But the feature that really sets the Leaf 2 apart from any other Android E Ink tablet (or their less flexible e-reader acquaintances) is its page-turning buttons, which magically make this one of the best e-readers I’ve used.
The Leaf 2 comes with two physical page-turning buttons on the left side of the device and, thanks to the internal G-sensor, the page will quickly orient itself when you switch hands.
Also, new to the Leaf 2, the buttons will work with just about any app — regardless of if it has a built-in feature to recognize page-turning buttons.
Typically, Onyx Boox and other Android E Ink tablet makers have relied on an accessibility feature that turns the volume buttons on a phone into page-turning buttons.
But with the Leaf 2, there’s an alternate setting in the menu (under Side key settings) that lets you force other apps to recognize page-turning as well.
So with the Nook and Kindle app, I use the Volume Button setting, and with apps like Libby, which has no page-turning feature at all, I hop back to the Turn Page Button setting.
The Android apps can drain the battery, but they also give this device flexibility, and it’s the flexibility of the Leaf 2 that charms me.
Once the store was working, this just becomes a full-fledged E Ink Android tablet, and it was easy to download apps for Libby, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, and even NetGalley — which handles book galleys for publishers.
Besides the built-in browser, the Leaf 2 has a lot of other apps intended to make it act more like a tablet than I’d like.
Despite the many, many caveats, and despite all the goofy built-in apps trying to style this as a competitor to traditional tablets, the Leaf 2 is simply one of the most pleasurable ways to read books
The Onyx Boox Leaf 2 has finally scratched that itch I’ve had for an ideal e-reader, and I don’t see anything displacing it anytime soon