In October 2022, Onyx Boox announced the launch of the Nova Air2, presumably the successor to the Nova Air. But just how different are these two devices? Let’s take a look…
Both the Nova Air and the Nova Air2 are 7.8″ devices with a screen resolution of 1404 x 1872 and 300dpi. They both use octa-core processors and have 3Gb of RAM and 32Gb of storage space. They have the same physical dimensions, weight and battery. They also both have a frontlight, speakers, microphone, USB-C port and Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity.
So, what exactly is different about them?
Well, in all honesty, not much at all!
Perhaps the biggest difference is that the Nova Air runs Android 10, whilst the Nova Air2 runs Android 11 (all newer Boox devices have Android 11.0 as their operating system). However, this does not make much difference because they have pretty much the same applications.
The screen used on the Nova Air2 displays sharper and clearer text images due to higher light transmittance. It also has an improved CPU (despite having the same 8 cores and clock speed as the Nova Air) which should result in faster processing speeds.
Pricewise, the Nova Air currently sells for $319.99, with the Nova Air2 selling for $339.99.
Summary
I’ve summarised the differences in the table below:
| Spec | Nova Air | Nova Air2 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Qualcomm octa-core | Upgraded Qualcomm octa-core |
| Screen | 7.8″, 300dpi | 7.8″, 300dpi (displays sharper text and images) |
| Android | 10.0 | 11.0 |
| Price | $319.99 | $339.99 |
Overall, the Nova Air2 offers some slight hardware improvements and runs a newer version of Android, but it’s not a massive improvement on the original Nova Air.
It feels to me that there is not enough of a difference for the Nova Air 2 to be launched as a whole new product, but Boox does tend to do this a lot. It seems that their strategy is to release new products every year, even if they are really just older products with a few minor tweaks. For example, the Note Air 2, Note Air 2 Plus and Note 5 are all 10.3″ tablets with an almost identical feature set.
So, which Nova Air would I recommend? Well, the original Note Air is a pretty decent 7.8″ tablet, but the Nova Air 2 is newer, has slightly better hardware specs and runs Android 11.0, which means it probably has a bit more inherent future-proofing.
So, if there’s not a lot of price difference, you might as well go with the Nova Air 2, but if you are working within a tight budget or you can get the original Nova Air at a heavily discounted rate, it wouldn’t be a bad purchase.
Boox Nova Air vs Nova Air2
| PRODUCT | BOOX NOVA AIR 2 | BOOX NOVA AIR |
|---|---|---|
| Specs & ratings info |  Okay |  Okay |
| My Rating | ||
| Price (approx) | $340 Limited availability | $320 Limited availability |
| Manufacturer | Onyx Boox | Onyx Boox |
| Release year | 2022 | 2021 |
| SCREEN | BOOX NOVA AIR 2 | BOOX NOVA AIR |
| Screen type | Carta HD | Carta 1000 |
| Screen size | 7.8" | 7.8" |
| Screen resolution (B/W) | 1404 x 1872 | 1404 x 1872 |
| Screen density (B/W) | 300dpi | 300dpi |
| Colour | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| Screen resolution (Colour) | n/a | n/a |
| Screen density (Colour) | n/a | n/a |
| Frontlight | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wacom compatible | ✓ | ✓ |
| Buy | ||
| HARDWARE | BOOX NOVA AIR 2 | BOOX NOVA AIR |
| CPU | 1.8 GHz octa-core | 1.8 GHz octa-core |
| RAM | 3Gb | 3Gb |
| Storage | 32Gb | 32Gb |
| Battery | 2000mAh | 2000mAh |
| Super Refresh | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| Keyboard folio | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| Speakers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microphone | ✓ | ✓ |
| G-Sensor | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| Ceramic Tip | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| Bluetooth | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fingerprint scanner | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| SD card slot | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| Rear camera | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| Front camera | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| Waterproof | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| USB-C | ✓ | ✓ |
| Width | 136.5mm | 136mm |
| Height | 194mm | 194mm |
| Thickness | 6.3mm | 6.3mm |
| Weight | 235g | 235g |
| Buy | ||
| SOFTWARE | BOOX NOVA AIR 2 | BOOX NOVA AIR |
| Operating system | Android 11 | Android 10.0 |
| Google Play Store | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kindle support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Handwriting search | ✓ | ✓ |
| Handwriting conversion | ✓ | ✓ |
| Insert shapes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Insert images | ✓ | ✓ |
| Split screen | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom templates | ✓ | ✓ |
| No. templates | 45+ | 45+ |
| Brush types | Fountain Pen, Paintbrush, Ballpoint Pen, Pencil, Marker | Fountain Pen, Paintbrush, Ballpoint Pen, Pencil, Marker |
| Screen share | ✓ | ✓ |
| ADE support | ⨯ | ⨯ |
| File formats | PDF, EPUB, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, CBZ, CBR, AZW3, MOBI, PRC, DJVU, CHM, ZIP | PDF, EPUB, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, CBZ, CBR, AZW3, MOBI, PRC, DJVU, CHM, ZIP |
| File formats (image) | PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP | PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP |
| File formats (Audio) | WAV, MP3 | WAV, MP3 |
| Buy | ||
| PRODUCT | BOOX NOVA AIR 2 | BOOX NOVA AIR |
About the author
Dan Dutton is passionate about E-ink writing tablets, which bring together the pleasure of writing on paper with the power of digital technology. When he bought his first tablet, he realised that there wasn't a lot of unbiased information available for people that were considering buying an E-ink tablet, and so he built eWritable.
A little confusing: in the table header and also in the Summary, you mention ‘Note Air’ and ‘Note Air2’ where on should read ‘Nova Air’ and ‘Nova Air2’.
Thanks for the article.
F.
Thanks so much for pointing out the typo. I’ve amended it now 🙂