Viwoods AI Paper Mini Review

When Viwoods first appeared on the scene last year, it was their flagship product (the 10.65″ AI Paper) that captured most of my attention and I didn’t think too much about the 8″ AI Paper Mini.

In general, I’m not a great fan of smaller-screened e-ink tablets anyway because some PDFs can be difficult to read on them and I find that I run out of canvas space far too quickly when note-taking.

However, I do like smaller, lighter and more portable screens for reading ebooks, and always have an e-reader (without handwriting functionality) handy for this purpose. As I often read in bed at night, I like to have a frontlight on my e-readers – my last three goto e-readers have been the Kindle Paperwhite, Boox Palma, and Boox Go 7.

There have been a few occasions recently where I’ve felt the urge to write in the margins of e-books I’ve been reading but been unable to do so, and although I do have a few smaller e-ink tablets (a Kobo, a Bigme, and a Meebook), I’m not a massive fan of the software used on them. In addition, many brands have been pushing colour e-ink onto their smaller-screened products, but (in most cases) I much prefer a monochrome screen.

So, when Viwoods announced that they would be making some improvements to their native e-reading app in their latest firmware release (previous iterations have been quite lacking), I felt I had the perfect use case for the AI Paper Mini. I could use it to replace my e-reader for my night-time reading, and would have the added bonus of being able to take handwritten notes when needed.

I’ve been using the AI Paper Mini for around two weeks, and what follows is my review of it.

Design and build

The AI Paper Mini has a metallic chassis, which comprises the rear panel and all four edges.

Although the rear panel is smooth, there is a little bit of grip to it – it wasn’t quite as slippery as I expected it to be – but, of course, it is slicker than e-readers that have a more tacky polymer-based rear panel. The edges have a slight contour to them and the corners are nicely rounded. On the bottom edge (on the left) is the USB-C port (for charging and data transfer) and a tiny LED to indicate that it is charging. The left and right edges are bare, and the top edge houses the power button on the right-hand side. The power button has the same silver colouring as the chassis, but juts out slightly to make it easy to locate with your fingertips.

Although the screen is slightly larger than many other e-ink tablets in this form factor (8″ as opposed to 7.8″) it is still small and exceedingly light – in fact, it is one of the lightest writing tablets on the market at only 230g in weight, and the only ones that are lighter have a much smaller 7″ screen. In addition, the supplied folio cover is also super light, so it doesn’t add a great deal to the combined weight.

It is also very thin – not quite as thin as it’s sibling (the AI Paper), but there are only a handful of other e-ink tablets that are thinner – and those that are have larger screens (and, consequently, there is more internal space to spread out the components, so thickness can more easily be reduced).

The screen has an off-white border/bezel around in, and is wider on the lower edge, where it houses three touch-sensitive buttons (a Back button, a Home/Task Manager button, and an AI Assistant button). There is some shadowing under the bezels due to the frontlight, but I’ll come back this later in the Screen section. It utilises a glass (Carta 1000) e-ink panel and so the unit feels quite hard and rigid, with only a little physical flexibility.

Looking at the precision of the manufacturing, it appears to be very well built. There are no visible imperfections and, for the most part, it feels solid and robust. The only thing I could say in the negative with regards to the build is that there is little click/creak when I apply pressure to the bottom right corner of the rear panel, but this is not overly concerning.

Aesthetically, I think the AI Paper Mini looks very sleek and elegant (but of course, this is subjective).

Overall, the AI Paper seems to be really well built and durable. The smaller form factor, thinness and super lightness combined with the smooth, curved edges make it extremely portable and comfortable to hold for long periods. I did have a small issue with inadvertently pressing the touch-sensitive buttons on the bottom bezel – their position makes it easy to accidentally activate them with your thumb whilst reading – but this was quickly resolved by deactivating the buttons in the software.

Hardware specs

The Viwoods AI Paper Mini uses an ARM Cortex A53/A73 processor (2.0GHz octa-core) and has 4Gb of onboard RAM, which are pretty solid specs. Running the CPU benchmark, performance was around average (296 in the single-core test and 1128 in the multi-core test).

There are more powerful e-ink tablets available, but the performance of the AI Paper Mini is not too shabby. For core tasks, such as reading and writing, the AI Paper works absolutely fine, however, if you plan on installing more resource-hungry third-party apps, or will have several apps open at once, you will probably experience some performance bottlenecks. Also, there is no superfast refresh technology, powered by a dedicated GPU (graphics processor), which means that some third party apps may not perform as well as they do on on some other tablets that employ this tech (e.g. Boox and Bigme).

The AI Paper Mini has 128Gb of storage space, which should be more than plenty for most users. However, bear in mind that there is no native cloud storage, or the ability to increase capacity via MicroSD. Of course, you can install third-party cloud drives because the AI Paper Mini has Google Play Store support.

Screen

The AI Paper Mini uses a monochrome Carta 1000 e-ink panel, which is a somewhat older technology than that used on most newer e-ink tablets, but works absolutely fine. You still get a pixel density of almost 300DPI because the screen is smaller (Carta 1000 panels on ~10″ tablets decreases the pixel density to around 230DPI). Text and images are not quite so crisp as on newer panels, but I feel it is only something you would notice if you looked very closely.

The panel is glass, so it is a bit more fragile than the plastic Mobius Carta screens used on other tablets (including the 10.65″ AI Paper), but as long as it is cared for properly, I don’t expect it to break very easily.

At 8″ across the diagonal, the screen is slightly larger than the 7.8″ of other e-ink tablets in the same class.

There is an integrated frontlight, which is invaluable for using the tablet in dark or dimly-lit conditions, but this does have the drawback of increasing the distance between the physical surface of the screen and where the ‘ink‘ is displayed – a bit like having a transparent piece of glass or plastic placed on top of a sheet of paper. This also affects the writing experience, which I’ll cover more in the next section. Another consequence of this is that there is a bit of shadowing under the bezel (when the e-ink panel is closer to the surface, the shadows are less prominent). It’s not a massive deal-breaker, but personally, I prefer tablets without frontlights for general use because I usually have enough ambient light around me to illuminate the screen. But for the use case I described in the introduction (reading at night), the presence of a frontlight is a non-negotiable compromise. I should also point out that the frontlight on the AI Paper Mini is cold light only – there is no warm light, which provides a orangy-reddish hue, as is provided on some other e-ink tablets.

The AI Paper Mini has a capacitive layer for touch-screen input, as well as a Wacom layer for stylus input. Some other brands use different technologies for stylus input, but in my experience, Wacom is by far the best option.

Overall, the screen is not the absolute best in terms of quality, but is still very good. I’ve read two or three books on it over the last couple of weeks and it has been a very pleasant experience. I don’t know if it is psychological (rather than being an objective observation), but the slightly larger screen does seem to make a difference to both reading and writing activities – it doesn’t feel quite so cramped as 7.8″ tablets. Of course, the frontlight does have drawbacks, but its a compromise that has to be made, and affects all tablets that use e-ink technology.

Writing feel

As mentioned in the previous section, the presence of the frontlight creates a tiny gap between the surface of the screen and where your pen strokes are displayed. This makes it feel a bit like you are writing slightly below the surface the screen, which can be a little off-putting. It also creates a higher degree of error between where the stylus touches the screen and the actual strokes, giving the impression of it being ever-so-slightly imprecise. For general writing, this is not really an issue, but for tasks that require more precision (such as plotting points on a graph, or even a dot-to-dot puzzle) it can be a little frustrating. I just want to reiterate again that this is not an issue with the Viwoods tablet itself, but a more general issue with all e-ink tablets that have frontlights.

Although the AI Paper Mini has a glass e-ink panel, there is still a little flexibility to the screen’s polymer surface, which offers a little cushioning and does not feel quite so rigid and slate-like as other e-ink tablets. There is a slight texture to the screen’s surface, which results in a pleasant grainy/scratchy writing experience, both audibly and tactility. It is not quite as rough as other e-ink tablets and, if I’m honest, there is not quite as much friction as I would personally like (it’s a little too smooth/slippery), but on the whole, I did enjoy writing on the AI Paper Mini.

There is also very little lag, and there are a wide variety of brush types, some of which have been optimised for both tilt and pressure sensitivity.

As I expressed in my review of the Viwoods AI Paper, I don’t like the Viwoods stylus all that much but I’ll go into that later.

Overall, I would describe the writing experience as above average or good. There are tablets that, in my subjective opinion, have a much better tactile writing experience, but there are also plenty more that are far worse.

Hardware features

The AI Paper Mini does not have many of the additional hardware features that you might find on other Android e-ink tablets.

There’s no g-sensor (for auto-rotation), no speakers, and no MicroSD slot (for increasing storage capacity).

There is both wifi and Bluetooth for connectivity and data transfer, as well as a USB-C port for charging and data transfer.

In addition, there is a microphone (for voice recordings, and interacting with ChatGPT), and a fingerprint scanner (integrated into the power button). The fingerprint scanner can be used for both device and file security.

There are also the three touch-sensitive buttons on the lower bezel. The left-most button acts as Back button. The middle button takes you to the home-screen (with a long press opening up the task manager). And the button on the right opens up the AI Assistant (with a long press opening up the AI assistant for voice input). I’ve found these dedicated buttons to be very useful for navigating around the system (although there is a risk of accidentally triggering them whilst holding the tablet).

Overall, whilst additional hardware features are minimal compared to some other Android e-ink tablets, I feel that they have been carefully selected to keep the device focused on its core tasks of reading, writing, and research.

Battery

The AI Paper Mini has a 2450mAh battery, which appears quite small in comparison to other tablets.

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

Test (1hr)	AI Paper Mini (% battery used)
Note-taking	5%
Reading	2%
Wifi On	+0%
Frontlight (medium)	+4%
Frontlight (full	+5%

So, you could expect to drain about 5% of the battery per hour when note-taking, and 2% per hour when reading. If Wifi is turned, add around 1% per hour. And, if using the frontlight, you can expect to use an additional 4% per hour on a medium setting, and 5% when it is on full brightness.

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, the frontlight on medium for 2 hours, and on full for 2 hours.

For the AI Paper Mini, this works out at about 37% of battery use per day, which would give you around 2.7 days of use before it needed to be recharged. You can see how this compares to other e-ink tablets here, but the upshot is that it battery life on the AI Paper Mini is at the lower end of the scale in terms of battery life.

Sidenote: A possible flaw with this test is the measurement of of the medium intensity frontlight. Because different brands use different scales for for their frontlight brightness settings, I usually pick the setting bang in the middle when testing medium frontlight intensity. On other tablets, the battery life on the medium setting is usually less than half of that on the full setting. With the AI Paper medium and full settings producing very similar battery drain result, this suggests to me a difference in the calibration compared to competitors, which may skew the results. I plan to take a look at modifying my tests to take this into account in future.

Accessories

As I stated in my unboxing, the AI Paper Mini is packaged with a folio and stylus included.

Folio

Like the tablet itself, the folio is exceedingly light and does not add very much additional weight at all.

The exterior is brown with a sort of snakeskin texture and the interior is a lighter brown with a softer suede-like texture.

The front and rear panels are very thin (and light) and do not have very much padding. Although this may give the impression that there is not enough protection, my experience of this type of folio design when combined with a Mobius screen is that it is perfectly adequate. My Supernote tablets and the Viwoods AI Paper also have a Mobius screen and similar skinny/lightweight folio design, and have endured heavy use without issue.

On the right hand side of the interior of the rear panel is a pen loop for holding the stylus. Those that have read my other reviews will know that I much prefer the pen loop method of stylus management (as opposed to magnetically snapping it to the side of the tablet) because it is much more secure.

On the spine of the interior is a light gray plastic strip, which is used to hold the tablet inside the folio using magnetism. However, it appears the folio itself does not have any magnets in it – instead, the connection seems to rely on the magnets within the tablet itself, with perhaps just some thin strips of metal inside the folio. This keeps the folio light, and, for the most part, keeps the tablet in place, however there have been a few occasions where the tablet has become slightly dislodged with general use – it’s not fallen out of the folio as such, but has shifted position slightly so it is not optimally docked.

Like the AI Paper, the gray strip/spine also has a little compartment in it for storing spare stylus tips. I still really love this attention to detail with regards to stylus nib portability (and don’t recall seeing a similar solution from any other brand).

Overall, I think the Viwoods folio has a simple but brilliant design. At first glance, it looks very basic, but it does the job of protecting tablet without any fuss and it is easy to insert/remove the tablet. It is super light, visually appealing (in a minimalistic way), has a decent pen loop, and has a stylus tip compartment. The tablet can slip a little from the perfect docking position. And, if it is stored vertically (such as in the side compartment of a car), the front panel of the folio tends to open up easily, waking the tablet up and draining the battery. But apart from these slight gripes, I do really like the Viwoods folio design.

Stylus

In contrast, I very much disliked the Viwoods stylus.

And this was for several reasons, some of which are my own subjective preferences.

The stylus is almost cylindrical, with a flat edge to prevent it from rolling. The material used on the shaft is smooth plastic, which I found difficult to grip.

There is a button on the shaft, which can be held down to switch the nib into eraser mode. In general, I don’t like shaft-buttons because I inadvertently press them when writing, which interrupts my flow. This happened to me several times whilst trying to write on the AI Paper Mini, which was frustrating.

There is also an eraser at the top of the shaft, which is spring-loaded.

The nib itself is also spring-loaded, so when you apply too much pressure during writing, the tip moves a little, which I found off-putting.

Finally, all these moving parts means that the stylus rattles when writing, which I find very irritating.

The stylus is magnetic, and although it attaches to the side of the tablet fairly securely, there is quite a bit of movement, partly due to the curved edges.

However, I don’t think that it is designed to work this way. Instead, the magnet in the stylus actually strengthens the hold whilst it is in the pen loop, and ensures that the stylus ‘snaps’ into the pen loop in the optimal position.

Like most vendors, the Viwoods stylus uses replaceable nibs that wear down over time. Usually this is every couple of months but I’ve found that the Viwoods nibs actually last quite a bit longer. This could indicate that the Viwoods stylus tips are harder-wearing than what I am used to (or maybe the retractable nature of the nib helps to prevent wear).

Because the tablet and stylus use Wacom EMR technology, it is easy enough to use an alternative Wacom-compatible stylus instead. I have been using the Boox Pen Plus, and this works absolutely fine – and it even fits perfectly into the Pen loop.

Overall, writing with the Viwoods stylus is okay but it has too many characteristics that I, personally, am not particularly fond of.

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
	3.9 (current version) Sep 2025	Viwoods AI Paper Viwoods AI Paper Mini
Older Viwoods 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 Viwoods brand can be found here, but I have provided a summary below.

Verdict

My original intention for using the Viwoods AI Paper Mini was to have it replace my regular e-book reading device (with the added bonus of being able to make hand-written notes). And for this purpose, it exceeded my expectations.

The latest improvements to the Viwoods native e-reading app have introduced the ability to look up words in a dictionary (albeit via AI rather than a locally-installed dictionary) and highlight and export passages of text. These are features that I use very regularly, and up until now have been sorely missing from the Viwoods platform. In fact, it wasn’t until I learned about these new features that I began to take the AI Paper Mini seriously.

As a primary note-taking device, the screen is too small for my liking, and writing experience and notebook organisational features are not quite in the same class as some other products. Note-taking is good for brief notes, but my personal style is long-form writing, so the smaller screen means I can’t fit as much as I would like onto one page as I would like. But as a portable e-reader, with note-taking capabilities, it is quite magnificent. It is so thin and light that it is easy to carry around with me and read on-the-go.

I’ve read three books on it and enjoyed the experience very much. In addition, I’ve also been using to do some ad-hoc maths learning and exercises from a textbook, which I’ve found to be very slick. With other e-ink tablets, I open the textbook to read, and also open a notebook to write on and then have to keep flicking between the reading app and note-taking app. With the AI Paper Mini, you can overlay a notebook over the top of a textbook and toggle between transparency and opacity to view the textbook below it. This has been a much quicker an less painful way than other methods I have tried, such as split screen and copying/pasting.

There’s still areas where the Viwoods e-reading app underperforms, such as not being able to view PDFs in landscape, the ability to install local dictionaries, and not being able to show reading progress for chapters in an ePub. But it is now far more capable as an e-reading device than it has ever been before (and you can always install Kindle, Kobo etc. if you wish).

Regular readers will know that I much prefer monochrome e-ink tablets – unless there is a particular need for colour, I always recommend monochrome because the screen is not quite so dark, and color devices all have frontlights (which I prefer to do without for long-form writing tasks). But although I generally prefer e-ink tablets without a frontlight, I am happier to take the drawbacks as a compromise when it will be used primarily as a night-time reading device.

There’s also the extra dimension of being able to install third-party apps. Whilst some apps (particularly those with a lot of moving images) are not really suitable to use on the AI Paper Mini (or any e-ink device barring, perhaps, those super-fast refresh rate technology), things like email, web browsing and cloud drives work reasonably well. I installed the Kindle app, KOReader, NextCloud, Firefox and, of course, GeekBench (for the CPU testing) and they all performed adequately.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed using the Viwoods AI Paper Mini so much that it has replaced my primary e-reading device, and is one of three e-ink devices that I plan to use very regularly. It will not replace the Supernote Manta as my daily driver – the larger screen and powerful-yet-intuitive note-taking app of the Supernote means that it will remain as my everyday companion. And for my studies, the even larger screen of the Boox Note Max makes reading PDF textbooks and research papers far more comfortable. But neither of these tablets are suitable for night-time book reading – aside from their bulkier size and form factors, (which makes holding them whilst lying down very uncomfortable), neither of them have a frontlight. So this is where the Viwoods AI Paper Mini will fit into my life.

However, I will say that if Supernote did not exist, I think the Viwoods software has improved so much that I would seriously consider using the larger AI Paper as my daily driver (along with the AI Paper Mini as my goto portable e-reading device). It’s just a shame that their is no synchronisation between the two devices. It would be nice if I could update my daily calendar on the AI Paper, and it would be automatically updated on the AI Paper Mini or vice versa.

Buying options

The Viwoods AI Paper Mini can be purchased from:

• The official Viwoods Store*
• Some Amazon stores*

Tablet Overview