Boox Note Max Part 2: Document Annotating & Battery Results (feat. reMarkable)

[@jakeham4017]

You really deserve more recognition. This is a very informative review.

[@Hart-en-Ziel]

Thank you, Jeffrey. I like your approach, tone-of-voice, depth and style. Thorough, solid and honest. No fluff, no commercial breaks etc. Splendid!

[@clementediazperez1976]

Great Videos! Enjoyed them - Thanks 👍🏻

[@xyzoub]

Thanks Jeffrey for the upload. The ghosting at 28:20 on the Boox Note Max is ghastly. I downloaded the (1.7 Gb!) update to reduce the issue and there is no significant change: there is even massive ghosting left on the screen when the Note Max goes into sleep/shut down mode! Also, after 5 days of use, my experience is that *the ghosting issue is getting worse.*

[@jeffreymoss]

Yeah, I don't mind the ghosting, but it's certainly there.

[@xyzoub]

@@jeffreymoss What I don't get is that on the Note Air 3C the ghosting tends to promptly disappear within a second or so, slowly but visibly: on the Note Max it just stays.

[@davidr1431]

I’ll be interested to see if I experience the same as you. I’ve only had the Max for 24 hours and there is a little ghosting which a single refresh removes. I can’t says it bothers me at all and wonder if this is a personal tolerance issue or a difference between devices.

[@jeffreymoss]

@@xyzoub Agreed. That's really what I think about when BSR is mentioned. If it works on the NA4C, why am I not seeing it here? I don't have an answer for that and I wish I did.

[@CyrilJap]

Great comparison ! For me, the contrast is a key factor too for readability, and the Note Max seems to have a much better contrast.

[@jeffreymoss]

Yeah, I like the contrast as well. I think both devices have their strengths, and it really matters what ones use case is to know which device might be better for them.

[@Capt.Morgan-Retro]

Thank you for such an interesting comparison. I didn't realise that there was an option to circle round text in the Boox NeoReader to select it for annotating, dictionary etc. So much easier than trying to select text with your finger. One small correction to what you said - there is a search facility inside documents (PDFs and ePUBs) using the RMPP. If you select the icon at the bottom of the toolbar, there is a search option in there. Having experimented with document annotation using both the RMPP and the Boox Note 4C, I do prefer the RMPP overall. I know the Boox NeoReader has more choice of tools such as annotation field, dictionary, TTS etc and a better contents viewer but I have always found the UI rather clunky. For example, using the split view with a linked handwritten note is a great idea but it didn't always behave well and it wasn't obvious at first how to exit it. I also find there are UI inconsistencies between NeoReader and the Notes App in their look/feel and the way they work. Conversion to text in NeoReader didn't always work that well for me either. On the other hand, although the RMPP takes a simpler approach to making notes and has less functionality, the whole experience is just so much more pleasant. I do love that you can create margin notes direct in the RMPP by just a 2-finger swipe right or left. Not being able to see which pages have handwritten annotation is a limitation, but I have got round that by using a tag called "Notes" for every page I have made notes on. You can then filter your results by that tag in the page manager. The UI for editing documents (PDFs or ePubs) and editing notebooks is pretty consistent, so that annotation, conversion to text and exporting to PDF work the same way within each. The RMPP experience just feels smoother and more professional, albeit rather limited. The RMPP software needs to add split view and link creation though to make it a better experience for studying. One day perhaps - fingers crossed🤞

[@jeffreymoss]

Great post, I appreciate your thoughts and the tip on the search feature. I actually see pros and cons for both devices. The more I thought about it after dropping this video, the more I came away with the idea that both are great devices for annotations and the better one for any given person will entirely depend on the specifics of their use case. Or, to put it another way, if a person wasn't sure, just go with your instinct as to which one you want -- it will be solid either way.

[@Capt.Morgan-Retro]

@@jeffreymoss To be fair, I love the Note Air 4C, the RMPP and the Nomad! They each have different strengths and my ideal use case would be the Note Air 4C for reading magazines/general android, the RMPP for making study notes and the Nomad for a carry around organisation tool. I should try the Nomad's PDF annotation features out in more depth and see what I think.

[@Change-1820]

Great video and comparison. Has me thinking I need to better explain the Supernote Desktop and Android apps. Now that they don't require a sign in, you can use them as a viewer as long as you have a local copy of your Google or Onedrive files. As always, we'll done!

[@MaisonPulaski]

Awesome! Thank you! Great information.

[@Vortexstreet]

Thank you very much for the video! Do you happen to know how you have the on-screen menu pop up right after you circle the text at 5:50? I used to have it on my Note Max but I forgot what setting I changed and now I lost it... It is very annoying now as I circle the text then I have to click on the underlined text to pop the menu up and adjust the range of selection...

[@jeffreymoss]

It should come up anytime you do an annotation. Try pressing your finger on the screen and then dragging it over a selection. Or, you can activate the AI tool Circle or Underline to Annotate and then use your stylus to circle or underline some text. That might work. If not, I wonder if the PDF is reading as an image, in which case the text isn't being recognized. In that case, the OCR conversion might help. Those are my initial thoughts.

[@0xKruzr]

have been looking forward to this, thanks Jeffrey! (also, isn't NeoReader just... "Library?")

[@jeffreymoss]

It's strange how Boox does it, but technically when a document is opened in the Library, the NeoReader app launches.

[@atzeotze2256]

How is your writing experience with the pen? Remarkable claims that you get the best writing experience. Any experience with the Supernote Manta in these relation?

[@jeffreymoss]

I like it. It has a nice scratchy sound, more so than the Manta, and less so than the reMarkable. I'm good with all three devices, actually, but they are different.

[@josejoselete6156]

Great video thanks. On the box go 10.3 there is no hard drive icon to get to your cloud storage on your library. Is that correct?

[@josejoselete6156]

Do you know of anyway to bookmark a page on the boox devices, so you can find that page when you are reviewing the document in adobe acrobat or chrome?

[@jeffreymoss]

Well, when you use cloud services, the documents automatically load from the cloud onto whatever Boox device you log in on. I've loaded documents onto multiple devices in the past and it works fine. There's no need for an icon for the cloud storage unless you only want to load certain documents and not all of them. There might be an answer for that as well, but I've always been fine on loading all my docs onto the device.

[@jeffreymoss]

No. The bookmarks seem to exist in NeoReader only, but maybe there's a way I'm not aware of. That's possible.

[@dr.sandramarstondscptfaaom3993]

Does Microsoft word not work on this?

[@jeffreymoss]

Yes. You can download the Word app from the Google Play store and it will work on this. When I do my keyboard folio review next, it will feature the Word app, so you can see that in action.

[@dr.sandramarstondscptfaaom3993]

@ perfect ty

[@jacksonier]

Abt 26:50 - Here you are showing the "Pinch-to-zoom" feature on the Boox Note Max versus rMPP. * What I have noticed is that when you were showing it on the Boox, you did not "press with your fingers and hold and then pinch", instead you "pinched once and took the fingers out of the screen", which, of course, is Not that granular versus if you would simply "pressed and holder, and then pinch", just a you did on the rMPP. * So, I don't see the point of this particular section of comparison, I mean, you did the "pinch to zoom" in One way on the Boox, and in the Different way on rMPP, and then saying like "remarkable might do it a little bit better". Amm, I disagree. I believe, on Boox you can do the same level of control over "pinch-to-zoom" functionality, just "pinch, press and hold, then pan".

[@jeffreymoss]

I thought I did them the same way, but I did cut out some of the video so it might not be apparent. Or maybe I just didn't do it right. Do you find pinch to zoom is much smoother on the Boox? I'll go back and try it again. If I find I can get it to work better, I'll repost that as a correction in the review video.

[@jacksonier]

@@jeffreymoss , yes, I see the "pinch-to-zoom" working smooth on the Boox. Let me record the sample video to show that.

[@jeffreymoss]

@@jacksonier Have you dropped that video yet? I went back and got a bit better at the pinch and zoom but still found it clunky. I then looked at the Note Air 4C and found it worked great there. So I'm not clear what's going on at this stage. The Max still seems to be sluggish in this regard for me.

[@jacksonier]

@@jeffreymoss My point was only about the way you have "pinched to zoom" on the rMPP versus on the Note Max. * In this particular video, when you were zoming in on the rMPP, you have pinched and keep on pressing the fingers to the screen, and then panned the image a bit, while pressing the screen. Versus * on the Note Max you have pinched in, and then right away took the fingers out of the screen (you did not even wait) So, my point is that you have used different approaches "pinch-to-zoom", when doing the same move (pinch-to-zoom) on the rMPP versus Note Max, why is that? Because when doing the same kind of movement on the Note Max, you can still "have control" over how exactly do you want to position the image after zooming in, by not taking out the fingers out of the screen, but continue pressing, just like you did for the rMPP...

[@oraz.]

I don't think you can take serious notes just by annotating around pdfs, but I also think split screen is not an ideal solution. That's my main criticism of these devices, that there isn't a third way to integrated notes and documents.

[@jeffreymoss]

The thing that I wished I had in college that these items do address is just the ability to easily highlight sections and then to be able to jump right over to them. I never took any substantive notes in my texts, but I highlighted a lot and wrote a few words just to jog my memory. These devices are great for that.

[@rsuryase]

Paper Pro look so dark. Unusable indoors at night.

[@Capt.Morgan-Retro]

The RMPP is just as usable indoors at night as any other e-ink writer I have used. Just sit somewhere with decent lighting, like you would if you were reading an actual book. Do you literally want to read in the dark?