u/nstgc

I've been using the BOOX Note Air 5C (NA5) for almost three weeks now, and while I'm impressed, there are some device-specific things that prevent me from feeling comfortable keeping it. It's amazing at a fundamental level, though, so I absolutely do want something like it.

I'm looking for at least one (but preferably more) of the following in a new e-paper tablet:

• Reading novels and B&W comics/manga (color isn't needed)
• Reading in a browser and technical books/manuals (color needed)
• Working a terminal—Termux to SSH out of the tablet and handle light developement.

And for technical requirements:

• 4GB of RAM at a minimum, as my old tablet has this much and is starting to struggle.
• The ability to install software outside of a small walled garden. It doesn't need to be Android, and I don't mind installing a different OS.
• Between 8 - 10.5 inch display.

(Having invested heavily in stationery, I'm NOT interested in digital note taking.)

The BOOX color display, refresh rate, and RAM are sufficient for all of those bullet points, but the device fails in other ways I hadn't anticipated. In fact, on (e-)paper, it's the perfect device for me, but the NA5 suffers from three key issues:

• Ergonomics. In the nearly three weeks I've been using it, I have yet to find a secure and comfortable way to hold it.
• Overall quality. Onyx seems to have optimized for feature set and marketability at the expense of everything else. There are several little things which add up. I can probably work around many of these, but I doubt I can work around all of them.
• Long term prospects. It seems as though BOOX tablets break spontaneously and the company refuses to honor the warranty. The overall poor quality does not help allay these rumors.

I could probably put up with any one of those bullet points, but not all three.

Products I've already considered are ReMarkable (too low spec), BigMe (seems even jankier than BOOX), ViWood/iFlyTek (I'm sick of AI marketing), Kobo (specs, size), Kindle (specs, size, walled garden), and Supernote.

If I had to pick among alternatives, I would go for the Supernote Manta for its apparent quality and long service life, but aside from being too large and too slow, it seems focused on note-taking which I don't care about.

I feel like what I'm looking for doesn't actually exist, that this is too niche of a product segment, but I'm sure hoping I'm wrong. I'd happily pay more for a higher quality version of the NA5. Does anyone here have a suggestion? Or, alternatively, is this as good as I can hope for?

I just added an SD card to my Note Air 5C. This is not a new process for me, but the outcome was different. I expected to have access to both the built-in storage and the SD card. This is not what happened, however. Instead I only seem to have access to the SD card. What's up with that? Am I missing something?

I'm loving the Note Air 5 C I received over the weekend. It ticks every box I had hoped for and then some. Unfortunately, I'm finding it difficult to hold. I initially tried holding it by the broad bar to the left. Though this is how I hold my Samsung tablet which weights twice as much, this ended poorly. Not only was this painful, but the torque is enough for my wrist to give out without warning. I have bad wrists, that is part of it, but the bigger issue is the weight is mostly distributed to the side opposite the obvious hand hold.

I've also tried holding it from the bottom, top, and other side, but all of those have resulted in more of the same or the grip isn't secure enough. (I have cats. A secure grip is not optional.)

For those of you with a Note Air 4 or 5 C, how do you hold yours? I really love the tablet otherwise, and from my product research don't believe there are any alternatives that tick as many of the boxes I am looking for.

Just got my Note Air 5C in. It's better than I expected, but years of using a fountain pen has given me a very light hand. For those unaware, when writing with a fountain pen, you do not push down. That is how you spring the tines. This is great for me and my hand issues, but not so great for writing on this tablet. Is there a way to adjust the sensitivity so it registers with a lighter press?

After over a week of obsessive product research, I think the best e-ink tablet for me is the BOOX Note Air 5 C, but I have a couple of reservations. Most of those aren't hard requirements, but I've identified three things which would make me send it back immediately:

• Always on AI
• Locked behind a BOOX account
• Worse display than Pearl
  • e.g. Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Glo, revamped Kindle DX, and generally eReaders circa early-2010s
• Inability to side load apps

I do not want an always on AI. The only AI feature I would conceivably use is locally run OCR, which I don't care all that much about since I've lived with out it all my life and could just run that on my desktop. If I must disable all AI features to avoid AI everywhere, that's fine.

If I have to set up a BOOX account to use the tablet, that's hard no. If I'm locked out of some of the apps because of that, I'll make do since I don't plan on making heavy use of the writing capability. So long as the core functionality is there, I'm fine.

I used a Nook Simple Touch a decade okay and thought the screen was fine. From the images and video reviews I've seen, the Koleido 3 display seems to be universally superior to the Pearl display.

The app I care about the most is Termux, which is needs to be side loaded. If I can't install that I have no reason to buy the tablet.

Are any of those an issue? Is there unavoidable AI, am I forced to create a new account, is the display worse than Pear, or will I be barred from side loading apps?

It was suggested that if I want the leanest possible OS for a Pixel 3a, which does not need to function as a phone, I could install straight Alpine rather than PostMarketOS. As for why not just use PostMarketOS, my phone has very little RAM, and I want to spare as much of it as I can.

Reading through the ARM install guide it says to check to ensure there are boot files for the chip set. If they exist, the device is fully supported. They do indeed exist!

Reading further, it says to put the installer on an SD card. Uh-oh. The Pixel 3a doesn't have an SD slot.

Is there a way to work around the need for an SD slot for installing Alpine Linux on ARM?

I want to use a specific version of the JDK for aa specific package in a nix-shell, but am getting the error " error: cannot coerce a set to a string: { config = «thunk»; }"

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:

with pkgs;

mkShell {
  nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: rec {
    clojure = pkgs.clojure.override {
      jdk = pkgs.jdk25_headless;
    };
  };
}

Normally I'd just do this system wide, and in fact it worked when trying it system wide on another machine, but I'm trying to learn to write nix-shell stuff.

edit: I have Clojure installed system wide already.

I'm trying to use a specific version of the JDK for a package, and was following the wiki's example, but I got a build error. Searching the manual presents the same thing. Same story for Nix Pills, but when I go to the options search on the official website, and it doesn't appear.

Has the option `nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides` been removed?

The level up region only has two boxes for picking extra moves from your own playbook. Does this mean you can only pick two extra ones?