E-readers are often mistaken for single-purpose devices with eye-friendly displays. Of course, modern e-paper devices are so much more than that. Onyx Boox is a brand that has worked hard at excelling in this category, defeating the likes of the Amazon Kindle for the throne.
The Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C is a colorized and updated iteration of the Onyx Boox Note Air 3, reviewed by my colleague Harish Jonnalagadda. The Note Air 3 has a colorized version called the Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C, which begs the question, why should you buy the newer, more expensive model?
As with any new release, the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C has upgraded internals and software. After using it for a few months, I have some thoughts about the Note Air 4 C. Let’s dive into the details.
There’s a new color Onyx Boox in town and it’s as sleek as ever
Onyx Boox stays busy, launching new models of its black & white as well as colored E Ink tablets loaded with Android every few months. The Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C was released on October 23, 2024. Interestingly, there is no grayscale Note Air 4 to go with the 4 C.
You can purchase the Note Air 4 C for $499.99 from Onyx Boox’s website or retailers like Amazon. It comes with a stylus in the box and a charging cable, but the accompanying Note Air 4 C Cover needs to be bought separately for another $50.99.
Onyx Boox outfitted the Note Air 4C with an upgraded Kaleido 3 color E Ink panel which delivers better brightness and contrast levels, as well as a higher screen refresh rate. The 10.3-inch e-paper display has an anti-glare layer on top and a Wacom layer to support the included EMR stylus.
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Design wise, the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C looks exactly the same as the last-gen Note Air 3 C. Both e-readers are equally slim at lightweight, measuring 226mm x 193mm x 5.8mm in size and coming in at a lightweight 430 grams.
To make you understand just how sleek this thing is, I compared it to the brand-new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Next to this slim and trim e-ink tablet, the S25 Ultra looks chunky. It’s amazing, considering this is an older design, whereas Samsung’s flagship phone is hot out of the oven and hasn’t even started shipping yet.
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There are no physical buttons apart from the power button. The microSD card slot is still located in the spine of the tablet, along with the USB-C port for 15W wired charging. You can also use a USB-C thumb drive with the Note Air 4 C as it supports USB-C OTG.
Sadly, there’s no ingress protection yet again this year, so you have to be super careful when handling the Note Air 4 C near liquids and grainy solid particles.
The software is the biggest draw with Boox tablets
As I mentioned earlier, the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C has a speedier octa-core chipset and beefier 6GB RAM, adding 2GB to the Note Air 3 C’s 4GB of RAM. The result is noticeably improved performance, fewer instances of ghosting, and better loading times in general. It’s still nowhere near as snappy as a full-blown Android tablet, of course, but it’s one of the fastest e-paper tablets that money can buy right now.
Boosted internals go hand in hand with newer software. The Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C comes with Android 13 installed out of the box as opposed to the Note Air 3 C, which came with Android 12. This might seem old seeing as we are on Android 15 in the smartphone sector now. But for e-readers, that’s quite advanced. Not to mention, Onyx Boox promises to deliver at least three years of firmware updates to all of its devices. Most Boox tabs probably get more than that.
The biggest draw with an Onyx Boox e-reader is that you get unfettered access to Android apps, and the Play Store is pre-installed. Amazon blocks this ability on all Kindle e-readers, limiting what you can do with a Kindle to a great extent. The Note Air 4 is ripe with possibilities. You can try installing any Android app in the sun. Even if it’s incompatible, you can tweak and optimize it using Onyx Boox’s built-in customizability tools.
The NeoReader is a fantastic e-book app with extensive tools and options baked in. Note-taking is also a treat on the Note Air 4 C, thanks to Boox’s Notes app, which has OCR built-in so that you can convert hand-written notes on the fly. Onyx Boox offers so many useful reading and writing functions that it’s hard to list out everything.
Like every other tech brand, Onyx Boox has also hopped aboard the AI bandwagon. You get neat AI features pre-loaded on the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C, such as the Boox AI Assistant and AI Read. This makes the NeoReader more intelligent than ever before.
Very few competitors offer what the Note Air 4 C does
There are plenty of e-readers out there, but very few can do what the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C can. If you don’t care about Android smarts and just want a cheap e-reader for nothing but reading, the most straightforward answer is a cheap Amazon Kindle.
Other competing brands include Bigme, Kobo, and Pocketbook. However, none of these companies have e-readers that run Android 13, come with color displays, and consistently receive software updates.
Ironically, if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, the most suitable option comes from Onyx Boox themselves. The smaller Boox Palma 2 launched alongside the Note Air 4 C and costs only $279.99. It features a 6.13-inch E Ink Carta 1200 display that only outputs shades of black and white. The nifty little Palma 2 has many of the smarts of the 4 C despite its stature, and it one-ups the larger tab thanks to its splash-proof design.
Is it worth buying the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C?
You should buy it if…
- You want the latest processor and higher RAM
- You want a versatile e-reader for note-taking
- You’re a student or someone who needs to write a lot
- You want a colorful e-reader
You shouldn’t buy it if…
- You need ingress protection like water-resistance and dust-proofing
- Your budget is extremely tight
As much as I love the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C, almost $500 is a hefty price to pay for such a niche device. It’s a wonderful e-reader that’s perfect for note-taking, with no limitations and unrestricted access to Android apps via the Play Store. However, everything that I love about this tablet overlaps with the Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C.
Frankly speaking, beyond the menial hardware upgrade such as the faster processor and newer Bluetooth chip, there’s not a lot there to justify buying the Note Air 4 C over its predecessor. You can score the Note Air 3 C for $50 less and it still gets the same firmware upgrades as the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C.
If Android 13 is of great importance to you, the newer Boox e-reader makes sense. But in most cases, I’d suggest opting for the older Note Air 3 C instead. Make no mistake, the Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C is a spectacular device. It’s just that it doesn’t add much over the last-gen 3 C, at least not enough to justify a $50 price difference.
Get college ready
Onyx Boox created the Note Air 4 C for reading first and foremost, and the device excels at that. In addition to a wonderful built-in e-reader with exhaustive options, this Android tablet also functions as a spectacular note-taking device with native OCR. Now equipped with several AI features and a faster processor, it’s the ideal non-intrusive device for a studious individual, working professional, or school-going person.
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