Review on BOOX Nova3 Color: 7.8 ePaper Digital Paper Tablet with Cold Light, 100DPI Color Mode, 300DPI B/W Mode - High-Resolution Color eReader and Digital Notepad by Daniel Pesicek

03/13/21: First thoughts.1. Setup is easy. I don't have an Onyx account (something from China) and I can still do everything. I updated the firmware to the latest version.2. The Google Play Store was up and running for about half an hour, but now it's working fine, as are the Android apps.3. The screen is dark. I have a Boox Note 2 with a very good screen, easy to use with the front light off and a decent reading light. Not so with Nova 3 Color. Outdoors in the shade or in the sun, the screen works well without a front light. But indoors, some front light is needed. This reduces the eye-friendly advantage of the E-ink.4 screen. The front light is a bluish cold light. Note 2 has both warm and cool lighting and can be customized. Nova 3 Color only has cold light, which makes me uncomfortable.5. Yes it has colors although they are muted and washed out. Nothing looks bright. Photos and videos often look cartoonish with 4096 colors at 100 dpi.6. Ghosting in color images can be severe even in standard refresh mode. I reduced the default update mode to 2, which helps but can still be frustrating. Spirits on Note 2 are well controlled.7. Battery life is a bit poor. In three to four hours of use, the battery dropped from 100% to 80%. This can be compounded by the need to trigger the front light and color filter layer. The Note 2's battery lasts much longer, even with the larger display. Note-taking works well, but you'll probably want to use black instead of colors that don't have good contrast. Color contrast can be adjusted, but colors never come out that well. Yellow and red are not particularly suitable. What I like: 1. It's smaller than the Note 2 and therefore more portable, but the Nova 3 is identical except for the lack of color, so this might be a better option if you really DON'T NEED color and not just color. 2. The presence of pops of color can bring images to life. Some games are easier to use, and graphics that require color rather than grayscale work better. This is probably the best you can get for a full color e-book and notepad of this size. The Kaleido 3 screens should be available by the end of autumn, but it's likely that they'll just allow for larger screens rather than enhancing the overall experience. I recommend if you really don't NEED the color skip this for B&W Boox units. Major improvements needed: 1. Either change the front light to a warm light or add an adjustable warm and cool light as in note 2.2. Repair halos. In many situations this is too much.3. Find a way to increase battery life. What I really want: I need a 6" Android portable tablet/reader with e-ink and access to the Google Play Store and Android apps. I need Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a built-in speaker and microphone. I don't really need a note taker so remove the Wacom layer which should make the screen brighter without turning on the front light, provide both cool and warm light or just warm light if only one light is possible. Make both colored and colorless versions so I can choose the one that works best. Shortcuts sometimes don't work. I had to go to the Google Play Store, find the app and press ENABLE and then OPEN. I may need to do this regularly. Google News usually cannot be launched from the icon shortcut. Instead, the "News" shortcut launches the Play Store and I have to click "Open" in the Play Store. All Android apps work, but sometimes I need to play around with them.2. A good ceiling reading light requires minimal front lighting, so the front light can be barely visible. Without a skylight, the intensity of the front light should be increased, and the appearance of cold light will be noticeable.3. The screen is noticeably gray initially, but after 5-10 minutes of use the gray background color seems completely normal and the gray becomes much less noticeable. The gray background doesn't change, but my perception does. Text contrast is very good and text resolution looks very good even with a magnifying glass.4. Color images can look pretty good, but require color contrast and intensity to be set to a minimum on the settings screen.5. The presence of color, even in small amounts, really brings the display to life and I find that using the Nova 3 Color can be more enjoyable than using my B&W Note 2. After using the Nova 3 Color, the Note 2 look pretty gray in comparison.4. I'd really like to see a Note Color device (10.3 inch screen) but with a lighter background (no front light needed) and adjustable front light, both warm and cool.