Other Portable Power Stations I Tested

Photograph: Simon Hill

Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 2000 Plus for $899: The versatile, expandable, durable, and dependable Explorer 2000 Plus was my top pick for a while, and it’s still a good choice if you find it on sale, though the Bluetti Elite 300 that unseated it packs more power into a smaller form. It does still offer some advantages, chiefly that you can double or triple the 2,042-watt-hour capacity by adding battery packs. In my tests, the capacity consistently matched up with Jackery’s claims. It had no trouble with the kettle test (UK kettles hit 3,000 watts), though it chewed through 6 percent of the power. You can charge it speedily from the mains (AC outlet), but it also works as a solar generator. I filled it from 32 percent in a single scorching day with Jackery’s SolarSaga 200-watt solar panel. The fan is relatively quiet at around 30 decibels, but it comes on frequently. It weighs a whopping 62 pounds, and though there are indented handles on either side, a telescopic handle, and two wheels, it can still be tough to move around. The covers on the car port, inputs, and expansion port on the back are annoyingly tight. (I sometimes had to use a screwdriver to open them.) The Wi-Fi connection is 2.4 GHz only, and it took me a while to figure out that the connection mode requires you to press the AC and DC buttons together, since that doesn’t seem to be documented anywhere. Minor niggles aside, this is a great power station to serve as a home backup or off-grid generator. The warranty is three years, but you can extend it to five years by registering with Jackery.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Bluetti Elite 200 V2 for $799: While the Elite 300 is my new recommendation, if a 2,074-watt-hour capacity is enough for you, this power station has similarly strong build quality and mostly the same features (wattage is 2,600 and 3,900 at peak, and UPS has a 15-millisecond delay). It’s relatively fast to charge, can easily power your gadgets and small appliances, and has an info-packed display that’s legible outdoors.

BioLite BaseCharge 1500 for $1,020: Weighing 29 pounds, it has recessed handles at each side for carrying, though this is as big a power station as I can imagine lugging any real distance. There’s no superfluous app. You can do everything using the buttons and the display on the front. It has a good mix of ports to cover a lot of small gadgets like phones, tablets, and laptops. There’s even a wireless charging pad on top. I wouldn’t run anything too demanding on it, but it coped fine with an electric drill and blender. I tested it with BioLite’s SolarPanel 100, but the BaseCharge 1500 has a standard High Power Port (HPP) input, so you don’t have to use BioLite’s solar panels. It finished just on either side of the stated capacity in my tests. Sadly, the BaseCharge 1500 takes a long time to charge. Even from a wall outlet, you need a day, though you can speed it slightly by using the PD USB-C as a second input. Solar charging from a single SolarPanel 100 takes several days. The battery is also a Li-NMC, so it likely won’t last as long as some of our other picks. The BaseCharge 1500 comes with a two-year warranty.

Ampace Andes 600 Pro for $449: This compact power station weighs 19 pounds and has an easy-carry handle on top. It stores 584 watt-hours of power and can be fully charged in an hour (30 dB sleep mode). It can deliver 600 watts (1,800 W surge), and has lots of ports (2 x AC, 2 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A, 2 x DC 5521, 1 x Car). There’s also a remote control app where you can change the light bar function or the colored light on top. It worked well in my tests and could be handy if you want something portable for small gadgets on a camping trip, but the EcoFlow River 2 Pro above gives you more power for less.

Photograph: Simon Hill

EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus for $519: I like the stylish, compact design of EcoFlow’s Delta 3 Plus, with the screen and ports at one end. It offers 1,024 watt-hours, can consistently provide 1,800 watts, and has a 2,600-W surge mode. It can also charge up in an hour and has lots of ports (6 x AC, 1 x Car, 2 x USB-A, 2 x USB-C, 2 x DC5521). You can add capacity with EcoFlow’s impressively compact and stackable add-on battery ($599), though it is pricey. The Plus version includes two solar ports for faster solar charging and can pull UPS duty with an impressive 10-millisecond response time. The reason it misses out on a full recommendation is the fan. The fan turned on all the time, even when I was only charging a single phone, and continued at around 55 decibels after it was fully charged and unplugged. It got louder when I charged the Delta 3 Plus from a wall outlet. It could disturb you, and it gave me concerns about overheating. Fan noise aside, I liked this power station, and the app also works well if you want to remote-control it. There is a quiet charging mode, but it drops the rate to 200 watts, meaning it will take more than five hours to fully charge.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Bluetti AC200L for $799: This was replaced by the Elite 200 V2 above, but it is still a decent power station with a similar feature set. It has slightly lower capacity, and it’s heavier and pricier right now, but it is expandable up to 8,192 watt-hours with Bluetti’s add-on batteries. The design and performance are similar, but the Elite 200 V2 edges it for me and is a better buy, especially if you can pick it up for less.

Dabbsson DBS1000 Pro Portable Power Station for $619: This 1024-watt-hour power station has a LiFePO4 battery and a decent mix of ports to charge and power your gadgetry. The US model has four AC outlets, three USB-A ports, three USB-C ports, a car socket, and two DC5521 barrel ports. It can charge to 80 percent in under an hour when plugged in, but expect some fan noise. You can also charge from solar panels or through the car port. You can connect via Wi-Fi and control it from the app, but the display still gives you the info you need without it, and it has a customizable light underneath. The 2,000-watt output is impressive, and there are boost and surge modes to briefly take it to 3,000 and 4,000 watts, respectively. It performed well in my tests and can act as an EPS with a 15-millisecond delay. It’s a solid alternative to our picks above, but doesn’t stand out. The fan comes on frequently and can be annoying. I also had an issue with one of the USB ports sometimes refusing to charge a phone. Buy the DBS2000B battery expansion to boost capacity to 3,072 watt-hours and increase output to 2,400 watts. It comes with a five-year warranty with registration.

Bluetti AC180 for $449: This small Bluetti power station is a solid option if you don’t need as much juice. The AC180 also has a LiFePO4 battery inside, but with a 1,152-watt-hour capacity. It maxes out at 1,800 watts but can surge up to 2,700 watts for short bursts. The US model has four AC outlets, one USB-C (100 W), and four USB-A ports (15 W apiece). There’s even a wireless charging spot on top that goes up to 15 watts. You can fully charge the AC180 from an outlet in an hour, and it comes with solar and car charging cables as alternatives. It can also act as a UPS with a 20-millisecond switching time. This power station is good for small gadgets and appliances like a TV or a mini fridge. Fan noise hit around 45 decibels under a heavy load, which isn’t too bad. What I don’t like is the weight (35 pounds seems relatively heavy for this capacity), and I’d prefer more USB-C ports.

Zendure SuperBase Pro 2000 for $1,200: With a whopping 2,096-watt-hour capacity, tons of outlets (6 x AC, 1 x Car, 3 x DC5521, 4 x USB-C), and a maximum output of 2,000 watts (surge 3,000 watts), this is a great portable power station. It is 47 pounds but has two wheels, a carry handle, and a separate telescopic handle. Zendure’s app is slick; this power station can serve as an uninterruptible power supply and performed well in my tests, though the fans were almost constantly on. I also have concerns about its longevity. The SuperBase Pro 2000 has a Li-NMC battery inside, probably because it offers greater energy density than LiFePO4 (the similarly sized SuperBase Pro 1500 has a LiFePO4 battery and just 1440-watt-hour capacity), but Li-NMC batteries don’t last as long. The warranty is 2 years, but you can extend it by a year by registering with Zendure.

Portable Power Stations to Avoid

Photograph: Simon Hill

Acer 600W Portable Power Station: This power station is certainly portable, with a LiFePO4 battery offering 512 watt-hours via nine ports (two AC, two USB-A, two USB-C, two DC5521, and a car port). It’s a decent size for a campsite and suitable for lighting and charging portable gadgets, but with a maximum output of 600 watts, I wouldn’t plug in anything too demanding. You can fully charge it from a wall outlet in around two hours. There’s a small LCD for remaining battery percentage, estimated remaining run time at current usage rates, and wattage input and output. It worked fine in my tests, but it seems to be available only in the UK and is pricey for the capacity.

Vtoman FlashSpeed Pro 3600: Huge and heavy for its capacity (3,096 watt-hours), this power station has wheels and a telescopic handle to enable you to move it around without injury. The first unit I tested was faulty, so Vtoman supplied me with a replacement. While it worked far better, I can’t recommend this power station. The Bluetti Elite 300 above is cheaper, far more compact, and will suit most folks better, though the Vtoman has a clear advantage in potential output (it can sustain 3,600 watts and peak at over 7,000 watts for short bursts). Unfortunately, I hate the plastic front panel that you must lift to access the ports; the display is too dim to read outdoors; the build quality is suspect (it’s all a bit creaky); and it’s way, way too big.

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It means the company must keep allowing rival services to interoperate with all its app stores.

Toshio Fukuda has been blazing trails for most of his career. He is considered to be one of the most prolific scholars in robotics, writing more than 2,000 research papers and authoring several books on the field. He’s an influential figure thanks to his pioneering work developing biomedical robotic systems, industrial robots, micro-nano robotics, mechatronics, and AI-driven automation.

Fukuda launched one of the first robotics conferences, the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). It is still popular almost 40 years later.

An IEEE Life Fellow, he is a professor emeritus in the department of micro-nano systems engineering and a visiting professor at Nagoya University, in Japan, where he taught for nearly 25 years. Currently, he is a vice president of research at the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, in Alexandria, Egypt.

Within IEEE, Fukuda has held top volunteer positions including the organization’s highest office: He served as IEEE president in 2020, becoming the first person of Asian descent to hold the role.

He’s a former program director of Japan’s Moonshot program, which by 2050 intends to develop advanced AI robots.

Born in Japan, Fukuda has been recognized by the country for his contributions to science with two of its highest awards: the Medal of Honor with a purple ribbon in 2015 and the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 2022.

IEEE honored him with this year’s Richard M. Emberson Award for “distinguished service advancing the technical objectives of IEEE, especially in the area of robotics.” The IEEE Board-level award is sponsored by the IEEE Technical Activities Board. Fukuda received the award on 24 April at a ceremony in New York City.

As a former IEEE president who has served as a master of ceremonies at several of the organization’s major award events, Fukuda noted that he is more accustomed to bestowing awards than receiving them.

“It’s very interesting to be on the receiving end,” he says.

As a teenager, Fukuda spent his summer breaks teaching himself how to build things including transistor radios and steam engines.

“It was very nice to have a hands-on hobby and make these kinds of things myself,” he says. His experimentation led him to study engineering.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1971 from Waseda University, in Tokyo. He says one of his professors there—Ichiro Kato, regarded as the father of Japanese robotics research—was a good mentor who made a positive impact.

Fukuda’s research interests were robotics and mechatronics, a field that combines robotics, electronics, computer science, and control systems.

He went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in science from the University of Tokyo, in 1971 and 1977. During those years, he also attended Yale, where he conducted research on advanced control theory in 1973.

He reflects fondly on his time at Yale: “It was a very nice environment and a kind of free-thinking atmosphere. It motivated me to study more.”

“IEEE doesn’t care who you are, what you do, what country you are from, or whether you are male or female. IEEE accepts people who have energy and passion.”

While at Yale, Fukuda served as an assistant to his advisor—which led him to consider a career in academia, he says, because he enjoyed the freedom that research work afforded him.

But he realized that such freedom comes with a price. University researchers are expected to raise the money that funds their work. He compares researchers to small-business owners who have to bring in money to keep their enterprise afloat.

That realization led him to select robotics as his field because he intended to develop technologies useful to industry, he says.

After earning his doctorate, he returned to Japan in 1977 to work as a research scientist at the government’s Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, later renamed the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, in Tsukuba.

“There was a lot of research going on at the lab, including practical robotics and theory,” he says.

He left Japan in 1979 to become a visiting research fellow at the University of Stuttgart, in Germany. During his year there, he studied systems, software problems, and related topics.

He returned to Japan and was hired as an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Tokyo University of Science. He conducted research into practical uses for robots by visiting industrial plants. He decided to develop robots that inspect industrial equipment such as those used in assembly plants, oil refineries, and power stations—places that “can be hostile environments for humans,” he says.

His work drew interest from chemical, oil, and utility companies.

“I got a lot of money from them for this very practical application, which funded my research,” he says, laughing.

Developing popular robotic systems

Fukuda grew tired of making those robots, he says, so he switched to creating ones for scientific applications. He developed many techniques, but he probably is best known for his modular, cellular robotic systems (CEBOTs), which he introduced in 1985.

He has described how CEBOTs work in numerous papers published in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

The CEBOT system is composed of a number of autonomous robotic cells that stick together like interlocking Lego plastic bricks, he says.

Each cell is a fundamental modular unit that has a function. When a simple task is given, the system can analyze it and generate the structure of the cellular manipulator. The cells connect to and detach from each other through connection mechanisms and cooperate mutually, creating complex structures and configurations.

“You start developing from the component-wise to the cell-wise to a small functional unit—and then you come up with clusters that make bigger systems. We can make a society of robot beings like that,” he explained in his oral history published on the Engineering and Technology History Wiki. “It’s a distributed robotic system, a self-organized robotic system, and also an evolutionary robotic system.

“It’s also a fault-tolerant robot system because if something is wrong, you just remove those things and make a new one. You keep the system working. That’s a great thing.”

Today CEBOTs are used for a variety of tasks such as delivering medication in hospitals, assisting with planting crops, and transporting products in distribution centers. Check out IEEE Spectrum’s Robots Guide for news from the world of robotics.

In 1989 Fukuda joined Nagoya University as a professor of mechanical engineering and micro-nano systems engineering. During his 24-year career there, he was director of the university’s Center for Micro-Nano Mechatronics. He developed a long list of technologies at the university, including many for medical applications. He also conducted groundbreaking research into intelligent robotic systems and micro- and nano-robotics.

Another technology he is known for is brachiation robots, which he helped develop in 1988. He calls them monkey robots because they’re based on the pendulum-like movement of monkeys swinging from tree to tree. The gravity-based locomotion enables continuous movement.

Brachiation robots now are inspecting high-voltage transmission towers and bridges, searching damaged buildings for survivors, and performing maintenance on pipelines and cables.

Fukuda retired from the university in 2013 and was named professor emeritus.

He didn’t stay retired for long, though. He next held a teaching appointment at Meijo University, in Nagoya, until he left in 2022 to join the Egypt-Japan University.

A prominent volunteer

He joined IEEE in 1980 at the encouragement of one of his research advisors, Professor Fumio Harashima, now an IEEE Life Fellow. After attending conferences and reading the organization’s publications, Fukuda says, he looked forward to becoming more involved.

“I wanted to know how to organize a conference and how to edit a paper for one of its Transactions,” he says. “I wanted to know what was going on from inside the organization, not just the outside.”

In 1988 he was the founding chair and organizer of IROS, in Tokyo. The conference had 330 attendees that year, and was supported by Harashima. Today it is one of the largest and most prestigious conferences on the topic, attracting more than 9,000 people annually. Out of 120,000 conferences, it was the only conference in the Nature Index database for this year, Fukuda says.

In 1996 he and other members launched IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics.

He was the founding president of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council, which was established in 2002. He is considered a pioneer in nanotechnology research, particularly regarding how it relates to robotics.

Over the years, he has held numerous volunteer positions on IEEE editorial boards and committees.

He was the 1998–1999 president of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, becoming the first non-U.S. member to hold the title.

He was director of IEEE Division X (2001–2002 and 2017–2018), which covers intelligent systems, biological engineering, robotics, control systems, and photonic technologies. He served as the 2013–2014 director of IEEE Region 10 (Asia-Pacific).

As the 2020 IEEE president, Fukuda saw the organization through the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of travel restrictions, he realized IEEE should change how it offered its in-person services, specifically educational programs. He encouraged IEEE Educational Activities to develop an online learning platform. The IEEE Learning Network started with just three courses and now offers nearly 2,000 courses, webinars, and learning materials.

An award-winning member

The Emberson Award joins a slew of other recognitions Fukuda has received from IEEE. They include several from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society: a 2004 Pioneer Award, a 2009 Saridis Leadership Award, and the 2011 Harashima Award for Innovative Technologies. He is also a recipient of the Board-level 2010 IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award.

He says he feels strongly that IEEE should be a diverse organization that is welcoming to all. As IEEE president, he led efforts to devise a diversity, equity, and inclusion program. Several policies, procedures, and bylaws were revised to give members a safe, inclusive place for discourse.

“It’s important for IEEE to make everyone feel comfortable,” he says. “DEI programs are important. All people should be equal. IEEE doesn’t care who you are, what you do, what country you are from, or whether you are male or female. IEEE accepts people who have energy and passion.

“It accepted me, from the Far East. That’s why I like it.”

You can learn more about Fukuda and his career from the oral history conducted by the IEEE History Center.

The days of Nvidia’s unparalleled market dominance aren’t over, but challengers and choices are arising from all directions.

ZML, a hot French AI startup endorsed by Turing Award winner Yann LeCun, has released inference-performance software that allows a variety of open-source large language models to run on a variety of chips — including Nvidia’s, AMD’s, Google’s TPU, Apple Metal and Intel Arc.

With ZML/LLMD, the newly launched LLM inference server, the company’s ambition is to break existing silos and make different chips available for AI use cases at their maximum available speed, and sometimes faster, ZML founder Steeve Morin told TechCrunch.

As AI becomes integrated into our work and everyday lives, optimizing inference — aka, the processing of prompts — has been outpacing model training in importance, but often feels patchy behind the scenes, with software and architecture barriers that lead to vendor lock-in, Morin said.

The promise of achieving peak performance across a variety of chips is a technological feat, but it could also be a market disruptor, amid mounting fears over AI-related costs.

ZML hopes to provide enterprises and clouds with the option to use a mix of chips, some of which might be less costly or consume less energy. “The idea is to give people back the power to create their own system and achieve real efficiency gains that allow [AI] to be disseminated,” Morin said.

Such a software assist may help novel AI chipmakers, many of which happen to be from Europe, Morin observed, citing Axelera, Fractile, Kalray, OLIX, Q.ANT, SiPearl, SpiNNcloud, and VSORA. But more than their region of origin, what matters to him is that ZML can work with them on “things that haven’t been done before anywhere in the world.”

That doesn’t mean Morin is bearish on Nvidia. He’s not, in part because of its existing supply. He told TechCrunch that ZML has a good relationship with the AI chip giant, which has been gearing up for the rise of inference.

Inference has been an area of such intense investment, that the trend has been hailed the “inference gold rush.” So ZML has competition such as Baseten, recently valued at $13 billion; Inferact, from the creators of open source project vLLM; as well as RadixArk, the commercial company behind SGLang.

Both vLLM and SGLang partially compete with LLMD, but Morin’s ambitions for ZML cover a broader spectrum. “We have reached the point where we are co-designing silicon,” he said. He further credited ZML’s lean team of 20 people as the reason why the Paris-based startup has been able to move fast, with more releases in the plans.

It also helped that this small team is well funded for its size. Thanks to his track record as VP of engineering of Zenly, which Snapchat acquired for nine figures in 2017, Morin raised $20 million from venture firms including Harry Stebbings’ 20VC, >commit, AALVC, Drysdale Ventures, Xavier Niel’s Kima Ventures, Kindred Capital, LocalGlobe, and Puzzle Ventures.

Unlike ZML’s first public project, the inference-focused ML framework released in 2024 and updated in March, ZML/LLMD is not open source. But it is launching as a free product with the goal of learning about usage. “I’d rather measure and [then generate revenue] where it is most effective without hindering my growth stupidly because I have been too greedy from the get-go,” Morin said.

It is too early to tell when ZML/LLMD might become a paid product, and what its adoption will look like. But the startup’s cap table confirms that other founders are paying attention, including Dagger and Docker founder Solomon Hykes, Clément Delangue and Julien Chaumond from Hugging Face, as well LeCun, now with AMI Labs. This also builds the case that Europe’s AI startups can now build from home. “I couldn’t do ZML anywhere but in Paris,” Morin said.

The Boox Go 6 Gen II is designed to be the ultimate go-anywhere e-reader, but a sub-incremental spec bump may not merit a purchase.

Boox has refreshed its pint-sized pocket e-reader with a minor spec bump and a new design. Let’s see if the Boox Go 6 Gen II is worth picking up or not.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: Read anywhere, anytime

The original Go 6 is one of my favorites offered by Boox, because it tucks neatly into your hand the same way a paperback novel might. It’s even smaller than the iPad mini, which is my iPad of choice.

Its portable size makes it ideal to slip into a tech bag or a purse. As I said, it’s even smaller than the iPad mini. Hell, you could stash it in the pocket of your hoodie if you were so inclined.

Like most e-ink readers, the 1500mAh battery will last you for days, plural, before you even need to think about topping it up. I found that I got a week’s worth of before-bed reading before I instinctively plugged it in, but realistically I could have probably gotten another two nights before I would have really needed to.

Its front light makes it perfect for reading in bed without disturbing a partner or straining your eyes. I think this is the best use case for this device in general.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: An iPad mini next to the Go 6 Gen II

I’ve been a big fan of Boox screen light for a while now, and I’m glad to see that it’s included by default on the Go 6 Gen II. Because I tend to read in bed, I often leave it on its warmest setting.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: Lookin’ slick

This is the second notable Boox redesign I’ve seen since spending my time with the devices. The first was with Boox’s Palma, which I thought had a fantastic redesign.

The Go 6 redesign is a bit more subtle, but welcome just the same. The back has gotten a light texture upgrade, which gives it a more pleasing feel in the hand.

While I received the plum Go 6 for review, it also comes in two other colors: stone and shell. The plum is a deep, rich purple that appears black in most lighting; I am a huge fan of this colorway.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: Under the hood

The Boox Go 6 Gen II features a black-and-white-only display. They may eventually release a color version, but at this point, this is the only option you’ve got.

It boasts a 1448×1072 (300 ppi) resolution, a 6″ HD ePaper screen, and an octacore processor. That’s the same as the last generation.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: The crisp, clean screen makes it easy to read in bright daylight.

It also features 32GB worth of storage, just as it did before. Storage is expandable via a Micro SD slot on the bottom of the device, which is appreciated.

The only notable spec bump, at least as far as I can tell, is an upgrade from 2GB to 3GB of RAM. Don’t get me wrong, a 50% increase in RAM is good, but I’m not sure that merits a re-release of the device.

We didn’t even get a new operating system. I am extremely disappointed to find that this little e-reader is running Android 11.

Android 11 came out in 2020 and received its final update in 2024. It’s now a fully unsupported operating system.

The biggest problem I see, personally, is that eventually, support for Android 11 is going to fall off.

Right now, for most apps require Android 10, though many can still run on Android 8. Apps that require more robust security features, such as banking and certain email apps, require Android 12.

Again, I really wish that this would have seen a jump. Even Android 13, which came out in 2022, would have been a better choice.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: How it performs

For running a six-year-old operating system on 3 GB RAM, the Go 6 Gen II performs pretty well. I didn’t notice a huge downgrade compared to something like the Go 10.3 Gen II, which has Android 15 and 4GB of RAM.

If you’re primarily using it to read books on, and to be clear, that is what you should be using it for, it’s solid. I didn’t find that there was a lot of page lag, and even downloading new books wasn’t a slog.

Browsing the web was quick too, though pages that had a lot of moving elements were expectedly slower. I think this has less to do with the restrictions of the RAM and more to do with the restrictions of the screen.

Even third-party apps, like Amazon’s Kindle app, ran just fine. Considering this is an e-reader and not an iPad, I think that it handles the tasks its been given quite well.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: It’s not an iPad

This section is less about this specific model and more about e-ink tablets in general.

One of the most annoying things that e-ink tablets have to contend with is the chorus of people in comment sections and Reddit threads reminding you that the tablet is not, in fact, an iPad.

It’s not trying to be an iPad. As I’ve said before, Boox makes no claims that it’s trying to replace your iPad.

It’s trying to replace your Kindle or Nook. That’s what all of these e-ink tablets are trying to do, whether they’re from Boox or ReMarkable or anywhere else.

You’re not going to give up an iPad for a Boox device. And odds are, if you’re reading this review, you already own an iPad.

Instead, imagine an e-reader that is capable enough to swap between reading your favorite novel and perusing longer-form documents at work. Maybe you’re a dork like me and enjoy spending Saturday mornings where you drink your cup of coffee while reading Wikipedia entries on geology on your patio in the sun.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: The back of the Boox Go 6 has been redesigned with a ridged texture, and black has been replaced with a rich plum color

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It’s nice. Again, I really like Boox products. I get to test them out quite frequently, and it never really feels like they’re competing for my affection against my iPad.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: Still a downgrade in the stylus department

Like most of Boox’s offerings, the Go 6 Gen II is stylus-compatible. I did not receive a stylus this time around, but like its brethren, this e-reader uses the InkSense stylus, which I have extensive experience with.

I had written at length about the stylus situation in a previous Boox Go review. This time around, I’m not going to go into as much detail, but I will tell you why this is a problem.

Previously, Boox used a Wacom EMR stylus, which uses electromagnetic resonance to communicate pressure and position. The result was a quick, buttery-smooth writing experience.

Now, you get a capacitive touch stylus. Effectively, it works the exact same way your finger does.

It still has 4,096 levels of pressure and a solid response time. It is, however, a notable downgrade from an EMR stylus.

The screen is also small enough that I don’t think this would be a primary note-taking device anyway. Personally, I almost feel as though the stylus is unnecessary on a device this small, but to each their own.

Boox Go 6 Gen II review: In the end, it’s… fine.

It’s hard to get excited about this device, even though it’s probably one of the best form factors that Boox has released.

The redesign is nice, and I love the textured back. I think the device feels sturdy and holds up performance-wise.

Unfortunately, the choice to use Android 11, rather than Android 15, remains baffling. The other second-generation devices all made a leap forward, but Boox decided to leave the poor little Go 6 Gen II behind.

Overall, as far as Boox devices go, I don’t think the Go 6 Gen II is bringing enough to the table to warrant an upgrade. And if I were really pressed on it, I’m not entirely sure the Go 6 Gen II merits a purchase in the first place.

Boox Go 6 Gen II: pros

• Perfect size for on-the-go reading
• E-ink display
• Textured back
• E-ink stylus compatibility
• Great battery life
• Feels sturdy, well made
• Plum is an upgrade over standard black

Boox Go 6 Gen II: cons

• Runs Android 11
• Very minor spec bump over previous generation
• Cramped writing space
• E-ink stylus is capacitive, not EMR

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Where to buy

If you’d still like to purchase your own Boox Go 6 Gen II, you can pick one up from the Boox website for $199.99. If you’d like the InkSense Plus Stylus Bundle, you’ll need to pay $232.99.

The Boox Go 6 Gen II is also available from Best Buy for $199.99.

Android phones have always worked in the background. Google’s new Play terms make that quiet behavior much harder to ignore.

The updated Google Play Terms of Service take effect July 29, 2026, and spell out that system services on certified Android devices can use network connectivity, including cellular data, while the user isn’t actively using the phone. That includes moments when the screen is locked.

The timing adds weight. The revised terms follow Google’s $135 million settlement over allegations that Android devices sent cellular data to Google while idle without users knowing. Google isn’t saying every Android phone is secretly torching data plans, but it’s putting clearer language around behavior users usually notice only after something annoying happens.

Why Google is spelling this out now

The old assumption was simple. If a phone is locked and sitting on a table, most people expect it to be mostly still.

Google’s new wording makes that assumption harder to keep. System services include Google Play services, the Play Store, and Android operating system updates. These pieces can require network access to keep certified Android devices running properly.

Some of that activity can happen while the phone is idle. That helps explain why mobile data can move even when the user hasn’t opened an app or touched the screen.

What Android can still do quietly

The practical effect is clearer language with real consequences. A phone can keep handling system-level work through Google Play services, the Play Store, and Android updates in the background.

If that activity uses cellular data, the carrier bill still belongs to the user. That may be a shrug on unlimited plans, but it hits differently on prepaid service, roaming, or a tight monthly cap.

The terms don’t say every Android device will suddenly chew through data overnight, but they do confirm that background cellular data use is part of how these services can operate.

Where user control gets fuzzy

The update language is the more uncomfortable piece. Users may be able to manage some updates in Google Play settings, but certain updates can still happen if they fix a critical security issue, address a serious operability problem, or prevent abuse.

That tradeoff makes sense, and it’s still frustrating. Automatic updates protect people from real risks, but a bad rollout can change how a phone behaves after a reboot.

Anyone who has delayed updates after a broken release will recognize the tension. Android gives users plenty of switches, yet some system-level decisions still sit above those switches. If you’re on limited data or careful about updates, treat Android system services as active by default, not silent by default.

• Soundpeats Nebula Aura were teased in January 2026
• Since then, the brand has continued to run a blog about their development
• Fans look willing to sell a kidney to try them

Thanks to its roster of solid affordable earbuds, Soundpeats is a brand I always keep an eye on. Between the Soundpeats H3 three-driver in-ears, Soundpeats Clip1 open earbuds and Soundpeats Cove Pro over-ears, I’m always interested in what they’ve got up their sleeves.

After being given a glimpse up said sleeves in January 2026, when the brand teased some five-driver earbuds, we’ve been learning more and more over time. Through 2026, Soundpeats has been running a blog dedicated to the development of the buds.