I wish I had this high-tech study sidekick when I was in school

With the back-to-school season here, it can be tough to know exactly what tech you need to actually get ahead for the upcoming school year. On the tablet front, the iPad is a college favorite, allowing students to take notes, read books, work on assignments and collaborate with other students with ease. However, the iPad’s ability to do literally everything makes it quite a distraction machine as well, with students often finding themselves losing hours to Netflix, TikTok, and that one iMessage group chat that seemingly always picks up during science lecture.

Fortunately, I recently spent some time with the Boox Note Max, which offers an elegant solution to this problem. This E Ink tablet functions not only as a powerful note-taker, but thanks to its Android 13-powered OS, can download textbooks, function as a word processor, access school tools like Canvas, and even play music, making it a great device for students looking for a high-tech solution this semester that will give them the tools they need to succeed without any of the distractions.

Storage

128GB

CPU

2.8GHz Octa-core CPU

Memory

6GB

Operating System

Android 13

Pros & Cons

• Reading, writing and drawing apps all work well
• Split screen multitasking is easy
• Zippy processor and speedy refresh rate keep you moving

• No frontlight
• Battery depletes quickly with heavy usage

Price, availability, and specs

Enough power to get your work done

The Boox Note Max features a huge 13.3 inch screen, giving note-takers and artists alike a huge canvas to work with. The massive screen size also handles multi-tasking well, so if you’re reading a textbook while keeping one eye on a Canvas or Google Classroom discussion, you’ll have plenty of space to do so. While the device is very wide, at just 4.6mm thick and weighing 615 grams, it’s portable enough to stash in a tote bag or medium-sized backpack.

Though E Ink tablets can sometimes be lacking in power, the Boox Note Max is refreshingly zippy, powered by an Octa-Core CPU with 6GB of RAM. The tablet is able to easily handle basically anything you throw at it, handling multitasking across apps for reading, productivity, drawing and note-taking without even one stutter.

Unfortunately, the Boox Note Max does not feature a front light, which puts the kibosh on late night study sessions under the covers. However, the screen looks great under the afternoon sun, in the shade, or by lamp light with an HD E Ink Carta 1300 screen, which displays everything from RSS feeds to your Spotify playlists in crystal-clear monochrome.

The Boox Note Max is currently available on the Boox official website as well as Amazon for $690 and is only available in white.

What I liked about the Boox Note Max

Everything you need and nothing you don’t

Though it has been several years since my college days, one of the issues that I had in school that I still struggle with in my work life is focus. And while I found great utility in using the Boox Note Max’s split-screen function to bring a second display to my work set up, I found that using it to just read while listening to music helped me really focus on what I was reading thanks to its no-frills interface and E Ink display. No matter whether you are reading a textbook, scrolling through discussion posts, or just marking up your syllabus, the Boox Note Max invites you to focus and be present with whatever you’re working on, making it a perfect school companion.

I also really loved the device’s onboard note-taking software. While you’re free to use Google Keep, Evernote, or whatever other note-taking app you like, I found the pre-installed Boox Notes app to be pretty powerful, allowing me to mix typed and handwritten notes with annotations, links, drawings and diagrams with ease, and then quickly share them with others, either digitally as a PDF though an app like Gmail or Slack or with a scannable QR code that works with almost any device. The app also includes some unobtrusive AI features that allowed me to turn my often-illegible writing into text in seconds, which was super convenient.

And speaking of writing, taking notes or drawing on the Note Max Pro feels remarkably like writing on paper down to the tactile scratchy feel of the screen under your stylus’ nib. The included BOOX Pen Plus stylus does not need charging and works extremely well for general writing. Artists may want to spring for the BOOX Pen 2 Pro which offers a bit more of a precise experience, but if you’re just taking notes or jotting down to-do lists, the included pen is fine, and

I didn’t experience any lag or delay when annotating PDFs, ePUBs or just writing in the Notes app.

Installing third party apps is also a snap, with everything from library reading app Libby to drawing app ibisPaint was quick and easy, and almost every third-party app supported multitasking, which helped me put the Boox Note Max’s giant 13.3-inch screen to good use.

One thing that surprised me was how good the refresh rate was at keeping up with scrolling media. In an attempt to inject some fun into my day I downloaded online comics reading app Webtoon and was able to scroll down through several chapters of Fullmetal Alchemist easily without almost any ghosting at all, which is an issue I’ve had with a lot of E Ink tablets before. And while I wouldn’t recommend using the Boox Note Max to watch a movie on Netflix, I was surprised that the little 30-second video previews on Webtoon actually played without incident.

What I didn’t like about the Boox Note Max

No front light is a bummer and battery life could be better

While the Boox Note Max’s lack of a frontlight brings your pen closer to the writing surface, I have to say that for me at least, the trade-off wasn’t worth it, as it the lack of a light severely limited where I could use the device. While partially sunny or lightly shaded areas outside provide a great experience, and the device looks great under indoor lighting (like in a classroom or office) if you’re trying to get some work done on the quad in full sun or are attempting a late-night study session while your roommate is asleep, you’ll unfortunately run into some issues with the Boox Note Max.

I was also a little disappointed by the Boox Note Max’s battery life, as just a few hours of listening to music, reading, and writing were enough to drain my battery to 10% before my workday even ended. Perhaps I’m spoiled by the weeks-long battery life of other E Ink tablets, but I did feel a little let down that, much like an iPad or a laptop, this was another device that would need to be plugged in at the end of the day after moderate-to-heavy usage.

Should you buy the Boox Note Max?

A solid companion for work or study

I wouldn’t characterize the Boox Note Max as a fun device. You can’t play games or watch movies on it, and while scrolling media works fine with minimal ghosting, this is one tablet that rewards users for slowing down and focusing. It’s best described as a tablet that is designed to help students and workers get their tasks done efficiently and easily, and if that sounds like something that you could use in your everyday life, I can’t recommend the Boox Note Max enough. Though it is a little bit pricey at almost $700 (double the price of a standard iPad), if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution for word processing, productivity, note-taking and completing assignments, this tablet has everything you need, and nothing you don’t.

Storage

128GB

CPU

2.8GHz Octa-core CPU

Memory

6GB

Operating System

Android 13