Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I’ve had the Onyx Boox Max 3 for a few weeks now, and I wanted to share my impressions and thoughts to the Amazon community in order to help others learn through my experiences. Let me start by saying, overall, this E-Reader is wonderful and basically everything I want in an E-Reader + E-Ink tablet -- but ONLY after you wrestle with settings, address some issues and make a few tweaks. In the beginning, some of the issues made me tempted to return it, but I'm glad I didn't. I'll explain everything in detail. *THE GOOD: Reading PDFs and EBooks, Taking Notes With Stylus, Highly Customizable, Download Google Play Store Apps, Handles Any Format, USB-C OTG support* *THE BAD: Takes effort to address initial issues, Seems Buggy at First* Let me discuss these areas in much more detail and give advice on how to customize and turn this device into something EXCELLENT. _The GOOD_ 1. I like how well this device handles PDF documents and files; it's fast, snappy and meets my expectations. It handles various files via laptop connection and USB transfer very fast and conveniently, even with my MacBook Pro. As it supports Google Play apps, it's super customizable because you can set up Dropbox, Google Docs, and other file storage apps. Text-to-speech reading of PDFs and marking up documents all works very well. 2. Battery life is great, even with heavy online usage, as it's E-Ink technology, which doesn't need to constantly update the screen unless things change. 3. E-Ink External Monitor Feature is easier for your eyes, especially if you stare at a computer screen for a long time. You can connect your laptop to the device's external monitor app using supplied mini HDMI cable. It is a little laggy but definitely usable, once you tweak settings. I decrease the resolution on my MacBook Pro laptop and use the fastest setting (X-Mode) and then it's quite usable. This was a great feature for me, as I get light sensitivity and wanted something better for my eyes when I do work. 4. The USB-C port supports OTG accessories -- this is wonderful because then you can plug in your own USB hub and connect an external keyboard, mouse, card readers, etc. and make the overall experience more productive. Scroll to the bottom of my review to see *my recommendations* for what to accessories and add-ons to buy. 5. The Notes and stylus pen are wonderful; no lag at all and drawing on notes or PDFs feels great. You can also upload your own templates as use those for your own custom notes (e.g. music sheets, graph paper, etc.) For example, I uploaded a Comic Strip note template to the device and now I can easily draw notes that have comic strip templates. The Onyx forum and support team seem okay at responding to issues, and updates keep coming out to fix bugs and improve issues, which is a plus. Okay, now onto the bad.... _The BAD_ Overall, things are great once you customize and address initial issues. I wish these bugs didn't exist int he first place, but luckily it's not too difficult to fix things. Let me explain. 1. Out of the box a couple things felt quite buggy especially regarding Google Play Store support. It kept giving me a weird error regarding Google Play accounts, and this error message kept beeping repeatedly so often (every few seconds) that I laughed. You MUST follow their instructions online for how to activate Google Play account, and then after that everything seems to work great. Once you handle this, it's amazing that you can install basically ANY Google Play store app. But you should definitely understand that some are not optimized for a black-grey-white e-Ink screen, so they may not look very readable. Not really the device's fault, as I think ALL eReaders would have the same display issue since they don't display color. After tweaking settings and resolving the Google Play Store issue, things start to work and feel great. 2. Switching to the "Android" keyboard in settings fixed a weird error in which Chinese characters would appear randomly sometimes. And "Do Not Disturb" mode must be off in order to use external monitor app. HOW TO HAVE THE BEST EXPERIENCE Okay, now let me share with you my tips for how to get the absolute best experience with this device, and why I now LOVE this device. 1. There are a few great accessories that I highly recommend. See attached images below. I HIGHLY recommend the following three items: Ayotu Skin Touch Folding Leather Case (Amazon link to buy: https://amzn.to/2qIT1Tr ) This case feels great, can be folded and used as a stand, and uses magnets to hold things in place. It's designed for the Max 2 but works fine with the Max 3 and is half the price of the official leather case. Onyx Boox USB Hub Adapter 4-in-1 (Amazon link to buy: https://amzn.to/2OivsKq ) - Simply plug this into the USB-C port and now you can easily plug in any USB keyboard and mouse, insert in card storage, etc. Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard, Jelly Comb Dual Mode Bluetooth & USB Wired Rechargeable Portable Mini Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad Mouse for Android, (Amazon link to buy: https://amzn.to/2s67Pfc ) This amazing portable folding keyboard also has a trackpad. Once I plug it into the above hub, it's like it converts my Boox Max 3 into a full fledged computer for productivity in apps like Microsoft Word. Donner Bluetooth Page Turner Pedal. For musicians, the ability to turn pages without using your hands (if you're holding a violin or guitar or playing pinao) is useful. I got this page turner pedal: (Amazon link: https://amzn.to/2MOIAWs ) which lets me do pageup, pagedown, advance to next page, and other controls easily. 2. Download excellent apps -- NYTimes App and the Guardian app look beautiful, Microsoft Word works well, Google Chrome, Google Drive and Docs, and various other kinds of productivity apps can be downloaded depending on your preferences. All in all, I highly recommend this E-Ink tablet device, if you do a lot of PDF reading / Notes and want to save your eyes. It's a bit expensive but worth it for the various features described above. If you liked my review, please give me a Like! and I will write more detailed reviews of other products. (Jan 2020 UPDATE after a few months of using the device: Still loving it! The stylus got a bit worn out, but I find that I really appreciate sketching and drawing on Notes and how easy it is to export and share these via scannable QR code. Not a perfect device, but I like it a lot.) Let me know if you have any questions and I will try my best to answer them honestly. If you liked my review, please give me a Like! and I'll write more detailed reviews.