If you want to have what you never had, start doing what you have never done.
Richard Bach, writer
Over the past couple of years, e-books have begun to gain popularity again among book lovers, and it happened as quickly as it did with the disappearance of readers from the everyday life of the majority. Perhaps this would have continued to this day, however, manufacturers were able to interest readers in new technologies that were previously inaccessible to all readers familiar to them. One of the innovators of the industry can safely be called the ONYX BOOX brand, represented in Russia by MakTsentr, which volunteered to confirm its title with an unusual niche, but no less interesting device - .
For the first time, this new product became known at the end of last year, and in January ONYX BOOX brought MAX 2 to CES-2018, where it demonstrated the capabilities of the reader (can you call it that?) in all its glory. Now that the sales of the device have officially begun, you can get to know it better, because there are a lot of questions for such a device right away.
What you immediately pay attention to is the differences between the new MAX generation and the previous one (yes, if there are numbers in the naming, it is logical to assume that our hero had a predecessor). Some may have skipped the ONYX BOOX MAX as it was more of a niche device for professionals. In the new iteration of its product, the manufacturer listened to the wishes of users and decided to do everything in one fell swoop: added a high-resolution display with a dual (!) sensor, updated the operating system to Android 6.0 (this is very cool for the world of readers), used SNOW Field technology and ... HDMI -entrance. Yes, it is the world's first e-book reader that can be used as a primary or secondary monitor.
We will talk about how you can turn the reader into a monitor later, while you want to pay attention to the display. One of the shortcomings of ONYX BOOX MAX was called an induction sensor - the display did not respond to pressing with a finger or a nail, I had to work only with a stylus. In the new generation, the approach to the screen has been radically revised: a capacitive multi-touch sensor has been added to the WACOM induction sensor with support for 2048 degrees of pressure. This means that now it is not at all necessary to reach for the stylus every time, you can open an application or do some action on the screen with your finger.
Dual touch control is provided by two touch layers. Above the surface of the ONYX BOOX MAX 2 screen, there is a capacitive layer that allows you to scroll through books and zoom documents with intuitive movements of two fingers. And already under the E Ink panel, there was a place for the WACOM touch layer to make notes or sketches with the stylus.
The 13,3-inch display itself has a resolution of 1650 x 2200 pixels at a density of 207 dpi and is made using advanced E Ink Mobius Carta technology.
A distinctive feature of such a screen is its maximum resemblance to a paper counterpart (it is not for nothing that the technology is called “electronic paper”), as well as a plastic substrate and less weight. The plastic substrate has at least two advantages over the traditional glass substrate - the screen becomes not only lighter, but also less fragile, and reading becomes almost indistinguishable from a regular paper page. Plus, you can give karma for energy saving, the display consumes energy only when changing the image.
By the way, we noticed that ONYX BOOX is gradually moving away from device names in the style of famous historical figures (Cleopatra, Monte Cristo, Darwin, Chronos) and gives its readers more concise names with a hint of key functions. In the case of MAX 2, everything is clear - the name clearly illustrates the gigantic screen size of the device; and in ONYX BOOX NOTE (shown together with MAX 2 at CEA 2018), the emphasis seems to be on the ability to use the reader as a notepad. But still, I want to believe that there will be no complete abandonment of the original ONYX BOOX names, because it's always nice when a device's name is meaningful, and not just given a name from a random set of letters and numbers.
But let's take a closer look at what the ONYX BOOX MAX 2 is.
Characteristics of ONYX BOOX MAX 2
| Display | touchscreen, 13.3″, E Ink Mobius Carta, 1650 × 2200 pixels, 16 grayscale, density 207 ppi |
| Sensor type | Capacitive (with multi-touch support); induction (WACOM with support for determining 2048 degrees of pressure) |
| Operating system | Android 6.0 |
| Battery | Lithium polymer, capacity 4100 mAh |
| Processor | Quad-core 4GHz |
| RAM | 2 GB |
| Built-in Memory | 32 GB |
| Wired | USB2.0/HDMI |
| Audio | 3,5mm built-in speaker, microphone |
| Supported Formats | TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, FB3, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, PDB, DOC, EPUB, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, PDF, DjVu, MP3, WAV |
| Wireless communication | Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Dimensions | 325 × 237 × 7,5 mm |
| The weight | 550 g |
Contents of delivery
The box with the device looks impressive, largely due to its size, but at the same time it is quite thin - the manufacturer has compactly placed the package. The front of the box shows the reader itself with a stylus and a photo where the device is used as a monitor (the emphasis is immediately visible), the main technical specifications are placed on the back.
Under the box, just a triumph of minimalism - the device itself in a felt case, and under it - a stylus, a micro-USB cable for charging, an HDMI cable and documentation. Each element of the kit has its own notch so that nothing sticks out. This approach to organizing a place is much more effective than placing all the components under each other, but manufacturers do not always have the opportunity to use it. Here the device itself is large, so it is logical to “grow” along, and not up.
The cover is made of very high quality and is made of a material very similar to felt. In general, it’s not even a case anymore, but a folder, it’s not for nothing that it has several compartments: you can put the device itself in one, and documents next to it (even a MacBook fits).
Appearance
With the design, like all ONYX BOOX readers, everything is in order here, and there is nothing to complain about. The frames around the display are not too thick and are made specifically so that the device can be held in the hands and not accidentally hit the screen with your fingers. The case is made of metal and is very light: when you first see this “tablet”, it seems that it will weigh like a MacBook Air. But no - in fact, only 550 g.
The manufacturer placed all the controls and connectors on the bottom end - here you can find a micro-USB port for charging, a 3,5 mm audio jack, an HDMI port and a power button. The latter has a built-in indicator light that lights up in different colors depending on the task being performed. If the device is connected via USB, the red indicator is on, in normal operation it is blue. Yes, they removed the microSD card slot, believing that 32 GB of internal memory would be enough (compared to 8 GB for sure).
The manufacturer's logo is located in the lower left corner, next to which there are four buttons: "Menu", two buttons that are responsible for turning pages while reading, and "Back". There are no complaints about the location of the buttons (as with the same Cleopatra), placing them in this place was clearly a better solution than on the sides, as in most other ONYX BOOX readers. You are unlikely to hold a device of this size with one hand.
It should be said right away that this device is not suitable for reading while lying on the bed before going to bed - it is best to use it while standing or sitting. The optimal solution would be to hold the MAX 2 with two hands, with the thumb of the left hand you can comfortably reach the control buttons.
On the top right is a label with a logo, where you can put the stylus. The stylus itself is more like a regular pen, and this makes it even more like you are holding not a gadget for reading e-books, but a sheet of paper.
There is a speaker on the back (yes, the player is already built in) that allows you to listen to music and ... even watch movies, yes. Watching a movie looks unusual due to redrawing (it's still not a full-fledged tablet), but everything works, tracks and video files are recognized without problems.
And more about the display!
We already talked about the screen diagonal, its resolution and the dual sensor at the very beginning, but these are far from the only features of the ONYX BOOX MAX 2 screen. Firstly, the image on the screen really looks like on a book page, be it a work of art, comics, technical documentation or notes. Yes, such a device is very convenient for musicians to use: the notes can be seen very well, you can turn the page with one click, and how much text fits! When dealing with a small e-book, you have to turn over the page after 10 seconds, in this case, reading is stretched several times.
When reading books, the page seems "paper" and even slightly rough, and this gives even more pleasure. This is largely achieved by the absence of flickering backlight and the principle of image formation using the "electronic ink" method. From the usual LCD screens that are installed in smartphones and tablets, the E Ink screen of the “electronic paper” type differs primarily in image formation. In the case of LCD, light emission takes place (the matrix gap is used), while images on electronic paper are formed in reflected light. This approach eliminates flicker and reduces power consumption.
If we talk about less harm to the eyes, the E Ink display certainly wins here. Evolutionarily, the human eye is “tuned” to perceive reflected light. When reading from a screen that emits light (LCD), the eyes quickly get tired and begin to water, which subsequently leads to a decrease in visual acuity (just look at today's schoolchildren, many of whom wear glasses and contact lenses). And this happens because long-term reading from the LCD screen leads to a decrease in pupil size, a decrease in blinking frequency and the appearance of dry eye syndrome.
Another advantage of electronic ink devices is comfortable reading in the sun. Unlike LCD displays, the "electronic paper" screen has almost no glare and does not highlight the text, so it is visible as clearly as on plain paper. The MAX 2 adds to this a high resolution of 2200 x 1650 pixels and a decent pixel density, which minimizes eye fatigue - you don’t have to peer into the image.
E Ink Mobius Carta, 16 grayscale, high resolution - all this, of course, is good, but there is another important feature that migrated to MAX 2 from other ONYX BOOX readers.
snow field
This is a special display mode that can be enabled or disabled in the reader settings. Thanks to it, with partial redrawing, the number of artifacts on the E-Ink screen is noticeably reduced (when you seem to have turned the page, but you still see part of the contents of the previous one). This is achieved by disabling full redraw when the mode is enabled. It is curious that even when working with PDF and other heavy files, the artifacts are almost invisible.
We have already tested several ONYX BOOX e-readers and can not help but note that the MAX 2 is very responsive, despite the low refresh rate of E Ink screens in general.
Performance and Interface
"Heart" ONYX BOOX MAX 2 is a quad-core ARM-processor with a frequency of 1.6 GHz. It differs not only in high performance, but also in low power consumption. Needless to say, books on MAX 2 open not just quickly, but with lightning speed, textbooks with a large number of graphs, diagrams and heavy PDFs open a little longer. The increase in RAM to 2 GB has also contributed. To store books and documents provided 32 GB of internal memory (some of which is occupied by the system itself).
Wireless interfaces in this device are represented by Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Wi-Fi allows not only working in the built-in browser and downloading applications from the Play Market (come on, this is Android after all), but also, for example, downloading dictionaries from the server in order to quickly translate words while reading in the same Neo reader.
We cannot but rejoice that ONYX BOOX decided to go further and instead of Android 4.0.4, which is familiar to all readers, they “rolled up” Android 2 to MAX 6.0, covering it with an adapted launcher with large and understandable elements for ease of use. Accordingly, developer mode, USB debugging and other amenities are included here. The first thing the user sees after turning it on is the boot window (just a few seconds) and the familiar “Launching Android” inscription. After some time, the window is replaced by a desktop with books.
The current and last opened books are displayed in the center, at the very top is the status bar with battery level, active interfaces, time and the Home button, and at the bottom is the navigation bar. It consists of a line with icons for Library, File Manager, Applications, Settings, Notes, and Browser. Let's briefly go over the main sections of the main menu.
Library
This section is not much different from the library in other ONYX BOOX readers. It consists of all the books available on the device - you can quickly find the book you need using search and view in a list or in the form of icons. You will not find folders here - for this we go to the next section "File Manager".
File Manager
In some cases, it is even more convenient than a library, as it supports sorting files alphabetically, by name, type, size, and creation time. Geek, for example, is more accustomed to working with folders than with just beautiful icons.
Applications
Here are both pre-installed applications and those programs that will be downloaded from the Play Market. So, in the Email program, you can set up email, use the "Calendar" for scheduling cases, and the "Calculator" for quick calculations. The Music application deserves special attention - although it is simple, it allows you to listen to audiobooks or your favorite media library without any problems (.MP3 and .WAV formats are supported). Well, in order to somehow get distracted, you can load a not too heavy toy - it’s easy to play chess, but in Mortal Kombat you will probably see the inscription “KO” before the player strikes (there is no escape from redrawing).
Setting
The settings consist of five sections - "System", "Language", "Applications", "Network" and "About device". The system settings provide the ability to change the date, change the power settings (sleep mode, auto-shutdown interval, Wi-Fi auto-off), and a section with advanced settings is also available - automatically open the last document after turning on the device, change the number of clicks until the screen is completely refreshed for third-party applications, scanning options for the Books folder, and so on.
Note
The developers put this application on the main screen for a reason, because in notes you can quickly write down important information using the stylus. But this is not at all a familiar application like in an iPhone: for example, you can customize the working field of the program by displaying a stave or a grid, depending on what is relevant to your needs. Or just make a quick sketch on an empty white field. Or insert a figure. In fact, it’s hard to find so many note-taking features even in a third-party application, but here everything is also adapted for the stylus. A real find for editors, students, teachers, designers and musicians: everyone will find the right mode of work for themselves.
Browser
But the browser has undergone changes - now it looks more like Chrome than the old browsers from previous versions of Android. The browser bar can be used for searching, the interface itself is familiar, and the pages load very quickly. Go to Twitter or read your favorite blog on Giktimes - yes please.
As they say, it's better to see once, so we prepared a short video demonstrating the main features of ONYX BOOX MAX 2.
Reading
If you choose the right position (with such a diagonal of the screen it is sometimes difficult), you can get real pleasure from reading. You don’t have to turn the page every few seconds, and if there are drawings and diagrams in a textbook or document, they “unfold” on this large display, and you can see not only the length of the ventilation duct on the house plan, but also each character in a complex formula. The text is displayed qualitatively, no artifacts, extraneous pixels and other things. SNOW FIELD, of course, makes its contribution here, but the “electronic paper” screen itself is built in such a way that even with prolonged reading, the eyes do not get tired.
All major book formats are supported, so you don't need to convert anything 100 times. They wanted to open a multi-page PDF with drawings, Tolstoy's favorite work in FB2, or “pulled” their favorite book from the online library (OPDS catalog), the presence of Wi-Fi allows you to do this.
As mentioned earlier, the MAX 2 comes with two e-book readers preinstalled. The first (OReader) provides comfortable reading - lines with information are placed above and below, the rest of the space (about 90%) is occupied by a field with text. To access additional settings such as font size and weight, change orientation and appearance, just click in the upper right corner. Pages can be flipped both with swipes and with the help of physical buttons.
As in other ONYX BOOX readers, they did not forget about text search, quick jump to the table of contents, bookmarking (the same triangle) and other features for comfortable reading.
OReader is ideal for works of art in the .fb2 format and others, but for professional literature (PDF, DjVu, and so on) it is better to use another built-in application - Neo Reader (you can select the application with which to open the file by long pressing on the icon document). The interface is similar, but there are additional features that will come in handy when working with complex files - changing the contrast, cropping text and, which is very convenient, quickly adding a note. This allows you to make the necessary adjustments to the same PDF as you read it using the stylus.
Since professional literature is often not available in Russian, there may be a need for its translation (or interpretation of the meaning of a word) from English, Chinese and other languages, and Neo Reader does this as natively as possible. Just select the desired word with the stylus and select "Dictionary" from the pop-up menu, where the translation or interpretation of the meaning of the word will appear - depending on what you need.
The presence of Android opens up additional opportunities - you can always install a third-party application for certain documents from Google Play - from Cool Reader to the same Kindle. At the same time, the manufacturer correctly prioritized and made a separate application for fiction reading and a separate one for work, so it is unlikely that there will be a need to install a third-party solution (if only for the sake of sports interest).
Wait, where's the monitor?
This is one of the main "chips" of the MAX 2, so it should be considered separately, because this is the world's first e-book reader monitor with an E Ink screen that is comfortable for the eyes. Everything is arranged as intuitively as possible: we connected the complete HDMI cable to the computer, launched the Monitor application in the appropriate section - voila! A minute ago it was a book reader, and now a monitor. It is interesting that you can work on it very comfortably, as on an LCD analogue. Yes, it will take some time to get used to, but then you feel all the delights of this unusual solution.
To install the monitor, you can either build a stand yourself or use a branded one from the manufacturer - it looks stylish (although it is sold separately).
Of course, you can't play games on such a monitor, and it's unlikely that you will be able to process photos, but for working with text, MAX 2 is very good as a monitor. A real find for journalists, writers and publicists. We connected it to the Mac mini, and to the MacBook, and to Windows - in all cases it works as stated, no additional configuration is required. The best solution would be to connect the reader as a second monitor: for example, write code on the E Ink screen (yes, this is very unusual, but convenient), and debug on a regular monitor. Well, or read Geektimes with MAX 2. Well, or display telegram / mail on it - so that the application window is visible, but nothing distracts in it.
Autonomous work
The battery in the ONYX BOOX MAX 2 is quite capacious - 4 mAh, although when you look at its size, it seems that the battery will run out in a few hours. However, due to the fact that the electronic ink screen is very economical, and the hardware platform is energy efficient (plus there are various goodies like automatically turning off Wi-Fi and going to sleep when inactive), the battery life of this device is impressive. In the "normal" use mode (100-3 hours of work per day), MAX 4 will work for about two weeks, in the "light" mode - up to a month. The reader is also ready for extreme loads such as constant connection to Wi-Fi and continuous operation as a monitor, although in this case it will ask for charging by the evening (and in general it is better to connect a 2V / 5A charger, since consumption in monitor mode will increase ).
So tablet or reader?
It is very difficult to make a verdict, since the device is multifunctional. On the one hand, this is an excellent reader and tablet, since it has Android on board; on the other hand, it is also a monitor. It seems that ONYX BOOX is the time to boldly start a new hybrid category of devices, because there are simply no analogues of MAX 2 on the market now.
The screen of E Ink Mobius Carta provides comfortable reading, it is helped by SNOW Field technology, high resolution and pixel density, and support for 2048 stylus pressures makes the device a complete note-taking tool. Plus, the presence of a capacitive touch layer makes it easier to work with multi-touch gestures.
As for the price, it surprisingly remained unchanged, despite the fluctuations in exchange rates and the use of the latest technologies from the manufacturer's arsenal. As ONYX BOOX MAX once cost 59 rubles, so for "rolled out" the same price tag. And this despite the fact that the manufacturer has worked hard on performance, added another touch layer, technology to reduce artifacts, a monitor function, and many other goodies. Yes, this is, of course, a niche device (this is partly due to the price) and, first of all, a professional tool, but as soon as you start using it, you no longer want to look at analogues. Although who to look at if they simply do not exist?
Source: habr.com