The Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color is one of the most exciting new color E INK products of 2021. This is a full blown e-reader and digital note taking device, so you can read your favorite ebooks or comics and also take notes or freehand draw. Onyx is a well regarded brand, due to the frequency of firmware updates, so there is also new features being added on a regular basis. Why should you buy this? Well, you have full access to Google Play and it is running Android 10, which is very modern by e-reader standards.
The Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color features 7.8 inch E Ink Carta HD and Kaleido Plus color filter array. The screen is completely flush with the beszel with an AG glass flat cover-lens. The resolution of the black and white display is 1872×1404 with 300 PPI and the color screen is 624×468 with 100 PPI and can display 4,096 different colors. There is a front-lit display with 17 white LED lights to read at night.
The overall color scheme of the Nova 3 Color is black. It has a two tone bezel. Surrounding the bezel is piano black and on the bottom is a very dark grey, this is where the home button is. The back of the device is a one tone black, there is a single speaker. At the very top is a power button and status indicator light, on the bottom is a USB-C port and microphone port.
There is a WACOM layer, so you can use the Nova 3 Color as a dedicated note taking device. There are 8 colors to select from in the drawing app and Onyx has one of the best freehand drawing experiences out there, with tons of advanced options. The accompanied stylus has 4,096 degrees of pressure sensitivity, the harder you press, the thicker the lines. It also has palm rejection technology, so it won’t recognize your hand resting on the screen as touchscreen interactions. The stylus Onyx is using, is different than the stock pen that shipped on the Nova 3, this one has a higher build quality and similar to the iReader pen.
Underneath the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 Octa core processor, 3GB of DDR4X RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It has a USB-C port with OTG and also has Quick Charge 4.0, so you can power it up to full in under an hour. This model has two speakers and Bluetooth 5.0, so you can listen to music and audiobooks. There is a microphone port on the bottom, which can be used for voice communication and also speech to text on the digital note taking app. It is powered by a 3150 mAh battery and the dimensions are 196mm, 137mm, 7.7mm and weighs 265g.
The Nova 3 Color retails for $419.99 from the Good e-Reader Store, so it is more expensive than the Pocketbook Inkpad Color, but this one is basically just a dedicated e-reader, while the Nova 3 provides so much more.
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.
