Boox Tab Ultra C Long-Term Review // Worth the Upgrade?

been using the books tab Ultra C deeply for the last three months and at this point I have some pretty strong opinions on it how is it as a writing reading and typing device can it replace your iPad and is it worth the higher price tag over the existing tab Ultra we'll dig into all of those questions and in the end I'll let you know who I think is a good fit for this device and whether it's worth upgrading from an existing note air note Air 2 or tab Ultra if you're new around here my name is Brandon and on this channel I share practical tips to help you improve your focus and creativity if that sounds interesting to you consider subscribing so that you don't miss out on the videos that I post here every other week alright back to the video let's start with the physical design and one of the first things I think you'll notice about the Tav Ultra C is that it's noticeably heftier than its note heir to Brethren but along with that additional heft comes some additional capability the star of the show is the new 300 pixel per inch screen let's unpack what that means a little bit it's 300 pixels per inch for the grayscale layer with the color being rendered at 150 pixels per inch the great news is even if you have a combination of grayscale in color that grayscale layer is always 300 pixels per inch and clear when I first heard about the device I worried that the tablet would have to render at a lower quality if there was any color in the image and I'm happy to report that that it's not the case one thing you will notice however is that the screen is visibly dimmer than your typical grayscale ink device and that the screen does have a bit of a different look due to the color component it almost looks like a pixel array on an LED screen if you ever look really up close in practice you're able to combat this pretty easily by turning on the backlight of the device but the trade-off there is battery life the battery life is great by Led tablet standards but noticeably shorter than other ink devices I've used even other books devices in the process of writing the script for this video I've used about 30 percent of the battery over a four hour period my other ink devices often go at least a week without charging but I found that I have to charge the ultra C at least once a week if not more my current theory is that this is due to the color screen along with having to run the backlight at a brighter level to get to the same level of visible brightness but that trade-off and battery life gets you additional Clarity and a touch of color that's a big part of why I found the tab Ultra C to be a great reading device the clarity is now on par with my Kindle Oasis and has significantly more screen real estate for technical PDFs or anything with imagery that combined with the snappiness of the GPU have led me to a routine of morning reading on the couch with readwise reader and that's something that the note Air 2 plus was never quite able to crack one thing to note is you're getting a touch of color not rich eye popping color so if you're looking for a rich Color comic book experience the iPad is still the way to go on to the writing experience if you've ever used a remarkable or books note Air 2 plus the screen texture isn't nearly as grippy or paper-like as either of those but in practice I don't notice the difference nearly as much as I would have thought I would I do however notice that my palm now floats on the edge of the device versus being able to comfortably rest on the table like with the note air too and that the camera bump causes the device to have a bit of a rock when you shift your weight across it if you use the folio you'll never notice it but it's probably something that you should be aware of the book's writing app is powerful but I do find it to be a bit distracting compared to the remarkable when I use the tab Ultra C I miss my easy gestures for undo and redo proper support for scrolling paper and not to mention that the highlighter still doesn't over print if you're looking at the books it's likely because you want to be able to do something more than just read and write and I think the tab Ultra C represents a big upgrade in this department the addition of color and a Snappy GPU mean that I can finally see a world where I use Android apps on an ink device and I can see a few future where some apps are actually optimized for this obviously you're not going to watch YouTube on it but being able to see color means that you can actually tell what's going on in more apps but can it replace an iPad well not directly but if you're trying to reduce your screen time and don't mind a bit more friction in your tablet experience this device gets the closest yet on ink the thing I love about the tab Ultra C is the same thing that I love about my iPad which is that I'm no longer Tethered to my desk and I can explore ideas on the go I can go to the kitchen table or even go to some places that I wouldn't take my iPad like the backyard where the e-ink screen really shines well doesn't shine stays clear and in that situation the fact that the collado screen is slightly darker than previous screens doesn't matter one bit moving on to typing can the tab Ultra C be a modern typewriter or distraction free typing experience yes I think it can the new collado screen is plenty clear and responsive for typing and I have no real concerns about it as a typing device the books notes app has great typing support and can sync your notes to the cloud in case you ever break or lose your device they also support common markdown Syntax for things like creating headers which I absolutely love I just wish I could hide the apps header to have a fully immersive typing experience with that said my guess is you can likely find a dedicated app for writing that will better cater to your personal preferences but the hardware itself is plenty fit for the task speaking of Hardware let's chat a bit about the optional keyboard cover I really like the idea of the keyboard cover but in practice I find that it's not my preferred place to write I spend a lot of time typing at my desk on a standard keyboard so then going to a smaller non-standard keyboard of the keyboard cover tends to be an impediment of actually creating thoughtful writing if you could commit to this being your primary typing device then I believe you could get past this but unfortunately it can't be that for me it's not all bad news here though because the tab Ultra C has great support for external keyboards via its USBC port or Bluetooth I actually typed the entire script for this video on the tab Ultra C with a Bluetooth keyboard just be sure to turn off books's predictive type and show virtual keyboard feature as it shows you the words that it thinks you're writing and in practice I just find that it interrupts my train of thought it totally makes sense when you're using the on-screen keyboard but I find it hard to believe anyone would want to use it when typing on the keyboard cover or an external keyboard with that said you can't beat the convenience and form factor of the keyboard cover for those who are on the go a lot but for me personally I would recommend getting the magnetic case and then pairing that with a Bluetooth keyboard that you actually enjoy typing on one thing I do feel I need to mention is that my time with the books tab Ultra C has not been a bug-free one there was a period where my stroke wouldn't render after using the Eraser and that was pretty frustrating books fixed that one but I still run into issues where the auto rotate doesn't always kick in when it should I'm confident that books will fix this in time but it does feel like some of these things should have been caught in testing prior to final release so who should buy it I'd say if the remarkable is too opinionated then I would argue that the books isn't opinionated enough for the most part all the settings I'm looking for are here but it's a journey to find them and Cobble them together if that tinkering sounds like fun then I think you'll love the books if you don't want to Tinker at all I'd say check out the remarkable and I think the super note just might be that Goldilocks right in the middle that can blend good opinionation and flexibility in conclusion if you're looking to buy an ink tablet that can do more than just write the tab Ultra C elevates that formula to new heights it's decidedly better than the tab Ultra and the note Air 2 plus that it replaces and it's worth the price premium over both but in my opinion unless you absolutely feel you need access to color I wouldn't rush out to upgrade if you already own either of those devices as far as capabilities go the tab Ultra cits somewhere in the in-between space between a remarkable and an iPad I recently did a video where I dig into just how different those two devices are and how to figure out which of those is right for you if you haven't already please like And subscribe and I'll see you in that video

Channel: Brandon Boswell

Views: 50,536

Keywords: boox, onyx, eink, e-ink

Id: nk3huursO2A

Length: 8min 27sec (507 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 03 2023