Xiaomi and their sister company Moaan have refreshed several e-readers and e-notes in 2023. One of Xiaomi’s latest products is the Air, a dedicated e-reader. It has the newest generation Carta 1200 e-paper display with 300 PPI resolution. This device has English, which makes it highly viable for a North American audience. It retails for $149.99 from the Good e-Reader Store.
The Air has a 6-inch E Ink display with 300 PPI resolution, meaning texts and images will look good. The latest generation E ink Carta 1200 E Ink display technology that the Air has offered 18 percent higher contrast than the Carta 1000 display tech. That apart, page-turning speed too has improved by 22 percent. There is a front-lit display and colour temperature system with 24 brightness levels. There are various speed modes to increase performance and global contrast options to make the text darker or lighter.
The colour scheme on the front of the device is piano black, and on the back platting is sky blue. The platting is perforated, making it easy to grip and not susceptible to fingerprints.
Under the hood lies a 1.5GHz quad-core A53 processor with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB of storage. The Air measures just 7.25 mm in thickness and weighs a nice 163 grams. Power comes from an 1800 mAh battery which should last a couple of weeks on a single charge. The Type-C interface onboard allows for charging as well as data transfer roles. There is WIFI to access the internet and Bluetooth 5.1 to pair wireless headphones or earbuds to listen to audiobooks, podcasts or music.
The Moaan Air runs Google Android 12, which is relatively recent for an e-reader. Most other devices on the market, even the ones that just came out, primarily run Android 11, so a modern OS assists with current security updates. You can sideload in your own Android apps or even an alternative app market such as the Amazon App Store or the Samsung Galaxy Store, although we recommend our Good e-Reader App Store.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
