BOOX Tablet Note Max 13.3 No Frontlight B/W ePaper Notebook Carta 1300 300 PPI 6G 128G

Surprised it's only at 3.5 stars right now. It's everything it claims to be.I'm using it as a replacement for my PC, and it's great. I have to sacrifice some speed and function, but it's easily worth the health benefits compared to LCD.

Extraordinario dispositivo. Casi un PC de tinta. Si bien la pantalla es más gris que la del Boox Go 10.3, no afecta en nada la nitidez de los textos e imágenes. Óptimo dispositivo para quienes desean enfocarse en su productividad.

This is the E-ink device I have been waiting for. The screen resolution is crisp, the tablet is wonderfully light, and the Android experience is quite usable.

When old school meets the future magic happens. Voya posted a 5 hour in-depth review on YouTube. I initially purchased the Remarkable Paper Pro, which was very nice, but was too bare boned for my needs. I liked the color screen and backlight, but now I have full access to the google play store, kindle books, OneNote, Bluetooth, split screen, TV streaming, and the list goes on. People are complaining about ghosting, but I don't find it troublesome. New updates seem to be minimizing the issue. If you can't live without a backlight, just get a sleek inexpensive portable light. The writing feel is very good. Almost as good as the RMPP. There is a learning curve there, but I find it intriguing and rewarding. Oh, and the hardware is dead s3xy! P.S. The keyboard folio is nice, but bulky/hefty and non backlit. My favorite EMR pen to use with this is the Kindle Scribe Premium pen with modified ceramic nib :)

INTROSo, I feel like I should preface this with an acknowledgement and/or rebuttal of some of the most common tropes about Onyx's Boox line of devices because for some reason "e-ink disinformation" is a thing now on the internet (not that I guess that should really surprise anyone since disinformation in general seems to be heavily in vogue). Two salient points:First, regarding their supposed fragility: look. I have 6 of these freaking things. After I finish my review series I am going to start selling them off. Three of them -- the Note Max, the Tab Ultra C Pro and the Tab Mini C -- live in my backpack as part of my everyday carry, not because I need all of them at the same time but because I'm still learning interesting things about when devices of different sizes and/or capabilities are useful for different reasons at different times and taking down notes on those experiences. All of them are more or less permanently ensconced in their folio cases such that while they're in my bag they never take a hit to their screens. Nevertheless, I am clumsy as hell thanks to ADHD ensuring I never really have much of a solid idea of where any part of my body is in relation to its surroundings, and have knocked my Note Max to the floor of my living room at least three times. It has never been worse for any of this wear.Second, regarding their supposedly terrible customer service: some of you may know that the Note Max's keyboard case has a factory defect affecting all of them to one degree or another, such that keys near the center of the keyboard may quickly repeat themselves when pressed; the space bar was a typical example of this. Back when I discovered it in January I contacted Onyx about the problem via their Feedback tool, explaining the issue and asking for assistance. They requested a video of the problem because they could not duplicate it themselves at the time. I obliged, noting that some of the testing issue could very well have been because they were more inclined to be careful while typing and probably just didn't hit the keys as hard as your average overly-caffeinated Westerner (not, surely, that we know any of those). They thanked me for the help and noted that their engineers were examining the problem. Three weeks later came a mea culpa from their customer service rep, with words to the effect of "hey, our engineers have determined that We Done Goofed with this product, we're going to send you replacements which we believe have the defect corrected; can you please send us the busted ones you have now?" That's right -- plural, because I originally ordered two cases because I'd originally thought "oh this keystroke problem must just be a 'me' thing." They expressed no reservations about replacing both. I am now typing this review using the second keyboard, validating that it too has the defect corrected -- I have not had a single repeated keystroke the entire time. Throughout this process, the Onyx CS reps were courteous, professional, and interested in engaging with me on a technical level about the problem I was encountering. This is more than I can say for interactions with plenty of Western brands. In conclusion, relax about the customer service. It's fine.WHO IS THIS THING FOR?And now, to Get On With It. I think I want to structure this thing by talking about who this is for and why, and who it isn't for and why, because a lot of people probably read things like this to figure out whether or not a given product fits their use cases.For:* Professionals who want to work with data in a number of different apps (Outlook x the Boox Notes app x OpenTasks x PowerPoint, for example). Having a really usable split-screen mode is killer for this, as is the Note Max's class-leading Snapdragon 855 system-on-chip and 6GB RAM which lets it multitask like a "real tablet" as opposed to the performance compromises one often finds themselves needing to make on other e-ink devices due to OEMs skimping on SoCs because of the high cost of e-ink screens. There's none of that worry about tradeoffs here. The SD855 isn't a "speed demon" in any modern sense but it is decidedly capable of handling anything you throw at it. Here I feel compelled to note one of my classic use cases: turning notes into actionable work. It’s a pretty simple workflow: take notes in a meeting, when I’m finished, hit AI > Recognize, get the text, highlight things that I called out as to-dos, pick “share” and then send that text to Microsoft To-Do or another app that can do something useful with the text. This has been a game-changer for me at work. There are other e-ink platforms with similar functionality, but without exception they all restrict the recognized text to their own to-do app or are simply less functional and are missing a step. The Note Max (and other Boox devices, to be fair) gives me a huge amount of flexibility to turn my notes into data.* Scientists, engineers and students who need to read and annotate large PDFs with a lot of textual detail -- the huge screen is great for things that scale down poorly. It also has one of the best writing experiences in the combination of Boox's Notes app and the excellent pen-and-paper-like screen protector that ships preapplied to the screen that you can get from an e-ink device -- I think only Supernote and their FeelWrite 2 surface is superior (at least to me), and even then, not by much. When writing notes in meetings or annotating large documents I like the combination of the Note Max's screen surface and a Staedtler Noris Jumbo pen with a titanium tip.* Sketch artists who want a huge canvas, great screen/pen feel and responsive e-ink.* Anyone who wants a portable (yes, I said it -- it's big, it's just not heavy at all especially for its size) productivity machine -- especially to be used with the keyboard case -- with a sharp, gorgeous B&W e-ink display to help them keep focused on what they need to do.Not For:* Someone looking for a bedtime reader. This sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people seem confused about the "this is super large and does not have a frontlight" thing. On that note -- no, the screen is not "dark." Its white level is maybe slightly less bright than the Boox Go 10.3's, and its black levels are probably the best you can get from electrophoretic display technology. So you can't use it as a bedtime reader because you would probably need a frontlight for that kind of work, but reading in somewhat low light? You're fine, just stay near a lamp.* Artistic creatives who need color -- again, this sounds obvious, but a lot of people seem to go into the search process "hoping" devices can do things it's sort of clear that they can't.* Someone who wants a "no distractions" note-taker. Look, this is a full-blown Android 13 Play Store-enabled tablet with everything that goes along with that. While the black and white e-ink screen does avoid your brain going dopamine-hunting quite so easily (there's science on this!), you can still waste time on Discord on it like you could on anything else running Android. As for unintended distractions, while there's been a lot of ink (ha) spilled about the Note Max's supposedly horrendous screen ghosting/e-ink afterimage problem, I, personally, barely notice it. Whenever it gets to be a little too obtrusive I just hit refresh and that's the end of it. My understanding is that it can and will be reduced further in future updates.OVERALLThe Note Max is easily one of the best technology purchases I've made in the last few years. It's designed for focus and productivity and it excels with anything you can think of you might want to do with this kind of device. With the addition of the keyboard case it is a great word processing tool and even a remarkably good coding terminal. To me, it's better than anything -- yes, I realize this is a strong statement -- Onyx has produced to date. It is also an excellent value. Until Tariff Time came for us in the U.S. recently, it was $650 direct from Onyx for a package that included their standard cover, the tablet itself and a pen. Personally, I think the pen is just okay (again I refer you to the stellar Staedtler option above), but the regular cover/case is quite nice and does a good job of protecting the device if you don't go for the keyboard case. But, more significantly, every other 13.3" device is at least $100 more expensive and significantly slower. Between value, performance and breadth of use cases, I can unreservedly recommend the Note Max to anyone.