3 causes I am not giving up my Kobo for this Android E Ink pill

Now that I’ve lined the issues I like about Boox’s Go Color 7 E Ink pill, it is time to dive into the stuff I’ve borderline hated concerning the e-reader.

Do not get me incorrect, the Go Colour 7 is a stable, very succesful gadget that appears and feels higher than any e-reader I’ve used, however when it comes truly utilizing it as a studying gadget, I’ve realized that I do not want an E Ink pill that may do all of it. So long as my e-reader shortly accesses my chosen library of books, gives stable battery life, and feels nice, I am offered — generally single-use tech units really are higher.

With this in thoughts, over the previous few weeks, I’ve observed that the Go Colour 7 has plenty of notable shortcomings that I do not see talked about fairly often, together with how sophisticated the E Ink pill is, its boot time, and the truth that its helpful app optimization options do not work with the Kobo app, the platform I primarily use for studying books.

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For those who’re into customizing your units, you may discover rather a lot to love about Boox’s Go Colour 7.

On the subject of an e-reader, I do not want Android

It is simply too sophisticated

Whereas I initially appreciated the truth that the Go Colour 7 is Android-based, after forcing myself to check varied apps (principally Google Preserve), I’ve discovered I want the purpose-built design of Kobo’s Libra Color. Positive, I am unable to use Google Preserve or Gmail on my Libra Color, however I needn’t.

After I choose up an e-reader, I solely need to learn and do nothing else. I’ve an iPhone 16 Pro and various iPads floating around for utilizing extra conventional apps. In fact, some folks would possibly want their E Ink e-reader to be powered by Android as a result of they need to do extra than simply learn books or saved articles on it, however that is not me. Over the course of a number of weeks of testing the Go Colour 7, I’ve grown uninterested in how janky apps could be on the E Ink pill and finally stopped utilizing them altogether. Positive, that lag created a barrier that prevented me from doomscrolling, however that additionally resulted in me reaching for my Libra Color as an alternative

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It takes too lengthy to get into truly studying

It may well generally take a couple of minutes to really open a guide

Certainly one of my greatest points with Boox’s Go Colour 7 is that it may generally take as much as a minute or extra to get the E Ink pill out of sleep mode and really into studying a guide, whereas my Kobo boots out of sleep mode in only a few seconds (I’ve had an analogous expertise with Kindle units, too).

This would possibly sound like a minor grievance, however after I solely need to learn for a couple of minutes to kill a short time frame, that minute-long boot-up course of seems like a irritating eternity. In a single state of affairs, I simply picked up my Libra Color as an alternative to learn whereas the Go Colour 7 booted up and by no means bothered going again to Boox’s gadget. Severely, it actually takes a very long time to stand up and operating, even from its low-power state, after which after that, I’ve to place in a passcode (you may’t flip the characteristic off) and boot the Kobo or Pocket (RIP) app, which provides much more time.

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Whenever you want a break from staring on the “dangerous display” to get some studying achieved, Pocket is nice on the Kobo.

The Kobo app cannot be optimized

That is extra on Kobo, however it’s nonetheless irritating

Positive, this is likely to be a “me” situation, however the truth that the Go Colour 7 works with the Kobo Android app is each a blessing and irritating. It provides me easy accessibility to the identical library of books I’ve used for years (that is one thing you may’t simply do with Amazon’s Kindle library), however the app feels extremely restricted.

First off, you may’t get rid of the large spacing within the margins of the pages, which is irritating, given I am used to adjusting that on my Libra Color. That mentioned, I respect you may nonetheless regulate the textual content dimension and choose from just a few totally different fonts. Nonetheless, pages look odd with textual content cramped within the center, particularly when the font is a bit bigger.

Moreover, lots of the finest app-specific Boox options are incompatible with the Kobo app, together with the flexibility to customise the Go Colour 7’s buttons, which do not seem to perform accurately. For those who long-press on an app icon and choose Optimize, you are given a set of choices. Subsequent, flip over to Others, and you will see Customized Facet Buttons, together with Web page-turn, Quantity, and Scrolling. Although I’ve Web page-turn chosen, the Boox Colour 7’s facet buttons nonetheless management the pill’s quantity, sadly.

I like Boox’s Go Colour 7, however I’ve realized I do not want the flexibility it gives with regards to an e-reader. Different folks will discover these Android-powered options helpful, however I’ve a number of different units that fill that position for me, together with my smartphone — all I would like is an E Ink gadget that is designed only for studying.

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