Boox Tab X C / Note Max: specs, size and price

Verdict: great for reading and notes, slow for the rest

The Boox Note Max is a 13.3-inch E Ink tablet for reading documents and taking handwritten notes. It runs Android 13 with Google Play and comes with a pen. Pocket-lint gave it 4.5/5 and eWritable 88%, while The AU Review (3/5), Creative Bloq and MobileSyrup found it too slow for anything beyond reading and notes.

Screen: very sharp E Ink, but no front light

The monochrome Carta 1300 screen is slightly larger than the 13-inch iPad Pro and has the same 4:3 shape, a tall format that suits documents and sheet music. At 3200 × 2400 pixels (300 ppi), text is very sharp and full-page PDFs fit without zooming. The reflective screen stays readable in sunlight, but there is no front light, so it needs a well-lit room. eWritable and The AU Review saw some ghosting, mostly with images.

Speed: fast for E Ink, but typing and apps lag

For an E Ink device it is fast, but the slow screen refresh makes typing and many Android apps lag: MobileSyrup saw letters take seconds to appear, and Tom’s Guide notes that many apps do not work well on the monochrome screen. It has 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, without microSD. Boox promises free firmware updates for more than three years after launch.

Pen in the box; battery life depends on the use

The included Boox Pen Plus needs no battery and writes smoothly, say Pocket-lint and The AU Review, but Creative Bloq reported poor palm rejection. The optional keyboard cover with touchpad adds about 600 g. The tablet is 4.6 mm thin and weighs 615 g, tiring to hold for long. Battery reports differ: eWritable measured about 6% per hour while writing (roughly 17 hours) and MobileSyrup charged it about once a week, but Pocket-lint was down to 10% within a workday. There are two speakers and one USB-C port.

Where to buy it, and a color version with a front light

Boox sells it in the US and in Europe through its own stores. The Tab X C variant adds a color Kaleido 3 screen with a front light, at a higher price.