Updated 28-Jun-2024
The Onyx Boox Nova Pro is a popular 7.8" eNote device with grayscale e-ink Carta screen, and a Wacom touchscreen layer, under mobius and glass. The hardware includes USB-C, an on/off/sleep button and a back button, along with bluetooth and wifi.
The main advantage, though still a bit incomplete, is the ability to read and write in e-ink. Reading is good support for ebooks and pdf, and writing is in an app as well as a scribble function and a side-note function. Scribble only works on pdf, while sidenote works on ebooks and pdfs.
Where to Purchase the Onyx Boox Nova Pro
It is a mistake to buy an Onyx Boox Nova Pro from anywhere but the Boox site, since support is not provided by Boox when bought through third parties. In addition, currently the Boox shop includes a set of accessories for the Nova Pro (including a cover) at no additional charge.
Reviews and their Limitations
Unfortunately every review we've seen is basically a reviewer checking off boxes rather than coming from actual use that is anywhere close to real use cases. Facts of this nature are only found on certain forums, if that. This is a challenge because the feature set is far from complete and recent updates (on the Onyx Boox enote devices) have made some changes to basic functionality (for good and ill).
Physical Specifications and Usability
A 7.8" device is compared with the original 6" paperwhite, which is our previous model that held up for 7 years of use. While some might compare with other premium ebook readers, that shows that the real difference is the Wacom layer and note-taking ability.
By comparing with the Paperwhite, it indicates what a difference a generation makes in terms of not only a screen, but the interaction functionality that is very different now (and we believe will be different again once voice recognition expands to reach the level of interactivity that e-ink + wacom currently provides in the Nova Pro. Truly effective voice control (that is affordable) may reach devices at about the same time as truly effective and affordable color e-ink devices.
Compared with the 6" paperwhite there is over 32% more screen available, not to mention the significant difference with the Nove Pro 300ppi display at 1872 x 1440 px.
The weight difference is 275g vs. 213g. Significant, but the flat aspect hides some of that weight. Dimensions are 196.3 × 137 × 7.7 mm vs. 169 x 117 x 9.1 mm. The Nova Pro is thinner, and about 3 cm taller and 2 cm wider.
Unfortunately the pen, which works fine, doesn't have a great feel (complete plastic) nor an elegant way to stay attached to the main device. Cues should be taken from Microsoft for what it has done with pen attachment (and pen technology in general).
Actual Usability
The heart of the matter comes down to a few issues with this device:
- orientation / rotation, and
- sidenote / scribble
When dealing in the real world, one has to take account of actual use cases. For example:
- Reading a pdf, and marking up a page
- Reading an ebook, and marking up a page
- Reading a pdf, and adding notes to the document
- Reading an ebook, and adding notes to the document
The care in which how the user is able to perform these actions, and have full expected functionality falls short, in several ways:
- Ebooks cannot have markup on a given page
- When in the
sidenotefunctionality, the menu for the document is unavailable and a landscape orientation imposed (both with ebook and pdf)- This means in order to access any menu/functionality for the document, one has to exit out of
sidenotefirst.
- This means in order to access any menu/functionality for the document, one has to exit out of
Sidenotefor a pdf, makes the document into a thumbnail on one side of the screen (essentially unusable) by zooming out, and pinch-and-zoom is not available.
Orientation / Rotation
Orientation cannot be set properly except in a few options, for example landscape for reading an ebook. However, some third-party orientation apps might work. We prefer Rotation Control Pro which runs $2.99 USD but is blissfully removed from advertising.
In general, this is not a problem in the sense that sidenote changes to landscape, if one is used to portrait. Landscape is useful when having two-column layout in being very reader-friendly. However, when reading PDFs the best thing is to have it be portrait and full-page sized. There are various settings available to get the pdf displayed as one prefers.
For viewing and annotating pdfs, the Nova Pro is quite good. PDFs do still appear a bit small, but they are legible, and a decent pair of reading glasses helps. One can definitely see how a 10.3" display will go the extra step toward making e-ink pdfs truly effective.
Sidenote Limitations
Sidenote is a landscape orientation with the ability to shift around orientation. The problem is that the only menu bar available is for the sidenote, and not the book itself. Sidenotes are affixed to the book rather than a page (unlike the scrible function available for the pdf viewer).
Note Limitations in General
There have been improvements for how notes are stored, synchronized, and accessed, however some basics are needed from a philosophic approach: Notes should be available
- on pages they are made on,
- in books they are made in, and
- as collections themselves (metadata implicit and tagged).
This is really no difference than how annotations work, in that they are tied to given pages or locations as well as books themselves.
In addition, some kind of ocr should also be available across all notes in their various locations.
The Navigation Ball is helpful functionality, but it is limited in what its five menu items can be. For example, home is not an available option, nor is the Library (though Notes are). Also, just the simple ability to call up the top menu which is available at home but not within any given document.
A huge amount of the trouble one currently encounters in the Nova Pro has to do with menus, when and how they are available (and how they are not). Basic navigation usability is really key and boy does it hurt when it isn't worked out well.
Copy and Paste across Apps
Copy and paste does work accross apps including the native local apps and Android apps. This is very useful in the use case where a chat app such as Telegram is used to store/send bits of copied text.
Synchronization with Syncthing
Syncthing android application works fine on the Boox Nova Pro.
- Double click on the navigation ball, and this is a shortcut to
home - For wired audio, simple USB adapters apparently work