Between the bigme b751c and boox go color 7, which one is better? In general and specifically In term of web browsing, highlighting in epubs? And which one can I read on it with my room light turned off?
Thanks. I tried it for about a week and decided to return it. Partly because it's difficult to justify having it when I have a Kindle Oasis, Kindle PW, Note Air 3 C, Note Air 2, Kindle Scribe and Nova 3. Yes, only one of them has colour but that one does have Boox refresh to help with ghosting. I tried to love it and it certainly is awesome in its form factor - so thin and light. But .... Even more so than the Note Air 3 its almost unusable without the backlight fully on, esp in shade. And those page turn buttons will only work to page turn with a few apps and not with Kindle. And the colour experience with it I also found to be less compelling than with the Note Air 3 C. For someone without so many other e-ink devices, it may make sense and the expandable memory is great - "32 GB" for my Nova 3 is far too small. 7.8" however, as with the Nova, is a nicer size for reading if less portable than 6.8"; another reason why ultimately I decided to return my Go 7. Also the compromises we have to accept with colour means that I will accept those for a more versatile device like the Note Air 3 C with note taking plus e-reading, etc. but find those more difficult to accept with a pure 6.8" e-reader.
Can't you just play around with the refresh settings to get rid of the ghosting? Basically just force it to refresh after each page change. You don't have to rely on the BSR feature that is only available in some of the Boox devices. I'm not sure the commotion with the Go 7 not having BSR (which is a battery drainer) when there are other ways to compensate.
@@gsogymrat So was I but despite setting them to page turn rather than the default volume control they refused to work in Kindle. They did work in Everand or maybe Borrowbox but not both. They worked of course in Neobrowser/reader. Others have remarked on this problem for Kindle (see Brandon Boswell's initial unboxing and walk through video). Hopefully to be solved by an update at some stage unless Amazon are not keen to allow it in their Kindle app - though if they did for the Boox Leaf 2 that's surprising, unless Amazon are taking the line that they don't want to encourage sub-optimal colour e-readers at this stage, few of which have page turn buttons. though that sounds unlikely. Anyway, for me as a device it was hard to justify as it just didn't have enough standout features. Maybe I would have given the GO 7 more time and forgiveness if it had been my only small e-reader. I absolutely loved its lightness though was less persuaded by its 6.8" size
@@lac29 yes you can but you keep landing on a ghosted page so it's not great. If you are prepared to accept the battery life drain, I think BSR is worth having but others will prefer using frequent manual page refresh to save on battery life.
I bought the Kobo Libra Colour but I may return it due to a few things that bother me about it. I just ordered the Boox Go 7 to compare against it. I already have a Boox Page that I bought earlier in the year. I have to say, I am one of the few people I think that actually likes the buttons on the boox being close. It lets me just slide my thumb up and down to turn the page forward or back.
I have no issues with the buttons. I like it is your not having to move your thumb to go back or forward like the Libra, and no rattling on mine. As its a magnetic case I like not using the cover when reading, so easy to take out of case and put back in
In terms of ghosting how is it compared to the Cobo Libra Colour? And I know the colors are muted, but how do the colors compare to the Kobo Libra Colour?
With the default settings I'd say the Boox Go Color 7 is worse in terms of ghosting. But doing a full page refresh with every page turn on the depth mode fixes that issue for static content in the reading app. For other apps it really depends on the app. With a bit of tinkering and time, I'd say you can get good results for many apps. But the more dynamic the content is, the more ghosting you'll see. But than again, the Kobo Libra Colour doesn't have Android apps ... So I'd say out of the box the Kobo Libra Colour is better in terms of ghosting. Differences in color rendition are mostly down to the software. The Kobo Libra Colour has better color fidelity, but worse saturation. With the developer settings you can make slight adjustments with selecting a different color mode so both end up being pretty comparable here as well.
Depends. ;-) Both can be great choices. The Kobo Libra Colour is easier to use, has a stylus and better note taking features, but without Android expandability it's much more limited if you want to extend what it can do. The Boox Go Color 7 offers MUCH more flexibility with Android, but that's really only useful if you intend to make use of it. If you don't want to run Android apps there's really no need to have Android on E-Ink. In terms of color saturation, it mostly comes down to software. Out of the box the Boox Go Color 7 is better imho, but the Kobo Libra Colour allows to adjust the color mode in the developer settings, which helps a bit. I'll do a comparison video soon.
So, I really want an e-reader for comics and books that leaves me alone on most everything else. I have a lot of trouble focusing when on my phone/tablet and the only thing that has ever worked for me (that wasn't paper) was my e-ink Kindle gen 3. If ALL I want is comics and books, would this or the Kobo work better for my use case?
Can you comfortably read without turning the frontlight on? I feel like the screen looks darker than other Kaleido 3 devices, but that might just be me. I would want to get one, but I’d rather not turn on the frontlight during my reading sessions
No, without the frontlight, reading on any Kaleido 3 device (including the Go Color 7) isn't really comfortable imho. I'd say a minimum light setting of around 30 nits is needed during the day for this tech.
This is great. I have a question, when you do translate the book must you translate page by page or would it translate the entire file? Thank you very much for sharing!
Page by page, or more accurately what you select. So you can select the text on a page and then translate it. You'd need to do that with every page. I haven't used that feature extensively, but I suspect there is some kind of limit, as it uses external services.
A question, I'm a college student and I'm interested in watching recorded classes, I can't pay more money for a larger Kaleido 3 screen, will it be nice to see that kind of content on that 7-inch screen?
I wouldn't recommend it. The occasional video on E-Ink is fine, but regularly watching classes (1 hour long?), I can't imagine that it will be a satisfying experience.
Theoretically I'd say it's possible, because Bigme did something similar. But tbh I wouldn't count on it in the short term, because I suspect if that's something Boox is close to finish, they'd made it part of the launch.
Another great overview, thank you. I’m going to add my own quick thoughts on the device since I’ve been using it but first I have 2 questions if you have time. 1. The settings to change depth, etc for ghosting you showed. I’ve only ever been able to find this in Boox apps like NeoReader. Can I access it in other apps, especially Kindle & other browsers? Is it hidden under some sub-menu? 2. I have this weird button issue I’m wondering if you’ve seen. I’m not Kindle, etc with buttons set to page turn when I click on 1 of them I get a turn the first time but after that it won’t turn any more pages. I did a reset and got the same behaviour. I have long press functions but I disabled those just in case and it made no difference. Any idea? Mini Review: I like the device. I’d love it if it was 7.8” but I’m ok with scaling Manga. If it had been 7.8” I would’ve paid a decent bit more but I understand they don’t want to hurt the sales of the other 7.8” devices. As a non-note person I’d obviously go for the cheaper reader only which would cost the company $ from those reader only customers who must have 7.8”. Colour was high on my want list for a reader but since most of my Manga is black and white the main things I wanted was a Kindle App, Browser and good pdf reading experience given its size. The device seems to have hit all my needs really well and for colour Manga, etc it’s actually even better than I imagined. To get Manga scaled correctly took a bit. I finally settled on Firefox Lite which gives me close to a Kindle level reading experience while reading online Manga. It’s the best at fitting to the screen so NO scrolling. :) I set the long press of one of my buttons to Refresh which helps clean up things when needed and I don’t need the NaviBall on the screen. Ghosting is a bit too much sometimes though so I’d have liked the super refresh tech even if it hurt battery life. Maybe if I can find those settings you showed in 3rd party apps like Kindle the experience will be a bit smoother. I’d recommend the device with the main caveat being ghosting can be annoying until you get used to working around it with manual refreshes, etc. The thing that’s worked better than I thought it would though is Manga scaling and fitting to the screen dimensions. Of course I had to find the browser that made it possible. The built in browser was a disaster since I always had to scroll just a bit to see the last of the page. I’m excited by the pdf reading capabilities at this size. I have a Scribe for this but if the Boox reader is as good as it appears it is reading pdfs on a 7” screen might be more than just adequate and that’s exciting. Cheers, Christopher
Thanks :) 1. No the depth-setting itself is only available in Neoreader. But in the E-Ink center you can adapt a couple of other settings to do a full refresh after every single tap. As far as I can tell, this actually triggers a full "depth" refresh in Normal or Regal-mode. 2. You mean the Kindle app, or another one? Since the page turn buttons act as volume keys, I imagine it has something to do with that. I haven't encountered any problems, but maybe it's related to audio-settings somehow?
@@ChalidRaqamiThank you for your reply. I’ve tweaked the 1-click settings and it’s working pretty well. Yes in the Kindle app I’ve set my short press buttons to page turn and after it turns the page once it never does again. If I restart the device I get the same behaviour, 1 page turn then nothing. It’s weird. Since it’s turning it once the buttons seem fine but the functionality is messed up. Cheers, Christopher
Re your mention @6:20 that the capacitative screen worked without any issues in your test - do you mean that it worked with a capacitative stylus with no issues?
I meant using it regularly with my fingers - because sometimes those screens have issues. The Go Color 7 doesn't have USI stylus support if that's what you're wondering. Only regular passive capacitive styluses will work (those with the large pin-tips).
@@nialldaly No, I wouldn't recommend it. The Bigme B751C might be the better choice for that specifically, but I wouldn't recommend that one either for other reasons (I have a video on that as well). I'd recommend getting the Boox Tab Mini C for compact Color E-Ink and stylus-support. That's the best one in that size segment imho. But it's slightly larger (7.8") than the Go Color 7 (7").
Yes, definitely. The E-Ink Carta 1200 screen is still excellent and features are essentially the same. Android 11 is maybe the only downside in the long run, but right now I'd say there's no difference in terms of app-compatibility.
Not, automatically. You can only set it manually, and I also heard some users are using the "transparent" screensaver and flipping back to the cover in the Kindle app before putting the device into standby.
If only they would release a B&W version only of this one. The page has android 11 and a slower CPU and only 3GB of RAM. I am really interested in buying the page but it’s just not futureproof enough for me when the go color version is so much better for almosg the same price. Give me a clear B&W version of this one with the same specs but without the colour layer that darkens the screen.
Generally they work well, but you'll need to tinker with E-Ink settings for optimal results (e.g. turning pages etc.) to reduce ghosting. So what I say at 10:20 is essentially true for any Android app. Some work better out of the box others a bit worse, but generally all of them need at least a bit of tinkering if you want to reduce ghosting.
Great review, although I think you are downplaying the low brightness a bit. The difference is stark, practically the same with front-light as the other without and that's with maximum brightness. A deal-breaker for some but not me, who is looking for a replacement for my failing SONY Reader™ (PRS-T1) which I've been using since 2012, which is practically grey using the old Pearl e-ink display with no front-light (I bought the official cover with a foldable light, which was extremely cumbersome, so I almost never used it). I have been reading reviews the last day and decided that this fits my needs best. I am mainly concerned about the form factor and don't want another one that you have to stabilise from the bottom with one hand but then again, I would prefer if the width was smaller because even the PRS-T1 barely fit into my jacket pocket and I don't want to always carry a bag around. Shirley, they could have reduced the bezel on the sides, especially the one intended for holding, which looks like the space for holding is in addition to the bezel, which is really unnecessary. Then again, AFAICS, it's the same for all models in that form factor, so I don't really have a choice (and the displays are all 7" instead of 6", which isn't helping). I also don't get why they had to extend the glass. I can already see me going nuts over fingerprints on it and the poor quality of the buttons. I really like that it's an open Android because if it has to be Android instead of embedded Linux, then I want to use all of it. I am looking forward to switching from Android 2.2 on a Freescale i.MX508 single-core Cortex-A8 at 800 MHz with 170 ppi Pearl e-ink to Android 12 on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 (CPU-Z incorrectly reports it as an old Snapdragon 665 manufactured with Samsung's 11LPP node but the 680 is manufactured with TSMC's N6 node which should reduce the power draw a lot) octa-core (quad-core Cortex-A73 at 2.4 GHz + quad-core Cortex-A53 at 1.9 GHz) with 300 ppi Carta 1200 + 150 ppi Kaleido colour e-ink. I am not going to mainly read comics on it so it does not matter much but I am a little confused to why even in this video there is still clearly ghosting visible even after setting it to always refresh the page at each turn.
Unfortunately ghosting isn't completely gone, even with optimizing the settings. That works much better with Boox Super Refresh (BSR) technology, but then battery life suffers. But in my experience most people will be happy with the ghosting behavior on the Go Color 7 (after optimizing the settings). But if you're sensitive to that, I'd recommend taking a look at the Boox Tab Mini C with BSR. The Sony PRS-T1 is/was a great ereader. It's a shame Sony withdrew from the E-Ink market. But they didn't like to compromise and even after the competition started to release ereaders with a frontlight, the PRS-T1 and T2 didn't have one. But I did appreciated the infrared touchscreen.
@@ChalidRaqami It's more like I don't understand the technology well enough because I would think a refresh implies a complete swipe first, so there could not be any ghosting. Funny you mention the front-light because you mentioned in another video that one of the first e-readers that had it was a Kobo model from 2012 but SONY's PRS-700 from 2008 already had one. Although it was the only model, so they clearly didn't like it. One thing I noticed in your videos while showing how to highlight or take notes is how, frankly, unacceptably slow it still is. It would not surprise me if it was slower than on the PRS-T1 on ancient hardware. Is that just a limitation of E Ink or is it really just bloat?
@@Lightkie Oh wow, you're right, I totally forgot about the PRS-700. I now remember why looking at the pictures, because not only was the frontlight bad, but that extra layer reduced contrast levels even when not using the frontlight. I'd say highlighting and notetaking really depends on the device. Kobo is really good when it comes to selecting and highlighting text and the QWERTY-keyboard is also more responsive than on many others. But at some point it's just a limitation of E-Ink technology...
I'm looking for this feature that may or may not exist. If i doenload the Kindle app and choose a book to read, can I set the book cover for Kindle ebook I'm reading as the cover on my Boox Color 7 lockscreen.
@@ChalidRaqami Thank you. You are the only person to provide a thoughtful response, or a response at all. I will wait for Amazon to release a color Kindle.
@@emcdonald75 I have a Boox Note Air 3C, not a Go Color 7, so assuming it would work similarly, you can manually set your lock screen image (or images). What I've done is take a screenshot of the book cover or download a cover image for the book (or books) I'm currently reading and then manually set that as my lock screen screensaver. If you want you can even choose multiple images to alternate through each time your screen is turned off/on. It won't automatically change based on the book you currently have open in an app, but you can manually cycle through to the one you want if you care about it being accurate to the exact book you have open at that moment. Personally I was happy with it showing up as any one of the books I'm currently reading. It's really fun having the book covers in color.
When I highlight a paragraph on the Color 7 (at least on an epub), more often than not the entire page gets highlighted. I tap the highlight, adjust it to the desired length, and it again highlights the entire page. I don't know why. Has anyone else experienced and resolved this?
The case is horrible. I got white one with the device. It's like paper. Slippery and also sweat dissolves it. I noticed even with my first use for a couple of hours there was already damage. Also their dead pixel policy is not great. I already see 2 dead pixels or dots or whatever (when I turn on light. Really small but light shines trough them - acceptable to boox it seems)
I haven't used it for that long in one sitting, but I haven't noticed any noticeable warming up with normal use. With running a benchmark it got just slightly warmer at the top.
It looks like it's finally available from the Hong-Kong warehouse ... not sure about the others. Makes me wonder why the white versions of their devices always take so much longer to be released.
Which of the 7" color e-readers is better: the pocketbook, the bigme, the kobo or this one? I'm gonna purchase one (I leaning towards this one or the bigme), which one would you recommend? 🤔
Really depends on what you want to do. In short: - Kobo Libra Color if you want a stylus, bright screen, don't care about Android and are fine with a somewhat locked ecosystem. - PocketBook Era Color if you don't need a stylus, don't care about Android but still want an open system for sideloading ebooks and audiobooks easily. - Bigme B751C if you want a stylus and Android and are fine with the UI-shortcomings and dimmer frontlight. - Boox Go Color 7 if you don't need a stylus, but want a well optimized Android UI. I'll do a comparison of all of them in the next couple of weeks ;-)
@@ChalidRaqami Thank you. I don't use my e-book reader for anything more than reading books, documents and some manga, but I like Android because I use Google Play Books and Moon Reader Pro, (they keep synced across devices). I also want a color one to highlight in different colors. I don't think I would use the stylus, and my issue with the light of an e-reader is that it would be too bright since I only turn on the light at night on my bed. I'm going to get the Boox then for the good Android interface (and as a bonus, I saw in a video that it has a good case with magnets that the bigme lacks)
I'd pick the Boox Tab Mini C, because it does a couple of important things (frontlight - which is still very good on the Go Color 7; ghosting behaviour; stylus support) just a bit better imho - which of course you pay extra for. The only two things that are worse, are the missing microSD-card slot and the missing buttons. So depending on what's important to you, either one can be a good choice. Personally the ~44 gigs internal storage of the Boox Tab Mini C is more than enough for me and while I understand it can be an issue for larger libraries with comics & audiobooks, I'm fine with just cleaning up the space once in a while or have some things in the cloud ready to sync if I needed them.
@@ChalidRaqami I made up my mind to buy a mini c, but today I found out a much cheaper go 7, so I was confused about which one to pick.. But your reply make my mind much strong. Thank you.
I honestly didn't care for E-Ink Kaleido until I first used the Boox Tab Ultra C. Previous generations needed too many compromises for me to use them, but Kaleido 3 manages a good middle ground. But it's really about what you are willing to compromise on. B&W E-Ink is still the best tech when it comes to a paperlike viewing experience as far as I'm concerned.
Agreed on all counts! Also, Boox is just producing too many slightly different tablets with strings of letters and numbers for names; it's all becoming too bewildering. The Boox lineup is starting to remind me of Canon's infinite array of cameras, all with bizarre names and numbers - hundreds of thousands of them. BOOX - PLEASE listen - you do NOT need to produce a new and improved tablet every 5 weeks. Give it a rest already.
I wanted a device for scrolling, reading or browsing on bed before sleep. I owned a palma for that but miss the color a lot. Text reading notba priority as already have a leaf 3 for that. Seems like this is the closest thing i can get now? And seems like this is a better buy than the bigme even without bsr n suffer from ghosting issue? I ordered the Kobo Libra color yesterday but fall into buyer remorse as it cantbdo scrolling or 3rd party app 😂😂 i know my perfect device will probably be the Mediatek900 Hibreak pro or a palma color, but that seems to be at least half year from now😂
It really depends on what's important to you. - Bigme does a really good job with ghosting-reduction. In some cases I think it's even better than BSR. - But especially the Bigme B751C (at least the one I bought) has a pretty dim frontlight. It's hard for me to recommend it because of that, because E-Ink Kaleido 3 pretty dark to begin with. The UI is also not as refined on Bigme devices. - Ghosting on the Boox Go Color 7 depends on the application. Scrolling on speed mode works well enough imho, it's just not as good as on Bigme or BSR. I'd recommend waiting for the Hibreak Color. That one will hopefully have a better frontlight than the B751C so it could be easier to recommend.
Not sure to be honest, as they aren't as relevant for the international market outside of the DACH-region. But keep an eye on allesebook.de - I'll definitely publish reviews in text-format there.
@@ChalidRaqami thanks, I get it… I thought they had a presence in a few other EU countries as well but they are definitely not relevant in the US and UK market. I use they for their included cloud service though …
I have the Leaf 2, which also has gapless buttons, and honestly, it doesn't bother me in the least. I can still easily feel the break between them with my thumb. Actually, I enjoy running my thumb up and down over the buttons while I'm reading, weird as that may be. I think it's very much going to be a personal preference thing more than a universal annoyance thing.
I wanted to preorder it because I need cheap colour android ereader so I can freely highlight the content, but looking at the highlight error, I might consider to not buy it 😢
