Onyx Boox Go 10.3 Review | PCMag

The Onyx Boox Go 10.3 ($409.99) is a large-screen E Ink tablet that comes with a stylus and offers a robust notebook app, a smooth handwriting experience, and excellent annotation capabilities on multiple file formats. Additionally, it has access to the Google Play Store, which allows you to download third-party reading apps such as Kindle and Libby. Unfortunately, the Boox Go 10.3 doesn’t have a front light, so you’ll need to make sure you’re near a lamp when using it at night. For a bit more money, the $499.99 Boox Note Air 3 C offers the same capabilities as the Go 10.3 but has both a color E Ink screen and a bright front light, making it our Editors' Choice.

The Boox Go 10.3 is impressively thin. It measures 9.3 by 7.2 by 0.18 inches (HWD) and weighs 13.2 ounces. It's relatively close in size to the Boox Note Air 3 C (8.90 by 7.60 by 0.23 inches, 15.2 ounces), the $399 ReMarkable 2 (9.6 by 7.4 by 0.19 inches, 14.1 ounces), and the $399.99 Kindle Scribe (9.0 by 7.7 by 0.22 inches, 15.3 ounces). It's easy to hold in one hand thanks to the thicker bezel on both the left side and bottom edge of the device. I was able to get a good grip with one hand without inadvertently touching the display. You can rotate the device in any direction to hold the Go 10.3 in your other hand.

There are thinner bezels along the top and down the right side of the tablet, giving it an elegant and sleek appearance. The bezels are mostly the same slate gray as the display, which makes the screen look larger than it is. A small strip of white graces the far left side and houses the Boox wordmark. The power button sits on the top right of the metal frame, while a USB-C slot is flanked by two speaker grilles on the bottom. The Go 10.3 lacks a volume rocker, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and user-replaceable storage.

A thin metal strip lines the right side of the rear panel, but it is mostly covered in gray vegan leather that offers a nice grippy feel. The leather does a good job of rejecting fingerprints, though the light color can easily get dirty. When you purchase the tablet through the Onyx Boox website, it ships with your choice of a beige or orange magnetic case at no extra cost. You can also purchase another case separately for $50.99.

No matter where you buy the Go 10.3, you get a stylus. It offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, doesn’t need to be recharged, and attaches magnetically to the side of the device. The company sells an upgraded stylus called the Pen2 Pro ($79.99), which adds an eraser button but otherwise functions in the same way.

Like many E Ink tablets, the Boox Go 10.3 lacks an IP rating to protect it against dust and water, so you don't want to use it in the bath.

The Boox Go 10.3 has an HD Carta 1200 10.3-inch grayscale E Ink display with a resolution of 2,480 by 1,860 pixels for a density of 300ppi. This is the same grayscale resolution found on the Note Air 3 C, though that model also has a color resolution of 1,240 by 960 pixels. The 10.3-inch ReMarkable 2 display is slightly less sharp at 1,872 by 1,404 pixels. Amazon doesn’t reveal the specific resolution of the 10.2-inch Kindle Scribe display, though it does say that it has a density of 300ppi.

The Boox Go 10.3 does a good job rendering text. Letters are crisp and clear and it is easy to read no matter what font size you use. All E Ink screens are prone to ghosting—where a light image of the previous page stays on the display even after you’ve gone to another screen—and the Go 10.3 is no exception. Thankfully, it has different screen refresh modes that help to mitigate this issue.

Like other E Ink products, the Go 10.3 does a great job of eliminating glare under direct sunlight. This is even more necessary with the Go 10.3 since it doesn't have a front light. You’ll need to use a lamp at night with this tablet, just as though you were reading on paper.

I find the omission of a light perplexing. The competing ReMarkable 2 doesn't include a front light either, but the ReMarkable Paper Pro has one of the most impressive front lights I’ve ever seen. Similar Boox products, including the Note Air 3 C, have great lighting, so I can find little reason to launch a product without it. Needless to say, it limits the usability of the Go 10.3 and makes it hard to recommend to anyone who works in low-light environments.

While you can technically access the internet and play videos on the Go 10.3, I would caution against it. The grayscale screen and low refresh rate make scrolling online and watching videos unappealing. This product performs best when used only for reading and writing.

Writing on the display, however, is a lot of fun. The stylus works well, and the display has a slightly textured feel, which gives the sensation of writing on paper.

The note-taking capabilities are robust. There are 24 different page templates to choose from, including musical notation, grids of various shapes and sizes, and many versions of horizontally lined paper. Five different types of pens and markers are available, with a simple slider to help you pick the width of your stroke. Smart features like shape correct, scribble to erase, and text recognition are also available, as is the ability to record audio.

The Boox Go 10.3 is powered by an unspecified octa-core CPU with 4GB of RAM that runs at up to 2.4GHz. The device has 64GB of internal storage that cannot be upgraded but is plenty for books, notes, and apps. Dual-band Wi-Fi is on board for downloading apps and books.

Sign up for Lab Report to get the latest from the experts at PC Labs delivered right to your inbox.

By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Thanks for signing up!

Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!

Navigating around the tablet is smooth and easy. Switching between apps is generally fast, and I was able to quickly switch between a book and my notes.

I found that it took an average of 31 seconds to fully boot up. This feels too long, especially when the device automatically powers off once it has been inactive for 15 minutes. You can change it so the device never powers down—at the expense of battery life. If you leave it in the default setting, however, you'll find yourself waiting for it to boot up practically every time you use it.

Like other E Ink products, the Go 10.3's battery life is typically measured in weeks rather than days. The 3,700mAh battery is the same size as the one found in the Note Air 3 C. Over a week of regular use, the Go 10.3 battery only dropped 10%. I wasn't able to fully deplete the battery while reviewing it.

In similar conditions, the Note Air 3 C lost 20% of its charge. This is likely due to its color screen, which requires more power. Needless to say, the Go 10.3 will get you through many reading and note-taking sessions on a single charge.

The tablet has two speakers, but they don’t get very loud. They also don’t do a very good job of producing frequencies on the low end of the spectrum. I could hardly make out any of the bass lines in our test track, “Silent Shout,” by The Knife. Since it lacks physical volume controls, you need to swipe down from the right side of the screen to bring up the Control Center, where you can then access the volume slider, which is clunky.

These speakers could be OK for listening to an audiobook in a small room, but you’re better off connecting wireless headphones via the tablet’s Bluetooth 5.0 radio.

The Go 10.3 runs on a customized version of the Android 12 operating system. The company says it will offer an unspecified number of security updates, but it will not upgrade the device to a newer version of the OS. Android 12 is over three years old at this point, and while security might not be an issue right now, it could be in the future.

The user interface features a vertical home row on the left side of the screen. There are icons that will bring you to your Library, the Store, Notes, Storage, Apps, and Settings. The Library shows you all the documents you have loaded onto the device, while the Store brings you to Boox’s selection of free downloadable books. They are all classics available via Project Gutenberg. The Notes tab takes you to your notebooks, and the Storage button shows you how much storage you have available and what is taking up space on your tablet. The Apps button shows you what apps are on your device, which includes the Google Play Store. The Settings button at the very bottom of the home row allows you to access settings for languages and input, date and time, power, networks, pen calibration, passwords, accounts, system display, gestures, servers, firmware updates, and store settings.

The device relies on simple swipe gestures to navigate. Swiping down from the top middle of the screen displays notifications, while swiping down from the top right corner brings up the Control Center. Here, you have quick access to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings, along with features such as locking the screen orientation, accessing split-screen mode, taking a screenshot or recording, or entering airplane mode.

You can also access the E Ink Center from the Control Center. Here, you can adjust various screen refresh modes. Normal mode is good for general text reading, while Speed mode is better for thumbing through images, though you'll see some ghosting. A2 mode is faster and is recommended for scrolling through pages with images and text, but has more obvious ghosting. Finally, X mode is best for browsing websites and playing video, though there is a loss of image detail. I found that Normal mode works best thanks to its crisp text and minimal ghosting.

Reading on the Boox Go 10.3 is excellent, thanks to the company’s NeoReader app. It offers seemingly unlimited flexibility in terms of font sizing, line spacing, word spacing, and paragraph spacing. You can change the boldness level of the words and even import custom fonts. I’m picky about how I like my page to look when I read, but I never have a problem getting exactly what I want when I read on a Boox product.

It is easy to transfer PDFs, epubs, and other documents to the device using the company’s BooxDrop app, which includes 10GB of free cloud storage. Unfortunately, the NeoReader can’t access content that is bound in digital rights management software, so your Kindle books, for example, won’t work. Instead, you’ll need to download third-party apps, such as the Kindle App, from the Google Play Store.

While it is great to be able to access third-party apps, it usually means that you lose the ability to take notes directly on your content, as these apps don’t recognize stylus input. Boox has come up with a clever, if somewhat clunky, workaround to this problem. FreeMark is a new feature available via the Control Center. Hitting this button allows you to write anywhere on the screen, even in apps that don’t technically support it.

When you initiate FreeMark, a box comes up asking you how you’d like to save your work. The software suggests that you save it in your Pictures in a folder named for the app you’re writing in. A small writing menu pops up at the top of the screen where you can choose your pen, switch to an eraser, and save your work. Once you’re finished writing on the page, hitting save will send a screenshot of your page to your photos, capturing what you've written. However, when you go to the Photos app, you aren't able to click the image and go back to that page in the original book. Still, FreeMark is a decent way to take handwritten notes in third-party apps.

Read about our mission and testing methodology.

The Onyx Boox Go 10.3 is a large, useful E Ink tablet that packs robust note-taking features, comes with an excellent stylus, has access to the Google Play Store, and includes an inventive way to take handwritten notes in third-party apps. However, we wish it didn't take so long to boot up, that it included a front light so it can be used at night, and that it cost a bit less given its grayscale display. We recommend spending a bit more money to get the Editors’ Choice-winning Boox Note Air 3 C, which comes with all the same features but has a helpful front light and a color E Ink display.

I’m a Mobile Analyst at PCMag, which means I cover wireless phones, plans, tablets, ereaders, and a whole lot more. I’ve always loved technology and have been forming opinions on consumer electronics since childhood. Prior to joining PCMag, I covered TVs and home entertainment at CNET, served as the tech and electronics reviews fellow at Insider, and began my career by writing laptop reviews as an intern at Tom's Hardware. I am also a professional actor with credits in theater, film, and television.

Read Sarah's full bio