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Comment by dheera | Hacker News Reader

Personally I use a Boox e-Ink tablet, which just runs Android. That means I can just install the Kindle app and read Kindle books without any fuss. I do hate DRM with a passion but sometimes I just want to get on with my day and this solution works for me.

I really like the look of the Remarkable though, I just wish it ran Android.

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I've considered Boox devices, but I'm put off by not wanting to reward the GPL abuse that seems to be occurring in that product range.

I'm doing exactly the same, I'm using almost exclusively the Kindle app and it works fine on my Boox tablet.

What disappointed me is the slowness of the refreshing. I guess it's because I hadn't used any e-reader before. I bought my Boox with the idea that I could also run other apps on it, since after all it ran on Android. Running other apps is possible but it's just really a pain, even web browsing is just too slow.

- Doctor, it hurts when I do this.

- Then don't do this.

Web browsing on e-ink is widely known to be barely usable, and not what e-readers are made to do. So usage of "even" word is hard to explain here really.

I admitted I didn't have any experience using e-readers before, so please forgive my ignorance. But in defence of me and all the other ignorant buyers, when a device is sold with the argument that it is a fully functional Android device, one might suspect that you'd be able to run some apps on it without too many problems. This is from the Boox site itself:

> The book is based on the Android 10.0 operating system, which allows third-party applications to be installed on the device and significantly expands the scope of its application

Marketing texts happen to be misleading more often than not. But this exact excerpt you cited looks innocent to me. "Significantly" is subjective, of course, but other than that it's correct.

> Running other apps is possible

For me I don't spend much time in those other apps, but it's really nice to have the ability to install Google Drive, GMail, Slack, Notion, Dropbox, and stuff like that so I can easily open up documents that are sent to me through the normal channels I use and never have to worry about actually "transferring" anything to my tablet.

I also keep all my sheet music and academic papers to-read on Google Drive.

How is it? Does it feel fast like iPad? Or at least responsive even if not that that fast? I have Paperwhite and while I still love it to death after 8 years, I just can’t live with the lag with traditional e-ink tablets like Paperwhite.

Boox tablets seem to refresh faster than Kindle Paperwhites, but the appearance can be janky looking because Android isn't optimized for running on eInk. It takes some time to adjust to.

This isn't a big problem for reading, but navigating through the general system UI and Android apps can be offputting.

You can tweak some of the refresh rate settings. My experience is it's a lot faster than a paperwhite (to the point that now when I use the kindle I wonder why it's so slow), but nowhere close to an ipad.

No, it's super laggy just like all e-Ink devices, except for the natively-optimized note taking app which feels fine for writing and taking notes.

Don't expect an iPad experience at all.

The reasons I use it are

- To get eye strain relief when reading ebooks, academic papers, or long PDF documents

- To be able to read those things in bright sunlight while outdoors

- Insanely good battery life compared to a traditional tablet, I only charge mine about once a week

- Screen continues to display while consuming zero power, after device goes to sleep, which is useful for practicing music, and for placing reference documents on the table while I work on e.g. electronics, or recipes while working in the kitchen. I don't have to keep smacking it every 2 minutes to wake it up, and it won't run out of battery displaying a single PDF page for several days

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