Boox Go 7 Review

Design and Build

The most obvious design aspects of the Boox Go7 is that it is small, portable, and lightweight.

In fact, along with its sibling, the Go Color 7, it is the lightest e-ink tablet I have ever reviewed. This makes it very comfortable to hold with one hand for long periods.

It has a black plastic chassis, with a glass screen, and the rear panel has a rough, grainy texture to it that provides a thoroughly decent grip.

The black border around the screen is thin on three sides and thicker on the fourth, where the two physical page-turn buttons are housed. There is a little shadowing under the bezels, highlighting the gap between the glass lens on the screen’s surface and actual e-ink panel below, but I’ll go into that in more detail in the ‘screen‘ section (below).

The physical page-turn buttons are a massive improvement on the Go Color 7 (Gen 1) e-reader (which has almost the same chassis). On the older model, the buttons felt wobbly, and there was a variable audible/tactile click dependent on exactly where they were pressed. In addition they were adjacent to each other (almost physically touching), which meant that it was difficult to identify which was the ‘next page’ button and which was the ‘previous page’ button by touch alone.

Boox appear to have took onboard the feedback, and separated the buttons so that there is a gap between them and made the tactile/audible click when they are pressed uniform and pleasant. They also feel much more secure within the housing.

The edges are flat (not contoured) and the corners are rounded. It is not the thinnest tablet on the market, but this is a concession of the smaller form factor – larger screen models have more height and width to house the internal components, whereas smaller-screened tablets have to create more space my increasing the thickness.

On the bottom edge (right-hand side) is the power button. And on the right edge, starting from the top, is the USB-C port (for charging and data transfer), the microphone, the MicroSD card slot, and the speaker. The top and left edges are plain, however, there is a tiny pinhole on the left edge, of which I’m not quite sure of the function. At first I though it was the microphone, but I’m pretty certain that is contained within the top grille on the right edge. Then I thought it may have dual microphones, but the specifications only mention a single mic. It could possibly have no function (perhaps a design aspect for a future model that will have dual-microphones and use the same chassis) or it may be related to the sleep cover/folio, but I can’t say 100% for sure. Anyhow, it’s not really a problem or concern, I’d just be interested to know.

The tablet itself feels very robust, and I don’t expect it will break easily – it’s been bouncing around in my rucksack for the last couple of weeks without any problems. It feels quite rigid, but has a little flex in the rear panel, and there is no audible rattling or creaking.

Overall, the Boox Go7 has a very compact and solid design, and has all the hallmarks of a great little e-reader – lightweight, comfortable to hold, and decent page-turn buttons.

Hardware Specs

Internally, the Go7 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G octa-core processor with a clock speed of 2.0GHz.

There’s also 4Gb RAM, and 64Gb of storage capacity.

Unlike some other Boox tablets, the Go7 does not have graphics processor, or Boox Super Refresh (BSR). This means that it does not support the fastest refresh rates so the performance of some third-party apps will not be as smooth (or even usable) as BSR tablets, however, it also means that the battery life is much longer (BSR is very power-hungry, even when not being used!)

Using the Geekbench 6 CPU Benchmark app, the Go7 scored 696 in the single-core test, and 1678 in the multi-core test (the mean average of three tests). This puts it at the higher end of the scale with regards to CPU performance.

Overall, the Boox Go 7 has some decent hardware specs, particularly for a smaller device, and performance will be great for the core uses of an e-ink tablet (reading and note-taking). And some third-party apps will run fairly well, too. However, the lack of BSR does mean that some third-party apps will not run as well as they might on an e-ink tablet that supports fast refresh rates. You can check out CPU benchmarks for a range of e-ink tablets here.

Screen

The screen is 7″ and uses a monochrome Carta 1300 e-ink panel. Although the small screen does mean that is light and portable, it also means that there is less viewing real estate. Consequently, PDFs with small fonts or columns that have been designed for A4 paper can appear quite scrunched up on the smaller screen. There are software solutions to this, such as altering the viewing area, but this takes a bit of time to configure. In addition, there is less writing canvas with a 7″ screen, and I often find myself running out of space far too quickly, which interrupts my flow.

It is flush with bezels and has a resolution of 1264 x 1680 (300dpi).

Because it uses a black and white (grayscale) screen, it does not suffer from the inherent drawbacks present on the deluge of colour (Kaleido 3) e-ink tablets that have hit the market in recent years. This means it has a “whiter” screen and better contrast than it’s colour-screened counterparts. And text on the Carta 1300 e-ink panel looks really rich, crisp and clear.

It also has a frontlight, with both warm and cold temperature settings. Whilst this is invaluable for viewing the screen comfortably in environments with low ambient light, it also creates an additional layer between the surface of the screen and the e-ink panel. This gives the appearance that text and handwriting is rendered slightly (less than a millimetre) below the screens surface, which can be a little off-putting when writing. It also creates a little shadowing around the bezels, although this is less noticeable than some other devices due to the black colouring of the bezels.

There are touchscreen capabilities, and it is this layer which I believe is also being used for stylus input. However, stylus input on Boox’s latest products do not use Wacom EMR technology. For various reasons, this detracts from the tactile writing experience, but I’ll talk about that more in the ‘writing feel‘ section below. In addition, there’s no grainy paper-like screen protector on the surface, which makes writing feel a little slippery.

Overall, the screen on the Go7 looks fantastic for reading ebooks. Carta 1300 has excellent clarity and the contrast looks great, even with the frontlight turned off. There is a small but noticeable gap between the surface of the screen and the where the text or pen strokes appear (due to the glass panel and various layers between the surface and e-ink panel), but this is more of an issue when writing than when reading.

Writing feel

For their latest products, Boox have decided to ditch Wacom EMR technology in favour of their own proprietary stylus input technology, based on Intel’s USI. For the Go 7 (and Go Color 7 Gen2) this technology is called InkSense, and for the Tab XC, it is called InkSpire. At the time of writing, I’ve not had chance to test the Tab XC/Inkspire, but from what I gather it is pretty much the same as the InkSense, but has a few additional features.

Sadly, I found InkSense stylus input to be vastly inferior to Wacom EMR for several reasons.

Firstly, the nib of the InkSense pen is cone-shaped, and notably wider in diameter at the point than Wacom tips. This makes it feel less exact and a bit clumsy – it almost feels as though you are writing with a crayon rather than a pen. This feeling imprecision is compounded by the aforementioned gap between the surface the screen and where the strokes appear, almost as though you are writing below the screen.

The smoothness of the materials used for both the screen surface and stylus nibs results in handwriting feeling quite frictionless and slippery. The stylus glides over the screen far too easily for my liking , and can be likened to writing on a slick whiteboard with a marker.

I found it very difficult to write neatly on the Go7 because some strokes were not picked up or rendered well. Specifically, when I was writing quickly or in a smaller font, some of the strokes would be missed. Another frustration was the incessant tap-tap-tapping sound whenever the hard-tipped stylus hit the rigid screen. In contrast Wacom styluses tend to have softer nibs, which provide some cushioning to mute the noise somewhat. And even the hard ceramic tips of Supernote tablets are muted by the soft screen protector. I also felt that there was slightly more latency/lag than I’m accustomed to from Wacom tablets.

I’m the first to admit that I don’t have the neatest handwriting, but it tends to look a lot worse on non-wacom tablets. For example, in the image below is an example of some of the writing I did when testing the battery life in the note-taking app. I was writing quickly and many of the strokes (such as the sticks of the i’s) are not quite as long as the should be.

On top of this, the InkSense stylus has an internal battery that needs to be recharged periodically, unlike Wacom styluses, which never need recharging.

In the interest of fairness and objectivity, I wouldn’t say that the tactile writing experience is terrible – it is certainly on par with other manufacturers that use similar technologies for stylus input such as Kobo, Meebook, and some models of Bigme tablets, and in some ways, I would say it is slightly better than these. You can certainly write legible notes on it, and annotate PDFs and ebooks comfortably. However, when compared to Wacom EMR, it feels slower, clumsier, noisier, and less precise.

One small advantage that InkSense does have over Wacom is that the harder, rigid nibs will not wear out as fast. Similarly, because they don’t physically wear down through friction with the screen’s surface, you won’t get little bits of ‘nib debris‘ over the screen.

Both pressure and tilt sensitivity have been implemented in the native note-taking app (dependent on which brush/pen tool is selected) and work pretty well – see my review of the Boox firmware below for more info.

So, overall, the Boox Go7 doesn’t offer a particularly great tactile writing experience in my opinion, but it is adequate for short, concise notes.

Hardware features

As well as the underlying hardware specs, the Go 7 has some additional hardware features that make the tablet more versatile.

As standard for most e-ink tablets, there’s support for both Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity. As well as connecting headphones, Bluetooth can also be used to connect other peripherals, such as third-party keyboards, or a mouse.

For further connectivity, the single USB-C port supports On-The-Go (OTG) connections, which means you can hook up a USB hub for the connection of peripherals and mass storage devices (hard drives, USB sticks etc.) There’s also an on-board MicroSD card slot to expand the storage capacity.

As previously mentioned, the physical page-turn buttons are a vast improvement on previous models, providing a satisfying tactile and audible click when pressed. And the addition of a gap between the two buttons means that it is easy to identify which is which using only touch.

There’s a G-Sensor for automatically reorienting the screen between landscape/portrait when you rotate it physically. This means that you can have the physical page-turn buttons on the left or right side depending on your preference (or even at the bottom when viewing ebooks in landscape).

And there’s also speakers and microphone. The microphone can be used for recording voice notes in the native note-taking app (and third-party apps) or for recording a meeting. As well as system sounds (such as notification alerts), the speakers can be used for Text-to-Speech (TTS) in the native reading app, or even listening to music/videos. However, don’t expect too much from the onboard speakers and mic – they’re very basic additions that are great for simple everyday use, but are not going to produce anything of production quality.

Overall, the additional hardware features provided on the Go 7 offers several additional use cases for the tablet beyond simply reading and note-taking. For example, you can record meetings and voice reminders, or listen to podcasts using Bluetooth headphones or the integrated speakers. You can increase the storage capacity using MicroSD. You can even connect a Bluetooth keyboard for typed input.

Battery

The Go 7 has a 2300mAh battery, which is low capacity small for an e-ink tablet, however, it is worth bearing in mind that it is only a 7″ device, so there is less screen to illuminate with frontlight LEDs, and a larger battery would add to the weight of the unit, and possibly the thickness/footprint as well.

As mentioned earlier, the lack of BSR will prolong the battery life between charges compared to e-ink tablets that do have these features.

The table below shows how much battery is depleted by performing certain operations for an hour.

Test (1hr)	Go 7 (% battery used)
Note-taking	6%
Reading	1%
Wifi On	+1%
Frontlight On (medium)	+1%
Frontlight On (full)	+8%

So, you could expect to drain about 6% of the battery per hour when note-taking, and 1% per hour when reading. Having Wifi turned on uses around 1% extra per hour. With the frontlight turned on to a medium setting, add an additional 1% per hour, and on full, add an additional 8% per hour.

I calculate typical battery life from these figures by assuming 3 hours of note-taking and 2 hours of reading each day, with the Wifi turned on for 3 hours. For tablets that have a frontlight, I factor in 2 hours on a medium setting and 2 hours on full.

For the Go 7, this works out at about 41% of battery use per day, which would give you around 2.4 days of use before it needed to be recharged. This isn’t particularly great battery life, however these results are severely skewed by the data for frontlight on full intensity, which is very draining. This is actually a flaw with my testing process because I’ve found that a number of recent models use a large amount of battery when on full brightness, but for typical usage, it is that unlikely anyone would need it on the highest intensity. You can see comparison of battery life across e-ink tablets here (however, they all use my currently-flawed testing process, so I would recommend making your own calculation based on the table above and your own personal usage estimates).

NOTE: Since this review I have changed the way I calculate battery life, which has improved my rating of the Go 7 – see the battery life table for more info.

Accessories

The Boox Go 7 was shipped with a folio cover, and stylus.

Stylus

As I mentioned in a previous section, Boox have decided not to use the tried-and-tested Wacom EMR technology for stylus input on their latest tablets, in favour of their own InkSense technology based on Active Pen (USI) technology.

The InkSense stylus is a metallic-silver colour, and is sort of cylindrical, but with two flatter edges on opposite sides. These flatter edges prevent the stylus from rolling away.

On one of the flatter edges, around a quarter of the way up the shaft is a physical button, which acts as an eraser when held down and moving the nib across the screen (without having to change tool within the software). The button is almost flush with shaft, but ever-so-slightly raised so that it can be located by the tip of you thumb without looking. It clicks in and out smoothly, offering pleasant audible and tactile feedback to let you know it has been activated. On a subjective level, I really don’t like buttons on the shaft of a stylus because I am forever inadvertently pressing them without meaning to, but this is a personal preference. There is no eraser at the top of the shaft, like with some other brands.

Although it has an internal battery, the stylus is still quite light and well-balanced. However, it does have to be recharged periodically, via the USB-C port at the top-end of the shaft. I haven’t done any battery testing on the stylus, but it does appear to last quite a long time – anecdotally, after charging it to 100% and writing for several hours, there is still 80% charge left on it. However, it is another thing that you have to remember to plug in from time-to-time, which wasn’t an issue with Wacom EMR styluses.

The grip is okay, but a little bit on the smooth side. After a lot of writing, my hand began to get a little sweaty, and started to slip down the shaft a little.

As I discussed earlier, it has a thick cone-shaped nib, analogous to a crayon, which feels chunky and imprecise. In addition, the nib has some freedom of movement when slotted into the stylus. Although this doesn’t seem to detract from the writing experience, it does rattle when given a shake. The nib itself is made from hard plastic, which makes a harsh tapping sound when writing.

Personally, I didn’t like writing with the InkSense Pen very much, however, I did find it pretty good for highlighting passages of text in an ebook I was reading. For simple short-form notes, it works fine, but for writing for longer periods, or partaking in more involved work, I would begin to get frustrated with the tapping sound, the thick nib, missing pen strokes, and smooth shaft.

Folio

The cover is very plain and nondescript…but in a good way. It is made from a single-piece polymer material with hardened front and rear panels. There is a single fold in the centre, and a pen loop (for holding the stylus) on the right.

The exterior is beige, and has an almost faux leather texture. Over the course of a few weeks, it has suffered some small superficial dents and scratches, however, it has been thrown in my rucksack without much care, so this could quite easily be down to my own negligence. The interior is smooth and dark brown, with some indentations for the physical page-turn buttons. I quite like the beige/brown colouring, although I don’t feel that it matches the black of the tablet very well. The only markings are a small Boox logo that has been de-bossed into the lower right corner of the front cover.

There are no fittings or appendages because the tablet is securely held in place by magnets. I was concerned that the magnets would not be strong enough to hold the tablet in place, but it turned out the are very strong and I had no issues with the tablet becoming detached with everyday use. Of course, magnets will never be stronger than squeezing the tablet tightly into a plastic tray (as seen with other e-ink brands), and if you hold one side of the cover and give it a vigorous shake, then the tablet does fall out. But lightly shaking it it won’t result in it becoming detached – it does the job of protecting the tablet pretty well.

One of the advantages of the magnetic connection is that it is easy to detach the tablet from the folio. I found it useful to keep the tablet in the folio during transit and then remove it when was reading, because it is more comfortable to hold without the folio. That’s not to say that it is uncomfortable to hold when in the folio but it does add a bit of weight to it, particularly if the stylus is in the loop.

The stylus loop itself is very good, tightly holding stylus in place – personally, I prefer a physical loop for the stylus rather than a magnetic attachment, which is often insecure or can be bumped off easily.

In summary, the folio looks nice (although that can be subjective) and provides a decent level of protection for the tablet. I like the simplicity of the design, as well as how thin and light it is.

Software

My review of this tablet should be read in conjunction with my review of the current firmware (see table below), which includes aspects such as the Operating System, User Interface, and Native Apps.

The hardware and software reviews have been separated because the firmware used at the time that this review was written may not be the same firmware being used currently. This could result in the review quickly becoming outdated. Also, as several tablets may use the same firmware, this would mean going back and updating every single tablet review from a particular manufacturer to account for the new firmware. By splitting them up, if there is a firmware update, I am able to make the updates on a single page.

Current versions of this brand’s firmware are shown in the table below, along with the tablets running them.

My rating	Firmware version	Tablets using this firmware
	4.1 (current version) Aug 2025	Boox Go 10.3 Boox Note Air5 C Boox Palma 2 Pro Boox Note Air3 Boox Note Air4 C Boox Note Air3 C Boox Go 7 Boox Go Color 7
	4.0 (current version) Oct 2024	Boox Note Max Boox Tab Ultra C Pro Boox Tab X Boox Tab X C Boox Tab Mini C Boox Tab Ultra Boox Max Lumi 2 Boox Tab Ultra C Boox Note Air2 Plus Boox Note 5
Older Boox firmware versions may be found here

Brand

For some people, it is also worth considering the brand as whole, including aspects like customer service, ecosystem, values, and criticisms.

My full overview of the Boox brand can be found here, but I have provided a summary below.

Final Verdict

The Boox Go 7 has both good points and not-so-good points, and your particular use case will be a big factor in deciding if this is the right product for you.

As an e-book reader, I think it is excellent. It is lightweight, very comfortable to hold, has awesome physical page-turn buttons, a frontlight (with both warm and cold settings), and comes with Boox’s exceedingly capable e-book and PDF reading app (NeoReader). With the Android Operating System, and decent CPU performance, it has even more versatility, and can be used for a plethora of other tasks, such as web browsing and email. In fact, I think it is one of the best e-readers currently on the market.

However, as an e-ink writing tablet, I find it limited. The tactile writing experience, whilst not awful, is nowhere near as nice as using Wacom EMR for stylus input. The nib is too wide (strokes are a bit imprecise) and too hard (creating a harsh sound when they tap the screen). There’s a little too much lag and some strokes get missed if you write too small or too fast. There is almost no friction between the nib and the screen, resulting a slippery writing experience. And the small 7″ screen does not offer a lot of canvas space for long-form writing. This quickly becomes frustrating when wanting to make a lot of handwritten notes.

So, if you want an e-ink tablet primarily for writing activities, I think that there are far better options than the Boox Go 7. Having said that, if you are looking for primarily an e-reader with the option for infrequent or short-form note-taking, then the Boox Go 7 works really well.

And this is exactly what I have been using it for. I tend to have three e-ink tablets that I use regularly for different purposes. The first is my daily note-taker that I couldn’t be without because I use it to organise everything in my life and work – I currently use the Supernote Manta for this. The second tablet I use for study, so I need a large screen (for reading PDFs and textbooks) and greater versatility – for this use case, I use the Boox Note Max. And the third category is e-reading. For a long time, I used an e-reader without writing capabilities, but more recently I switched to the Viwoods AI Paper Mini because I realised that there are times that I wanted the ability to make occasional notes whilst reading an ebook. The AI Paper Mini has been great for this latter use case, but I feel the Boox Go 7 would also work well, so I am currently torn between the two devices.

The Go 7 is smaller, lighter, and much more comfortable to hold, as well as having a better native reading app, but the AI Paper Mini is much better for writing on (probably because it uses Wacom). I’m going to use them both for the next few weeks before making a decision about which will be my primary reading device going forward (the yet-to-be reviewed Boox Go Color 7 Gen2 is also in with a shout here, but I usually prefer monochrome screens over colour).

Overall, I feel the Boox Go 7 occupies the space between an e-reader (with no handwriting capabilities) and a dedicated writing tablet. In my opinion it is one of the best e-readers on the market and the writing capabilities give it an extra dimension of functionality. However, compared to other e-ink writing tablets, the note-taking experience on the Go 7 is, in my opinion, sub-par, primarily due to the tactile writing feel.

Buying options

The Boox Go 7 can be purchased from:

• Boox Global Store*
• Boox Euro Store*
• Amazon*

Tablet Overview