Boox Poke 2 Review

[8poke2]

Renate, NXP (Your second reader), Freescale (Tolino Shine2 HD e-ink 6" 1024x1448 300ppi retina Carta2 screen 77 USD, 1GHz Freescale i.MX6) are not in github Quallcom code list. Experienced company can emulate Qualcomm EDL.

Screenshots are from my phone Honor 6X (with Q Snapdragon 430 with 4 x 1,4GHz and 4 x 1,1GHz cores) from apps CPU Stats and CPU Throttling Test. You can see every core have his own work with different load. And in next comment i'll sent here screenshots from Poke 2.

[8poke2]

Throttling test is not good for eink display. Simple system monitor is app from which one is screenshot. 3 missing graphs are from refreshing during screenshot. What doing 8 core app on 8 chars and 16 numbers? Every graph is same! This device can computu with all 8 cores together, but displaying 8 graphs is problem? It's work for one core! It's notfrom eink lattency. This is my problem.

[8poke2]

Also Simple system monitor app.
Honor 6X - Snapdragon 430 also 8 core device with 4 x 1.4GHz and 4 x 1.1GHz. Tops in the middle of core 3 and 4 are from switching apps - this device was more busy as Poke 2 during this "test".

[8poke2]

My 1 core 1GHz eink reader is all the time at minimal frequency 400MHz with load 4-24%, average ~12%.

Btw in one from aps i saw for Poke 2 power consumption withouth backlight from 13-47mA, minimal yellow 15-50, maximal yellow around 70-90mA.
1500/13=115 hours, but 1500/47=32 hours. Old 1 core reader can work longer.

[Renate]

Well, I don't know where this is all going.
Do you think your Poke2 is fake or that the processor is fake?

Originally Posted by 8poke2

Freescale (Tolino Shine2 HD e-ink 6" 1024x1448 300ppi retina Carta2 screen 77 USD, 1GHz Freescale i.MX6) are not in github Quallcom code list.

Um, because that's a Qualcomm list.
Other manufacturers do other things.

Originally Posted by 8poke2

Experienced company can emulate Qualcomm EDL.

Maybe, but is it worth engineering a custom IC and fabricating it instead of just buying a 4 year old chip from Qualcomm?

I don't have any benchmarks or graphs because it's not worth my time to even play with that.

[8poke2]

Originally Posted by Renate

Well, I don't know where this is all going.
Do you think your Poke2 is fake or that the processor is fake?

No, my reader can comput very fast, 70x faster than my old 1 core 1GHz eink reader, but somthing was wrong during compilling linux/andorid for it, or something is wrong with refresh display policy/procedure. User experience is so sloooow. But speed mode and X mode is little solution. I think device need separate process in GPU to refresh display and now is it currently handled in the processor. From user manual, page 15:

Refresh Mode
Four levels of refresh mode are available.
Normal Mode: good display effect, suitable for general text reading.
Speed Mode: with slight ghosting, suitable for quickly reading image and text.
A2 Mode: Ghosting may exist, suitable for scrolling pages with image and
text.
X Mode: May cause serious loss of details, suitable for web pages and video.
Normal mode is the default mode; Speed mode is used while scrolling pages;
After selecting a new mode, to adjust the contrast could get a better effect;

Source: https://goodereader.com/blog/guides/...ser-manual.pdf

From manuail for Your reader:
"The refresh modes are Normal Refresh (Regal Mode) and Fast Fresh (A2Mode)."
Source: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/16...ected=1#manual

Originally Posted by Renate

Maybe, but is it worth engineering a custom IC and fabricating it instead of just buying a 4 year old chip from Qualcomm

This is not about making a special processor for the appearance of qualcomm, but it's about little hack in FW/SW of device and profit 40-50 €/USD from one sold ereader with 1 core 1GHz as 8 cores 2GHz. But as i set before, it's not this story.

[Renate]

FWIW, on the Poke3 (and probably Poke2) there are only two clock domains.
So each group of four cores is always running at the same speed.

[8poke2]

Yes, one or two, it does not matter now. Problem is in the device:

The "Regal" page refresh scheme uses a proprietary chipset (that's not in my Boox Note) to do a "partial" page refresh. In other words, it doesn't refresh everything on the screen and usually refreshes faster. The algorithms used to control the chip are proprietary too and may be different from manufacturer to manufacturer (Regal is used in Kindles, Kobos, and Nook Glowlights among others).

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ereader/com...h_styles_mean/

Something else about refresh modes is on these webpages:
BOOX Eink color: https://www.boox.com/2021/05/14/opti...-e-ink-screen/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/c..._battery_life/
Review: A few months with an Onyx Boox Poke3 e-reader https://jamesrcridland.medium.com/re...r-46bab92e7ceb
How Much Do You Know About E-ink Screens? https://medium.com/boox-content-hub/...g-9a7a76b30e2c

[salamanderjuice]

What do you feel is so slow? Is it a specific app or something? My Boox devices blow away my previous Kobo/Kindles on anything speed related and I had some of the better models like Kobo Aura One. I don't feel like at normal refresh speed the Boox devices are slower and stuff like typing is noticeably more snappy and less frustrating.

[8poke2]

Manufacturer of my old reader is probably http://ntxeyz.com/ and is also producer for anothers readers http://www.ntxeyz.com/dist/images/customer_01.jpg include Kobo. Typing of letters was visibly slower, but scrolling the pages wasn't much worse than this Poke 2. A2 refresh mode is solution for me. There are no details in user manual for Poke 2 about refresh modes. I expected better results for scrolling of webpages and switching apps.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by 8poke2

I expected better results for scrolling of webpages and switching apps.

Wer misst misst Mist

Even an AMD Ryzen Threadripper cannot move the black and white balls in the EInk screen faster than the CPUs used by the Boox - that's why there is hardly any difference to the usual EInk ebook readers in this regard.

[8poke2]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Even an AMD Ryzen Threadripper cannot move the black and white balls in the EInk screen faster than the CPUs used by the Boox - that's why there is hardly any difference to the usual EInk ebook readers in this regard.

I have no problem now after this thrad with speed of processor, but with missing Regal refresh mode from comment #38 - 5th comments back (at 23.06.21 03:13).

The "Regal" page refresh scheme uses a proprietary chipset (that's not in my Boox Note) to do a "partial" page refresh. In other words, it doesn't refresh everything on the screen and usually refreshes faster. The algorithms used to control the chip are proprietary too and may be different from manufacturer to manufacturer (Regal is used in Kindles, Kobos, ...

I think default can be maybe only buffer for getting data fast from proc/GPU, made GPU free for new data and this buffer will send it to display with slow speed. Or some more logic that can send pixels to reload and for status change. It's some chip/ typical chip, that I can remove from old reader and put it down between PCB and display cable/stick in Poko 2 without problem with FW/HW? Without it I have only "2-4" cores reader.

Does exist JavaScript webpage/engine for scrolling/zooming etc. testing?

[8poke2]

I found it in the user manual chapter 13:

13. Specifications
Poke2
...
Screen E-ink display with Regal refresh

But not Regal with every from 4 user modes / scenario.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by 8poke2

I have no problem now after this thrad with speed of processor, but with missing Regal refresh mode from comment #38 - 5th comments back (at 23.06.21 03:13).

He's writing about a Boox Note - it's quite an old device.

[8poke2]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

He's writing about a Boox Note - it's quite an old device.

Thanks! So it's not enabled in every modes(?)

Four levels of refresh mode are available.
Normal Mode: good display effect, suitable for general text reading.
Speed Mode: with slight ghosting, suitable for quickly reading image and
text.
A2 Mode: Ghosting may exist, suitable for scrolling pages with image and
text
X Mode: May cause serious loss of details, suitable for web pages and
video.

. With "Normal" mode i can remember to 12MHz PC 286. Speed mode have funny name (before worst "Normal" mode).
Or Regal mode for BOOX is slowest one? For the beginning I'm satisfied with A2 mode.