E Ink and ePaper tablets are typically used for reading and note-taking, which makes sense because that's what they're good at. By using electronic ink, they can display information in a way that's more friendly on the eyes.

But what if you could use that technology for something else? Well, I wanted to try and turn my Boox Go 10.3 review unit into a second monitor for my laptop when I'm working on the go, and I came away with fairly positive impressions. As long as you know what to use it for, this is actually a very cool setup that may just give you a more comfortable experience.

Why use an ePaper/E Ink display?

It's easier on the eyes

You might be wondering why you'd want to use an ePaper display with your computer considering it will have a much slower response time and generally be in black and white, or at least close to it. And that's a perfectly valid point, but there are good reasons to do something like this, to the point where some companies have even made dedicated desktop monitors that use ePaper technology, such as Philips.

The thing about ePaper (or E Ink) displays is that they do not typically produce blue light, or really, any light at all. Electronic paper works by placing bits of ink inside the display, which can be moved up on the panel to display a color (or black, usually), or moved down to revert back to white. The display is entirely composed of actual ink, which makes it look and feel like paper, right down to being much easier on the eyes since there's no need for any light to make the content on the screen visible.

Think about how many modern devices have features like blue light reduction to help people rest their eyes and potentially sleep better at night. Electronic paper bypasses all of that and relies on natural light only, so in terms of health benefits, it's the best option.

Plus, electronic paper technology can be very power efficient. Aside from the lack of light, electronic paper also benefits because once a piece of content is displayed on screen, it takes close to no power to keep it there. Once the ink inside the display is moved to a given position, it only needs energy when it needs to move again, so content can remain on screen virtually indefinitely without consuming more power. So there are some clear benefits.

Connecting a tablet to a Windows laptop

It was fairly easy

Going into this, I was worried I'd have a hard time finding a solution that would connect my Boox tablet to my Windows PC to use as a second display. I know many devices support this, but it seems to usually be a dedicated feature from specific brands, like Samsung or Asus' GlideX software.

Thankfully, a quick web search revealed an app called spaceDesk, which can turn almost any device into a second display for a Windows laptop. Unfortunately, there's no way to run the display server on Linux, though I'm sure you might find a solution for this out there.

spaceDesk actually works quite well. Once both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, you can use the Android app to connect to the server on your Windows PC, and it instantly becomes a second display. You can then use the normal display settings in Windows 11 to change things like resolution, but out of the box, it works pretty well.

You can also use a USB connection with spaceDesk, though it disables most other USB capabilities on your computer while it's running. This may get you slightly better responsiveness when using the second display, but considering it's already an ePaper display, I think you'll be fine using wireless.

How well does it work?

It's good, if you use it for the right things

After trying this setup for a while, I'm honestly fairly happy with the results. There are some caveats to using a setup like this, some of which are just mild hurdles, like having to adjust the scaling setting (the Boox Go has a small display but a high resolution, which causes Windows to opt for every small scaling by default), or the simple lag you get using a wireless display, which seems minimal.

But even excluding that, you have to remember this is not a display you want to use for browsing the web or watching content. The way I see it, you can use it in two ways: you can reference content on it if you have a big document or something you need to read from, or you can use it as your writing canvas, and for me, the latter made the most sense.

When I'm writing, I need to reference a lot of other things at the same time, or do research, or send messages, so a display with the low responsiveness of an ePaper display isn't really ideal for all those other tasks. But it's perfect for keeping my CMS window in view at all times, and typing on a display like this works totally fine. Of course, there's a little bit of lag, but I rarely need that instant response.

And keeping my eyes on the ePapaer display actually made it easier for me to focus on writing. I didn't feel as inclined to open something else or look at my other screen, and I just kept writing. In fact, I wrote this entire article so far, which included testing out things like switching between wireless and USB connections, in less than one hour while using this display.

Of course, whenever I needed to do anything other than type, it was a little more complicated. Moving the mouse feels as slow as you'd expect, so I found myself taking things a little slower just to give the screen enough time to respond and make sure I was clicking the right thing. A few times at first, I would overshoot the mouse movement and misclick or select a larger portion of text than intended.

Still, I quite enjoyed this experience, and I think I might do it again if I can get a better stand for my tablet that brings it a little closer to eye level.

E Ink monitors should be more common

If nothing else, this experience taught me that it's very strange there aren't more ePaper/E Ink PC displays out there. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think they're for everyone, but for all the examples of ePaper tablets and phones, and unique devices like a few Lenovo laptops that have use E Ink, I'm surprised there isn't a bigger niche for this kind of product.

Looking it up on Amazon, only one brand seems to sell ePaper monitors for consumers, and a simple portable monitor costs far more than a typical ePaper tablet, which is only slightly smaller. It would be interesting to see this market grow and offer more options, as it could make computers a lot less tiring for many people that need to use them for work.