Alongside the highest of the pill, there’s one singular button for energy whereas on the underside, you’ve bought the USB C charging port, two downward-firing audio system, and a microphone.
The sound from the audio system is certainly nothing to put in writing residence about. They sound very skinny and tinny which I totally anticipated. Actually, I don’t assume I’d ever use any pill audio system except it was a matter of final resort. I used to be stunned by the sound I used to be in a position to get from my earbuds although. Though there’s no headphone jack, utilizing a USB C to headphone adapter, I used to be in a position to take heed to music on the Boox Tab Mini C and get fairly good sound. Are you able to watch movies on it? Ummm. You CAN watch movies, however belief me, you don’t wish to. Being that that is e-paper, the refresh price is method too low for that to work with any kind of passable outcomes. That’s not a knock towards the Tab Mini C. I knew entering into that was the case and my goal for wanting it was to not be a media consumption system.
The mic works fairly nicely on it although I’ve solely used it as soon as in testing. I used to be in a position to file a message and ship it to a co-worker in Groups. The outcomes had been fairly good. Additionally having a mic lets you use speech-to-text which works fairly nicely in my testing. Even with my southern drawl, it appropriately caught what I used to be saying and transformed it to textual content. Now that I give it some thought, I’ll should attempt it out for a Groups assembly. There’s no digital camera however that’s nice by me. I don’t like displaying my ugly mug except completely mandatory anyway.
Because the OS on the Boox Tab Mini C is Android 11, I can set up any Android-compatible app, or a minimum of those I’ve put in up to now. I’m utilizing this primarily as a software for work whereas touring. So I’ve put in the Kindle app, MS Groups, One Observe, MS Workplace 365, and Outlook, together with Google Chrome, Gmail, and YouTube Music.
The good of us at Boox had been form sufficient to incorporate a pleasant stylus, the Boox Pen Plus, which solely is smart while you’re supposed to put in writing on the system. You’d assume different firms would come with their stylus contemplating the price of some options. The Boox Pen Plus has a great weight to it. It’s a bit of heavier than a pencil. It’s additionally magnetic so when not in use you possibly can retailer it on the proper aspect of the pill. I’m guessing the nib won’t ever put on out. There have been no additional nibs included nor any nib removing software. If that’s the case, then nice! I gained’t should attempt to bear in mind the place I put the extras so I gained’t neglect the place I put them.
Setup
Organising the Boox Tab Mini C for the primary time is admittedly quite simple. Energy it on and observe the prompts. The one actual option to make is whether or not you wish to use a navigation bar on the backside of the display or gestures.
I initially selected Gesture as a result of it’s what I exploit for my Pixel telephone. I figured since they’re each Android they’d be roughly the identical and there are some similarities, however I’ve now gone to utilizing the Navigation bar. There are sufficient variations that I discover myself utilizing gestures that work on my telephone however give completely different outcomes on the Tab Mini C.
Efficiency
Use case
As I stated, I’ve a specific use case for the Boox Tab Mini C. I wish to use it for work, primarily once I journey to job websites. It’s a lot simpler to stroll round with it to take notes, reply to Groups messages, and compose emails than a laptop computer. I took it on a visit final week and am taking it with me this week as nicely. I can learn or take heed to music whereas on a aircraft or in my lodge room, take notes, make diagrams, and maintain in touch with the group whereas saving my telephone’s battery. It’s extra handy than the reMarkable 2 for this goal due to its measurement and capabilities. It additionally helps to maintain me on track since I gained’t be watching TikTok or YouTube or enjoying Pickle Pete on it. Plus, there are a number of cloud storage choices. At the moment, I’m simply utilizing Google Drive, OneDrive, and OneNote however there are extra. It additionally helps Bluetooth 5.0 so I might pair it to a wi-fi keyboard if I needed, however my eyes aren’t one of the best on this planet anymore.
Battery Life
The Boox Tab Mini C comes with a 5000 mAh Li-on battery so how lengthy does that final? That every one relies on you and the way you employ it. It may possibly final a lot of days and even weeks. When you’ve got the display at max brightness with WiFi and Bluetooth on it’s not going to final almost so long as it will in any other case. I attempt to flip off Wifi once I don’t want it however I normally have the brightness up once I learn as a result of I principally learn at evening earlier than mattress. I used to be in a position to get just a few days on a cost once I first acquired it as a result of I needed to discover out what every part did. Now that I’ve calmed down a bit I’m getting about 5 days to per week. Once more, it’s all about how you employ it.
Writing Expertise
Right here’s my first grievance in regards to the Boox Tab Mini C. It appears like writing on glass. The reMarkable 2 provides a significantly better pen-to-paper really feel when utilizing it. There’s truly a tooth to the display so it feels pure. I’ve gotten used to writing on the Tab Mini C. I simply want it had a greater really feel to it. Alternatively, since that is colour, I can now mark up paperwork a lot simpler and really see what the spotlight colour is. I’ll say I just like the native Boox Notes app higher than OneNote. I’ve by no means actually cared for OneNote but it surely’s what my firm makes use of so I do. The Boox Notes app, nevertheless, simply works higher. The OCR works very nicely and is carried out on board, so I don’t should have an web connection to transform my textual content.
Gestures
Right here’s my second grievance. Keep in mind how I stated I initially selected Gesture navigation over the navigation bar however have since modified? It wasn’t all as a consequence of variations between my telephone an it. There are a ton of various gestures you are able to do on completely different elements of the display to realize completely different outcomes. The issue is I’ve huge palms and the display is just too small to have all these completely different scorching zones for my style.
There are gestures for sliding up and down the left aspect of the display, up and down the proper, sliding left from the proper fringe of the display, and vice versa. There are extra for sliding down from the highest proper for one menu and sliding down from the highest center for one thing else. Sliding up from the underside is similar method. I both contact it within the fallacious place and get the fallacious motion or I get nothing in any respect. I’m certain others don’t have any points with the gesture navigation however I certain do, which is unusual since I apply it to my telephone with no points.
What I like
- Dimension and type issue
- Android compatibility
- Good note-taking software program
- Shade e-ink
- The stylus
What I’d change
- Enhance the writing really feel
- Gesture navigation
Last ideas
I actually just like the Boox Tab Mini C. It’s so near excellent for me. It fits my workflow very nicely. I believe Boox did a bang-up job on the {hardware} too. The appear and feel of the system itself is good. There’s loads of storage capability for my wants and the CPU is peppy sufficient to do what I need it to do. Would I surrender my reMarkable 2 solely? No, I nonetheless adore it however the Boox Tab Mini C goes to be my new work buddy for the foreseeable future. It does such a great job at a lot of various things that I can’t NOT take it with me.
Value: $399.00
The place to purchase: Boox and Amazon
Supply: The pattern of this product was offered by Boox.
