Boox Go 10.3 (gen II) Lumi: First impressions

Summary

Remember when I mentioned I was using my Kindle as a personal newspaper? And that this solution was ideal because I didn’t need to buy another gadget? I still stand by that, but I bought another gadget to be my “personal newspaper”: a Boox Go 10.3 (Gen II) Lumi tablet. (Phew! From here on, I’ll just call it the Boox Go.) This brand, Boox, isn’t officially in Brazil. It specializes in Android devices with E-ink screens, the same tech as the Kindle, in different screen sizes. It’s best known for the Palma line, a digital reader the size of a phone. My second-generation Boox Go is their most recent model. The biggest new feature is the presence of lighting in the (slightly) pricier version. It also ships with Android 15 out of the box. The previous generation shipped with, and remains on, Android 11, with no sign it’ll ever be updated. Despite the recent Android version, Boox’s take on it has always been quite different from what you see on conventional phones and tablets. There’s its own launcher and a small selection of apps from the manufacturer itself, with expansion possible through their branded store, which recommends few apps, and the Google Play Store. Could I have just used it that way? Sure. Except being who I am, of course I went looking for trouble by trying to strip out everything from Boox and Google. From the start, my goal was to have an ideal Android tablet. Spoiler: I pulled it off, but not without suffering. It’s like Bruno De Blasi summed up in his account of going back to a landline (turns out there are people worse off than me): After all, why am I pouring so much energy into these objects? Why am I so focused on things that, every so often, I complain about or say I don’t like? Until, one day, it hit me: “maybe I’m only using it because it’s there.” *** Android tablets have never reached the same level of prestige as the iPad among developers. In practice, that translates into a notable scarcity of apps adapted for the big screen. An E-ink table...