3 causes I am not giving up my Kobo for ...

Now that I’ve lined the issues I like about Boox’s Go Color 7 E Ink pill, it is time to dive into the stuff I’ve borderline hated in regards to the e-reader.

Do not get me unsuitable, the Go Colour 7 is a strong, very succesful system that appears and feels higher than any e-reader I’ve used, however when it comes truly utilizing it as a studying system, I’ve realized that I do not want an E Ink pill that may do all of it. So long as my e-reader rapidly accesses my chosen library of books, gives strong battery life, and feels nice, I am bought — generally single-use tech units actually are higher.

With this in thoughts, over the previous few weeks, I’ve observed that the Go Colour 7 has a variety of notable shortcomings that I do not see talked about fairly often, together with how sophisticated the E Ink pill is, its boot time, and the truth that its helpful app optimization options do not work with the Kobo app, the platform I primarily use for studying books.

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If you happen to’re into customizing your units, you will discover rather a lot to love about Boox’s Go Colour 7.

In relation to an e-reader, I do not want Android

It is simply too sophisticated

Whereas I initially appreciated the truth that the Go Colour 7 is Android-based, after forcing myself to check numerous apps (largely Google Maintain), I’ve discovered I want the purpose-built design of Kobo’s Libra Color. Certain, I can not use Google Maintain or Gmail on my Libra Color, however I needn’t.

After I decide up an e-reader, I solely need to learn and do nothing else. I’ve an iPhone 16 Pro and various iPads floating around for utilizing extra conventional apps. In fact, some folks may want their E Ink e-reader to be powered by Android as a result of they need to do extra than simply learn books or saved articles on it, however that is not me. Over the course of a number of weeks of testing the Go Colour 7, I’ve grown bored with how janky apps may be on the E Ink pill and finally stopped utilizing them altogether. Certain, that lag created a barrier that prevented me from doomscrolling, however that additionally resulted in me reaching for my Libra Color as a substitute

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It takes too lengthy to get into truly studying

It might generally take a couple of minutes to truly open a e book

One in all my greatest points with Boox’s Go Colour 7 is that it may well generally take as much as a minute or extra to get the E Ink pill out of sleep mode and really into studying a e book, whereas my Kobo boots out of sleep mode in only a few seconds (I’ve had an identical expertise with Kindle units, too).

This may sound like a minor criticism, however once I solely need to learn for a couple of minutes to kill a short time frame, that minute-long boot-up course of seems like a irritating eternity. In a single scenario, I simply picked up my Libra Color as a substitute to learn whereas the Go Colour 7 booted up and by no means bothered going again to Boox’s system. Critically, it actually takes a very long time to stand up and working, even from its low-power state, after which after that, I’ve to place in a passcode (you possibly can’t flip the characteristic off) and boot the Kobo or Pocket (RIP) app, which provides much more time.

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While you want a break from staring on the “unhealthy display” to get some studying executed, Pocket is nice on the Kobo.

The Kobo app cannot be optimized

That is extra on Kobo, however it’s nonetheless irritating

Certain, this is perhaps a “me” difficulty, however the truth that the Go Colour 7 works with the Kobo Android app is each a blessing and irritating. It offers me easy accessibility to the identical library of books I’ve used for years (that is one thing you possibly can’t simply do with Amazon’s Kindle library), however the app feels extremely restricted.

First off, you possibly can’t remove the huge spacing within the margins of the pages, which is irritating, given I am used to adjusting that on my Libra Color. That stated, I recognize you possibly can nonetheless regulate the textual content measurement and choose from a number of totally different fonts. Nonetheless, pages look odd with textual content cramped within the center, particularly when the font is a bit bigger.

Moreover, lots of the greatest app-specific Boox options are incompatible with the Kobo app, together with the power to customise the Go Colour 7’s buttons, which do not seem to perform appropriately. If you happen to long-press on an app icon and choose Optimize, you are given a set of choices. Subsequent, flip over to Others, and you may see Customized Aspect Buttons, together with Web page-turn, Quantity, and Scrolling. Although I’ve Web page-turn chosen, the Boox Colour 7’s aspect buttons nonetheless management the pill’s quantity, sadly.

I like Boox’s Go Colour 7, however I’ve realized I do not want the flexibility it gives in terms of an e-reader. Different folks will discover these Android-powered options helpful, however I’ve a number of different units that fill that position for me, together with my smartphone — all I would like is an E Ink system that is designed only for studying.

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