Is Boox Note Air 3 Good for Split-Screen Note-Taking?

The Boox Note Air 3 is a 10.3-inch E Ink tablet that runs Android 12 out of the box. It has a 227 PPI Carta 1200 display, which is sharp enough for reading text and handwriting. The included Boox Pen Plus stylus uses Wacom EMR technology, so it doesn't need a battery and gives you 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Inside, you get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, plus microSD expansion (up to 2TB) for those who need even more space. The tablet also features dual speakers, a microphone, USB-C charging, and a front light with adjustable color temperature. What makes it unique in the e-ink world is its open Android operating system: you can install Google Play apps like Kindle, Kobo, Notion, OneNote, and a web browser. That flexibility means it's not just a note-taker but a portable research device.

Split-screen note-taking is a workflow where you have two apps visible at the same time: one for reference material and one for your own notes. For example, a student might open a PDF of a lecture slide on the left and write notes in a blank page on the right. A researcher might read a journal article on the left and outline their own paper on the right. The key activities involved are reading and extracting information, switching between the two panes, and capturing thoughts using a stylus or keyboard. A good split-screen experience on an e-ink device requires that both panes remain legible, the pen input stays responsive, and the device doesn't lag too much when scrolling or turning pages. The challenge is that e-ink refresh is slower than LCD, and splitting a 10.3-inch display reduces the usable area for each task.

The Boox Note Air 3 treats split-screen as a central feature, not an afterthought. It uses Android 12's window manager with Boox's customized sidebar. You can activate split screen from the sidebar by selecting two apps, and a divider appears in the middle that you can drag to give one app more space. Most users pair NeoReader (for PDFs/e-books) with the Notes app, but because it runs Android, you can literally split any two apps, such as a web browser and a note page, or two notes side by side. This is a significant advantage over more closed rivals like the Kindle Scribe or reMarkable 2. In real-world use, the handwriting quality is excellent. The 4096-level Wacom EMR stylus has low latency and a pleasant rubberized tip. The screen has a textured finish that feels like faint paper, reducing slippage. However, the 10.3-inch screen split in half means each pane is roughly 5.1 inches wide in portrait. For many users, this feels narrow when writing long sentences; you may need to zoom or write smaller. In landscape, each pane is even less wide, so most users stay in portrait. It's workable for short notes, but it's not like writing on a full A5 sheet. The E Ink screen also adds one complication: when you refresh one pane, e-paper particles can affect the other. Boox has refresh modes (slow, fast, smooth, text) so you can reduce ghosting, but the trade-off is lower clarity or slower refresh. With two apps running side-by-side, you may notice ghosting after scrolling a web page or flipping a PDF page. Many owners say it's not a deal-breaker but that you need to get used to tapping the refresh button. Compared to alternatives, the Boox Note Air 3 fits a sweet spot. The Kindle Scribe only barely supports split view (and even then, it's more like reading a document next to a notebook, with tighter software restrictions). The reMarkable 2 has no official split-screen mode. The Supernote Nomad and A5X have split-screen, but their screens are smaller. For the same price, the Note Air 3 offers the most Android app support and a robust two-pane workflow. The practical reality: If your split-screen use is mostly reading a PDF or textbook on one side and jotting bullet points on the other, the Boox Note Air 3 is very good. If you need to annotate a complex document while simultaneously writing a full-length memo, the screen size could frustrate you. That's why it's worth considering accessories like a stand and a case, which can improve the ergonomics of long split-screen sessions.