The Boox Note Air 5C offers significant improvements over its predecessors, particularly in ghosting reduction, screen brightness, and an enhanced writing experience. While it retains a familiar design, subtle yet impactful upgrades make it a strong contender in the color E Ink tablet market, though current Note Air 4C owners might find the upgrade less compelling unless ghosting is a primary concern.
Boox Note Air 5C Overview #
- Purpose: Aims to replace notebooks, books, and tablets with a single color E Ink device.
- Comparison: Competes with reMarkable Paper Pro, Boox Tab X C, and its predecessor, the Note Air 4C.
- Key Upgrades: Android 15, Google Play, redesigned pen, improved writing feel, brighter front light, and redefined user interface.
- Goal: Provides the most versatile and future-proof E Ink device from Boox.
Design and Build #
- Retained Design: Keeps the same design as previous Note Air models, described as one of the best in the industry.
- Asymmetrical Grip: Easy to hold for both right and left-handed users without touching the screen.
- Rounded Edges: Pleasant feel in hand.
- Weight: 440 grams, about 20 grams heavier than the 4C, slightly above average for a 10-inch E Ink tablet.
- Frame: Unibody aluminum.
- Pogo Pins: Added on the back for an upcoming keyboard cover.
- Volume Buttons: New physical buttons on the right side.
- Pros: Clicky, satisfying, assignable for page turns or long-press actions (refresh, free mark, app launch).
- Cons: Rattle slightly, placement limits tablet rotation, interferes with pen magnet placement.
Pen (Boox Pen 3) #
- Technology: Wacom EMR, passive (no charging needed), replaceable with compatible EMR pens.
- Improvements over Pen Plus: Better matte plastic finish, hidden storage for spare nibs behind the cap.
- Missing Features: No eraser on top (unlike Pen 2 Pro).
- Clip: Looks sleek but not useful; magnetic cap is weak.
- Magnetic Attachment: Magnets are weaker than 4C in the intended position; stronger magnets exist higher up but conflict with volume buttons.
Folio #
- USB-C Cutout: Finally includes a cutout for the USB-C port, addressing a previous annoyance.
- Improved Folding: More natural and works well in portrait and landscape modes.
- Exterior: Slightly textured synthetic material feels nicer.
- Dangling Part: Part of the folio dangles when flipped over; lacks magnets to secure it.
- Removable Strap: Replaced permanently attached strap with a magnetic one.
- Intention: Offers a cleaner look for those who don't want a strap, while still providing the option.
- Practicality: Often not convenient, straps can detach easily.
Specifications and Performance #
- Hardware (Similar to 4C):
- Octa-core Snapdragon 690 chipset.
- 6GB RAM.
- 64GB internal storage (46GB usable, 9GB more than 4C).
- Micro SD card expansion.
- Audio: Decently loud stereo speakers, built-in microphone.
- Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth.
- Missing: Ingress protection, rubber feet on the back.
- Performance: Excellent, fast, and responsive; one of the most responsive E Ink tablets.
- PDF Actions: Slightly slower than 4C for certain PDF actions.
- BSR Chip: Improved proprietary screen refresh chip.
- Power Button: On top, doubles as a fingerprint sensor, flat and doesn't interfere with screen orientation changes.
Writing Experience #
- Screen Texture: New paper-like texture.
- Initial Impression: Slightly squeaky before cleaning with a microfiber cloth.
- After Cleaning: Really nice, slightly more resistance than previous Note Air models, feels more analog.
- Stylus Feel: More like a felt-tip pen than a pencil.
- Film Layer: Still a film layer on top of glass, but not as easily removable as before; completely new part.
- Pen Latency: Excellent, even lower than Note Air 4C.
- Measurement: 16 milliseconds (20% quicker than 4C), lowest latency for its size (except Tab X C).
- Accuracy: More accurate than Tab X C due to EMR technology (no wobbly diagonal lines).
- Pen-to-Pixel Distance: Similar to before, not super close, but improved over older models like Kindle Scribe.
- Overall: Feels fantastic, a step up from 4C, best writing performance in its size segment from Boox.
Display (E Ink Kaleido 3) #
- Technology: Combines black & white E Ink panel with RGB color filter.
- Color Display: 4,096 colors, useful for images, charts, graphs, and note-taking.
- Resolutions: 300 PPI for black & white, 150 PPI for colors.
- Trade-offs:
- Muted colors (not vibrant like LCD).
- Screen appears darker with front light off.
- Slight grain from RGB sub-pixels when viewed closely (30cm/12 inches).
- Benefits of Color:
- Makes experience feel more modern.
- Genuinely adds utility (charts, illustrations, UI elements).
- Easier to interpret images/graphs compared to grayscale.
- Indoor Use: Requires front light (30-40 nits) for optimal readability.
- Color Vividness Comparison:
- Boox Tab X3: Most vivid colors among Boox tablets, but still muted.
- Note Air 5C vs 4C: Subtle color difference, hard to spot with naked eye.
- Note Air 5C vs 3C: Much more obvious improvement.
- Measurement: Spectrophotometer shows some differences in normalized values.
- Front Light Brightness:
- Note Air 3C: Tops out at 40 nits.
- Tab X C / Note Air 4C: Around 65-70 nits.
- Note Air 5C: Max average brightness of around 101 nits.
- Impact: Enhances contrast, makes colors pop, background looks truly paper white.
- Downside: Slightly more noticeable brightness gradient, but non-issue when dimmed.
- Color Temperature: Adaptable from cold white to warm orange, good for night reading, but changes color appearance.
- Outdoor Use: Perfectly readable in direct sunlight, colors appear more saturated.
Ghosting #
- Improvement: Much improved ghosting behavior compared to Note Air 4C.
- Effect: Almost free of ghosting with the built-in reading app for comics/colored content.
- Other Apps: Improved, but less significantly.
- Video Playback: Demonstrates significant ghosting reduction.
- Conclusion: Still present, but less pronounced with the right mode and settings.
E Ink Mode Switch (E Ink Center) #
- Overhaul: Simplified to "HD" and "Speed" modes (with occasional "Regal" mode).
- Impact: Easier to understand and navigate, reduces learning curve for new users.
- Tweaking Options: Still plenty for apps, but some settings are context-dependent and better hidden.
- Missing from Old System: App overview in settings for quick changes; power users might miss granular refresh options.
- Speed Mode: Fast enough for reasonable video watching.
User Interface and Android #
- Simplification: Boox streamlines menus with predefined options, which can be customized.
- Pros: Quick and easy to switch options (e.g., text styling, PDF viewing modes).
- Cons: Can introduce extra layers of menus, potentially a "double-edged sword."
- Android Version: Runs Android 15 (skipped Android 14), most up-to-date Android version from Boox.
- Security Patch: October 2025 security patch.
- Customization: Heavily customized for E Ink, not a typical Android experience.
- Learning Curve: Steeper than reMarkable Paper Pro or Kindle Scribe.
- Translations: May encounter odd translations in non-English UI languages.
- Future-Proof: Most future-proof Boox tablet due to Android 15 support longevity.
- Apps: Easily installable via Google Play Store; sideloading APKs possible (though Google may restrict this in future Android versions).
- E Ink Optimization: Most apps not E Ink optimized, but E Ink modes help improve experience; most apps work out of the box.
Note-Taking App #
- Powerhouse: Arguably the most powerful note-taking option in E Ink.
- Features:
- Different pen types (pressure/tilt sensitivity).
- Colors, predefined templates, custom layers, shapes.
- Text recognition with handwriting search.
- Audio recording.
- Table of contents function.
- Customizable and resizable toolbar options (save configurations, drag, hide/show with gesture).
- Infinite Notes:
- Scroll in any direction, expand canvas as needed.
- Issues: Currently a separate note type, always a one-pager (limits options); preferred to be part of regular notes.
- Workarounds: Can use margins to enlarge handwritten notes; interlinking feature.
- Overall: Not always intuitive, but most powerful.
- Export/Sync: Export locally in various formats; sync with Onyx account (US, European, default Boox servers).
- Privacy Concern: Occasionally connects to Chinese servers even without cloud services/updates; recommends software firewall for privacy.
PDF Functionality #
- Leading Edge: Best PDF functionality on E Ink.
- Viewing Modes: Seamless navigation.
- Columns Mode: Personal favorite, makes multi-column A4/letter-sized documents easy to read by jumping segments.
- UI Adaptations: New UI adaptations from general system, allows creating themes for quick mode switching.
- Annotation: Annotate directly with pen, no file conversion needed, annotations are transferable.
- Benefit of Color: Muted color still greatly improves reading PDFs with graphs and images.
Reading (Comics and Ebooks) #
- Ghosting: Benefits greatly from reduced ghosting, especially for comics and full-color pages.
- Ebook Library: Useful filtering and sorting options.
- Reading App Features:
- Personalize text styling, save as themes.
- Take notes with stylus or virtual QWERTY keyboard.
- Word lookups in dictionary (default online, local dictionaries can be sideloaded).
- Text-to-Speech: Uses default Android speech synthesis, useful for reading without looking, helpful for learning to read.
- Downloadable voices, languages, dialects.
Battery Life #
- Continuous Handwriting (Front Light Off): 9 hours (on par with 4C).
- Continuous Handwriting (40 Nits Front Light): Around 6 hours (typical daily use, similar to 4C).
- Continuous Handwriting (Full Brightness Front Light): Just over 4 hours (shows significant power consumption).
- Reading (Front Light Off): Around 30 hours (with page turn every 15s, full refresh every 5 pages); down from 35-40 hours on 4C.
- Reading (40 Nits Front Light): Around 14 hours.
- Video Playback (Max Brightness): About 2.5 hours (extreme condition test).
- Overall: Slightly worse than 4C, depends on usage (especially front light brightness). Preferred to have extra brightness when needed.
Conclusion #
- Minor Update on Paper: Appears to be a minor update, but the sum of its parts makes it a meaningful step forward.
- Biggest Improvement: Reduced ghosting for colored content.
- Other Improvements: Brighter front light, more vivid colors (partially), nicer pen, hardware buttons, lower writing latency, more textured screen, Android 15.
- Minor Annoyances: Pen magnetic attachment, unnecessary clip, frustrating magnetic strap, dangling folio. These are largely minor in day-to-day use.
- Main Downside: Slightly worse battery life than 4C, though depends on usage and front light levels.
- Recommendation: Raises the bar for do-it-all color E Ink tablets in its category.
- Upgrade from 4C? Only if ghosting is a major issue; otherwise, 4C is still excellent.
- Upgrade from 3C? Makes much more sense.
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