As a writer, I’m always interested in tablets that allow me to take notes digitally. I’ve been looking for a tablet that can take handwritten notes and convert them into text. So when Onyx offered to send me the Boox Note Air3 C to review, I was excited to try it out.
When I unpacked the tablet, I quickly noticed a few features that I really like. First of all, this tablet is light. It’s much lighter than my 12.9-inch iPad Pro. An origami-style cover and a stylus that doesn’t require charging are also included. It felt like it was off to a good start, but has it become a must-have tablet?
Boox Note Air3 C appearance and feel
The first impression you get when you fire up the Note Air3 C is its color. It’s e-ink color so it’s not as vibrant as a computer tablet, but it still looks pretty good and works fine if you need color when taking notes. Use color to write, draw, and highlight text in the built-in Notes app and other apps. For my purposes, there were no issues.
The writing experience on the Boox Note Air3 C is what attracts many people. It feels like writing on paper. The nib and screen combination has just the right amount of stickiness, giving you a very satisfying scratching sound while writing. If you like the sound of pencil on paper (raise your hand), you’ll love this experience.
The stylus that comes with your tablet doesn’t need to be charged, but it does have a magnet on the side, which is useful if you want to keep your tablet and stylus together. The stylus recognizes 4096 degrees of pressure, making it easier to draw on your tablet. I’m not a great draw, but I tried a few sketches to get a feel for drawing on a tablet, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Handwriting recognition could become easier
So for me, the main appeal of these tablets is the ability to take handwritten notes and convert them to text later or as you write. The Boox Note Air3 C has that feature, but it doesn’t happen automatically.
Lifewire / Jerry Redford
You’ll need to write the text you want to convert, then select the AI option (we’ll get to that bit of magic in a moment). Waiting for the entire page to convert is frustrating. This is especially true if you’re in the middle of a flow and want to move on, but want to transform the text first.
So it works, but it’s a bit cumbersome. If you need handwritten notes, they can work well with one caveat. When using the Notes app, there is a strange screen ghosting on the screen. If you close the app and reopen it, it will be erased, but until you close the app, the last page you wrote will be briefly displayed. It doesn’t disturb anything, but it’s strange.
Lifewire / Jerry Redford
Adjusting your screen refresh settings can resolve the issue, but it may not always resolve the issue. I could absolutely connect a Bluetooth keyboard to the tablet, but I think that would defeat the purpose of a tablet that allows me to take notes by hand, so I didn’t connect it until I checked to see if it could be done.
But layers are very useful.
One of my favorite features is the ability to add layers to your document. This is great for drawing, but layers are also a useful tool if you just want to write notes on your tablet. For example, you can use layers to create “reusable” forms.
The first layer is the structure of the document, and you can write to another layer above the document. Once you’re done or have exported that version, you can clear the top layer without losing the structure of the document you created underneath.
This is great if you have something like a calendar or a specific form that you use regularly (like a customer intake form or a specific layout for notes).
Built-in AI helps
Boox Note Air3 C has built-in AI to help you write, research topics, and summarize PDF documents. It is also a tool used to convert handwriting into text. If you are using Azure-GPT3 and want to use AI for research, you can save the answers returned by the AI to on-device storage or copy and paste them into a document.
Lifewire / Jerry Redford
It’s a useful tool to get the answers you need when putting together a document. The few queries I tried didn’t capture the AI’s illusions. I don’t use it often, but it’s a nice tool to have in case you need it.
Book Note Air3 C as an e-book reader
Another feature I like about this tablet is its e-reader functionality. You can download your favorite e-reader from the Google Play Store. The e-ink nature of the tablet provides a great reading experience. For example, when I downloaded the Kindle app, I was able to adjust the text and page colors to my liking. Accessing books in the Kindle Store was easy and reading them in any light was easy.
The color feature of Boox Note Air3 C might be suitable for flipping through magazines or reading comics. I haven’t tried either, but if you do, please note that e-ink is not designed to achieve image quality like a computer display, so the image will be slightly pixelated and not as sharp. Please remember. It’s about as bright as you’d expect from any other tablet.
Battery lasts for several days
The Note Air3 C offers much better battery life than most traditional computer tablets. If you set it to shut down after a period of inactivity, the battery will last for several days. Leaving the tablet in standby mode reduces the effect, but in any case, turning it off after 15 minutes works for me. If you’re gone for that long, you probably won’t be able to come back anytime soon.
Lifewire / Jerry Redford
The only downside to the auto-shutdown setting is that you have to restart your tablet, which, as I pointed out before, is not the fastest process.
final thoughts
I spent a lot of time with this tablet while testing it, and found myself relying on it heavily, especially when journaling and taking notes on the device I’m testing. Light enough to carry in your bag, it’s suitable for any list.
I thought it was fun to play with colors, but I wasn’t as crazy about them as others. I don’t tend to do much color sketching. Using Highlights in Notes and other programs is a decent, if not entirely satisfying experience. If you need color for your notes and writing, this tablet is for you.
There are a few complaints about this, chief among them being that the tablet takes a long time to start up and converting handwriting to text is a pain. For a $500 tablet, I would like to see these features improved. But overall, if you’re looking for a portable way to record your thoughts in handwritten form, this is worth the price.
