A Worthy Android Ereader, With Some Tradeoffs

The size of the Go 6 is perfect, both for reading when you’re out and about and at home. Its 6-inch screen puts it on par with the entry level Kindle and the Kobo Clara BW for compactness, landing right in the Goldilocks Zone of portability and readability. It fits in my smallest bags while still having a large enough display to read comfortably. It can sit in the back pocket of most jeans and even some front pockets (barring those afflicted by Bad Designs for Women’s Clothing).

There is at least one limitation to consider when bringing it around, though. The Go 6 (Gen II) doesn’t have an IP rating for water or dust resistance, so I’d hesitate to take it to the beach, camping or even use it poolside without a protective case. Kobo has it beat there.

At roughly 160 grams, it is noticeably lighter than the other device that spends the most time in my hand, my Galaxy Z Flip 6. That makes it great for reading in bed or lying down on the couch. So does its adjustable front light, which you can dim and brighten to your likeness, and shift from cool to warm tones to prevent eye strain. Additionally, its 300PPI ePaper display is crisp and bright.

I did notice a fair amount of ghosting when switching between different apps and device menus, but Boox offers a number of refresh and color modes to cut down on this sort of thing if it bothers you. There’s also the option to set how frequently the screen refreshes. I found ghosting was much less of an issue while I was actually reading and I ultimately set my Full Refresh Frequency to every 30 taps. Never is an option as well, and you can set different settings for each app to optimize them for the display. A quick-access gesture launches BOOX EinkWise, where you can fine-tune any given app’s refresh and color modes, layout, contrast and anti-flicker levels.

The 1,500mAh battery will get you several days of use if you’re reading for a few hours a day and using apps moderately. You can get lots more out of the battery by turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you’re not using them, freezing apps to prevent them from running in the background and keeping the front light low or off when lighting conditions allow. It’s currently been eight days since I last charged it and I still have 24 percent left. That’s still far less than you’ll get with the comparable Kindle and Kobo devices, which have weeks-long battery life, but that’s the tradeoff of having Android.

Putting books on the Go 6 (Gen II) is painless. You can transfer files wirelessly to the device using its BooxDrop file sharing tool, by syncing with several cloud-based storage platforms it supports, like Dropbox and Google Drive, or using the USB-C cable. The built-in Boox store is extremely limited, containing only a small selection of public domain works, so if you want to buy or rent books on-device, you’re going to need to turn to another app.

I’ve really enjoyed the freedom this ereader allows in using my go-to apps to source and read books, as my reading habits tend to be all over the place. I can buy and download a book from the Bookshop.org app, which is only available on iOS and Android, and then go to The StoryGraph app to jot down a review immediately upon finishing it without having to switch over to my phone. Moon+ Reader works alright too, but you’ll want to play with your books’ settings to make them more readable for E Ink, otherwise you’re likely to experience a ton of ghosting.