Boox Firmware Version 4.0

Current sub-version: 4.0.4

This page takes a deep dive into the firmware that is pre-installed on Boox e-ink tablets to help potential customers decide if Boox tablets have the software functionality that they need.

The build numbers and release dates can vary slightly between different models, however the general functionality of the software remains consistent across Boox’s product range. Where there are substantial differences in the firmware between models, I will make a note.

New in this version

As stated before, the sub-version numbers vary between models. For example, at the time of writing, the Go 10.3 is on version 4.0.2 and the Tab X C is on version 4.0.4. However, there is not a lot of variance in the overall functionality because version 4.0.4 just fixes some issues that are specific to the Tab X C (such as the first stroke of the stylus not registering).

Version 4.0.4 (June 25)

• Fixed stylus not displaying first stroke
• Fixed excessive noise during recording
• Bugfixes and performance improvements

Version 4.0.3 (June 25)

• Bugfixes and performance improvements

Version 4.0.2 (June 25)

• Bugfixes and performance improvements

Version 4.0.1 (June 25)

• Bugfixes and performance improvements

Version 4.0 (Oct 24)

• System: Improved power management
• System: Scrolling screenshots
• Notes: Support for importing PDF templates (with working hyperlinks)
• Notes: Outlines (headings/table of contents)
• Notes: More shapes
• Notes: Pen stroke thicknesses now uses millimetre scale
• Notes: Additional options for Add Page
• Notes: Canvas tool changed to Margins tool
• Notes: Arrow recognition in Smart Scribe
• Notes: Horizontal blank template
• NeoReader: Preset reading modes
• NeoReader: OCR works in background

Operating system

• Runs on open Android
• Android version differs between models (usually between Android 11 and Android 13)
• Supports installation of third-party apps from the Google Play Store

The Boox Launchers

• Boox provides two different launchers (or home-screens) depending on the model of tablet being used.
• The Boox Tab Ultra range (and Note Air4 C) uses a customizable launcher, much like what is used on smartphones, where you can add and remove app icons and widgets as you wish.
• Other Boox tablets have a toolbar strip down the left-hand side with buttons for your library, the Boox Store, your notebooks, storage, apps, and settings. You can reorder these buttons, and configure the default screen shown when the tablet first starts but you can’t add new buttons, or widgets.
• The toolbar strip has the following options:
  • Library – This displays the books and documents on your tablet. If configured, you can also browse cloud drives (such as Google Drive, Dropbox etc.)
  • Notes – This displays your notebooks and is where you can create new notebooks
  • Apps – This displays launch icons for all the apps installed on your tablet
  • Store – The Boox Store has a nice little selection of public domain books for you to download (including the complete works of Shakespeare)
  • Storage – Browse all the folders and files on your tablet
  • Settings – Configure your tablet (more on this later)

Control Centre

• At the top of the screen is a skinny information bar that displays the time, and various icons, such as notifications, Bluetooth, wifi, volume, and the percentage of battery life remaining.
• A swipe-down from the top-left shows the notifications
• A swipe-down from the top-right opens the Control Center, which gives you lots configuration options and utilities, including:
  • Toggle wifi on and off
  • Toggle Bluetooth on and off
  • Adjust the volume
  • Adjust the frontlight (both brightness and warmth)
  • Open the E-ink centre (more on this later)
  • Rotate the screen
  • Screen mirroring
  • Mute notifications
  • Provide feedback to Boox
  • Disable touchscreen
  • Kids mode (configure the content and apps children can access)
  • Aeroplane mode
  • Split screen (view two apps open side-by-side)
  • Screen recorder (record what is happening on the screen)
  • Screenshot
  • Scrolling screenshot (screenshot longer pages that scroll below the visible area of the screen)
  • Hotspot (enable a wifi hotspot)
  • Toggle ‘Do Not Disturb’
  • Full refresh (refresh the screen)
  • BooxDrop (transfer files over wifi)
  • Toggle Naviball on and off (a small circle that you can tap to bring up navigation options)
  • AI Assistant (use ChatGPT)
  • Freemark (write with the stylus on any screen and save a screenshot of it)
  • Quicknotes (shortcut to create a new notebook)

E-Ink Center

• The E-Ink Center is used to configure custom viewing/refresh settings for apps and documents to get the most comfortable screen display.
• The default refresh mode can be configured for each application, which means that you won’t have to keep changing it as you flick between apps.
• The options in the E-Ink Center are a little different depending on whether the tablet has Boox Super Refresh or not (E-Ink screens do not work well with moving content. BSR does improve performance significantly, although not to the level of regular LCD/OLED screens)
• The refresh modes for tablets without BSR are:
  • Normal (primarily used for text)
  • Speed (slight ghosting – for quickly flicking between pages)
  • A2 (heavier ghosting – for scrolling down pages)
  • X (some detail loss – for video and games)
  • Regal (minimal ghosting, but some flickering with dark backgrounds)
• The refresh modes for tablets with BSR are:
  • HD (primarily used for text)
  • Balanced (slight ghosting – for quickly flicking between pages)
  • Fast (some detail loss – for browsing)
  • Ultrafast (heavier detail loss – for videos)
  • Regal (minimal ghosting, but some flickering with dark backgrounds)
• As well as refresh modes, the E-Ink Center also allows you to change several other settings, such as the DPI (size/pixel density of app), dark color enhancement, and whether to do a full refresh when switching pages.

Notes about the Boox Note Max

• For some reason, the Boox Note Max has an unusual (and smaller) selection of refresh modes. It is limited to either Normal or A2. I’m currently in communication with Boox to try to understand the reasoning behind this.
• In addition, the Note Max seems have more frequent ghosting than other tablets using this software (see my review)

Gestures

• Several gestures are pre-configured (however you can customize them).
• Examples include a right-swipe from the left edge to go back to the previous page (essentially like the back button in a web browser) and swipe up from the centre of the bottom edge to go back to the home screen.

Filesystem

• Boox e-ink tablets use the Android filesystem, which can be accessed from the Storage button/screen
• From here, you can see how much of the tablet’s storage capacity has been used and 8 folders (Documents, Images, Music, Video, Download, Bluetooth, APK, and Font).
• This is only a small subset of the actual Android files and folders (the full list can be accessed by tapping the Storage button at the top).
• However, you will usually access your files via the Library button/screen (for your ebooks and documents) and via the Notes button/screen (for your notebooks), so for the most part, you won’t need to access the Storage screen at all (except maybe for dropping a font or dictionary into the relevant system folder).
• A long-press on any file will open a dialog box with the standard Android file management options, such as open, rename, delete, copy, and cut. There is also a share button, so that you can share files directly with third-party apps you have installed.
• So, for example, if you have GMail installed, you can share any file as an email attachment.

Library management

• When you tap on your Library, you will be shown all the documents and ebooks located in a pre-configured list of folders on your tablet. These folders are:
  • Books – any ebooks you’ve dropped into your Books folder
  • Shop – any ebooks you’ve downloaded from the Boox Store
  • Note – any notebooks you’ve exported as PDF
  • Download – any ebooks you’ve downloaded from the Internet
  • Netdisk – browse third-party clouds (such as Google Drive)
• You can add other folders to the scan path.
• There are a few viewing options:
  • Latest – The ebooks you have recently opened in reverse chronological order
  • Directory mode – A list of the above folders that you can browse
  • Scan mode – Arrange and organise your entire book library by creating virtual folders called Bookshelves
  • Cloud drives – Browse third-party cloud drives only (such as Google Drive)
• You can choose whether your books are displayed as a list or as icons (showing the book covers) and view reading stats (e.g. how many books you’ve read, how many hours you’ve read for etc.)
• In Directory mode and Scan mode, you can also search your library.
• Scan mode also has additional options for creating new Bookshelves, filtering and sorting. You can also add additional folders to the Scan Path so that ebooks in these folders will appear in your Library.

Notebook management

• When you tap on the Notes button, you will see a list of all your notebooks.
• These can be organised into hierarchical folders and can be filtered and sorted. Like the Library, Notes can be displayed as a list or as icons (with a thumbnail of the notebook).
• You can also mark notebooks as favourites with a star and show just your ‘starred‘ notebooks.
• You can search for a particular notebook by its title, or by tags (more on tags later).
• You can also search for specified text or handwriting in your notebooks, but this takes longer.
• As with the library, a long-press on a notebook provides options for moving and sharing the notebook.
• Tapping on a notebook opens it up in the native note-taking app.

File transfers

• Because Boox tablets use Android, there are a multitude of ways to transfer files to and from other devices.
• A long-press on any file provides a Share option, which means that the file can be shared with any third-party apps that are installed. This includes email apps (such as Gmail), messaging apps (such as Whatsapp), and cloud drives (such as Dropbox).
• You can also share files via Bluetooth.
• You can also connect your Boox tablet to your computer using a USB cable to transfer files.
• Boox provides an app called BooxDrop, which can be used to view and download the files on your tablet from other devices on the same wifi network via a web browser.
• Notebooks are slightly different because they use a proprietary format (.NOTE format) that cannot be viewed on other devices. To open/view a Boox notebook on another platform, it must first be exported.
• Notebooks can be exported as PNG, Bitmap PDF or Vector PDF, as well as the proprietary .NOTE format (although this latter format is primarily for backups because it will only be compatible with Boox tablets).
• After using the handwriting-to-text-conversion feature, you can export notebooks in text
• You can also create text-only notebooks (primarily used for typing) – these notebooks can only be exported in TXT or .NOTE formats.
• There is a setting to automatically export notebooks as PDF when you exit (close) the notebook, which saves you manually having to export each notebook individually. If you have configured a third-party cloud drive, these PDFs are automatically synced to the drive in a folder called onyx. Essentially, this means that you can always view the latest version of your notebooks (in PDF format) from other devices.
• Files can also be transferred to a Boox tablet via third-party apps download from websites (e.g. you can download files from the Internet using a web browser, or open email attachments)

File synchronisation

• Boox automatically syncs your notebooks and reading data (such as your annotations, bookmarks, and current page) to the Boox Cloud so that they are available across all your Boox devices
• However, you are not required to do this – you can just maintain a local copy or sync notebooks (not reading data) with a third-party cloud instead.
• Boox also supports integration with several other third-party clouds, including:
  • AliYun
  • Baidu
  • Dropbox
  • Evernote
  • Google Drive
  • NutStore
  • OneDrive
  • OneNote
  • Any WebDAV cloud
  • Youdao Note
• If you bind a third-party cloud to your account, you can browse the drive from your Library and open any books and documents that you have stored there. Similarly, you can cut/copy/paste files between the cloud drive and your tablet.

Companion App

• Boox does not offer a companion app – they did have a companion app some years ago but it no longer appears to be available (although you can still download the APK files from various Android libraries)
• Boox provide a web browser app for viewing your files, but it is a bit clunky, and I tend not to use it.

Settings

• Boox tablets have a great many configuration options but they are scattered all around the system and it can be quite difficult to find what you are looking for.
• Locations for particular settings include:
  • Control Center – quick access general settings (swipe down from the top-right)
  • E-Ink Center – refresh settings (swipe up from the bottom-left)
  • Library Settings – settings for your e-book library (accessed from the Library button/screen)
  • Notebook Settings – settings for your notebooks (accessed from the Notebooks button/screen)
• There is a also a dedicated Settings area, which contains system-wide configuration options. These include sections for:
  • WLAN – Wifi connections
  • Bluetooth – BT devices
  • Networks – configure hotspots, printing, VPNs etc.
  • Accounts – configure accounts (e.g. Google, Microsoft etc.) and bind third-party clouds
  • Kids mode – time/content management and usage statistics
  • Apps and notifications – permissions, notifications etc. for Android apps
  • Desktop and screensaver – configure homescreen, wallpaper etc.
  • Display – configure default fonts and sizes, frequency of full refreshes and various other options
  • Sound – configure volumes, do not disturb etc.
  • location information – location tracking permissions
  • Password and security – configure a lock-screen password and enable the fingerprint scanner (if it exists)
  • Power – configure the inactivity time before the tablet sleeps and powers off, and various other power options
  • Storage – how storage is distributed (images, video, music, docs, zip, and APK)
  • System navigation – customize system-wide gestures, and enable/disable the navigation bar
  • More settings – install latest firmware, configure automatic updates, language and input, date and time, keyboard/mouse, and more…
  • FAQ and Feedback – FAQs, raise a support question and provide feedback to Boox
  • About – device info, read the user manual for your Boox tablet

Native note-taking software

• Boox’s native note-taking app (Boox Notes) is very sophisticated and provides a plethora of writing features.
• When you create a new notebook, you have two choices; handwriting or text.
• Text notebooks are designed to be used for text-based notes, typically inputted with a keyboard (you can use the on-screen keyboard to insert text with your finger but this becomes tedious very quickly). The Boox Tab Ultra range has an optional dedicated keyboard case/cover, however, you can connect a third-party Bluetooth keyboard to all new Boox tablets.
• Within text notebooks there are several options for formatting text, including headings, font (colour, family, size), bold, italic, underline, line spacing, alignment, bullet lists, and insertion of links and images. However, formatting and insertions are only viewable on the Boox tablet itself – when you export it (as a text file), only the unformatted plain text is exported.
• The remainder of this section covers the features of regular handwritten notes (rather than text notes).

Navigation & canvas

• When you open up a Boox handwriting notebook, most of the screen area is taken up by the canvas on which you write.
• If you have chosen a notebook template (see below), this will be displayed in the canvas area ready for you to write on top of.
• There are two toolbars; one on the top and one on the left. In the top-left corner, there is a button to go full screen, which removes both toolbars to make the canvas slightly larger. A smaller floating toolbar is shown instead with a minimal number of buttons. You can customize the floating toolbar to display the buttons you frequently need and you can drag it around to your preferred location. You can also minimize it so that it is just a small tab on the side of the screen.
• To the right of the full-screen button is a Back arrow (to close/exit the notebook) and the notebook’s name (you can rename it by tapping it).
• You can flick between pages by swiping left and right. You can also tap the forward/back buttons in the top-right to navigate through your pages or access the page overview (see below).

Toolbar (brushes, eraser, lasso-selection etc.)

• When not in full-screen mode, the toolbar on the top edge has buttons for up to five custom pens/brushes. You choice of brushes are:
  • Pen (some pressure sensitivity)
  • Brush (some pressure sensitivity)
  • Ballpoint Pen (no pressure sensitivity)
  • Pencil (some pressure sensitivity)
  • Marker (or highlighter)
• You can customize the colour and thickness of all the brushes and the texture of the pencil.
• In older versions of the firmware, the thicknesses were arbitrary incremental numbers. With v.4 the thickness values are in millimeters.
• Also on the top toolbar are undo and redo buttons and an eraser tool.
• The eraser has six different thickness/size options and there are also options to use a stoke eraser or lasso eraser instead. You can also erase everything on the current layer or all layers of the page.
• The left toolbar has the following buttons:
  • Template – choose a template for the page (such as blank, lined, squares etc.)
  • Layers – add up to five layers (essentially pages stacked one on top of the other). You can also show/hide, lock and delete layers as well as moving them up or down
  • Margins – resize or crop the canvas (useful if you are looking at notebooks that were previously edited on another Boox device with a different screen size)
  • Shape – draw shapes (circle, triangle, square/rectangle, trapezium, pentagon, hexagon) and straight/wavy/arrowed lines as well as setting the colour, styles and thickness – new shapes were added with version 4
  • Fill – blanket-fill an enclosed area with a specified colour
  • Gestures – configure which gestures are enabled (e.g. pinch-to-zoom, swipe between pages etc.)
  • AI – enable AI features (see below)
  • Share and export
  • Insert – embed elements into the notebook, including voice notes, images, files, links, and a timestamp
  • Lasso-select – select an element (e.g. a piece of handwriting) for manipulation, including:
    • Move
    • Resize
    • Rotate
    • Flip (either horizontally or vertically)
    • Cut/copy
    • Insert link (to a notebook, file, or website)
    • Change colour
    • Add a tag (a text tag for easy searching in furure)
  • Add a page
  • Zoom – zoom in and out to increase magnification
  • Sync – synchronise the notebook without closing it
  • Text – insert a textbox into the page (formatting options for font, size, colour, bold, underline, and italic)
  • Search – search for tags or handwriting (handwriting takes longer)
  • Full-refresh -refresh the screen
  • Recordings – list all voice recordings embedded in the notebook
  • Position – move the left toolbar to the right
  • Customize toolbar – add, remove and reorder the buttons on the left toolbar (note that there is only space for around 12 buttons on the toolbar, so any additional buttons are added to the overflow menu.

AI Features

• AI features (also known as Smart Scribe), can be toggled on and off on the toolbar. These AI features are:
  • Shape perfection – when you draw a freehand shape, the edges will straighten automatically
  • Lasso recognition – you can draw a circle around any element to select it without switching to the lasso-selection tool
  • Strikethrough erase – erase pen strokes by scribbling over it instead of switching to the erase tool
  • Text recognition – convert the handwriting on the page to text and then either insert it into the page as text or export/share it as a PNG, PDF or TXT file
• In addition, it is possible to automatically straighten lines by holding the stylus on the screen after drawing a line

Templates

• Boox provides around 40 templates to choose from, including blank, lined, squared, stave, todo list, monthly planner etc. as well as a selection of notebook covers (which you can set as the first page so that they are shown as thumbnails in your list of notebooks).
• Templates effectively create a bottom layer for each page in your notebook, which you can write on top of.
• You can set templates on a per-page basis (you don’t have to use the same template throughout the whole notebook).
• Boox also supports custom templates in both PNG and PDF formats. You can add your own custom templates by dropping the template file in the Storage/noteTemplate directory.

Page overview

• The Page Overview is accessed by tapping on the page number in the top right.
• This displays a list of all the pages in your notebook (in blocks of 9 pages). Tapping on a thumbnail takes you directly to that page.
• You can also delete or rename pages as well as setting a particular page to be the cover for your notebook (meaning that a thumbnail of the page is displayed when browsing your notebooks)
• In previous firmware versions, it was possible to move and copy pages in a notebook from the Page Overview but this feature appears to have been removed?!
• Boox also provide an Outline feature to structure your notebooks for easier navigation. This is a bit like creating a table of contents for your notebooks. However, you have to set it up manually – you cannot lasso-select a page title and add it as a heading as you can with Supernote tablets.

Exporting

• Notebooks can be exported to your local filesystem or exported and shared with other apps (such as email).
• You can select which pages to export/share (using a version of the Page Overview screen) and can export as PNG, Bitmap PDF, Vector PDF, or Boox’s proprietary .NOTE format.

Native reading & annotation software

• The Boox native reading software (NeoReader) is also very comprehensive and can open the following file formats: PDF, EPUB, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, CBZ, CBR, AZW3, MOBI, PRC, DJVU, CHM, ZIP.
• It cannot open DRM-Protected e-books, however, third-party e-readers can be used. So, for example, you can read DRM-Protected Kobo ebooks by installing and using the Kobo Reader app.
• However, because you are using a different e-reading app, you will not have all the functionality provided by NeoReader (for example, you cannot write directly onto ebooks viewed in other apps). Most e-reading apps will still let you highlight passages of text and insert text-based notes.
• Different file formats behave slightly differently and have slightly different configuration options.
• PDFs are usually a notable exception with regards configuration options because they are not ‘flowable‘. Essentially, this means that the text is burned into the page and cannot be altered (e.g. the font-size cannot be changed).
• In contrast, with a text-based file, such as an ePUB, when you increase the font size, some of the text reflows onto the next page. With a PDF, whatever text is shown on page 1, stays on page 1 in the exact position that the author intended.
• This means that if you do a pinch-to-zoom action within a reflowable document (e.g. ePub), the font size will increase/decrease and some text will oveflow onto the next page. However, if you do the same action in a PDF, it will zoom in and out of the page instead.
• In the top-right corner of all pages is a button to bookmark the page. At the bottom is the time, battery life, title of the book and the page number. You turn pages by swiping left and right or tapping the left and right edges of the screen.
• Much like the native notetaking software in full-screen mode, there is a floating toolbar with various buttons (see below). If you tap somewhere in the middle of the screen, a lot of additional configuration options are displayed at the top and bottom of the screen. With so many options scattered all over the place, it can be quite overwhelming and difficult to find the setting that you need.

Top menu

• Tapping the centre of the screen reveals options at the top and bottom of the screen. This section deals with the options at the top.
• At the very top there are a row of tabs (similar to the tabs in your web browser). Tapping the tabs flicks between each ebook you currently have open. You can also tap the cross on the right of each tab to close the ebook.
• Below this is a bar with the following buttons:
  • < [back] – exit NeoReader
  • Sync – sync your reading data (the page you are on, your highlights etc.) with the Boox cloud
  • Gestures – toggle different gestures on and off (e.g. pinch-to-zoom, stylus etc.)
  • Notes – close the top and bottom menus and show the handwriting toolbar
  • Smart Scribe – toggle AI features on and off (e.g. underline or circle text to highlight it)
  • Search -search the text
  • Refresh – full refresh of the screen
  • Settings – several more additional settings
  • Dict – lookup a word in the dictionary (supports an online dictionary as well as any dictionaries you have added locally). You can also translate words (using Boox, Google, or Bing) and add unfamiliar words to a vocabulary list.

Bottom menu

• Tapping the centre of the screen reveals options at the top and bottom of the screen. This section deals with the options at the bottom.
• There are five sections of options; Contents, Progress, Format, Contrast, and Split View. With PDF files, there is an additional Navigation option.
• The Contents section shows a list of all the chapters of the ebook. You can also view a list of your Bookmarks, a list of your annotations (highlights) and a list of pages that you have handwritten on. You can quickly navigate to these pages by tapping on an item in one of the lists.
• You can export your annotations (highlights) as a TXT file and your handwritten notes as either PNG or PDF.
• The Progress section displays a reading progress bar that shows how much of the ebook you have read so far. You can flick to the next or previous pages by tapping the left/right arrows or turn many pages at once by dragging the progress bar.
• Below this are five buttons:
  • Undo – go back to the previous page you were on (which may not necessarily be the previous page of the book)
  • TTS – activate text-to-speech (so a robot voice reads the text out loud)
  • Auto page-turn – configure a timer for automatically turning the pages (e.g. if you are playing an instrument so your hands are not free to turn the page of sheet music yourself)
  • Preview – view thumbnails of several pages at once (similar to page preview in the note-taking app)
  • Redo – go forward to the previous page you were on (if you’ve tapped undo)
• In the Format section, there are three preset themes (Original, Bold, and Night) and three customizable themes.
• Tapping a theme once selects and enables it, and giving it a second tap allows you configure it. There are several configuration options including:
  • Font
  • Font size
  • Font weight
  • Word, line, character, and paragraph spacing
  • Margins
  • Contrast
  • Indents
  • Text alignment
  • Double-page view (view two pages at once in landscape mode like an open book)
• With PDFs, these options are different:
  • Switch between single page view and scrolling view
  • Zoom in and out
  • Crop – fit screen, fit width etc.
  • Increase/decrease margins
• In the Contrast section, there are options for sharpening images, image smoothing, watermark bleaching, and dark colour enhancement. With PDF files, you can also make the text bolder.
• In the Split-View section, you can open another app alongside NeoReader, such as a notebook. This will split the view into two panes (either landscape or portrait) and is useful for taking long-form notes as you read or being able to cross-reference between two books.
• Finally, the Navigation section (PDFs only) allows you to configure how you read and navigate the file. You can split the pages into sections and configure the order that you read them (called Article Mode). This is useful for reading articles with columns of text because you can zoom in on the first column and when you tap on the right, instead of going to the next page, it will go to the next column instead. Similarly, if a PDF has small text, you can configure it to display the top half of each page first followed by the bottom half.

Floating toolbar

• The floating toolbar has buttons for quick access to certain features, including gestures, content, Smart Scribe, next/previous page. You can customize the toolbar to contain the buttons that you use most often, or disable it altogether.

Writing toolbar

• Finally, there is the writing toolbar which is displayed when you tap the Notes button on the top menu or the floating toolbar.
• This contains buttons related to handwriting, such as the brush type/size, eraser, fill tool, and lasso-select tool. You can also customize which buttons are on this toolbar.

Context menu

• If you highlight a word (or passage of text) by long-pressing it or underlining/circling with the stylus (if AI features are enable), a context menu opens up with a number of options:
  • Highlight – Highlight an important or inspiring passage (with various formatting options)
  • Sticky note – add a sticky note (text only)
  • Dictionary – Dictionary definition of a single word
  • Translate – Translate the word/phrase into another language
  • Copy – copy text to clipboard
  • TTS – read the highlighted text out loud
  • Search – search for this word/phrase elsewhere in the book
  • Share – send the quote to another app in PDF format (e.g. email)
  • Link – add a link to the highlighted text

Handwriting, sticky notes & highlights

• There are three ways to make notes in your books; handwriting, sticky notes, and highlights.
• Handwriting is the ability to use the stylus to write directly onto documents in the Boox e-reading app (NeoReader).
• Using the stylus, you can write anywhere on the page (although the margins are usually the best place because you won’t obscure the text). You can also use this feature to fill in electronic forms. Any page that you have written on will show up in the Contents section (discussed above).
• Although you can write on most file formats, these handwritten annotations can only be viewed on Boox devices. For example, if you write on an ePub and then access the same file from your computer, the handwriting will not be shown. PDFs can retain the handwriting but they have to be manually exported (as a new PDF file).
• Sticky notes can be added to text by highlighting it (either with a long press or by using the stylus) and tapping the Sticky Note button. You will then be provided with a small canvas to make your notes. Sticky notes are text-only (not handwriting). A passage of text with a sticky note attached is identified with a small icon (in superscript). You can view all your sticky notes in the Contents section (discussed above).
• Highlights are passages of text that you have highlighted through the context menu. Again, all highlights can be accessed through the Contents section (discussed above).
• Sticky notes and highlights can be exported as a TXT and handwriting can be exported as PDF or PNG.

Other native software

• In addition to the native reading and note-taking software, Boox tablets have several other apps preinstalled.

NeoBrowser

• This is Boox’s own web browser, which I believe is based on Chrome.
• It’s a pretty decent browser, and works well for pretty much all websites but you might want to install your own preferred browser from Google Play Store.

BooxDrop

• As mentioned previously, BooxDrop is an app for getting files to and from your Boox tablet, either over your Local Area Network or through the Boox Cloud.

Calendar Memo

• This app shows your calendar (monthly view), along with a section to record handwritten memos for each day. It also shows a log of the books/documents you’ve read and the notebooks you’ve used for each day.
• You calendar data is stored on the Boox Cloud and can be synchronised to other Boox devices, however, it cannot be viewed on non-Boox devices, or synchronise with third-party calendars (such as Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar).

Other Tools/Utilities

• There are various other tools and utilities, including:
  • Clock (inc. alarm, stopwatch, timer)
  • Calculator
  • Dictionary
  • Help Center (links to the Boox knowledgebase)
  • Music (basic MP3 Player)
  • NaviBall (a customizable navigation system with quick access buttons – personally, it gets in my way and I disable it)
  • Pushread (an RSS reader)
  • Recorder (a basic voice recorder)
  • Screensaver (configure custom backgrounds for when the tablet is asleep or powered off)
  • Play Store (install third-party apps from the Google Play Store)

Third-party software

• Third-party Android apps can be installed from the Google Play Store.
• Most apps will install, however, performance can be variable. This is primarily due to the limitations of the e-ink screen and because the vast majority of apps were developed with faster screens in mind. Whilst e-ink is great for screen tasks that require low refresh rates (such as reading), they’re not so good for tasks that require faster refresh rates (such as video and gaming). So apps like Kindle and Kobo work well, but YouTube not-so-well. Some apps may suffer from latency and ghosting on an e-ink screen, which can make them frustrating to use and sometimes even completely unusable.
• Having said that, Boox tablets do offer the best chance of running third-party apps, particularly those that have an on-board graphics processor and Boox Super Refresh (BSR). A good example of this is web browsing. Historically, this has been quite clunky on e-ink screens, with the screen constantly flickering and ghosting as you scroll down the page – it was almost unusable. With BSR-enabled Boox tablets, web browsing on e-ink has become a much more user-friendly experience.
• However, be prepared to spend time playing around with the refresh settings in the E-Ink Center (see above) to find the best configuration for each app.
• Although you can install third-party e-readers (such as Kindle), you cannot write on them with the stylus (as you would in the Boox NeoReader app).

Overall Verdict

The Boox firmware continues to be the most versatile, powerful, and comprehensive on the market.

The native reading and writing apps are really good, and functionality can be extended with the installation of third-party apps.

However, with this power comes greater complexity, and so Boox tablets are not as intuitive as less sophisticated e-ink brands. There is a steeper learning curve, so you need to be prepared to invest a little time in learning how to use a Boox tablet and configuring it to do what you need. At first, it can be quite overwhelming and difficult to navigate, but if you want to go beyond the core e-ink tablet features (of reading and writing), then a Boox tablet is the most likely to meet your requirements.

Firmware Overview