The Onyx Boox Note Air 2 has the same design principals as the first generation model. It has a black bezel with nice blue accents on the left side of the screen and the back with gives it contrast. It basically gives you a very nice metal look, which stands out in a crowded market of piano black color schemes. It has some subtle hardware upgrades, which makes it a natural progression of the product line.
The Note Air 2 features a 10.3 inch E INK Carta HD display with a resolution of 1872×1404 with 226 PPI and 350ms response time. It has a flush screen and bezel design with a glass based screen. There is also a WACOM layer, which can be used with the accompanied stylus to take notes, freehand draw or edit PDF files. It has a front-lit display and a color temperature system, with more LED lights than the first generation model.
Speaking of the stylus, Onyx has developed a brand new stylus called the Boox Pen Plus, which give get for free with the purchase from Good e-Reader. It is blue and has a hexagonal design. They have all new nibs that make writing a pure joy. The pen is magnetic and attach itself to the side of the ereader. Â There is a screen protector that is installed on the factory, so you don’t need to install it yourself, this is a special one that Onyx developed, they call it writing film, and there is more resistance when writing on the screen with the stylus.
Underneath the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 octo-core processor and 4GB of DDR4X RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. It has speakers, which is great for listening to audiobooks, podcasts or music. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack or an SD card. You can however, use a pair of wireless headphones or a speaker to listen to audio content. Charing and the transferring of data to your Air is done via the USB-C port. It also has g-sensor and a microphone for audio to text or voice chat apps like Discord. You can connect up to the internet with WIFI.
The Note Air 2 is running Android 11, which is very current by e-reader and e-note standards. It has massive security updates and this version will basically handle any Android app you can throw at it. Google Play is available to install, and not many E INK devices have this available for users, which makes Onyx one of the few. Onyx has made optimizations to 3rd party apps like Evernote, Onenote and WPS, so drawing will be much smoother. Split screen view, also works in portrait mode.
The Onyx Boox Note Air 2 will retail for $499.99 and will come with a free sleeve case and Onyx Boox Stylus Plus. Pre-orders will begin on October 27th on Good e-Reader and they will begin shipping on November 8th.
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.
