I recently returned a Boox Go 7 after finding multiple issues with the device. To be fair, the actual display was pretty good apart from in dark mode when things went downhill quite dramatically. It would also not allow signing in to Reddit and many other services because of a known issue, one that I could not resolve despite lots of investigation.

And then I pondered, again, the privacy and security of Boox. When I asked in the past the answer was so lacking in detail and transparency that I figured all of my data was being sent to the Chinese government. Maybe an over the top assessment, but better safe than sorry.

I recently returned a Kindle Colorsoft because the screen quality is just not good enough for standard reading. When you factor in the price and the overall feel of the device, I could not justify it.

My Kindle Oasis, despite struggling with the battery now, became my reader of choice again and it remains that way today. The buttons make a big difference when reading and yet Amazon is not interested in adding buttons to normal size new readers.

I recently sold my Viwoods AI Paper Reader because the backlight was far too bright at the lowest setting. A brilliant device, but one which is seriously hampered by this one failing. When the brightness is reasonable, I may reconsider.

I use a Remarkable 2 for day to day notes, but it is never connected to the internet. A recent story concerning how data is stored triggered me and it is now a standalone notebook. I should say, however, it is a very impressive notebook and one which makes the new Paper Pure look exactly the same. The Pure is effectively the same product with some tweaks around the edges.

Almost every other device I have used has problems with either display clarity or pen input and accuracy.

E ink should have a big role in the next ten years of tech development and it is getting better, but it is so far away from being consistent enough or having enough investment in it to make it worthwhile currently. The Remarkable 2 shows that it can replace a notebook and a pen, devices like the Kobo Libra Colour show that it can replace books. However, it still doesn’t do enough to garner a big enough customer base to empower more investment from the big manufacturers.

In a world of AI, political nonsense and noise everywhere I just want e-ink devices that do things very well, but it’s currently too hard to be confident when making a new purchase.

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