The Onyx BOOX Nova Air C is a 7.8 inch tablet with a color E Ink display, support for pen and touch input, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and an operating system based on Android 11, which means that in addition to using the device to read eBooks and jot notes, you can run third-party Android apps.
We first spotted the Onyx BOOX Nova Air C in an FCC listing earlier this month, but now the ePaper tablet is available for purchase for $420 from Amazon or from the BOOX Store.
The tablet comes with a stylus that supports 4096s levels of pressure sensitive input, and folks who place an order by the end of March will also get a magnetic protective case/cover and a set of extra stylus nibs.
This is actually the second BOOX Nova Air C tablet – the original launched last year, features a greyscale display and Android 10 software and currently sells for $350. That makes the color display and updated software a $70 premium, which seems reasonable.
But keep in mind that the way E Ink implements color on its ePaper displays is by using a color filter that reduces the effective screen resolution when you’re viewing color content. So while the BOOX Nova Air C displays 300 pixels per inch in black and white mode, that drops to 100 ppi when viewing color content.
The screen can also only display 4096 colors and has a slower refresh rate than a typical LCD or OLED display, which makes it a poor fit for watching videos or playing many games. But as an E Ink display, you do get low power consumption, high visibility in direct sunlight or other brightly lit environments, and reduced eye strain.
Here’s a run-down of key specs for the Onyx BOOX Nova Air C:
| Onyx BOOX Nova Air C | |
| Display | 7.8 inches Color E Ink (4096 colors) 1404 x 1872 pixels (B&W) 468 x 624 pixels (color) Front light (adjustable color temperature Capacitive touch Digital Pen (4096s levels pressure sensitivity) |
| Processor | 8-cores @ 2 GHz |
| RAM | 3GB LPDDR4X |
| Storage | 32GB eMMC |
| Battery | 2,000 mAh |
| Wireless | WiFi (dual-band) Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Ports | USB Type-C OTG |
| Audio | Speaker Mic |
| Software | Android 11 |
| Dimensions | 194 x 136.5 x 6.3mm |
| Weight | 245 grams |
That is one fantastically ugly and kind of nonsensical piece of clip art.
It’s actually so bad, that if that’s a real boot image, and you can’t change that, I wouldn’t buy this thing, just so I wouldn’t have to look at it.