Back to school already? I've been testing ePaper notebooks all week so you can start the year off right

Whether you're just starting high school or finishing up your college Master's Program, a good note-taking tablet can make all the difference in class success. The latest note-taking tablets from companies like TCL and Boox sport technology that looks and feels a lot like paper, but each gives you all the best features of a modern smart device.

If you've never used a digital note-taking device, know that these are tablet-sized (not e-reader size), so you probably won't want to hold them up for long periods. They are also both powered by Android and include the Google Play Store, so you can download all your favorite apps.

The TCL Note A1 NXTPAPER and the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II both ship with styluses that magnetically attach to the side of the tablet, so you can take notes anytime you need to. Whether that's bedside journaling or attempting to jot down everything important during a lecture, both tablets will give you quick access to recording and handwritten notes, and I've spent the last week putting these two through rigorous tests to find out which should be in your backpack this year.

Not all ePaper is created equally

E Ink is the most common type of ePaper display you'll find today, but TCL's NXTPAPER displays give it a run for its money in several ways. The TCL Note A1 features a special type of NXTPAPER display that works just as well for black-and-white notes as it does for YouTube videos.

The matte display is wonderful for cutting glare from those annoying overhead classroom lights, and the fluid 120Hz refresh rate feels fast and smooth. This makes using apps feel like any normal Android tablet, and it may prove nicer for note-taking for people who want something smoother than E Ink.

While these tablets are primarily designed for handwriting, you can also use any virtual keyboard you choose. I always love using Gboard, but typing on it always feels slow on E Ink. NXTPAPER is fast and fluid and feels like typing on a normal tablet.

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But that's about where the positives end and where the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II's E Ink display takes over. One of the inherent advantages of E Ink is that it doesn't need a backlight to illuminate the screen. It's got one just in case you need it, but I rarely find that I need to use it.

If I'm taking notes outside, the Boox Go is the clear winner. That black-and-white E Ink display perfectly absorbs and reflects sunlight, so you can see the display even better in direct sunlight than elsewhere. The built-in front light also gets extremely dim when you need it, which I found important for lecture rooms that can sometimes be too dim.

The TCL Note A1's display is really only easy to see in moderate indoor lighting. It doesn't get bright enough to see outdoors, and it doesn't get dim enough to comfortably use in a low-lit room. There's also no dark mode, curiously enough, which probably would have helped a lot in those dim rooms.

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Both displays' lights are fully flicker-free, but TCL's NXTPAPER display uses something called temporal dithering to enhance the colors. This effect can give some people splitting headaches, and since there's no way to disable it, I can't recommend the tablet for anyone sensitive to dithering.

That makes the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II the best display of the two, despite the advantages that color and a faster refresh rate on the NXTPAPER might otherwise seem.

Note-taking gets leveled up

Displays affect more than just readability, too. Boox's E Ink technology looks a lot more like traditional paper and pen, but typing on the display isn't as nice since the refresh rate is lower. Likewise, typing on the TCL Note A1 feels smoother, but I wouldn't say there's any meaningful latency difference when writing.

In fact, I far prefer writing on the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II because the stylus feels like writing with a marker, and the display's textured surface also feels uniquely wonderful to swipe on. TCL's Note A1 stylus offers an incredibly unique built-in haptic engine (yes, into the stylus!), but writing on the screen still feels too much like writing on glass for my liking.

Taking notes is faster on the Boox Go, and I find the default note styles and options are better than TCL's. Both companies offer some great template options to get you started, as well.

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Boox also offers a superb handwriting-to-text engine that even understands my terrible chicken-scratch writing. TCL offers some truly fantastic AI writing tools built in, but curiously doesn't offer a direct handwriting-to-text option — the only way to achieve this is to have TCL's AI rewrite your notes, which isn't always preferable.

But TCL offers a suite of AI tools that Boox simply does not. If you're a student who enjoys utilizing AI to help give you better writing, summarize your notes, make things searchable, or even add live transcription of lectures to your notes, TCL is the easy winner in this category. The Boox Go can record audio directly to a note, but there's no transcription option at all, something I thought was very odd in this day and age.

Lastly, the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II passes all Google Play Integrity tests, which means any apps that require an extra layer of security (think banking apps) run just fine on it. TCL's Note A1 doesn't pass any of them, which I thought was curious. I haven't run into issues with normal apps on TCL's tablet, but there are undoubtedly some more secure ones that simply won't work on it.

Boox to replace your notebooks

While the TCL Note A1 offers far better built-in AI tools and a faster refresh rate, I like everything else about the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II better. This even includes the hardware design, as the TCL Note A1 feels like a heavy iPad while the Boox Go is sleeker, lighter, and more ergonomic, with curved sides that rest comfortably in my hands, a lighter overall weight, and a luxurious vegan leather back.

Boox and TCL are running a back-to-school sale this month to sweeten this deal further. The Boox Go bundle I'm using is currently $40 off, while the TCL Note A1 is $50 off. This still makes the Boox Go 10.3 Gen II $100 cheaper than the TCL Note A1, and that's easily enough of a reason for me to recommend it.