Onyx Boox Go 6 Review: Trapped under its own weight

I’m a massive fan of Onyx products. I use my Onyx Boox Go 10.3 daily for note-taking and scanning PDFs. It’s a fantastic productivity device that highlights what Onyx does best: providing the flexibility of Android with the charms and benefits of an E Ink display. Unfortunately, that winning formula can’t be duplicated at all price levels, and the Onyx Boox Go 6 suffers from trying to do too much.

I like parts of the Boox Go 6, but the entire package doesn’t offer a better option than much of the competition — especially for $149. Let’s look at what I liked (and didn’t) in my time using the Onyx Boox Go 6.

Price, availability, and specs

The Onyx Boox Go 6 is available through Onyx for $150. It has 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a MicroSD card slot for extra content. As usual, Onyx offers a Go 6 Magnetic Case for an additional $40. It’s well-made with eco-leather and strong magnets, and it protects your Boox Go 6 from damage.

What’s good about the Onyx Boox Go 6?

Display and build quality

Despite my other opinions on the Boox Go 6, the display is simply brilliant. It’s a 6-inch E Ink monochrome Carta 1300 panel with a resolution of 1448×1072 and 300ppi. Outdoor viewing is superb, with sharp text and fantastic contrast. Words look printed on the display, which was a joy to read. The Boox Go 6’s front lighting system also works well, offering complete control over brightness and color temperature. So, you can have a cooler, clean tone throughout the day and a warmer, eye-friendly hue during the evening. Dark mode is available, although I found it more challenging to find the benefits on an E Ink display.

I still prefer monochrome displays for e-readers. Color is a welcome option, but unless you need it for something specific, black and white is more than sufficient, especially when it’s as crisp as on the Boox Go 6. Onyx included its granular display control options on the Boox Go 6, allowing us to tweak refresh rates and DPI settings. It also provided pre-optimized settings for popular Android apps, like Kindle and Libby. If you own another Onyx device, you can download your app settings through the cloud, alleviating the sometimes tedious work of dialing apps into the display.

Software is still a strong point of the Boox Go 6, even if the performance isn’t up to the task. I love Onyx’s app suite, from Calendar Memo, my favorite paper planner replacement, to NeoBrowser, a nifty web browsing app optimized for an E Ink display. Onyx makes transferring files back and forth from your PC easy, and you can even upload page notes and PDFs between your desktop and other Onyx tablets if needed. Onyx’s NaviBall is the best way to navigate your Boox Go 6, providing quick access to screen refreshing and multitasking.

I like the Boox Go 6’s design, as Onyx kept it relatively thin and light. It’s an all-plastic design, but that has benefits, as the Boox Go 6 tips the scales at only 146g. Its 6-inch display results in a compact device, and I found it fit perfectly into the back pocket of my jeans (just don’t sit on it). Even with the magnetic case, the Boox Go 6 doesn’t take up much space and is light enough to throw into a backpack or messenger bag without considering whether you’ll need it at your destination.

The Boox Go 6 doesn’t include a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it does support Bluetooth 5.0, which allows for connecting a wireless headset for audiobook needs.

What’s bad about the Onyx Boox Go 6?

Performance, or lack thereof

Unfortunately, the Boox Go 6’s positives are inhibited by its dreadful performance. It’s powered by a 2GHz octa-core Snapdragon chipset with 2GB of RAM, but it cannot deliver enough horsepower for a smooth Android experience. Reading books and PDF files natively through the Onyx reader is a decent experience, as is the Calendar Memo and other system apps.

However, without a proper store, you’ll rely on Android apps like Kindle, Kobo, Libby, and others for your books and audiobooks — each experience rife with slowdowns and crashes, making reading deeply unpleasant. The Amazon Kindle app was painful to use. Opening the app can be a struggle, and navigation is slow. I also experienced several crashes and delays registering my inputs.

My Kobo app experience was slightly better, but the performance still couldn’t match my Kobo Clara Colour. Libby suffered similar slowdowns; basically, anything from the Play Store was a rough experience. I believe Onyx went with Android 11 for the Boox Go 6 instead of 12 because the company felt it might tax the chipset less, but with 2GB of RAM, it’s an uphill battle regardless. There’s insufficient memory to cache full Android apps and the system UI effectively, leading to choppy performance, especially when you ask the chipset to open and close apps constantly.

The Boox Go 6 does seem to “warm up” the more you use it, but I think that’s a byproduct of using cached system apps. For example, reading a file from an SD card is a smooth experience, as is going through the Onyx calendar app. However, things start to get choppy outside of that. It’s like putting an elephant on a tricycle and wondering why it’s not moving; the Boox Go 6 can’t get out from under its own weight.

I was also disappointed with the Boox Go 6’s battery life. Because of the extra Android functionality, I’ve always expected that Onyx devices would have worse battery life than a typical e-reader. Still, the Boox Go 6 drained faster than I would consider normal, and you’ll need to top off once every day or two if you’re using Android apps heavily. It’s a respectable battery size (1,500mAh) for a 6-inch e-reader, but Android and an overworked chipset result in poor performance.

Should you buy it?

Better options for the same money

The Boox Go 6 tries to be the best of both worlds at a lower price point than its Onyx siblings, but it’s not polished enough to recommend buying. Too many other budget Android tablets are available that provide a much better app and UI experience for the same (or less) money. Similarly, e-readers like the Kobo Clara BW cost less and still include a Carta 1300 E Ink display. Plus, its basic software is meant for specialized tasks, meaning it doesn’t have the heavy overhead of full Android bogging it down.

I still love Onyx e-readers and look forward to the company’s newest releases; not every model always scores. While I respect Onyx for wanting to release a versatile device in a budget category, sometimes Mercedes just shouldn’t compete with Kia in the same market.