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BOOX ships more models in a year than Kindle and Kobo manage between them, and names them like a filing system nobody explained. Go, Note, Tab, Palma, Page. Then Air, Max, Pro, C, Lumi. Two devices can differ by one letter and two hundred dollars.
We buy and resell these things, so we have handled most of the range and watched which ones come back. This page is the version of the answer we give people who ask us directly.
The short answer
How the BOOX naming actually works
Learn this and the whole catalogue stops being confusing:
- Go — the budget line. Simple, light, does the job.
- Note — built around handwriting and PDFs. Stylus is the point.
- Tab — large-format work devices, 13.3-inch territory.
- Palma — pocket. Phone-shaped, no calls.
- C suffix — colour screen (Kaleido 3).
- Lumi — has a front light. Its absence means no light.
- Air — the thinner, lighter version of a Note.
So a Note Air 4 C is a thin 10.3-inch note-taking device with a colour screen, fourth generation. Once it parses, it parses.
BOOX models side by side
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BOOX Go 7
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BOOX Go Color 7 (Gen II)
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BOOX Palma 2
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BOOX Palma 2 Pro
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BOOX Note Air 4 C
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BOOX Note Air5 C
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BOOX Note Max
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BOOX Tab X C
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Colour | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Stylus | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Best for | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Check current price | Check current price | Check current price | Check current price | Check current price | Check current price | Check current price | Check current price |
BOOX Note Air 4 C
Best for most people
A 10.3-inch colour e-ink tablet with the stylus in the box. It is the model we hand people when they do not have a strong opinion yet, because it does everything acceptably and nothing badly.
BOOX Palma 2
Best pocketable
Phone-shaped, about 175g, and the only e-reader that genuinely lives in a coat pocket. Black and white, no calls, and a cult following for good reason.
BOOX Go 7
Best budget
Seven inches of black and white with stylus support, at the cheapest entry into the range. If you mostly read novels, the money saved over colour is money well kept.
Colour or black and white?
Kaleido 3 colour is genuinely useful for charts, textbooks, comics and colour-coded notes. It is also visibly muted — closer to newsprint than to a phone screen — and it costs contrast on plain text, because the colour filter sits over the e-ink.
If you mostly read novels, buy black and white. The text is crisper and the device is cheaper. If you read anything with diagrams, colour earns its keep.
Who should not buy a BOOX
Worth saying plainly, because most reviews will not. E-ink refreshes slowly, so scrolling and typing feel laggy next to an iPad. The Android build is functional but rough at the edges, and updates arrive unpredictably. Support is based in China, which makes warranty claims slower than with Amazon or Kobo.
If you want one device for video, browsing and reading, buy a tablet. BOOX is for people who want a screen that does not glow at them for four hours.
Buying a BOOX used
Second-hand BOOX is a real market and a thin one on information. Batteries hold up reasonably to about year four. Check the stylus is included, because replacements are expensive, and check the screen corners, which is where drop damage shows first on the larger Note and Tab models.
See our rare and collector e-readers page for what discontinued models actually sell for, or take the one-minute quiz if you are still deciding between brands.
Still weighing BOOX against the mainstream? Our best e-readers guide covers Kindle, Kobo and PocketBook, and we have brand pages for Kindle, Kobo, Tolino and PocketBook.
Every Onyx BOOX article on Easy Ereader
All 2 of our Onyx BOOX reviews and guides, in one place.