3 reasons I'm not giving up my Kobo for this Android E Ink tablet

Summary

Boox’s Go Color 7 may be too complicated and versatile for some e-reader users.
Its slow boot time makes it frustrating to get into reading an e-book quickly.
The Kobo app on Go Color 7 lacks optimization several optimization feature.

Now that I’ve covered the things I like about Boox’s Go Color 7 E Ink tablet, it’s time to dive into the stuff I’ve borderline hated about the e-reader.

Don’t get me wrong, the Go Color 7 is a solid, very capable device that looks and feels better than any e-reader I’ve used, but when it comes actually using it as a reading device, I’ve realized that I don’t need an E Ink tablet that can do it all. As long as my e-reader quickly accesses my chosen library of books, offers solid battery life, and feels great, I’m sold — sometimes single-use tech devices truly are better.

With this in mind, over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that the Go Color 7 has a number of notable shortcomings that I don’t see mentioned very often, including how complicated the E Ink tablet is, its boot time, and the fact that its useful app optimization features don’t work with the Kobo app, the platform I primarily use for reading books.

Brand: Boox
Screen: HD Kaleido 3 Carta 1200 with flat-cover lens
Resolution: 1680 x 1264
Storage: 64GB

3 ways this Android E Ink tablet outshines my Kobo

If you’re into customizing your devices, you’ll find a lot to like about Boox’s Go Color 7.

When it comes to an e-reader, I don’t need Android

It’s just too complicated

While I initially appreciated the fact that the Go Color 7 is Android-based, after forcing myself to test various apps (mostly Google Keep), I’ve found I prefer the purpose-built design of Kobo’s Libra Colour. Sure, I can’t use Google Keep or Gmail on my Libra Colour, but I don’t need to.

When I pick up an e-reader, I only want to read and do nothing else. I have an iPhone 16 Pro and various iPads floating around for using more traditional apps. Of course, some people might prefer their E Ink e-reader to be powered by Android because they want to do more than just read books or saved articles on it, but that’s not me. Over the course of several weeks of testing the Go Color 7, I’ve grown tired of how janky apps can be on the E Ink tablet and eventually stopped using them altogether. Sure, that lag created a barrier that prevented me from doomscrolling, but that also resulted in me reaching for my Libra Colour instead

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It takes too long to get into actually reading

It can sometimes take a few minutes to actually open a book

One of my biggest issues with Boox’s Go Color 7 is that it can sometimes take up to a minute or more to get the E Ink tablet out of sleep mode and actually into reading a book, whereas my Kobo boots out of sleep mode in just a few seconds (I’ve had a similar experience with Kindle devices, too).

This might sound like a minor complaint, but when I only want to read for a few minutes to kill a brief period of time, that minute-long boot-up process feels like a frustrating eternity. In one situation, I just picked up my Libra Colour instead to read while the Go Color 7 booted up and never bothered going back to Boox’s device. Seriously, it really takes a long time to get up and running, even from its low-power state, and then after that, I have to put in a passcode (you can’t turn the feature off) and boot the Kobo or Pocket (RIP) app, which adds even more time.

This lesser-known Kobo feature helped me stop doomscrolling

When you need a break from staring at the “bad screen” to get some reading done, Pocket is great on the Kobo.

The Kobo app can’t be optimized

This is more on Kobo, but it’s still frustrating

Sure, this might be a “me” issue, but the fact that the Go Color 7 works with the Kobo Android app is both a blessing and frustrating. It gives me easy access to the same library of books I’ve used for years (this is something you can’t easily do with Amazon’s Kindle library), but the app feels incredibly limited.

Even though I have Page-turn selected, the Boox Color 7’s side buttons still control the tablet’s volume, unfortunately.

First off, you can’t eliminate the massive spacing in the margins of the pages, which is frustrating, given I’m used to adjusting that on my Libra Colour. That said, I appreciate you can still adjust the text size and select from a few different fonts. Still, pages look odd with text cramped in the middle, especially when the font is a bit larger.

Additionally, many of the best app-specific Boox features are incompatible with the Kobo app, including the ability to customize the Go Color 7’s buttons, which don’t appear to function correctly. If you long-press on an app icon and select Optimize, you’re given a suite of options. Next, flip over to Others, and you’ll see Custom Side Buttons, including Page-turn, Volume, and Scrolling. Even though I have Page-turn selected, the Boox Color 7’s side buttons still control the tablet’s volume, unfortunately.

I like Boox’s Go Color 7, but I’ve realized I don’t need the versatility it offers when it comes to an e-reader. Other people will find these Android-powered features useful, but I have several other devices that fill that role for me, including my smartphone — all I want is an E Ink device that’s designed just for reading.