I just ordered a Boox Palma. It’s a phone sized e-ink device running some version of Android. It’s black and white. I know they have color tablets now but they’re more expensive and I really like the smaller phone size for most things including reading (I know most people seem to prefer large pages for reading text but I like narrow newspaper sized columns the best).
It won’t arrive for a couple weeks but I’m curious if other people with black and white screens use LingQ and how well it works?
I’ve been using iOS exclusively for over 10 years now so I’m curious what the Play Store has to offer these days for Korean learners.
I have a Boox Tab Ulta C, but I actually think I prefer the phone form factor with LingQ. I do like my tablet with LingQ, but it’s not perfect. The main issue is that it is just a little slow to respond when I am reading and listening at the same time. I also don’t think I could use it without the pen, and that wouldn’t work for me at least in a phone size.
That said it works very well with apps like Storytel & Nextory, or just reading in the standard epub reader.
I have heard different LingQ statuses are difficult to see on the B+W e-ink devices, but that isn’t an issue with my color tablet.
I should also add, it takes a bit to figure out how to configure my tablet best for each app. Once things are set for a specific app, I don’t need to change anything, but it can be fiddly at first.
Sort of. The app downloads and runs for sure. But the screen obviously looks a lot different on e-ink. I recall I was able to switch it to underline the unknown words and that worked but now I can’t see the underlined words. I basically went back to my iPhone so I don’t know when it stopped working. You an still read books on it but I can’t do the highlighting at least I can’t seem to. I might give reading on the device another go. The e-ink is a bit easier on the eyes but I’m really used to having my iPhone with me all the time.
The smartphone looks very good. These devices are intriguing, I have a feature on my iPhone, that by clicking three times the on/off button I can go black and white. It’s not the same but I use it sometimes, and at least I know I can go color if I need to.
Having only the black and white option might be a bit risky.
I do not own it, but I have been meaning to buy the color e paper version. if my language studies are efficient on iphone then I will not buy it. However, I won a free copy of 10.3 color ereader from the same company. I had to complete one of their surveys regarding their ereaders. Then I was lucky enough to be mentioned in the list of 15 winners.
The ereader is easy on eyes. There is a ghosting issue, but it can be eliminated by pressing the refreshing button. They have also incorporated CHATGPT app so it is easy to create stories and to read them on the go. 10.3 inch size is ideal for reading.
LingQ is not meant for ereaders I mean there are always some issues. Therefore, I prefer to use iphone. For the purpose of doing general reading, I think you may not go wrong with having such smartphones if that’s what you want to do.
I have a few eInk devices from Boox, all Android based so LingQ runs.
Short version:
LingQ is not usable on eInk, no matter whether it has color or not. And stay away from color eInk in general, it is terrible.
Long version:
One of my devices is the smartphone sized Boox Palma. It only has a greyscale screen so LingQ doesn’t really work with its color coding. The performance is usable and it’s easy on the eyes because it needs no or only a little backlight. For something like Anki that doesn’t need colors it works really well. LingQ - nope, really needs colors.
The other device I have from Boox is a color eInk device with the size of a Kindle. To make it short: color eInk is really bad in nearly every regard, I regret buying it. Should have returned it immediately.
The problem with color eInk is the extremely low contrast without backlight. It is only usable without the backlight being cranked up in bright sunlight. Indoors it is completely unusable without backlight. So it is not easy on the eyes anymore and the battery doesn’t last longer than a normal tablet, it even lasts less. So you lose all advantages eInk has and still have a terrible refresh rate, massive ghosting and ugly washed out colors that look terrible. LingQ in theory is usable but the low refresh rate (much lower than on the b/w Boox Palma) makes it a pain to use. I tried it for a few minutes, played around with the different refresh settings and never used it again because it was such a bad experience.
My advice would be to stay away from color eInk completely. It has no advantage over a normal tablet but a lot of disadvantages. It would only be usable if you live in a very sunny country and you only want to use it out in the open in the bright sun. But even in that scenario the refresh rate is still very annoying and you have ghosting artifacts all the time.
I use a Boox Air note 2
a browser
an external keyboard for macros (next sentence, audio, translate);
My non-known words come up below the sentences (a setting).
Observing myself, I note that I can read a lot more on the browser and PC than on the phone app. I think there are a few different factors, but one of them is definitely that using mouse and/or hotkeys seems to be faster than tapping the word on a touchscreen (which, I must admit, is somewhat counterintuitive to me - it feels like it should be the other way around!)
For the same content, I find myself pausing and unpausing audio a LOT less when using the PC and browser - I can keep up with lingqing new words and looking up yellow ones while listening continually, whereas I simply cannot keep up on the phone’s touchscreen. Again, this comes as a bit of a surprise to me, but I’m sure of it by now. (I have also noticed that I feel a lot more mental strain when lingqing on the phone than on the browser. It feels like I’ve done “a lot already” after two screen’s worth of text, whereas the same amount of text on the browser feels like much less.)
Now: I love the idea of LingQ on an e-ink device. I’ve recently gotten myself an e-reader and it has led to a massive change to my reading habits - I’m back to reading a lot, after years of never reading as much as I wish I did.
But given my experience of LingQ on the PC/browser vs. on the phone, I feel like trying it on a touch e-ink device is going to be a disappointment…
I also recently bought the Boox Palma because eye strain is a real problem for me on phone and computer panels when trying to read for extended periods. I’m pleased to report all is working fine with the LingQ app. It’s not quite as responsive as on my phone but that’s normal for e-readers in general. It’s a black and white screen with the form factor of a smart phone so less words per page is a trade off compared to a standard e-reader or tablet. Even with a black and white screen, I can still use the standard highlighting but prefer either the underlined or foreground options which are just about distinguishable in grey scale.
I just read that maybe the reason why you can’t install LingQ on these readers is the lack of a camera (which can be set as required by the application)
I use it on a Boox note air2 plus. It doesn’t hav a camera. I use a browser but the app did install. I use the underline feature instead of relying on colours.
Thank you very much for the information. In these simpler readers (Go, Page…) unfortunately, installation in Google Play is not available (incompatible devices). Maybe there are some other requirements in the application manifest, not the camera:/
But older versions of the LingQ application worked on these simple readers (e.g. Poke).
E-ink devices are good for eyes, but their screen response time is too slow to be comfortable with such app as a Lingq, which requires a lot of interaction.
If phone screen is too small, I’d rather recommend a tablet such as iPad.
