Review: Viwoods AiPaper 10.65-inch e-reader tablet
Review unit provided by Viwoods
Viwoods AiPaper is a 10.65-inch BW e-ink tablet with pen support released in late 2024. This product came from the successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in Aug 2024.
Price at the time of review is USD 499 after a $50 coupon, and you get a case, pen, 100-day return policy and 14-month warranty.
Bottom line
The Viwoods AiPaper is big e-ink tablet that works great for reading and for taking notes. Text is sharp and contrast looks good with the black against the light-coloured e-ink canvas. Visual quality of the e-ink is amazing.
The 10.65-inch display provides a satisfactory experience for reading comics and PDFs where you cannot adjust text sizes.
The pen works well and writing performance is fantastic and responsive. Overall performance of the tablet is smooth. Huge PDF files can take a bit more time to load but operation is smooth after loading.
Downsides. There's no Google Play Store but that can be installed with the steps mentioned further below. There's no front light.
Even though this tablet does not have colours, the BW conversion of coloured images actually look really good, better than I expected.
This product is probably competing with the 11.8-inch Remarkable Paper Pro colour e-ink tablet that's selling for USD 579, or USD 599 with a pen upgrade. I've not used the Remarkable Paper Pro before so I can't say how good that is. One thing to note about colour e-ink is the canvas will be darker and BW images and text won't be as sharp compared to BW only e-ink tablet.
Specifications
- Screen: 10.65-inch 300PPI display
- Resolution: 1920 x 2560
- Screen Technology: E Ink Carta 1300
- Processor: 2.0 GHz octa-core
- RAM: 4GB
- Storage: 128GB
- MicroSD card slot: No
- Battery capacity: 4100mAh
- Operating System: Android 13
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0
- Ports: USB-C
- Weight: 370g
- Dimensions: 191 x 138 x 4.5mm
- Other Features: Fingerprint scanner, microphone
- Software Features: Google Play Store, handwriting search, handwriting-to-text conversion, annotate, record, highlight, bookmark, split screen, custom templates, screen share, ADE support
- File Formats Supported: PDF, EPUB, EPUB3, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, HTML, FB2, CBZ, CBR, OEB, AZW3, MOBI, PRC, TXT, ZIP, PNG, JPG, BMP, WAV, MP3
Things included
- Tablet
- Case
- Pen
- 9 replacement pen tips
- SIM ejector
- User guide
- USB-C to USB-C charging cable
No charger is included but you can use any phone charger.
The included case has leather-like texture but is probably not real leather.
This flip case uses magnets to hold the tablet down. Inner side of the tablet feels like the furry side of leather.
There are 2 replacement pen tips inside the plastic bar in the case that holds to the side of the tablet. The cover that holds the pen tips can only be opened by the SIM ejector so if you happen to need a spare pen tip, you will also need a SIM ejector.
The pen tip can be dislodged from the pen and I've already lost one pen tip. Maybe the first pen tip was loose. The second one feels tighter.
Design
Design of the tablet is clean, simple, and looks good. The home screen has sections shortcuts by the left with six big sections in the main area for notes, calendar, meeting notes, e-books, pickings (screenshot and annotation) and apps. There's no option to choose an app-focused home screen you see on Android tablets.
The bottom bezel is much larger because of the three capacitive buttons: Back, Home, AI. For some reason the space beside the buttons actually feel softer and you can press into the surface. The AI button is definitely not as useful compared to an app-switcher button. And there two little holes for the microphones.
The tablet has 4GB RAM and 128GB storage with no microSD card slot. Overall performance is smooth.
The back is matte textured and feels great.
This tablet is just 4.5mm thin, and weighs 370g without the case.
The tablet has a 4100 mAh battery and battery life is days if you're just reading and writing.
The power button located at the top right has a fingerprint scanner, thankfully. USB-C charging port is located at the bottom on the opposite side, left.
The display has resolution of 1920 x 2560 at 300PPI. The e-ink technology is CARTA 1300. Text looks really sharp and the blacks have great contrast against the canvas which is very light gray.
The visual quality of BW (left) is noticeably better compared to colour e-ink displays (right) which tend to have some grain. There's no grain at all on the Viwoods display, and no pixelation.
There are three refresh modes:
- Best: Best visual quality with one page refresh/flash
- Fast: Added grain and more ghosting with no page refresh/flash
- Ultra-fast: More grain, more ghosting with no page refresh/flash
With Best mode, colour images are converted to BW and can retain the detail and shades. BW pages will have one refresh/flash compared to comparable high-quality colour pages with 2 refreshes/flashes. I am extremely impressed by the BW e-ink quality.
One downside is there's no front light. When using the tablet at night, you have to rely on your room lights.
The other downside is there's limited adjustment for the e-ink settings except for refresh rate and contrast. Contrast does not work as I expected because it just makes the e-ink look darker without making the lighter values lighter.
The display is laminated and the e-ink almost looks like it's on the surface of the display. When writing or drawing, the e-ink looks like it appears directly beneath the pen tip.
That's the anti-glare on the matte surface. You'll get the best visual quality without any strong reflections on the display.
10.65-inch size is a good size for reading comics and PDFs where you cannot control the text sizes.
This tablet can be used for web browsing too, and webpages look great. When using the internet, you'll use up battery faster.
Pen and writing performance
The included pen uses Wacom EMR technology so alternative pens that use Wacom EMR can be used on this tablet too.
The pen is not powered by battery so no charging is required. The single side button works as an eraser, and there's an eraser button at the back.
Build quality of the pen is feels solid with a nice weight to it. The matte textured surface provides a good grip.
Pen supports tilt and pressure sensitivity. Pen tip is firm and does not move when in contact with the display.
The pen tip is custom design so the generic ubiquitous Samsung S Pen replacement pen tips will not work here.
It is possible for the pen tip to dislodge if it's pulled by something accidentally. I've already lost one pen tip.
Writing experience is fantastic due to minimal latency. The default note taking app was able to capture my handwriting style very accurately. Writing performance would be a 5 out of 5 stars for me.
The default note taking app is quite basic but has enough tools for writing. There are numerous templates to choose from. You can also lock specific notes.
You can write on PDFs and export them with annotations.
There are also some AI features:
- Analyze content: This will analyse what's written and provide context.
- Generate article: This will use the keywords provided to generate an article.
- AI text conversion: This will convert handwritten notes into editable text that you have to paste somewhere else. It does not seem possible to have converted text appear in the same page, and continue to write.
- AI assistant: This is an interactive tool for generating ideas.
The AI features require internet to work and I'm not sure how secure the data is when sent to Viwoods server, or how they use the data.
One nice feature I like is you can write the name of the page and that will be automatically converted into the filename.
Text search is only for filenames, text and editable text, not handwritten notes.
There are a few ways to share notes:
- QR code: Scan the QR code on the tablet with your other device that has a camera
- Email: Self explanatory
- ViTransfer: Upload the notes to Viwoods cloud, and notes can be access from web browser from your other devices. It's free. There's no storage limit listed but files stored in the cloud are deleted 12 hours later.
- Bluetooth: Receiving devices has to be detectable
I wish there was some sort of direct integration with Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive to store or backup the notes.
Downsides. Third party writing apps will not have responsive latency performance.
Installing Google Play Store
These are the steps I found from this Reddit comment:
- Install the v3.1.7 update
- After the device restarts got to Settings (gear icon in bottom left on home menu) -> General -> More (at the very bottom of the screen)
- This page has instructions on it, but essentially you will click the toggle next to the Google Services header
- Then, look under the Google Services header to see if you have a GFS ID with a number next to it
- As long as there is a number next to it, click “Go to Authorize”
- A modal window will pop up explaining that if you already have a GFS ID, it has been copied to your clipboard.
- Click “Go to Authorize”. This will open a page in Chrome.
- Click the rectangle that says “Google Services Framework Android ID” -> once it turns into a text box, long press in this text box to get “Paste” -> Paste
- Click “I’m not a robot” and fill in the captcha
- Click register -> it should let you know your device has been registered
- Now exit Chrome, a pop up will ask you if you successfully registered. If you have, click “Restart” and your device will restart. If you haven’t, click “Cancel” and redo the above instructions.
- After you have successfully registered the device and restarted, you will see the Google Play Store in your Apps section. Click the Apps section, long press the “Google Play Store” app, and click “Clear Data”.
Other features
There's actually a bookmark on the home screen that links directly to Viwoods community page where you can ask questions or request for features.
You can use POP3 or IMAP for your personal email accounts, e.g. yourname@yourwebsite.com.
Conclusion
The Viwoods AiPaper is a tablet designed for reading and writing, and it works really well for these two use cases. Limited functionality compared to iPads or Android tablets may also but its selling point to make people work with more intention. Using this tablet for social media or watching videos is probably not the reason to get this tablet.
Visual quality of the BW e-ink is outstanding. The matte surface is wonderful to write on and the note taking experience is fantastic. I wish there could be more tools for note taking but it's sufficient for now.
It's a good product that does what it does.
Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Lightweight
+ 9 replacement pen tips are included
+ 10.65-inch is good for reading comics and PDFs
+ High resolution
+ Comes with case and pen
+ Responsive pen and note taking performance
+ Has fingerprint unlock
+ Long battery life
+ Direct link to community page to provide feedback
- Not front light
- Area around the buttons are soft
- No Google Play Store pre-installed
- Pen tip not that tight in pen
- Third party apps will not have responsive latency
- Default note taking app is quite basic
- No speakers
- No MicroSD card slot
- No backup option
- No notification pane (to see downloads, alerts, etc)
- No split-screen model
- No landscape orientation
Availability
The Viwoods AiPaper e-reader tablet is available from Viwoods online store.
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