The e-Paper market has loved regular progress during the last decade, beginning with the introduction of the Amazon Kindle again in 2007. Whereas there are lots of distributors trying to make a mark within the know-how required on this area, E-Ink’s choices have dominated the roost.
The preferred class of merchandise utilizing E-Ink’s know-how has undoubtedly been eBook readers. Not too long ago, digital notebooks and notepads have additionally emerged as a big driver in E-Ink’s enlargement. These merchandise take the common e-reader and add help for an digital pen / stylus. These merchandise had been initially fairly costly and focused enterprise professionals coping with enormous quantities of paperwork and requiring note-taking help (equivalent to attorneys). The Sony DPT lineup (overview) turned one of many main merchandise on this class. Because the market expanded, distributors equivalent to reMarkable and ONYX additionally began placing out compelling merchandise – increasing the goal market to inventive professionals and college students as properly. This class turned really mass-market a number of months again with the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle Scribe (and slated to begin delivery in time for the vacation season).
ONYX has been serving the e-reader market since 2006. They’ve an intensive lineup of e-readers (each grayscale and colour), e-Paper tablets with note-taking help, and even E-Ink displays. At the moment, the corporate is launching a brand new class – ePaper Pill PCs. The primary product on this lineup is the ONYX BOOX Tab Extremely – a ten.3″ unit full with a 16MP rear-facing digicam. A primary for E-Ink gadgets, ONYX envisages the digicam getting used to OCR paperwork within the subject with out the necessity for an exterior gadget as an middleman. The gadget targets skilled use-cases. It have to be famous that ONYX already carries the BOOX Word Air 2 Plus that carries many of the similar options, however geared in the direction of the house / informal shopper.
The ONYX BOOX Tab Extremely is the primary e-reader mannequin from ONYX to make the most of the corporate’s proprietary quick refresh algorithm applied utilizing a separate {hardware} module on the board. The corporate has been utilizing this on its Mira lineup of E-Ink displays, and its use within the e-reader is meant to enhance consumer expertise with net content material. Scrolling, specifically, has been a weak level of E-Ink tablets as a result of low refresh charge. The precise enhancements delivered by the ONYX ‘BSR’ (BOOX Tremendous Refresh) algorithm on this facet wants hands-on analysis for additional evaluation. The system helps 4 totally different modes for various duties – studying books does not require quick refreshing and may make the most of the ‘HD Mode’, whereas typing requires a ‘Steadiness Mode’. A ‘Quick Mode’ is out there for net looking, and an ‘Ultrafast Mode’ for generic Android functions.
The BOOX Tab Extremely makes use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC (4x Kyro Gold (A73-class) @ 2GHz + 4x Kyro Silver (A53-class) @ 1.8 GHz, together with an Adreon 610 GPU), and comes with a specialised model of Android 11 (together with Play Retailer help). The unit is provided with a 6300 mAh battery, 4GB of LPDDR4x DRAM, and 128GB of eMMC flash storage. The USB-C port within the system additionally helps OTG performance, and a micro-SDXC card slot. A keyboard case with a magnetic holder for the Tab Extremely can also be obtainable.
ONYX has a popularity for lengthy help cycles, and offers common firmware updates to reinforce the performance of its ePaper tablets. Latest firmware updates have introduced a extra tablet-like expertise within the consumer interface – a house display with apps together with a favorites dock on the backside. ONYX claims that the usage of Android in its tablets (in comparison with customized OSes in different merchandise such because the Kindle Scribe and reMarkable tablets) allows its clients to reap the benefits of the host of private data administration apps obtainable for word taking and knowledge assortment. One other just lately added performance pertains to the affiliation of various pages in several paperwork utilizing easily-created tags.
The ONYX BOOX Tab Extremely is out there for pre-order immediately and comes with a $600 price ticket. The corporate can also be concurrently releasing the Nova Air 2 7.8″ e-Paper pill with stylus help at $400 and the Leaf 2 7″ e-reader at $200. ONYX has sometimes not hesitated in attempting out modern concepts on the e-Paper entrance (they had been one of many first distributors to deliver out colour e-readers), and equipping an e-reader / digital pocket book with a rear digicam is one more attention-grabbing play from the corporate. The brand new merchandise increase ONYX’s goal market and construct upon its place as one of many main E-Ink product distributors out there within the face of rising competitors.
