Boox Go 6 – a slick e-paper reader for those who have outgrown their Kindle

The tangible connection between picking up a book to read and slipping into a relaxed state is unlike any other. TV, movies, and video games all induce different emotions and require different levels of interaction with each medium and those around me. For me, when I pick up a book and settle down it means, “I am reading, leave me alone.”

These days, with kids well past the age of a bedtime story, reading is a purely solo activity and one that’s been important to me since I was a child myself.

These days, the kids don’t really read which frustrates me – they seek more visceral entertainment on consoles or TikTok. Even the modernization of reading from musty old books to the Amazon Kindle and, the device we have here today, the Boox Go 6, has failed to reel them in.

I’ve had various ebook readers for well over a decade now. I have a huge digital library, all neatly curated in Calibre, and I have found that I have discovered, read, and learned from books I would probably never have encountered since these devices became a thing.

Also, interestingly, despite being a mega nerd when it comes to having the latest gadgets on my desk, I have never been drawn to the high-end Kindles and readers. I do not need the bells and whistles to read a book. My devices have almost always been at the low end of the range. Books are incredibly low-tech entertainment. I don’t need a Kindle with a 4090 GPU to get what I need from the moment.

Kindle vs the others

So, with the scene set, step forward Boox and the Go 6. I almost started to write there that it is a Kindle competitor but stopped myself. At face value, of course, it is, but in many ways, these are not the same device, nor perhaps are they aimed at the same person.

To understand why, let’s look at the Kindle. Amazon’s readers rule the world. Tied in inseparably with the Amazon book ecosystem you buy a Kindle, you buy your books from Amazon, they appear and you read them. Rinse and repeat. Of course, you can get books from elsewhere and sync them with your Kindle, but the vast majority of Kindle owners will need to look no further than Amazon.com. And the corporation really likes that.

I don’t. I don’t like having to pay extra to remove ads from my device if I get the cheapest model. I don’t like being tied down, or at least heavily influenced as to where to get my stuff from and I don’t like the fact that year-on-year iterations of the models change so little yet the price never comes down.

I do however like simplicity and the battery life. Man, the battery life. I can put my Kindle on airplane mode and come back to it in literally six weeks and it will still be half full if I haven’t used it. That’s insane.

So if you want a reliable device that is always there for you with a virtually unlimited library of books at your fingertips – albeit all from the same mega-corporation then why look further than a Kindle? You wouldn’t. And most people don’t.

That’s where Devices such as the Boox Go 6 come in, the latest e-reader from a company that has actually been doing this since 2009. Boox is no new kid on the block and Go 6 has been honed into the kind of device keen ebook readers might want when they are fed up with being locked into Amazon’s imposing ecosystem.

The Boox Go 6 (top) next to a 2022 Kindle Basic The Boox Go 6

After that long preamble – we are talking reading here so that was something to read at least – let’s get down to business. The Boox Go 6 is a 6-inch monochrome e-reading device that is a smidge smaller than my 2022 basic Kindle, weighs about the same, and easily slips into the back of a jeans pocket. Fun fact, I carry mine in my back pocket in the hope that some young thief will pickpocket it and accidentally find themselves having stolen a device that might educate them. In my mind, they start reading, get interested in science, and end up changing the world.

To get the tech specs out of the way and get to the real guts – the experience – let’s gloss over the fact it comes with 32GB of onboard storage, twice that of my Kindle and also includes a slot for a memory card to expand it. The Go 6 runs on Android 11, which is a bit old, and can access things such as your OneDrive or Google Drive leading to easy access to documents as well as books.

Running on Android means you can install the Kindle app, and just about any bookstore you may use, and gives you access to your existing libraries.

You can also seamlessly copy your own books to it using ebook management software like the outstanding Calibre. Simply connect with a USB C cable to your PC and Calibre recognizes the Go 6 instantly and you can transfer what you like. Because the Boox can read 24 different formats Calibre will likely not have to convert the text before transferring the file – something I always find happening with my Kindle and then when you open the file you can find formatting errors. I haven’t seen this on the Boox Go 6.

Is flexibility a hindrance?

That last paragraph points to the Go 6’s strengths and weaknesses at the same time, depending on who you are. If you just want a simple reader, you will likely not be using something such as Calibre. You won’t care about One Drive and you certainly won’t want to dig into the settings of an Android operating system, which can be clunkier than you are used to.

On the other hand, if you are remotely techie, love Android, and a bit of fiddling around, you can turn your Boox Go 6 into something that smashes the Kindle out of the park. But you will have to play around with it to get it to your liking. Only once mind, but the out-of-the-box experience is not Amazon smoooooth.

Amazon Kindle’s simplicity comes from the high levels of lock-down on the device. There is very little to change. What you boot up is pretty much what you will use forever.

The Boox Go 6 is not that. Settings for display aren’t always intuitive. It would be nice – thinks I – if all the display settings were in the display settings section. Not so, but once you have had a poke around and learned where everything is, it matters not. With a couple of tweaks (and there are already guides on YouTube for best settings) your Go 6 will look amazing. Ghosting of text won’t be a thing, pages will flip over seamlessly and you will have found the light controls. And this is a biggie.

The Go 6 has the ability to change its backlight from the normal daylight brightness to a lovely warm paperwhite white with the push of a slider. Yes, Kindles do this, but you pay a lot more for a higher-end model. Here, you can fine-tune it to what you want it to look like and really get it to resemble an old book, which at night is hugely beneficial on the old eyeballs.

During the day, the contrast is exceptional and the little Go 6 is an absolute pleasure to read with and I think it is going to become my daily driver when it comes to being out and about.

The Boox Go 6 with its magnetic case First world problems

If there is one thing I don’t like, and I kind of hate myself for falling into this trap, is that the Go 6 takes around 30 seconds to boot up, and a bit longer to get “into book” whereas my Kindle is nigh-on instant.

I thought I was long past the point where 30 seconds was seen as a bad thing but the booting of the Android OS does make the device feel sluggish when it actually isn’t when in normal operation.

In reality, this is a huge first-world problem and I need to have a talk with myself. An e-reader doesn’t need to be instant on. I should not be outraged that I could have read an extra half page in that time, but yet it does matter.

When taken as part of the bigger picture though, the freeing liberation from Amazon, the warm backlighting, the perfect form factor, the 300dpi Carta 1300 monochrome screen, the Boox 6 Go is almost the perfect e-reader for anybody who doesn’t want a Kindle. I just wish there were more people in that bracket.

I haven’t even mentioned the optional magnetic case that just attaches itself to the Go 6 with no effort at all. FYI – I like magnets.

Conclusion

The Boox Go 6 is priced at $149.99 so it is more expensive than a Kindle Basic for sure but it’s also not a Kindle Basic. This is an e-reader for people who want to expand their options and break free. An e-reader that is kind on the eyes and one that offers things a Kindle never will. It is an e-reader for those that have outgrown a Kindle.

This device will likely not be your first ebook reader but if anything about the Amazon Kindle has ever irked you, you should immediately check out the Boox Go 6.

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