How to Set Up Dropbox on Supernote A6X and A5X

Mar 8, 2021

3 minutes

The Supernote line of e-ink devices by the Chinese company Ratta are truly incredible. The market for E-ink devices has been expanding in recent years as advancements with classic screen technology slows; while E-Ink isn’t a new technology, it’s becoming more affordable for companies to invest the time and expense into researching ways to design better and better technology.

Video guide version

Here's a video version of this guide, just in case you prefer getting your how-to guide on setting up Dropbox with your Supernote as a video. Otherwise, you can continue to step 1 for the written guide.

Ratta: a unique company on a growing stage

While the E-Ink market surges, driven in part by major players like Amazon’s Kindle and the Kobo line of e-readers, other companies have been working to develop incredible advances in the realm of electronic note-taking using E-Ink technology. One of these companies, Ratta, has proved itself a leader in the field despite its relatively small company size. Ratta’s Supernote A5X and A6X are at the cutting edge of what E-Ink devices can do, and Ratta’s continued commitment to customer interaction, feedback, and overall satisfaction has been a real feather in their cap.

I own a Supernote A6X, purchased in pre-order during their initial release. Since then, Ratta’s commitment to monthly software and firmware updates has provided me with a device that can handle an increasing part of my daily workload.

As a writer and academic, I have a number of important projects that I work on throughout the time blocks in my week, and the ability to easily access the information needed for those various projects is vital. This is why I chose to set myself up on Dropbox and utilize the service’s excellent integration features to link my PC and android devices together, in order to always have access to the files I need, when I need them.

Dropbox

Founded as a startup in 2007 by two MIT students, Dropbox has since grown into a nearly household name as a superb file sharing and cloud storage option. With a number of specialty tools designed to allow for easy team project oversight and integration, as well as for personal file storage and sharing, Dropbox is one of the best options around.

Dropbox also happens to be natively supported by Ratta’s Supernote as one of the main methods for networking the device. While the Chinese company also maintains Japanese servers for its own SupernoteCloud service, there is little doubt that using the Dropbox integration is preferable for most people — especially if you rely on cloud storage for a large amount of work that you’ll be passing back and forth between a computer and your E-Ink device.

	Ratta Supernote A6X	×	1
	Ratta Supernote A5X	×	1

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This will pull down the command menu. You can also reach the control menu by swiping down on the Supernote’s physical control line, which is the groove locate on the right side of the screen.

This is the central hub for all of your Supernote’s main features and system preferences.

This is where you can link your Supernote to either Dropbox or the Supernote Cloud. Ratta claims that future updates will add more cloud storage options to the device.

Choosing Dropbox will open the Dropbox connection screen. This is a randomly generated QR code which you can scan from your mobile device to continue the process.

Using a tool like Google Lens, scan the random QR code provided on your Supernote.

You can also use the link provided underneath the QR code should you wish to navigate to the connection screen manually, perhaps via a computer.

If you are not currently signed into Dropbox on your account, after scanning the QR code you will be sent to a Dropbox login page. Log in using your credentials for Dropbox.

After logging in to Dropbox on your mobile device, return to your Supernote and tap “Confirm” to complete the process. The screen will refresh and your device will now be synced to Dropbox!

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Odin (182)

Mar 26, 2023

I’ve written about the Supernote X series of e-ink devices plenty, and they even earned my five-star review for being the all-around best choice for anyone looking for a digital notebook and versatile reading/writing device. Ratta, the company behind Supernote, has managed to produce a compelling and wildly useful little device that can handle professional and everyday needs. In this article, I’m going to walk you through the PDF features of the Supernote A5X and A6X models. These are Ratta’s first devices to be powered by a customized Android operating system which allows them a number of advanced side-loading features, but PDFs are supported by their older Supernote devices as well. Testing the Supernote To test this, I grabbed an old book from the Internet Archive, The Princess of Mars. At almost 400 pages, this hefty PDF only takes a moment to load now that Ratta has taken steps to optimize the Supernote's speed. Originally, loading a book this big (and one completely unoptimized for e-readers) took about seven seconds to load, but now it's smooth as butter and basically as fast as opening and turning the pages of a real book. What are PDFs anyway? Since their development in 1993, Portable Document Format files (PDFs) have been the go-to for all professional needs. The file is capable of presenting text formatting and images entirely independent of any operating system, hardware, or software — a huge advantage when so many companies are constantly vying for control of the market. In addition, PDFs allow for advanced interactive components, digital signatures, and various methods of encryption and document control, which make them extremely popular for legal and business-related work. How does Supernote hold up against the competition? So, how does the Supernote compare to other e-ink devices that can access PDFs? Well, there is a big range of such devices on the market right now, and I tried the most popular ones out myself when considering my initial purchase of an e-ink tablet. Through most of 2021, the Supernote offered something roughly comparible to other staples on the market, like Boox, but failed to live up to the sleek performance of the Remarkable 2. Now, the Supernote is as fast as the RemMarkable 2, without the terrible subscription model that the ReMarkable company is now relying on. Supernote is now as fast as the ReMarkable 2, but offers so much more. As always, what commends Supernote to me so deeply is the company’s high responsiveness and the sleek, efficient build quality of their devices. It doesn’t look like a flashy tablet, either; once it’s in its faux leather cover, it feels quite like carrying around a real notebook. The biggest issue with PDFs on the Supernote A6X is one of size. I’d strongly recommend getting the A5X because its larger screen works way better for PDFs. Yes, you can use pinch-zooming to look closer at PDF content, meaning that, even on my tiny A6X, I can easily navigate around a large D&D character sheet or search through the fine-print of a contract. However, the A5X handles PDF sizes far more efficiently and is definitely the better device to go to if you intend to read PDFs regularly.