Boox Go 6 Gen II: compact, lightweight, improved performance and notepad with Inksense Plus
BOOX Go 6 Gen II is a quite interesting upgrade: it still retains the quality of a "pocket book reader" but now adds notes with a pen and a more powerful configuration, so it is suitable for you to read and take quick notes every day.
First impression in hand
The notable point, and perhaps the most impressive one when holding BOOX Go 6 Gen II in hand, is the new design inspired by travel suitcases, with vertical lines on the back of the device creating a different feeling from the plain back commonly found on most e-readers. In addition, these vertical lines combined with the material on the back provide a smooth and cool hand feeling, as well as comfort in holding. Overall, the device is compact, flat, with gently rounded corners, so when held in hand, it feels more like you are holding a travel accessory than a pure e-reader.
The back surface with vertical lines provides a firm, smooth grip. BOOX Go 6 Gen II comes in four colors: White, Black, Twitter and Yellow, suitable for many different tastes - from minimalist, quiet style to outstanding, more "toy" style for those who like to personalize the device. The Black color version in hand with BOOX Go 6 Gen II brings a classic feel to a technology device. The 6-inch size and compact form make me feel like this is a pocket notebook that you can carry, containing thousands of different books inside.
Some notable upgrades compared to BOOX Go 6
According to research, the most "expensive" change on the Go 6 Gen II is the support for the InkSense Plus pen. This is the first time BOOX brings stylus note-taking capabilities to its 6-inch e-reader. The InkSense Plus pen is an active touch pen, supporting 4,096 levels of pressure, allowing you to underline and highlight directly in books, take handwritten notes in the margins or open a separate notes app to write quickly like a small notebook always with you. And talking about the feeling of writing, InkSense Plus on the Go 6 Gen II gives me a surprising feeling: the ePaper screen is covered with frosted glass, the friction is good, so when I put the pen on it to write, it doesn't feel like it will slip like a tablet glass, the pen strokes stick, and when you stop, you stop. In addition, the latency is at a good level for a 6-inch e-reader device: writing a to-do list, underlining, taking a few notes is smooth enough, not annoying. Compared to larger BOOX machines, the writing experience on the Go 6 Gen II is like a small notebook – not for complicated drawing, but great for quick notes. Personally, I think this is a very necessary addition for those who like to read and take notes on the content they read.
And I was really surprised with the note-taking ability equipped on Boox Go 6 Gen II.
These values are retained
Of course, besides those upgrades, BOOX still retains its strength in screen with E Ink Carta 1300 panel, resolution 1448 × 1072, equivalent to 300 ppi, providing sharp display quality, smooth fonts, bringing a feeling like printed paper for you to experience. With this resolution, the moderate font size is displayed very clearly, long reading is less tiring for the eyes - a big plus if you have the habit of reading for hours continuously.
Bright screen, sharp text typical of Boox. The front backlight system is still dual, allowing adjustment of both brightness and color temperature from white to yellow, suitable for many lighting conditions, from dark rooms, cafes to shady outdoors. Being able to switch to a warm yellow tone makes it more comfortable for the eyes when reading at night, especially when reading before bed. In terms of size, Go 6 Gen II remains loyal to the 6-inch screen, focusing on maximum portability: size is about 149 × 109 × 6.8 mm and light weight makes it okay to put in large pants pockets, coat compartments or small bags. For those who often travel, go to work, go to coffee shops or fly domestically, this size is exactly like "put it in your pocket and forget you're carrying it", but when you need to pull it out to read, it's more comfortable than a phone screen.
Plus the compact size makes it easy to carry anywhere. Another strong point that is still retained is the open Android 11 platform with Google Play, allowing you to install more reading apps (Kindle, Kobo, Google Play Books, EPUB library...), note-taking apps, dictionaries, foreign language learning, and even some cloud note-taking apps if you want to quickly sync to your phone or laptop. Compared to closed ecosystems, having open Android helps users be much more proactive in customizing the system, fonts, applications or storage services, as long as you accept the configuration of an ePaper device. Personally, I still only focus on the reading experience, the sharp display screen, page turning speed and the ability to store many different book formats, along with the obvious improvement in grip that BOOX Go 6 Gen II brings. These are the highlights that such a compact machine can bring.
Conclude
For me personally, BOOX Go 6 Gen II is a reasonable upgrade for the group of users who already like the compactness of the Go 6 but want more flexibility so that the device is more than just a "book reader". The inherent strengths of BOOX, combined with the ability to take notes, turn this device into a mobile electronic notebook, helping you read - underline - take notes quickly - store and synchronize, all on a device that you can pocket and carry with you at all times.
And finally, upgrading RAM to 3 GB along with keeping the open Android platform intact makes the daily use experience smoother, especially if you often use many reading apps, dictionaries and notes in parallel, instead of just reading a fixed store of content. If previously Go 6 was the choice in the direction of "reading is main, adding applications is secondary", then with Go 6 Gen II, I see it closer to the image of a compact, multi-purpose ePaper device: reading books, taking quick notes, looking up and studying on the same paper-like screen as possible.
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