Boox Go 10.3 (Gen 2) Lumi
pros and cons
- Very nice writing experience
- Deep customization
- Access to Play Store
- Powerful note-taking and annotation
- Support for a wide range of apps
- Steep learning curve
- Complex UI with occasional bugs
- Pen doesn’t automatically charge
on Google.
The second-generation Boox Go 10.3 Lumi
Physically, the device’s aluminum frame feels solid, and the vegan leather texture on the back adds a premium touch. The texture gives the device a grip that feels good in the hand, while keeping it stationary on the desk, rather than moving while you write — a pet peeve of mine with digital tablets.
The synthetic-leather folio case bundled with the Boox Go 10.3 Gen 2 is stylish, but its detachable strap is a questionable design choice that must be pulled tight to keep the tablet intact. During testing, the device frequently came unseated or shifted off the magnets, requiring me to re-align it or attach it altogether.
Also: I tested the Kindle Scribe 2 for months, and it beat my ReMarkable in several ways
Similarly, the pen is lightweight and easy to grip, but getting it to snap into place on the tablet requires a few attempts before it clicks. Personally, I’m not a fan of the function button on the pen, as it requires you to grip it a certain way, and mis-clicks are common. You do get used to this approach over time, but it defeats the purpose of replicating the “real pencil” experience, in my opinion.
The pen also doesn’t charge while connected to the tablet. You’ll need to connect the pen to its own power source with the USB-C port on top of the device. This step may or may not be a big deal for you, but know that the pen charges quickly and lasts for weeks.
By extension, the tablet’s 3,700mAh Li-ion Polymer battery is very good overall. If you use the pen for a few hours each day, the tablet will last well over a week on one charge. If you only use the tablet as an e-reader, it will last two weeks or more.
The user experience
As with all the Boox products I’ve used, the writing experience is good, with a solid pen-to-paper feel and a rich toolkit of brushes, customizations, and paper templates. You’ve got basically everything you could want here: support for layers, shapes, custom gesture mapping, the ability to add your own image files, and even audio, because the tablet features dual speakers and a mic at the bottom.
Also: Hundreds of readers bought this E Ink tablet – and I highly recommend it
To top it off, the tablet supports virtually all the file types you’d ever imagine working with, including PDFs, EPUB, txt, rtf, html, png, jpg, gif, and bmp, to name a few.
Setting all of these things up on the device takes some time, at least the first time you use it, but once you have everything the way you want it, navigation is smoother. But this front-loaded learning curve might dissuade users coming from either the curated Amazon ecosystem with the Kindle Scribe or the ultra-minimalist ReMarkable tablet.
ZDNET’s buying advice
The Boox Go 10.3 (Gen 2) Lumi, or bundled with extra pen tips and the folio for $449