BOOX Go Color 7 ePaper reader review

REVIEW – If the discontinuation of the Kindle Oasis has you bummed out, the folks at BOOX have you covered with the new Go Color 7.  This new color ePaper tablet has physical page turn buttons and the latest generation Kaleido 3 color display, all tucked into a seven inch eReader.  

What is it?

The BOOX Go Color 7 is a new Android based ePaper reader by Onyx, with a Kaleido 3 color screen front and center.  Running Android 12 under the hood, this reader has some flexibility to cover different reading apps.

BOOX is a part of ONYX, who’s roots in eReader tech date back to 2006.  

What’s included?

• BOOX Go Color 7
• USB-A charging block
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• microSD sled key
• Quick start guide

Tech specs

Design and features

Fans of the now discontinued Kindle Oasis will recognize the 7″ format straight away thanks to the single wide bezel where the dedicated page turn buttons sit.  These buttons are configurable to also cover volume or other functions depending on which app you’re in.  

BOOX has gone with a mostly-plastic assembly which is typical for an eReader, with the exception of the back.  On the back of the Go Color 7 is a leatherette texture which adds a premium feel and offers a comfortable grip.  

The 7″ Kaleido 3 screen has a matte finish to keep glare to a minimum, and along the edges you’ll find speaker and microphone cutouts, a power button, USB-C port, and microSD sled.  

Assembly, Installation, Setup

BOOX runs a custom Android 12 ROM to take advantage of the ePaper display, but still retains what makes the Android OS easy to work with.  The Google Play store is pre-installed, but there is a caveat here.  This device is not Play Protect certified by Google, which means that some Google features aren’t going to work.  I ran into this problem almost immediately when trying to configure the built in Google Drive integration, and was met with a denial from Google during the setup process.  

BOOX offers several options to move data to the tablet, BOOXDrop being the easiest to use when connected to the same WiFi network as the file target or host.  Alternatively, you could also use apps like Kindle or Libby downloaded through the Play store to access content that way.  

There is a fair bit of configuration you can do with the Go Color 7 to dial it in to your preferences.  The Naviball is an ever-present (unless disabled) UI button that allows you quick-access to common tools and features.  You may have noticed the bullseye looking button in some of the screenshots above.  I really like this as an option and it’s configurable to cover most any of your needs.  

It’s worth mentioning that there is some per-app setup needed to get the page turn buttons to do what you want them to, and that process isn’t super intuitive for some apps like Kindle.  To get that to work how I wanted, I had to actually set the page turn buttons as ‘volume’ buttons in the OS for the Kindle, then within the Kindle app tell it to use the volume buttons for page turning.  This all felt like a bit of a round about way to get what should be a basic feature to work on a common app.  

Performance

ePaper / eInk devices are in a whole other category of tablet, and are generally used as eReaders.  The displays are meant for reading comfort, and the CPU’s are lower powered since they aren’t handling a ton of demand.  This gives them great battery life – but at the cost of performance in high-refresh applications or wherever they’re tasked to handle more than basic apps.  It’s not an iPad or Galaxy tablet, but it’s also not meant to be.  

Getting the BOOX Go Color 7 out of the box, I immediately noticed the weight.  It’s super light, and the textured back makes the tablet very comfortable to hold.  Powering it on for the first time, you’ll get prompted through a brief out-of-box setup process to cover the bases of WiFi etc, and then you’re dropped into the home screen.  

The Kaleido 3 display brings some color to a typically monochrome format, though the tech isn’t there to draw a comparison to a traditional tablet, and again – it’s not really meant to be the same experience.   

From the Libby app, I grabbed a copy of TIME magazine to show off some of the image rendering with the Kaleido display.  What you see here is consistent across all content in the Go Color 7 regardless of app, including PDF.  Colors trend towards muted, and the 150ppi for color lends towards some pixelation and suboptimal blending.  On the plus side, the display is super forgiving to the sunlight and you’ll be able to happily enjoy this device outside.  

Text I found to be generally good, though depending on app needed to dial up the default zoom.  The usual trappings of an ePaper display are ever present in the BOOX Color Go 7 due to the nature of the display.  Ghosting is present when rapidly moving between pages or images, and while BOOX tries to mitigate this at the software level, it’s a less than stellar experience to watch videos or browse the web on the device.  I found the reading experience with comics and graphic novels to be passable… the low PPI lends to a less than stellar experience.  If I had the choice, I’d probably rely on one of my regular tablets for these, though it’s nice that the Color Go 7 is capable enough to pinch-hit here.  

What I like about the BOOX Color Go 7

• Great form factor
• Naviball UI element is genuinely useful, and lots of configuration capability
• microSD and several options for transferring files into the tablet

What needs to be improved?

• Some apps can be overly complex to setup page turn buttons
• Lacks Google Play Protect Certification 

Final thoughts

On the surface, the BOOX Color Go 7 appears to be looking to fill the void left by the Kindle Oasis – the two devices share a similar form factor and price point.  The Kaleido 3 display is up to the task for delivering a solid reading experience for text, but due to the nature of the tech, isn’t a heavy hitter for color.  The Color Go 7 is worth a look if you’re after a solid all-rounder that can handle graphic novels and regular books, though if you’re just after this for mediums where graphical fidelity is paramount, it may be worth sticking to a regular tablet.  

Price: $249.99
Where to buy: BOOX and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by BOOX. BOOX did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.