I had been curious about the benefits of e-ink tablets since the release of the Remarkable v1. I wondered whether its lightweight design and supposedly paper-like writing experience would allow me to replace my paper notebooks and complement my digital note-taking system. When Boox released the Go 10.3, I decided to find out. So far, I haven't been disappointed. It's now one of my go-to devices for focused work, whether that be taking handwritten notes or reading a book.
A Purpose-Built Device
While the Boox Go does provide a virtual keyboard, it is unproductive to use. I've had the same experience with all virtual keyboards. They can be used to input small amounts of text, such as searching the web or capturing a sentence or two in a note, but that's about it. One of the benefits of e-ink tablets is that they are not designed to be do-it-all devices. Yes, you can listen to music on them and even watch poor-quality video, but they are mostly intended to be used for consuming written media and capturing handwritten notes.
While the Boox provides full access to the Google Play Store, I've never been tempted to install a host of media applications and attempt to make it an iPad with an e-ink display. With the exception of Kindle, WireGuard and a terminal application, it remains unchanged since I unboxed it.
Using the Boox Go for Writing
Because of its lack of distractions, I wondered whether I could use it as a focused digital writing device. It supports an external keyboard, and provided I explored its multitude of e-ink display configuration options, I felt this could be a viable option.
I write using either Neovim or VS Code. Articles are written in Markdown and then compiled and published using Pelican, a static website generator powered by Python. The source documents sit in a private Git repository hosted on AWS CodeCommit, and the static website is hosted on S3. Therefore, I only need a virtual Python environment and access to a Git client to draft and publish my writing. While I could reduce my requirement to drafting only—thereby removing the need for Python—it's helpful to process the draft as I write and view the processed document along with any images.
While it may be possible to run a VM on Android and configure a virtual Python environment with the Pelican build environment, I felt it made more sense to centralise the development environment and remotely access it. With minimal latency during testing, I found this to be a better option.
After establishing a secure VPN connection with WireGuard and connecting to the remote development server with Terminus, I'm able to comfortably work distraction-free on the Boox’s excellent e-ink display. Using tmux with a split-screen (pane) ensures there are no issues in the event of an unexpected break in my remote connection. Reserving 20% of the screen's real estate to view the output of Pelican’s devserver means I can quickly capture any errors in my Markdown.
Areas of Friction
Surprisingly, the most obvious point of friction is the keyboard. I'm so used to Apple's keyboard layout that my typing error rate significantly increases when I switch to another keyboard. I will need to purchase a small, portable Apple keyboard to make this a distraction-free, portable, and productive setup.
If an article requires research, this means searching with a browser—well, for now at least. Maybe in the future I'll completely outsource this to a host of agents? I'm not a fan of browsing websites on an e-ink tablet. They often contain media content that spoils the reading experience. I also tend to use tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and others as part of the research process. I do not plan on installing a multitude of applications on the tablet, so the research phase of writing is currently a little inefficient when using the device. Furthermore, having more real estate for browser tabs is often helpful.
While I have access to both self-hosted and publicly hosted Gen AI tools, I often include an image to accompany each blog post. These are typically in colour. This isn’t something I can do on the Boox Go. This isn’t a deal-breaker for me—if anything, it avoids me getting too distracted from the process of writing.
Closing Thoughts
It was never my intention to move entirely to the Boox Go for content development, but rather to create a focused writing experience on an excellent, easy-on-the-eye e-ink display. I've validated that it's possible to write and publish content using the device, albeit with some restrictions when including media in a post.
So when will I use it? I think it's a great option for drafting content after researching and collecting source material. The device is a tiny fraction of the weight of my MacBook Pro and is only the size of a medium-sized notepad. It, therefore, makes for a great option to take to a coffee shop without having to pack a large bag.
