Hello! In the comments to , who recently visited our blog, some were surprised that the device in 2019 does not come with a touch screen (Karl!). But for some, this is strange, while others are specifically looking for a reader with only physical buttons: for example, it is more convenient for older people to handle what they can feel; an accidental swipe on the screen can “break everything”, and returning to reading may not be so easy. And if no one needed such e-books, they would simply not be released - manufacturers also don’t really want to waste their suppliers.
Today, by popular demand, we will still talk about a device for reading books with a touch screen. And although you won’t surprise anyone with this now, ONYX BOOX Faust deserves close attention, because this reader is a lightweight version of the top model ONYX BOOX Darwin 5. And it costs two thousand rubles cheaper (yes, we go right away with trump cards).
Gradation of ONYX BOOX readers
In such a variety, it is not surprising to get confused, because the more devices available on the market, the more difficult it is to make the right choice. We already did new products from ONYX BOOX, so we will not once again focus on them. However, to make it easier to understand entry-level readers, here is a brief description for each of them:
- ONYX BOOX James Cook 2 - the cheapest and easiest option, without a touch screen and with a small resolution (600 × 800 pixels);
- ONYX BOOX Caesar 3 - advanced reader with increased resolution (758×1024 pixels);
- ONYX BOOX Faust - an initial reader with a touch screen and a resolution of 600 × 800 pixels;
- ONYX BOOX Vasco da Gama 3 is a device with a capacitive multi-touch screen and a resolution of 758 × 1024 pixels.
In fact, Faust will be an excellent choice for those who absolutely need a touch screen, but at the same time do not want to pay more than 8 rubles for a reader (namely, that's how much it costs). Plus, this is a simplified version of one of the flagships ONYX BOOX (Darwin 500), which was made available by reducing the screen resolution and the amount of RAM. Otherwise, this is a device with top-end filling, which is enough for the eyes not only to read works of art, but also to work with PDF files.
Characteristics of ONYX BOOX Faust
| Display | Touchscreen, 6″, E Ink Carta, 600×800 pixels, 16 grayscale, multi-touch, SNOW Field |
| backlight | MOON Light + |
| Touch screen | Capacitive multitouch |
| Operating system | Android 4.4 |
| Battery | Lithium-ion, capacity 3000 mAh |
| Processor | Quad-core, 1.2 GHz |
| RAM | 512 MB |
| Built-in Memory | 8 GB |
| Memory card | MicroSD/MicroSDHC |
| Supported Formats | Text: TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB3, FB2.zip, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, PDB, EPUB Graphic: JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP Others: PDF, DjVu |
| Wireless communication | Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n |
| Wired | micro USB 2.0 |
| Dimensions | 170 × 117 × 8,7 mm |
| The weight | 182 g |
Features ONYX BOOX Faust
Despite the fact that in fact this is the youngest model in the line of ONYX BOOX readers with a touch screen, it received an E Ink Carta screen. The device has a proprietary software shell ONYX BOOX, which is an "add-on" to Android, supports all major text and graphic formats, and also allows you to work with texts in other languages - some of the dictionaries are already preinstalled here. The resolution is not the highest, but for an entry-level e-reader, such a display is quite enough, not only thanks to fine temperature control, but also good responsiveness and high definition of letters even when choosing a small text size.
The case is already familiar to us from other readers of the manufacturer and is made in matte black, made of good plastic. There are four physical control buttons: one is located in the center and acts as a Home button, you can call up an additional menu and go back to the desktop, almost like the Home button in iPhones (which has died for a long time). And the other two are symmetrical on the sides, which by default serve to turn the page.
Well, the power button on top - with an LED indicator. Lights up orange when charging and blue when loading. A trifle, but nice.
If someone flatly refuses physical buttons, you can use the touch screen to control while reading - the current generation (especially children) will find this way of interacting with content more familiar. Because it's a multi-touch display, some familiar gestures work, including pinching to zoom in on text.
At the bottom are a microSD slot for a memory card and a microUSB connector for charging and transferring files.
Screen
ONYX BOOX chose E Ink Carta for a reason. It is built on the "electronic paper" type and is very different from what we saw in readers a few years ago. Such a display has a higher contrast ratio and is distinguished by the absence of flickering backlight (which is what LCD screens sin like that). This, in turn, allows modern readers to work for a long time without recharging. But most importantly, in such a screen, the image is formed using reflected light, so you can read a book on the reader for several hours without eye fatigue.
Many have probably noticed how their eyes begin to get tired if they “stick” to a smartphone or tablet for a long time. This does not happen with an “electronic paper” type screen; due to a different principle of operation, you can read from it for several hours without getting tired.
At first it may seem that a 6-inch screen is too small for some kind of content (and this is true, complex schemes are best studied on a device ), but when reading books or technical literature, you do not notice this. Yes, the resolution here is far from FullHD, but due to the specifics of E Ink, it is enough to clearly display small elements. It is pleasant to look at the screen, the eyes do not strain, the fonts of a comfortable size for reading remain clear. And if you want to take a closer look, there is always a multi-touch zoom at hand.
MOON Light +
Without "Moonlight +" it is already difficult to imagine ONYX BOOX readers. And this is perhaps my favorite feature that has migrated to the new Faust. This is a special type of backlight with which temperature control is possible: there are 16 levels of backlight control for warm and cold light (MOON Light + separately adjusts the brightness of “warm” and “cold” LEDs). In most other readers, the backlight is just a slider with brightness control, and the screen always remains white. With a paper book, the eyes strain a lot, and when artificial lighting from a smartphone and tablet still appears in the dark, it becomes much worse.
MOON Light+ makes it much easier to read before going to bed, it is enough to adjust a more yellow tint with a filtered blue part of the spectrum and you can safely read Goethe's Faust for another half an hour, although not everyone will like such reading at night, something from Tolstoy is better choose. Why set up a warm light at all, because you can read with ordinary light? This is certainly true, but with cold (white light) there is a problem with the production of melatonin, the main hormone that regulates circadian rhythms. The synthesis and secretion of melatonin depend on illumination - an excess of light reduces its formation, and a decrease in illumination increases the synthesis and secretion of the hormone. That is why if you read from your smartphone for a long time before going to bed, then sometimes you sleep restlessly (to make it easier to fall asleep or to adjust the circadian rhythm, they even take special drugs).
And for comfortable reading from an e-book, even half the backlight is enough.
And most importantly - if you can’t read a paper book in the dark without an external light source, then here you turned on the backlight - and off we go.
snow field
Of course, Faust did not bypass the SNOW Field technology, which minimizes the number of artifacts on the screen during partial redrawing, so there are no remnants of the previous image. The diagonal of the device is ideal for reading literature, including those that mainly consist of images.
Interface and Performance
The interface is almost the same as in ONYX BOOX James Cook 2: in the center - the current and last opened books, at the top - the status bar, which shows the battery charge, active interfaces, time and the Home button, at the bottom - the navigation bar. But here, unlike the initial model, there is a Wi-Fi module that allows you to access the Internet - it’s not for nothing that the Browser application appears on the bottom navigation bar. The latter pleases with its responsiveness, you can visit our blog (and any other) on your favorite Habré and participate in discussions. Redrawing, of course, is, but does not interfere.
The ONYX BOOX Faust uses a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory with the ability to use a memory card - for the manufacturer's entry-level readers, this is already the gold standard. The book has good performance, turns on and off quickly, nothing freezes. Runs Android 4.4 KitKat. Not Android P, of course, but the reader doesn't need more.
Since now we are all dealing with smartphones and tablets, where at most 2-3 buttons, dealing with a touch screen is much easier than with physical controls that still need to get used to. Therefore, the touch screen on the e-reader is an incredibly convenient solution. You can flip the page with a single click, swipe to the left to increase the font, make a quick note in the text, look up a word in the dictionary, or interact with the menu.
Access to the main functions of the e-book is provided by a line with icons "Library", "File Manager", "Applications", "MOON Light", "Settings" and "Browser". We have already talked about them in detail in other reviews, so we will not stop once again. Most often, you will probably use the library - all the books available on the device are stored here, which can be viewed both in a list and in the form of a table or icons. Instead, you can use the file manager, there is sorting by alphabet, name, type, size and time of creation, it will take even less time to find the right file than in the "Library".
In the "Applications" access to the built-in applications for reading is implemented, but there was also a place for others - you can find it in the same browser, set up mail or calculate something on a calculator. Perhaps not the most frequent case of using an e-book, but the very presence of such an opportunity cannot but rejoice.
In the system settings, you can change the date, power saving settings, see the free space, customize the buttons (for example, swap the scroll keys), and so on. Plus, there are settings for the last documents field, automatic opening of the last book after turning on the device, as well as scanning only the Books folder in the built-in memory or on a card. Compared to Android devices, the view is clearly simplified, but here you are unlikely to be engaged in unlocking the bootloader, obtaining root rights, and other scary words.
Reading
Due to the fact that the reader works with all major book formats, you can open multi-page PDF with electronic books, and read Goethe's favorite work in FB2 before going to bed. In the latter case, it is better to use the built-in OReader application: its interface is designed in such a way that almost 90% of the screen is occupied by a text field, and lines with information are placed above and below (although there is also a full-screen mode).
A long press of the scroll key brings up a menu with text settings, where you can change the font for yourself, select the size, boldness of the text and much more. You can flip through the pages both with physical buttons and with gestures on the screen - here it’s already as you like. In addition, there is a search in the text, which allows you to jump to the table of contents or to the desired page; you can save quotes or just bookmark.
What I liked the most was the ability to translate a word in a few clicks when reading literature in a foreign language: just select the word, click on the pop-up window and select "Dictionary" - after which the translation of the word will appear in a separate window. In addition, in the settings you can assign a dictionary call to a long press on a word - it will be even faster.
For PDF files, there is Neo Reader (if you do not install third-party applications). It is more minimalistic and specially tailored for working with multi-page documentation - for example, you can conveniently navigate through the document using the progress bar. Of course, this application, as well as working with PDF, were in the same James Cook 2, but here, due to the touch screen and support for multi-touch gestures, all this is much more convenient. Made "chips" - increased the desired fragment; wanted - moved a few pages forward and so on.
Autonomous work
In the comments on a previous review, someone suggested that in the case of an e-reader, as with an iPhone or tablet, you will have to live in the "charge to charge" mode every day. This is absolutely not the case: the efficiency of the electronic ink screen and the energy-efficient hardware platform make the battery life of the reader quite good - when reading for about an hour a day, the device will work on a single charge for more than a month.
With hardcore use with always-on Wi-Fi, this time can be reduced to a day or two, but in the “normal” mixed reading mode, charging will take about once every three weeks, if you do not remove the automatic Wi-Fi shutdown.
Did you put the cover on?
As you probably already noticed, yes! It comes with a case-cover (Darwin 5 says hello), which imitates rough leather with embossing and has a rigid frame. Inside there is a soft material to protect the screen. And thanks to the presence of a Hall sensor, the book automatically goes to sleep when the cover is closed, and wakes up when it is opened. The cover is decorated with the inscription "Faust".
The e-book "sits" in it securely, so that the accessory performs not only an aesthetic, but also a protective function.
Goethe's verdict
Unlike the traditional versions of the legend, according to which Faust goes to hell, in Goethe's book of the same name, despite the fulfillment of the terms of the agreement and the fact that Mephistopheles acted with the permission of God, angels take Faust's soul from Mephistopheles and take it to heaven. And it seems to me that he would give such a chance to an e-book named after the protagonist of the work. She has plenty of positive qualities - from increased battery life and "useful" backlighting to support for many formats and a touch screen.
Source: habr.com