It has finally come - Onyx Boox 60 Review

[Delta Tango]

So, after 2 months of wait and nail-biting my Boox is finally here.

In total, with all the shipping costs, customs, and taxes it cost me almost exactly $500.

Hardware

Unboxing, hooray! The first thing I noticed when I opened a nice box was that the cover was brown, not black
It does look good though. It is very soft to the touch and all the stitches (which look awesome in yellow/gold) are done nicely and neatly. However, the case is not tight so the device slips out if turned upside-down. Something should be done about that.



Don't worry, the actual screen looks a lot better than on the photos.

Metal back casing has a nice and assuring cold touch to it. I like it a lot.
Buttons, especially the power button are a bit flimsy and wibbly wobbly. I don't like that. Pushing them directly in with entire finger and not just your nail should solve the issue.
Boot-up time is 25 seconds. No need to express my feelings here, just take a look at a clock and see how long that is. While not instant like opening a paper book it is tolerable, especially if you remind yourself how long it takes to find the page you left off at if your bookmark falls out of the book.

Touch screen is fairly good except near the edges where it, more often than not, chooses to ignore the stylus. <- that's a sad face.

Wall charger that came is for US sockets, so I'll have to figure out something since I live in Europe.

Wifi

WiFi functionality is good, although I had to update firmware to 1.3 (it came with 1.2) since it didn't go past my WEP password and wasn't connecting to the router.
Talking about the firmware update... You absolutely need a SD card (which was promised as a compensation for delays in shipping, but didn't come) so I bought one for about $25 (4 GB microSD with the adapter for full sized SD).

Once you enter a password for an encrypted router, no need to enter it again, although the device needs to reconnect to it (you do it by tapping once it with the stylus, no big deal; it connects in just a few seconds).



I still haven't figured out what is the "config" button supposed to do. Maybe something for the next firmware...

Browsing

I was able to check my emails (Gmail) and reading Wikipedia also works, but due to some recent changes in its layout the Go-button of the search engine (the little magnifying glass) falls in the region of the right edge which is the stylus ignoring part, so multiple attempts are necessary to get it work.
After that, if you don't mind small letters, it works just fine. In landscape mode it looks awesome, but the search button is still hard to hit.
The width of the page is reduced to fit the screen, so no scrolling left and right is needed, but there is that menu column on the left that takes up quite a lot of screen space.



As you can see, letters are very clear, even when the font is small.

After that I tried to visit MobileRead. I successfully logged in only when I tried to post a new thread; the blue menu bar with the rest of the page is cut off somewhere in the middle so no Username and Password fields are visible (hint, hint admins )
I managed to write a title for the thread, but got stuck at the post body. The text just refused to be entered in its field. I'll give it another go later.

Google works just like on a PC browser.



Reading

And you thought I'd never get there, right?
I haven't had much time to try it out, but so far I LOVE it. I tried only pdf, txt and html and all of them work well, but my favorite among those three would have to be txt. Font and text size changing in it is a breeze and works great. Text is immediately reflown and looks great no matter which setting you decide on. I'll try out other formats as I find them (or you can give me something you're interested in and I'll take pictures for you).
Text to background contrast is better or at least as good as than in most recycled paper books.
Time it takes to change the page is definitely not something that will bother me. I have full refresh turned off and there is a refresh button neatly placed in case shadows form.



All three picture of the same screen. Weird next-lines in first paragraph come from the original file, not Boox formating.

Weight. The device does carry some potential for becoming a blunt weapon, but I usually read with a book resting on something so I don't think that will be an issue.

Sunshine test

So, after five days of crappy weather it is finally improving and it is a sunny morning, perfect time for exposing the screen to some light.
The theory is that it messes up the picture on display. Well, let's take a look.

In the order of appearance:
1. First, this is what a page should look like
2. The same page produced while exposed to sun, full refresh setting on
3. Partial refresh mode
4. Hitting the refresh button on the screen



Pictures were taken in shade.

As you can see, there is significant loss of text in both full and partial refresh mode, and that hitting the refresh button returns it to almost normal state. However, I suppose you don't want to be obliged to hit that button after every page to be able to read. I guess I'll pretend I'm a vampire or something and stick to the shades

***I will update this post as needed, it's getting late now and there is I Robot by Asimov waiting to be read on my new Boox.***

[aruangra]

Thanks for the detailed review. I have a few questions:
1) Can you change the font size in the browser?
2) I plan to run javascript programs on an ereader. It would be very much appreciated if you can test the following websites. If possible, I would like to see the snapshots.

http://p4wn.sourceforge.net/5k/
http://p4wn.sourceforge.net/sven/
http://www.motionnet.com/calculator/

Thanks for the nice review.

Aruangra

[Delta Tango]

1. Yes, it works perfectly (tried on Wiki).
Text is properly reflown and formated just like it does in MS Word or other text processor. No problem there. Web pages look better in landscape than in portrait.

2. It works. Haven't found a single feature that failed to do what I thought it would do.


All the dropdown menus and radio buttons respond correctly.

Edit:
Exposure to sun test added to the first post.

[aruangra]

Delta Tango

Thank you so much.
Do you know why the screen fades under the sunlight?

[Zetmolm]

@Delta Tango,
Thank you for your review.
Did you know that you can make screenshots by pressing the VOL + and VOL - buttons at the same time? You'll find the pictures in the snapshot folder on the SD card.

[Delta Tango]

I knew I read something about that somewhere, but wasn't sure what exactly and what it would do.
Thanks, I'll try to replace some of the photos above where it is suitable if it makes it for better quality.

edit:
aruangra, no I don't know why it fades (it doesn't actually fade, once drawn in shade the picture is stable in sunlight, but it doesn't draw itself properly while being exposed), I guess it has to do something with low energy of picture drawing opposed to high energy of sun (electromagnetically speaking).

[Zetmolm]

The sunlight issue means you are one of those unlucky buyers who have a faulty screen, and you should be able to get your reader replaced, but then you may not want to run the risk of having to wait another nail-biting 2 months for a new Boox.

I bought my Boox in January, so well before this faulty batch came on the market, and don't have any issues with reading in the sunlight at all. And that's how it's supposed to be with eInk.

[Delta Tango]

I'm in a situation where I don't think it will be a possibility for me to have it replaced since I'm traveling to Germany next month and shipping the reader there and back again would probably take a long time. It would also mean that I'd have to pay another $100 for customs and taxes plus shipping of the faulty reader. Avoiding the sun would probably be less of a hassle.

[frozennorth]

I should receive mine today. Tracking says out for delivery. I guess delivery to Croatia is faster than to Canada.

With my luck I'll probably get the vampire version too. I hope not because I do like reading outside on my deck and will consider sending it back.

[Dulin's Books]

Wow- Im amazed the Croatian one got there before yours John. If yours has the sun issue we'll get you a new one.

The SD cards are coming separate. They were mailed to each of you by me as soon as I found out they had not gone with the devices.

Delta Tango- Im sorry yours has the issue. I did not have a good understanding of it until reading your post here. I have had one other person have this issue- After i personally checked the Boox. I misunderstood and booted it while heading outside then let it sit for awhile with no issue.

If you find you can't live with it we'll find a way to limit the cost of a getting you a new one. maybe i can work a deal with one of the European resellers to swap it out.

I was just told earlier today that they believe the source of the issue is one particular component from a certain supplier and not the display. And not the whole batch of components but a "small" amount. Onyx is working on a software fix for effected devices. All the newest ones going forward have a hardware fix.

[Delta Tango]

I'm also amazed. Usually everything is held up at customs and it takes them more than a week to process it, and then you have to go and pick it up. Mine came to my doorstep

frozennorth, my tracking code still stated that it has left Miami

Mr. Dulin,
Thanks again for the SD cards.
I've sent you a PM.

[aruangra]

Dear Delta Tango

Could you please test the following webpages using more sophisticated Javescripts?
http://people.iola.dk/olau/flot/exam...aph-types.html
http://people.iola.dk/olau/flot/examples/ajax.html
http://www.schrenk.com/js/5.htm <-- please test 5 examples
http://jstween.blogspot.com/

Your help would be very much appreciated. My Kindle DX cannot run any of Javascripts for animation. I need to find another platform. I hope the Onyx can do some of these.

Regards,
Aruangra

[Harryet]

I enjoyed reading your review. I've tested Onyx and it's the first e-reader I can recommend anyone to buy - even though my Onyx has problems with wifi (works ok but very slow at home, but not at work and other places) and the sun problem you describe.

The best part is that Onyx deals with Adobe Digital Editions - I really hate ADE.

[frozennorth]

I picked it up yesterday at the post office since I missed the delivery driver. And to my surprise I didn't have to pay anything extra. No brokerage fee or sales tax or duty.

I didn't get around to check it in the sun yesterday and today there is no sun to check it in. Will have to wait till tomorrow.

I agree with delta on the cover. It really does have a nice soft feel to it. I noticed that the stitching of the part covering the front of the reader is brown and the rest is gold. The reader does slide easily out at the top so hopefully this will be corrected in future versions. A magnetic clasp would also be nicer than velcro.

I checked the dictionary before upgrading to 1.3 and it was absolutely useless but after the upgrade it worked great.

The screen looks really really nice.

I haven't played much with it yet, just checking out a few things. And I still have to finish a book I loaned from the library.

So far I'm loving it.

[Delta Tango]

aruangra,
The applications in first two links do not work at all. The graph area is black and no data is shown.

On http://www.schrenk.com/js/5.htm all five examples work fine, just like they do on a PC, however, the refresh rate of e-ink screen is much lower than LCD so it doesn't look as nice.


(BTW, the ad on top is also animated and it's animated on Boox as well)

Same thing with the last web page, animations work, but since refresh rate is slow, you only get to see some of the frames of animation, and sometimes not entire frame, just part of it.

I tried taking screenshots of every page, but the function seems to be a bit buggy.