New 13.3" Onyx Boox. Rumours, prototype specs, first pictures

[hdmi_epaper]

Would be far better if a solid manufacturer makes a "compute stick"/"PC in a stick" version of the device.

Its a new category and "pc sticks" come with far better variety customizations of specs, etc.
All thats needed from an Onyx like manufacturer is is a plug and play Eink front end. Select your eink screen size 13.3", 9.7", 6" (whatever) and use the same "pc in a stick" concept to drive it.
Eink screens are too expensive to be limited to a niche cpu and hardware subset picked by a manufacturer with cutting costs in mind.....or it will be another Sony DPT-S1 - Everyone wants one, not everyone can afford one and the few that do hate the boxed in limitations. You can't carry over the features you like from Sony Dpt-s1 to another device with hardware that suits you better.

We should be able to run whatever the hack we need on those screens - ios, osx, android, linux, windows...you name it. Proprietary one off software designed per device just breeds frustration down the line for end users.

In conclusions we all know usb/thunderbold is well suited in terms of speed, widespread usage and overall longterm prospects as observed today.

Thumbs up for a USB Eink display made by a reputable manufacturer.

[esfandiyar2002]

Originally Posted by hdmi_epaper

Would be far better if a solid manufacturer makes a "compute stick"/"PC in a stick" version of the device.

Thumbs up for a USB Eink display made by a reputable manufacturer.

It is a very genuine idea,but far too impossible to reach out!In PC,stickers are completely defeated!They cannot afford high end hardware,say for gaming.They are only good to go surfing,checking socially virtual status,and the like.

In E-ink,however,it's different story.It will work,provided that it can justify the market to buy.These days everybody,except limited numbers,are more than happy with their cellphones,tablets without forcing to put a pc-sticker like gadget into their device(The main purpose is portability of course).

It works,if you can convince a majority of potential consumers to spend a few bucks more on something which seems boring,colourless,dead to them(E-ink screen).They are more than happy to look their favourite TV shows on their tablet,cellphone,on the go devices.How many people do you think they read for the sake of the reading,increasing knowledge,understanding concepts?Believe me,a few!

[Artorius]

Originally Posted by esfandiyar2002

Good to know,thanks.Because I recall that Nathan mentioned before that he asked Booxtor to give him a sample for reviewing of the previous models,and Booxtor agreed first,then didn't respond.

So the second question is that where is Nathan's review of 13.3 inch e-reader in his website?

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I got the device on Tuesday. I haven't had enough time to form an opinion.

And are you sure I said that "Booxtor agreed first,then didn't respond"? That doesn't match with how I recall events playing out.

Originally Posted by esfandiyar2002

I`m positive,but not sure as you may predict...``Humans can play with words,of course,but the old,original meaning will weigh up the same if carefully analysed!``(Oscar Wilde)

Anyway,we are waiting for your review,if that is not for V.I.P section of course!

Nathan the great presents Onyx Max the great!

esfandiyar2002,

actually, you're confusing "Nate the great" (Nate Hoffelder), who's the webmaster of the-digital-reader.com, with "Nathan", the webmaster of the-ebook-reader.com

The one to whom Booxtor allegedly twice agreed to send an evaluation device and then didn't actually send it is Nathan (of the-ebook-reader.com), not "Nate the great" (of the-digital-reader.com).
Nathan wrote about it in the second comment to this article.

[esfandiyar2002]

Originally Posted by Artorius

esfandiyar2002,
actually, you're confusing "Nate the great" (Nate Hoffelder), who's the webmaster of the-digital-reader.com, with "Nathan", the webmaster of the-ebook-reader.com

Thank you for clarifying.If you truly noticed before posting up your clarification,you may know that I get used to play with words when it comes to mention something.

That's as simple as that!I already know who asked what,because I am reading both websites for a long period of time.The main problem of both is that they are not so informative as they claim and claimed before!I should confess that I was so naive to understand that sooner. Of course,I am not accusing them,just a little harsh criticizing!

[hdmi_epaper]

Originally Posted by esfandiyar2002

It is a very genuine idea,but far too impossible to reach out!In PC,stickers are completely defeated!They cannot afford high end hardware,say for gaming.They are only good to go surfing,checking socially virtual status,and the like.

In E-ink,however,it's different story.It will work,provided that it can justify the market to buy.These days everybody,except limited numbers,are more than happy with their cellphones,tablets without forcing to put a pc-sticker like gadget into their device(The main purpose is portability of course).

It works,if you can convince a majority of potential consumers to spend a few bucks more on something which seems boring,colourless,dead to them(E-ink screen).They are more than happy to look their favourite TV shows on their tablet,cellphone,on the go devices.How many people do you think they read for the sake of the reading,increasing knowledge,understanding concepts?Believe me,a few!

I guess you make fair points and on the market devices backs it all up.

Bellow the surface though PC Sticks are far from useless in GPU intense usecases(gaming, etc). http://www.digitaltrends.com/computi...enchmark-test/
With IoT being driven by power hungry usecases and applications(such as drones, tablets, Smart devices/sensors) and a decent number of active manufacturers to choose from things will get well beyond PC Gaming on a stick.

Then ofcourse a 13.3" screen at 450 euros is hardly a good alternative to bulk LCD, OLED etc.

Would the price of high ppi and large size(13. And over) epaper screens compete with say a pack of 500 A4 paper sheets I suspect proper freedom of choice will appear on the epaper devices market.
Let it be dull, colourless or boring.
No one who deals with large volumes of documents will be complainig given the physical paper alternative, route of today.

By the way the ereader term itself has a fairly limited scope of meaning imo.

OCR, document scanning on an A4 size epaper for documents filling etc has a much broader market.

Phones and tablets are getting better at it everyday... Ipad pro 9.7 with 1.5% reflectance and and dynamic adjustments to ambient light levels is the best we have today imo(mind you I dont own one or seen one yet, writting this on ipad mini 4 with 2% reflectance).
My argument is that screens wheather LCD, OLED,Qantum dot, epaper or whatever should be easily swappable so you can watch that video on the 9" OLED and reverse the device(dual screen) and read thet website article on the A4 size epaper...
All you are left with is a usb key size device to drive the screen you like...

Should probably be posted elsewhere as this is Onyx B. Max topic thread.
Dasung Paperlike monitor(eink usb) proves another usecase that is strangely absent today.

[whopper]

Android 13.3 ereader?

Count me in, been waiting for this years. After seeing some reviews I'll get one.

Just a shame the no dual input and screen light

[esfandiyar2002]

Originally Posted by Artorius

esfandiyar2002,
Nathan did not receive an Onyx Max prototype. You’re confusing Nathan with Nate Hoffelder (also known as “Nate the great” on the MobileRead forums), the webmaster of another website: the-digital-reader.com
“Nate the great” did announce borrowing one of Booxtor’s prototypes, and the intention of posting a review, but he also later said that he wouldn’t post it anymore, because apparently the device “died” (that’s what he wrote).

Thanks.What do you mean by his saying that it`s apparently died!I didn`t see that comment.What he meant is still vague to me.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by esfandiyar2002

Thanks.What do you mean by his saying that it`s apparently died!I didn`t see that comment.What he meant is still vague to me.

See this post

[MikeS66]

I've been using my M92 since 2012, and love it. I mostly use it to read fiction. One of the things I really liked in the Max and N96C was the response speed of the screen in Booxtor's Video. My M92 is QUITE slower in refreshing PDF pages. Might be that he selected better(= faster) examples for his video but I doubt it. Maybe it's due to the fact that I have around 5000 books on mine - but I doubt it (a pagerefresh in a document is probably not affected by the total amount of matieral stored on a SD-medium). I don't know if it'll be enough for you guys wanting an instantanious refresh (with seperate KB), but my impression is that it's pretty good&fast for reading purposes (for EInk). My biggest Problem is that my M92 is still rocking, and I'm short of cash.

[MikeS66]

@Medwatt,

Thank you for your video on youtube. That's REALLY fast page turning for PDF's (compared to my M92). Off-topic, why is there a condom on your stylus ? I mean, I can understand the principle of safe-sex, but I would be happy if my M92 could bear offspring

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by MikeS66

@Medwatt,

Thank you for your video on youtube. That's REALLY fast page turning for PDF's (compared to my M92). Off-topic, why is there a condom on your stylus ? I mean, I can understand the principle of safe-sex, but I would be happy if my M92 could bear offspring

I'm actually using the stylus from my wacom graphics tablet. It was still new at the time.
The speed of turning pages is not bad using the pre-installed apps. However, if you notice from my video, I was using Orion Viewer, which works exceptionally well with e-ink.
Since then, I've also tried koReader which, although still being actively developed, is superior to any android e-ink optimized app out there. The reflow feature alone makes reading most PDFs a pleasure. I've never felt the need for a larger screen. I think I might do a new video to demonstrate just that.

[MikeS66]

Yes, I got the fact that you were using a different-than-preinstalled Viewer (Orion Viewer). Going from my M92 to a i86,N66,Max Android based Machine will probably overwhelm me for a while, since I don't really have any experience at all with Android.

"I've never felt the need for a larger screen." I can understand that, the same would go for me, but I've been using my M92 for 4 years now. Going back to a smaller screen (8") would be even more difficult for me. That's my real problem now : a i86HDMLPlus (Backlight, touchscreen & stylus) would be a perfect solution, but I've gotten used to 9,7". The N66 would be perfect if I could buy a model with both -dual touch- and -lighting-. After laying a while on my back in a hospital in febuary, I found my M92 to be large enough - a 13,3" model would not have worked (how do you really want to hold that thing for hours while laying on your back?). So I'll probably have to reduce the size (which I love) to increase usability. My time in the hospital (although such a situation is an exception) showed me how much it really sucks to have to stick an external light on a device in order to be able to read at night without disturbing anyone, sorry I'm starting to ramble off-topic...

"It was still new at the time". I'm one of those people who don't remove protective covering, until it starts to really bother me

[Jmirko]

Mike, there is a 10-inch e-ink reader with dual touch and a frontlight: the Hanvon E930. I have one, so pm me if you want to know more about it.

[MikeS66]

Hi Jmirko,

Thank you for the information, I've looked into the/your Hanvon E930 thread here in the meantime. I'll have to think on it awhile, not an easy decision for me. I spent around 3 months researching/comparing back in 2011/12 before buying my M92 (one of my best investments in the last years). Your list of currently owned devices is quite impressive.

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by MikeS66

Going from my M92 to a i86,N66,Max Android based Machine will probably overwhelm me for a while, since I don't really have any experience at all with Android.

I don't think it really takes any experience at all.

Even though I would like to own a 9.7'' screen, I feel it might be a little bit cumbersome to use. I've always been clumsy handling big thick books.

When reading novels or books that don't require paper and pencil, I usually lay on my side and position the e-reader as seen on the attached image.