We haven't had really big readers for a long time! After we mainly talked about e-readers with a screen size : for reading literature before going to bed, of course, they didn’t come up with anything better, but when it comes to working with large-format documents, you will want to have more power (and a display). 13 inches, perhaps, will be a bit too much (it’s easier to put a laptop on your knees), and it’s not very convenient to add notes on the go with such a unit. Here, 10 inches is quite a golden mean, and it would be strange not to see a device with such parameters in the ONYX BOOX manufacturer's line. It is, and its name is encouraging: Note Pro.
This is not just another e-book, but a real flagship of the ONYX BOOX reader line: after all, it’s not every day that you see 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory in such a device, when only a few years ago the same iPhones had a maximum of 512 MB of RAM. Together with a quad-core processor, this turns Note Pro not into a workhorse, but a real monster that even cracks heavy pdf files like small nuts. But what really makes this reader stand out is the screen: yes, it's not a MAX 2 with its incredible 13,3 inches, but if you don't use the e-reader as a monitor, 10 inches is enough for your eyes. And the stylus will feel good, and large-format documents in full view. And the point is not so much in the diagonal of the display, but in its features: the Note Pro has a high-resolution and contrast screen E Ink Mobius Carta with a plastic substrate, it has two (!) touch layers and a protective glass. The resolution is 1872 x 1404 pixels at 227 dpi.
Why two sensory layers at once? The manufacturer did not restrict the reader in interacting with the reader, so you can use the e-book not only with a stylus, as is the case with an induction sensor, but also with just a finger. In this device, you can observe the symbiosis of the WACOM induction sensor with support for 2048 degrees of pressure and capacitive multi-touch (exactly the same you use every day in your smartphone). With the help of the capacitive layer, it is possible to scroll through books with your finger, as if you are reading a paper work, as well as scale the image with intuitive movements - for example, zoom in with a pinch with two fingers. If you often work with drawings, where small inscriptions are often placed, this is especially true.
The manufacturer positions the E Ink Mobius Carta screen as a tool that provides maximum resemblance to paper books. In many ways, this is provided by a plastic substrate instead of glass, which is also less fragile. If you break an e-book with a display that has a glass substrate, repairing the device may result in the cost of a new reader. Here, there is much more chance that the screen of the device will not be damaged when it falls.
The Note Pro model has become a continuation of the line of readers of the ONYX BOOX brand, which is represented in Russia by MakTsentr. This is the next step of the manufacturer towards its users, so that every reader can find an e-book according to their needs. It is not for nothing that the company is constantly developing new technologies, and does not outsource it.
In general, ONYX BOOX usually pays special attention to naming - take the same , where the manufacturer very coolly beat the theme of ancient Greek mythology by placing a clock on the cover, splash screen and box (Chronos is the god of time). And about the box you can write a separate review: even its lid opened almost like a sarcophagus. This time, the manufacturer did not give the reader the name "Uncle Styopa" (an interesting option, but we are not talking about a children's reader) and chose the more universal name "Note", as if hinting that it is very convenient to work with such a screen and a double touch layer with large documents and take notes in them.
Characteristics of ONYX BOOX Note Pro
| Display | touchscreen, 10.3″, E Ink Mobius Carta, 1872 × 1404 pixels, 16 grayscale, density 227 ppi |
| Sensor type | Capacitive (with multi-touch support); induction (WACOM with support for determining 2048 degrees of pressure) |
| backlight | MOON Light + |
| Operating system | Android 6.0 |
| Battery | Lithium polymer, capacity 4100 mAh |
| Processor | Quad-core 4GHz |
| RAM | 4 GB |
| Built-in Memory | 64 GB |
| Wired | USB Type-C |
| Supported Formats | TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, FB3, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, PDB, DOC, EPUB, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, PDF, DjVu |
| Wireless communication | Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Dimensions | 249,5 × 177,8 × 6,8 mm |
| The weight | 325 g |
A view worthy of a king
In the kit, in addition to the device itself, there is a charging cable and documentation - but the only thing that really matters here is the stylus, which was also put in the box.
Much more interesting is the design of the device. The new model retains the continuity of the ONYX BOOX design: it is a black reader with minimal side frames - the manufacturer decided not to place controls on them to prevent accidental clicks during operation. Therefore, it is convenient to hold an e-book in your hands and you can easily place the device itself in one hand and make notes on it with a stylus.
The case is made of plastic, the reader weighs a little more than 300 g. Now some smartphones already have this weight, and tablet computers with a similar screen diagonal rarely fall below 500 g.
The power button on top is already traditionally combined with an LED indicator. The reader has only one connector, which the manufacturer has placed on the bottom, and ... drum roll ... this is USB Type-C! The technology trend has finally reached the e-reader industry, and it's actually surprising since many smartphone manufacturers will continue to use micro-USB. They didn’t place a microSD memory card slot in the reader either: why, if with 64 GB of internal memory you can place all the necessary documents, including multi-page PDFs with diagrams? Moreover, with proper optimization, they do not weigh very much.
In fact, this reader has only two physical buttons. We have already talked about one, and the second is located directly under the brand logo on the front panel. She will work the way you tell her to. By default, a short press invokes the Back command (like the defunct Home button on the iPhone). Other actions are also available for a short press: return to the home page, turn the page to the next one. The same actions can be assigned to a long press (and in Neo Reader, it turns on the backlight by default). It turned out to be very convenient to set up switching to the next page with one click, and with a long press go to the home screen.
All other actions are carried out with the help of touches, gestures and a stylus. Is it convenient? Now, when even in smartphones only buttons are left on the side (and then to adjust the volume and turn on), such a step seems quite logical. Moreover, the capacitive sensor in Note Pro pleases with fast responsiveness.
E Ink Mobius Card
Let's go straight to the screen, because in my opinion this is the most important element of this model. We have repeatedly said that the E Ink Carta screen allows you to get the feeling as close as possible to reading from a regular book; Well, E Ink Mobius Carta does it even better! If you look closely, you can see that the page seems to be a little rough. It looks especially authentic when using a book as a tool for reading music (or an old textbook), but any technical documentation will also please you with a juicy picture. By the way, the screen surface is covered with a PMMA-panel, which not only protects the delicate and technologically advanced E Ink layer from scratches, but also increases the chances of the display to fully survive physical impacts.
The advantage of the combination of 10,3 inches diagonal and high resolution is that it fits a lot of content - you do not need to turn the page after a few seconds, which is especially useful not only when reading prose or poetry. Or you can generally take a reader to install on the music stand and play your favorite pieces on the piano (well, or accordion, here, who studied what). Minus the large diagonal - you need to hold the device tightly with your hands, if you suddenly decide to read before going to bed. When a small iPhone slips out of your hands and hits your nose, it already hurts, but here is a large 10-inch reader.
E Ink Mobius Carta refers to an "electronic paper" type screen. This means that the image on the screen is formed not by the lumen of the matrix, as in LCD screens, but with the help of reflected light. With battery life, everything is fine: the screen consumes power only when the image changes. There was also a place for the advanced MOON Light + backlight, which allows you to smoothly adjust the shade. Many have probably noticed that in the daytime it is more pleasant to read from a white screen, and in the evening (especially if there is no lamp at hand) - to adjust the predominantly yellow tint. Even Apple in their mobile devices is now actively promoting the Night Shift feature, which makes the screen noticeably yellower before going to bed.
Adjusting the brightness of the "warm" and "cold" LEDs allows you to adjust the backlight to the ambient light. For example, in the dark, half the backlight value is enough (yellow, of course), and during the day you are unlikely to twist the white light to the maximum - 32 values for each shade make the setting as individual as possible.
Why is this needed? First of all, to help the body produce melatonin (the hormone responsible for sleep), since in blue light its amount is noticeably reduced. Hence the problems with sleep, fatigue in the morning, the need to take medications (the same melatonin, by the way). And in the aggregate, all this creates a comfortable environment for the human eye, which quickly gets tired of the LCD screen, but can perceive reflected light for a long time. There is no need to remind you that if you “stick” in a smartphone for an hour, your eyes begin to water (the blinking frequency is greatly reduced), which is fraught with the appearance of the “dry eye” syndrome.
It's better not to do this if you plan to sleep
Another feature already familiar to users of ONYX BOOX readers is the Snow Field screen mode. It reduces artifacts on the screen during partial redrawing. In older e-books, it was often possible to encounter the fact that a part of the previous one remained on the new page, and Snow Field allows you to get rid of this. This works even in the case of a multi-page document with graphs and diagrams.
In the sun, Note Pro also behaves no worse - another point in the Mobius Carta piggy bank. The screen does not glare, the text is not overexposed, so you can read both in the country and at work - however, with the cold Moscow July, you will have to do this in a jacket. What to do, this book cannot control the weather. At least for now.
Wacom
As mentioned earlier, dual touch control is provided by two touch layers. The capacitive layer, which allows you to scroll through books and zoom documents with intuitive movements of two fingers, is placed above the screen surface. And already under the E Ink panel, there was a place for the WACOM touch layer with support for 2048 degrees of pressure to make notes or sketches with the stylus. This layer creates a weak electromagnetic field on the surface of the display. And when the stylus is placed in this field, the equipment determines the coordinates of the touch by its changes.
The stylus itself is included and looks more like a regular pen, and this makes it even more like you are holding not a gadget for reading electronic books, but a sheet of paper.
Therefore, this device has a Notes application - you can quickly write down important information with a stylus or make a sketch. Such an application will become a lifesaver for editors, students, teachers, designers and musicians: everyone will find a suitable work mode for themselves.
And it's not just a white or lined sheet. For example, you can customize the workspace of the program by displaying a stave or a grid, depending on what is relevant to your needs. Or just make a quick sketch, insert a shape or other element. 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.
In fact, this is the same touch screen that is used in graphics tablets (we all know that Wacom does not make electric bicycles at all), so the reader can be not only a reader, but also become a professional tool for a designer or artist.
Interface
This reader runs Android 6.0, and although the manufacturer covered it with an adaptive launcher with large and clear elements for ease of use, developer mode, USB debugging and other amenities are included here. The first thing the user sees after switching on is the download window (just a few seconds). After some time, the window is replaced by a desktop with books.
We have long been accustomed to the interface of ONYX BOOX readers: the current and last opened books are displayed in the center, at the very top there is a status bar with battery level, active interfaces, time and the Home button. But due to the fact that this is a flagship device, the application menu is larger - Library, File Manager, MOON Light +, Applications, Settings, and Browser.
The library has a list of all the books available on the device - you can quickly find the book you need using the search and view as a list or in the form of icons. For advanced sorting, it makes sense to go to the neighboring "File Manager".
The next section contains all the applications on the device that will help you perform certain tasks. In the Email program, you can set up email, use the Clock to be in time everywhere (well, all of a sudden), and the Calculator for quick calculations. Well, so as not to get the iPhone out of your pocket once again.
There are five sections in the settings - "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.
The browser is somewhat vaguely reminiscent of Google Chrome, so you get used to its interface quickly. It is convenient that the address bar can be used for searching, while pages open quickly (depending on the speed of the Internet, of course). Read your favorite blog on Habré or write a comment - no problem. A2 special mode turns on briefly when the page is shifted in the browser (and other applications), so that you can see the photos (but the focus will not work with the video, since the refresh rate does not exceed 6 Hz). There is a speaker on the back panel that makes it possible to listen to music. We opened, for example, the Yandex.Music web interface, and at your disposal is no longer a reader, but a music player.
Hardware
The Note Pro is powered by a 1.6GHz quad-core ARM processor. In fact, this is the same chip that ONYX BOOX installed in Gulliver or MAX 2, so all the chips related to power consumption and performance have migrated here as well. Books take only a few seconds to open, a little longer if you work with multi-page PDFs and heavy diagram files. RAM - 4 GB, built-in - 64 GB.
Wireless communication is implemented by Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.1. With Wi-Fi, you can surf the web with the built-in browser, order pizza, download dictionaries from a server, and connect to online libraries to download files and books. With their help, it is possible to translate incomprehensible words directly in the course of the text.
Reading and working with text
Of course, reading from such a screen is a pleasure. There is no need to convert large-format documents, scanned copies from A4 sheets fit completely, for technical literature a real must have. They wanted to open a multi-page PDF with drawings, Stephen King's favorite work in FB2, or “pulled” their favorite book from the online library (OPDS catalog), since the presence of Wi-Fi allows you to do this. Hop - and access to hundreds of thousands of free books with convenient sorting in your reader. If there are drawings and diagrams in the document, they “unfold” on this large display with good resolution, and you can see not only the type of cable for wiring electricians on the house plan, but also each character in a complex formula.
The Note Pro comes preloaded with two e-book readers. OReader provides comfortable reading of fiction - 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. It is also convenient that in OReader you can adjust the MOON Light + backlight not only with scales, but also simply by sliding your finger along the edge of the screen.
The manufacturer also provided a large number of flipping options:
- Tap on the screen
- Swipe across the screen
- Button on the front panel (if you reconfigure it)
- Automatic flipping
We are already familiar with the rest of the OReader features from other reviews - among them are text search, a quick jump to the table of contents, bookmarking the same triangle, and other features for comfortable reading.
To work with professional literature in .pdf, .DjVu and other formats, it is better to launch the Neo Reader application. To select it, you need to click on the desired document for a couple of seconds.
Neo Reader has additional features that come in handy when working with complex files. These include changing contrast, scaling, trimming margins, changing orientation, reading modes, and (my favorite) adding a quick note. This allows you to make the necessary adjustments to the same PDF as you read it using the stylus. The backlight is turned on with a long press on the button below, which is also quite convenient.
OReader also has dictionary support - you can select the desired word with the stylus and open it in the Dictionary, where a translation or interpretation of the meaning of the word will appear.
In Neo Reader, the dictionary is implemented even more natively: just select a word for translation with your finger or stylus, its interpretation will appear in the same window at the top.
The peculiarity of Note Pro is that this device should not be considered only as a reader. It allows you to fully work with text and add notes directly to the document. Nobody forbids using the same “Notes” as a text editor: quick notes can also be made with a stylus, since it is very responsive here, but if you need to type a large amount of text, connect a keyboard via Bluetooth (you must use the device to the maximum) and proceeded to work. So, this review was partially written on Note Pro, though at first it was very unusual.
And what about autonomy?
Having tested the reader for two weeks, we can safely say that if you work with it for 3-4 hours a day, you will have enough charge for 14 days. The electronic ink screen is very economical, and in combination with an energy efficient processor, it gives an impressive run time without recharging. For example, in the most gentle reading mode, the battery life will increase to one month. Another thing is that few people will use the device for 47 thousand rubles in this way, so the best way to increase autonomy is to turn off Wi-Fi when you are not using the Internet.
Who is this device suitable for?
Yes, such a price can scare someone away (you can take this almost 11-inch iPad Pro!), But ONYX BOOX does not position its readers as tablets, despite the presence of similar functions in Note Pro. Therefore, it is not entirely correct to compare such devices, because this reader uses an advanced E Ink screen, which is not only very technologically advanced, but also quite expensive. The company E Ink itself plays its role here, which still remains a monopolist in this area.
To summarize, Note Pro can rightfully be considered the flagship among ONYX BOOX readers. It has a responsive capacitive touch layer (we never thought about physical buttons during testing), there is a stylus and the ability to fully work with text. Well, the hardware is good - 4 GB of RAM is still not installed in all smartphones, plus an operating system with a proprietary shell.
With all this, this device can be called niche. You can reveal all its possibilities only if you work with complex large-format documents or hold a stylus in your hands most of the time. The last moment plays a decisive role for designers and artists - they will definitely appreciate such a tricky device.
Source: habr.com