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Thank you very much for the replies
I have ordered both the kindle scribe and a Boox Go 10.3 in the meanwhile.
I am keeping the Scribe and returning the other.
Going to write-up a brief comparison to help others who are on the same boat
Screen:
Boox has a screen that is fantastic and lacking at the same time. Has no front light and does not have a variant in the western market that does have it at the same PPI - which is super strange. It also has a huge ghosting issue. Pages usually have noticeable ghosting. Everything looks great on it - only after you manually refresh the page. The image is pretty much right on the surface and in print quality. Quite uncanny.
Scribe screen is great. It would have been the best screen I've seen on an e-reader if I did not receive the Boox on the same day. Having a front light and a glass screen, the images look quite sunken in, but the combination of 300 PPI and a fine-tunable light does give a nice holographic look to the images. The refresh rate is very fast, much faster than the Boox, while ghosting is pretty much a non-issue - there is some of it sometimes, but you don't see it if you don't go looking for it.
UX:
Boox runs android. It allows you to just install Mihon on it and basically have your manga automatically download and update all the time - great for keeping up with ongoing series. The downside, however, is huge. Android is clearly not made for e-ink, so it at least looks bad on 3rd party apps, and is straight up unusable at points. Mihon's default reader interface is no exception. You basically can not swipe to turn pages, since it tries to scroll, very poorly, and even after you rewire you muscle memory to only tap for pageturns, you still have to go into deep system settings and manually tell the app to flash wildly between pages to battle ghosting. This still nets you a reading experience that is more distracting than the scribe because of the flashing and you are still left with more ghosting, somehow. The device does come with a default reader app, and this app at least allows you to swipe between pages. The flashing here is less intense and the ghosting is more acceptable, but none are at scribe levels. However, if you do want to use the default reading app rather than Mihon you do have to give up some of the convenience - such as having to manually download the issues, having to manually mark issues as read for tracking and updating to work properly and having to navigate 3-4 folders deep every time you pick up the device. Android downsides don't end there. Boox devices famously don't have sleep so you basically boot up every time you go to read something. The combination of slow refresh and other optimization issues makes everything you do on the screen feel unresponsive. When i ended up installing a Mihon port on my ipad before returning the Boox I felt like I jumped forward in time.
Scribe on the other hand is extremely limited but very snappy. It is a pain to convert CBZs with KCC first and send them to scribe via Calibre, but once they are there, it's all good. Kindle home screen layout, is what it is, and comics don't make sense in that layout before you organize them into collections - which feels clunky to do. But, again, once you do that, it's all good. The page turns are snappy, flashing and ghosting are non-issues. You get proper sleep, proper wake and a fantastic battery life. You press the power button and you are right back to the page you were reading - this takes some minutes and many awkward taps on the Boox.
Build:
Boox is much lighter than the Scribe, which is great, but did not inspire any confidence in me for it's potential longevity. Its screen has a bit of give to it, which feels nice, but also feels like it might be an issue in the long run. I enjoyed the back texture and did not find that the sharp corners of the back cover materials affected day to day use. Because of it's weight it was easier to read from when on a chair, or holding it up in any fashion. The bezels though were too small and too asymmetric for me. All in all, it felt like it was one wrong move away from bending, and I am glad I did not void my return conditions.
Scribe feels like a tank. The added weight is not great and one-handing it becomes impossible very quickly, but I do feel like I am holding a premium device and I do feel like it will be with me for a good while. Screen texture is excellent, even just for swiping. I love the chunky bezel. I even dig the button feel.
TLDR:
Boox Go 10.3 - Screen looks great but has major ghosting issues. Getting manga on it super easy. UX is poor, every interaction feels awkward, and you have to cold boot it every time you pick it up. It doesn't weigh much but the build quality does not inspire any confidence.
Scribe - Screen looks good, and has no ghosting issues. Getting manga on it is a chore. UX is excellent, super snappy but is super locked down - wake from sleep takes few seconds and you pick up where you left off. It is heavy but super well-built.
I was pretty much looking for a sleep-machine and Kindle fits that purpose much better. I will be missing the on-going series tracking and update features of Mihon, a lot. But towards the end of my testing period, the idea of loading my sleep-machine with every series I have on my list and forgeting about doing any higher level stuff on it did prevail. The Mihon / tachiyomi navigation experience is better on non-e-ink tablets, and i don't want to be doing much more than swiping pages before bed.
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