Onyx Boox Nova Air 2: Reader’s Review

I adore e-ink screens. I find reading on them far easier than an LCD screen. A Kindle offers a heavily-subsidised way into this world, but it locks you into only buying books from the Seattle giant. Enter the Onyx Boox range of devices: full-blown Android tablets with e-ink screens.

I purchased a Nova Air 2 to replace a Kindle Paperwhite and a notepad. I was eager to be able to read books from my Kindle account, BorrowBox (an app that my local library uses for ebooks) and the occasional Google Books purchase. I like reading but it’s not practical for me to buy physical books all of the time. I need a device that will support how I want to read, without locking me in. The purpose of this review is to focus on the device as a reader, with the note taking features serving as a nice bonus!

The Nova Air 2 has a 7.8” e-ink display with 300ppi: this means the text is as crisp as the Kindle Paperwhite but the device is slightly larger than the Kindle Oasis. This is a higher resolution than some of Boox’s other devices, such as the Note Air range, which support 226ppi. The difference is immediately noticeable when reading and writing. Reading text on the Nova Air 2 is like looking at good quality print. It is far easier on the eyes than the larger Note Air line.