Onyx Boox Nova Air review
Two-minute assessment
What is the Onyx Boox Nova Air 7.8-inch for? Whether you purchase the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite or the primary Amazon Kindle, even the quality Kindles don’t do plenty. You study books on them. The end.
So whilst a number of the quality ereaders do truely consist of the likes of Kindle and its rival Kobo, they’re specially approximately bookstores. The Onyx Boox Nova Air 7.8-inch isn’t approximately that at all. Sure, it does consist of get entry to to a web bookshop of public area titles, however a trifling handful.
More importantly it helps a terrific deal of e-book codecs that the Kindle is going nowhere near – including EPUB, PRC, CHM, CBR and CBZ – but the Nova Air isn’t pretty much studying.
This is a hybrid E Ink pill that’s plenty approximately writing. Although it bears a few similarities to the bigger Onyx Boox Nova three Color, the Nova Air is a simply mono tool that’s by and large approximately refining and increasing the E Ink revel in in place of breaking new ground.
It’s lighter and thinner than the Nova three, weighing simply 235g, and its smaller 194 x 136.five x 6.3mm length makes it maintain in a single hand, and to journey with. It additionally has a POGO pin connector on its backbone that permits it to hook up with a brand new cowl case that provides web page-flip buttons. That will please a few readers who hate digital web page-turns, however whilst used bare the Nova Air is all approximately gestures.
In fact, the best tough button designed-in to the spotty magnesium alloy chassis is an on/off turn on the pinnacle. On the undercarriage there’s a USB-C slot to refuel its integrated 2,000 mAh battery, a small mic and tiny speakers.
However, the Nova Air’s largest bodily boost is an all-new WACOM stylus. Ridged and with a sticking out nib, it’s less difficult to each maintain and use, with the Nova Air’s sharp-searching 1872 x 1404, three hundred PPI E Ink Carta Plus display screen proving the precise floor to jot down on.
Despite having a Moon Light 2 the front mild machine and a layer of protecting glass, which efficiently creates a small hole among pen and ‘paper’, the Nova Air is super-short to acquire characters and there’s lots of assessment and definition.
Add the same old Onyx Boox goodies – including an Android 10 working machine (albeit a primary skin) and the ensuing get entry to to third-birthday birthday celebration apps at the Google Play Store like Dropbox and rival studying apps like Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Libby, and the Nova Air starts to appearance some thing corresponding to a brand new kind of hybrid e-ink tool.
It’s now no longer truly massive sufficient for annotating PDFs and documents, however in case you need to study ebooks, get them onto a pill with none fuss, and take exquisite-searching virtual notes, the Nova Air simply made selecting an e-ink pill an entire lot less difficult.
Onyx Boox Nova Air charge and launch date
Launched in mid-2021, the Onyx Boox Nova Air comes from a protracted line-up of productivity-centered E Ink readers. The Boox Nova Air charge is about at $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$529.
It comes with a magnetic WACOM stylus withinside the field and, if you may discover a bundle, certainly considered one among protecting instances; Standard Sleeve ($39.99 / £29 / AU$53) and Magnetic Case ($59.99 / £43 / AU$80). Both are to be had separately.
Design
Slim at 6.3mm
Optional Magnetic Case provides bodily buttons
Improved WACOM stylus
Super-slender at 6.3mm and weighing simply 235g, the 194 x 136.five x 6.3mm Nova Air may be very clean to journey with. Although the strangely spot-patterned rear of this magnesium alloy product has sufficient grip to make it easy to maintain one-passed there are multiple all-new instances to be had.
The first alternative is the Standard Sleeve slip that fastens magnetically but consists of area for the WACOM stylus, too. That stylus may be magnetically related to the Nova Air’s side, aleven though it’s now no longer a super-robust magnet. During our assessment it did have a propensity to fall off.
The 2nd alternative is a brand new Magnetic Case that provides bodily web page-flip buttons. It works way to a brand new POGO pin connector at the Nova Air’s backbone. Readers who hate digital web page-activates such gadgets will love it, aleven though whilst used bare the Nova Air’s touch-gestures paintings well.
Otherwise it’s a product nearly bereft of bodily buttons, with simply an on/off turn on the pinnacle and, at the bottom, a USB-C slot among a mic and tiny speakers. The latter are for gambling podcasts and audiobooks – and there’s even a integrated text-to-speech alternative for all ebooks.
Display
7.8-inch E Ink Carta Plus display screen
1872 x 1404 pixel resolution
three hundred PPI
The Nova Air is built round a 7.8-inch E Ink Carta Plus display screen that boasts a 1872 x 1404 pixel resolution. That equates to a three hundred pixels in step with inch display. It proved to be pin-sharp throughout our assessment.
During our assessments we discovered the display screen to be extraordinarily paper-want to each write on and study. For the latter there’s an anti-glare movie on Asahi protecting glass that makes studying in direct daylight do-capin a position while not having any negative impact on studying or writing.
That’s sudden as it does imply the pen is raised barely above the ‘paper’ whilst writing, aleven though it didn’t appear to make plenty distinction throughout our writing assessments; the Nova Air is super-short to acquire characters and there’s lots of assessment and definition to scribbles.
For studying, viewing angles are huge and there’s additionally an adjustable the front mild machine known as Moon Light 2 that illuminates the web page whilst the lighting are low. That may be at domestic on a winter’s day or in a dimmed cabin in-flight. It’s flicker-loose so it is truly snug to use, aleven though maximum snug with the brightness on a low setting.
That’s right all the way down to the person due to the fact even though an ambient mild sensor turns on Moon Light 2, it doesn’t extrade its brightness in step with mild levels.