Onyx Boox Note Air 3 e-ink tablet review: Noteworthy in places, sketchy in others

The Onyx Boox Note Air 3 is a premium e-reader with a stunning e-ink display that’ll make bookworms feel right at home with its paper-like viewing experience. But its oversized selling point, a 10.3-inch Carta panel, might blur the lines that separate e-readers from tablets.

Thankfully, there’s a host of software to help you get the most out of its sizable panel, and Boox’s inclusion of a reliable stylus allows you to take notes, sketch ideas, and annotate books, notes, and documents like a champ.

But at tablet size and tablet pricing, is the Note Air 3 capable of delivering a tablet-like experience in e-ink form? Let’s find out.

Onyx Boox Note Air 3: Price and availability

The Onyx Boox Note Air 3 is available for $399 from Amazon and the Onyx Boox website, and online at various retailers.

A color version of this e-reader tablet is also available for $499 from Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.

Price-wise, perhaps the closest product to measure up against is the $419 Kindle Scribe (64GB), with a similarly sized 10.2-inch Paperwhite display. Both feature a stylus, lengthy battery life, and the ability to jot down notes and mark up text and documents. However, only Boox’s option has out-of-the-box access to the apps and services available in the Google Play store. 

Onyx Boox Note Air 3: Design and display

Standing out from a crowd of plastic-framed e-ink readers, Onyx Boox has outfitted the Note Air 3 with a stunning aluminum-magnesium alloy chassis that screams premium quality — even if it does carry a noticeable burden of weight (430 grams).

The Note Air 3’s sizable tablet design (8.9 x 7.6 x 0.22 inches) features a 10.3-inch (1872 x 1404) e-ink Carta panel — an electronic paper technology that attempts to make reading from this display as comfortable as reading from a regular page. In that regard it does quite well, offering a solid balance of lightness and contrast between page and character.

In fact, due to the nature of e-ink, you can set the brightness to zero and enjoy the panel in ambient light no differently than you would an actual book. Unlike other panels, the matte e-ink display doesn’t require a backlight or power to retain its paper-like, off-white backdrop.

Each pixel within the frame is actually a microcapsule that houses positively charged black particles and negatively charged white particles within a clear fluid. This allows the Air 3 to switch the order of each “pixel” by sending the appropriate charge only once, flipping which particles appear on top.

Not only is this great for reducing the draw on a device’s battery, but it practically eliminates any risk of screen burn-in, resulting in a tablet that will last and serve you longer.

The Air 3’s panel is protected by a layer of Onyx Glass, which protects the display from scratches or damage. However, there’s no IP rating, meaning Onyx Boox doesn’t certify how well it holds up against water or particulate intrusions.

However, visually the Onyx Glass is a nice element that gives the e-reader a much more modern look, while also aiding with clarity and glare thanks to a special top coating that helps retain its matte finish.

Surrounding the Air 3’s display are some fairly chunky bezels that give you plenty of space to hold the tablet without accidentally registering an input. The left-hand side of the tablet features a much wider expanse for gripping the e-reader one-handed (though, thanks to the auto-rotating display, you can turn the device and use it just as well with your right hand). Its slate grey backing contrasts wonderfully with the bold orange used for the Boox branding and other slight accents around the chassis.

Along the top of the tablet (while in portrait standing) is where you’ll find the power button, which doubles as a fingerprint scanner. On the device’s left-hand side, which also doubles as the device’s base when in landscape orientation, is where you’ll find the remainder of the frame’s features — including a set of stereo speakers, a microphone, a microSD card slot for expanding on the Air 3’s 64GB of internal storage, and a USB Type-C port for data transfer and charging.

The Onyx Boox Note Air 3 also comes packaged with a magnetic protective case that acts as both a folio for further screen protection and as a stand for both portrait and landscape orientations.

While it offers little in the way of shock protection, it does give some extra peace of mind when it comes to the Air 3’s lack of an IP rating, offering a snug cover for the exposed USB port and speaker grille while its magnetic latch also offers further hold on the magnetic stylus that comes in the box.

Onyx Boox Note Air 3: Stylus

The Onyx Boox Note Air 3 features a multitouch capacitive layer (the sensor that allows touch and finger gestures) and a Wacom sensor which lets you interact with the device using the packaged Onyx Boox stylus.

While it’s no Apple Pencil or Adonit Note+ 2, the Air 3’s stylus is comfortable to hold and can be magnetically snapped to the side of the tablet at any time to avoid misplacing it. It doesn’t require charging and is always ready and available to help with sketching or rapid note-taking thanks to its ability to register 4096 degrees of pressure, which is handy while drawing to make more defined natural lines. 

However, while this mode is meant to be far more accurate than relying on your digits for doodling, the Wacom layer is below both the capacitive touch layer and the e-ink panel. This distance is minute in terms of engineering the Note Air 3’s super slender frame but often results in slight offsets between where the nib of the stylus appears to be pointing and where it registers. 

Still, any stylus beats no stylus at all, and Note Air 3’s pen is a welcome addition that feels great to use thanks to that paper-like surface. Personally, I don’t often have the urge to tear myself away from a good read and start busting out my own rendition of the Vitruvian Man in the margins. However, the Air 3 is great for students needing to annotate a required read, or for meeting attendees who want to add context to minutes or memos.

Onyx Boox Note Air 3: Software

The Note Air 3 runs on a modified version of Android 12 (originally released in October 2021) and offers Google Play store access, giving you access to a range of different apps right out of the box. However, expect compatibility issues with some apps due to the e-ink display and the limitations of its Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G processor.

Don’t expect to be relishing in noir-esque versions of your favorite Netflix shows either. The Air 3’s display doesn’t play well with video or any medium requiring a spritely refresh rate (which means gaming is a no-go too). While you’ll have the vast expanse of the Google Play store at your fingertips, you’ll be somewhat restricted when it comes to what works fluently.

Stick with eBook libraries, storefronts, and productivity apps for the best results, but if you already have your own digital library of Alexandria you’ll be able to instantly make use of them as long as they’re among the following supported file formats. 

The Air 3 also has a built-in media player that allows you to listen to MP3 and WAV files. While listening to music wasn’t the best audio experience I’ve had with a tablet, the Air 3’s speakers are more than satisfactory at presenting a good audiobook or podcast — though they could be a tad louder.

Onyx Boox’s NeoReader is a solid app that allows you to read eBooks with ease. You can customize the experience through font size, navigation options, and even OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for interpreting scanned images. There’s also an impressive text-to-speech option available from within the app, though its flat delivery seems dated when compared to many of today’s AI-generated options.

Creating an Onyx account grants you 10GB of cloud storage, which, for an e-reader is akin to inheriting a bottomless storage bag for all your reading needs. It also allows you to use BOOXDrop online to transfer files from your PC or laptop directly to the Air 3 without physically connecting the two. 

Onyx Boox Note Air 3: Battery life

Housing a 3,700 mAh battery and making use of its e-ink Carta panel, the Onyx Boox Note Air 3 can stretch its battery life to great effect. Boox claims that its tablet-sized e-reader can last up to four weeks in standby mode.

During my own testing, I still had around 20% of its battery left after nearly using it for a few hours each night and occasionally jotting things down during the day.

It’s a very dependable nightstand companion for those who enjoy mellowing out to a great story at the end of the day — and its MOON Light 2 tech reduces blue light and avoids any interruption to your circadian rhythm.

Onyx Boox Note Air 3: Performance

Performance is probably the one major downside of the Air 3. While it works well enough most of the time, there are spells where the tablet’s OS can hang briefly, or inputs cease to function momentarily. It’s not a constant stream of performance hiccups, but it exists just enough that you’re never too far removed from an issue to forget it's there.

However, from a personal level, the tablet’s e-ink display responsiveness frustrates me the most. It’s a limitation of the technology, and e-ink displays suffer in this area across the board, but its sluggish, ghosting, and altogether drowsy visuals do nothing for me.

While the Air 3 includes a browser, I found that some of the sites I routinely visit appear broken or fail to load correctly. Scrolling up and down web pages is a torment in and of itself, with the dot matrix-like renditions of images leaving trails behind that leave you nostalgic for the Windows Solitaire win animation.

Beyond its display, the Note Air 3 is just a little too big for the job. It feels very niche to need an e-reader of this size, even if it can do several of the tasks you’d expect from a larger tablet. It’s cumbersome to carry around, and its size isn’t offset, as other more traditional tablets might be, by the expanded number of tasks it may accomplish.

Bluetooth connectivity even allows you to connect a wireless keyboard for easier note-taking or writing, though you can connect plug-and-play devices directly to the USB Type-C port if you prefer. However, while in landscape orientation, that port is blocked off — forcing you to rely on Bluetooth and even forego charging at the same time. With its tablet sizing, this seems like a clear oversight. 

Bottom line

All in all, my time with the Onyx Boox Note Air 3 was pleasant enough, though I don’t know if it’s a device I’d consider a daily driver of any sort. It’s pretty large for what I would use an e-reader for (reading), and otherwise delivers a downgraded tablet experience.

While Boox’s Air 3 has hard-to-beat battery life, I tend to only use it at home due to its size. However, those who want a less distracting tablet experience in the workplace or at school will gain maximum benefit from this device, as it’ll flawlessly make it through the day with juice to spare (and then some).

Personally, my wants tend more towards something like the Onyx Boox Palma — a smaller, reader-focused version of Boox’s devices.