Onyx Boox Note 10.3 is available Now

[mdp]

Originally Posted by flibber

Problem 3) Battery life and/or network connection. While using the device you have the option for the wifi to "timeout" after a set time. I didn't do loads of experimentation on this but I found quickly that if you picked up and started using the note after the network had timed out, it wouldn't kick back in again until you clicked on the wifi??? So after this annoyance I set the wifi to "never timeout". This it seems was a big mistake. After a full charged, I used the note lightly for an hour or two and had about 80% battery left when I clicked to standby. The next morning the battry was flat. Now you may think I have hundreds of emails or loads of onedrive documents. I don't during the time the battery flattened itself, I had 4 emails and no onedrive documents updated. I wasn't impressed to say the least

Keep the radios on only when you use them. It does not matter if you do traffic or just leave it on: they drain battery.
And services do too even when on standby, so we normally have the tablet turn itself off after some timeout (I have seen paradigm Google tablets suffer the same).

[mdp]

Originally Posted by orebmur

out of sync with what an e-reader actually provides

Just like two posts above: if you keep realistic and are willing to compromise, there is no (or little) problem.

Of course I, for one, am more comfortable working with e.g. OLED screens... In the dark!

[mdp]

Originally Posted by flibber

However, at this price I expect premium performance, not lag and buggy issues like a cheap tablet

Have you checked how much the E-Ink screen alone impacts on the whole cost? At 550$, the Note is a 200$ tablet with a 350$ screen...

[sogaiu]

Originally Posted by downeaster59

To root with Magisk, you need either (a) a custom recovery or (b) a stock boot image dump, and the ability to install a patched boot image via fastboot or ODIN.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/app...mless-t3473445

(a) No custom recovery exists (yet) for the Note.

(b) Need to get fastboot working with the Note first. Isn't ODIN designed for Samsung devices?

This is why I didn't go that route. Maybe someone else can figure out how to install Magisk on the Note.

Thanks for this info. May be Booxtor can get this working once he is not swamped

(On a side note, yes, I believe ODIN is for Samsung devices -- I'm not terribly excited about using it for reasons I won't go into here. There is an ODIN alternative that can be built from source though, so I wouldn't be surprised if that could be used for relevant cases.)

[citytrader]

Originally Posted by mdp

Er, no, not really. You can use them for multimedia. Just don't expect Imax.

I don't agree with you and I have plenty of different tablets and this is not a multimedia device. Like orebmur wrote, people is confusing the use of this device.

[citytrader]

Originally Posted by mdp

Keep the radios on only when you use them. It does not matter if you do traffic or just leave it on: they drain battery.

I did a test on my Note and the drain of Wifi is a bit less than 6% per hour in idle, my cell phone is mostly zero per hour.

The wifi chipset that comes with the Note is crappy or the drivers are crappy.

[sogaiu]

At least for the Max 2, my impression so far has been that keeping wifi on does drain the battery faster than without it.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by sogaiu

At least for the Max 2, my impression so far has been that keeping wifi on does drain the battery faster than without it.

That has been my experience with all mobile devices, which is why I usually have wifi turned off unless I actually need it.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by citytrader

I don't agree with you and I have plenty of different tablets and this is not a multimedia device. Like orebmur wrote, people is confusing the use of this device.

That's probably because the concept of "being a multimedia device" makes no sense.
Yes, I also did """multimedia""" on a plethora of devices before somebody (annoyingly) threw the term in the scene.
I can play audio and video. And sometimes I need it, and I can do it well enough, and I could not on all other devices because of the environment - I would not get to the result with a Samsung etc.

And the same mistake is in defining "a use" of the device. It can do things, but it does them of course with its contextual definitions (from EPD to Onyx), that of course imply limitations, which are not at all surprising. I do not see why I should be making any confusion.

[Waiting4somethin]

I use my Boox n96ml+ for browsing (slower cpu and less ram than the Note)

My experience is that eink is okay but I have to use a2 mode and the right browser (i use opera mini beta), so I dont get screen flashes afrer scrolling. The screen must still be refreshed manually when changing page sometimes, but its not as interuptive. Using a BT touchpad means there is no flashing; yet to try a mouse.

I think the main compromise is that I cant skim as quickly for information and slowness in selecting things. I have eye strain with lit screens like my ipad, so I can accept slower speed as long as it's consistent. Web page text displays fine, and I can still see the css and images well enough, i also dont mind watching videos.

[flibber]

Just to address some of the issues raise in response to my mini review.

Amazon: I am in the UK. It was on Amazon UK last weekend, and also it was still tere in the middle of the week when I returned it. However I notice it is currerntly delisted.

MS Office Android: I have no issues using MS office on android and the Boox. They both worked the same (obviously except for onenote) it was the zooming and scrolling that was the issue. This was the same on most apps.

Battery/Wifi: I don't accept the life of the battery on the boox. I have a cheap £99 android phone that I can leave the entire weekend on standby while connected to 4g & wifi without issue. I suspect they give you a wifi timeout setting because they already know wifi standby drain is an issue and that is a easy fix?

$350 screen on a $200 tablet: I fully appriciate the price of the screen but the Boox acts like a $350 screen on a $50 Tablet. If they really have got decent spec hardware inside this thing then they need to sort the firmware ASAP.

Not using the boox for what it is meant for: Well, from what i see Boox are selling this product as a android 6 device with full play store capability. I do not see them defining what it should be used for. You cannot really sell a device with the capability to install anything from the play store and then start claiming that you shouldn't?
Besides... one of the main issues with the boox is its built in note taking App... something they made themselves. Even if I didn't install a thing from the play store and I kept the wifi permently turned off, I would still be dissappointed with the implementation and performance of the native features.

I think the main issue is understanding what this device is supposed to be? Some on here are almost suggesting that this is a glorified kindle in which you are only supposed to use it to read books, add a few notes and occassionally browse the web. If that is the case, what exactly differs this from previous products... and why give it full play store access? If it only has a handfull of apps that you are supposed to use, then you should restrict them and/or list them.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Waiting4somethin

I use my Boox n96ml+ for browsing (slower cpu and less ram than the Note)
...
I think the main compromise is that I cant skim as quickly for information and slowness in selecting things

The raw power gain is quite high (i.MX6SL to RK3288), perception varies.

Quick information retrieval - the perception of being productive -, is restored, I have seen, with monitor use in a well set environment. This cuts off the problem of the Android layer, which being made for mobility remains a compromise in productivity (though you may find in Android applications that individually integrate what you may find on the desktop). Then, the loss in operation - here given by display latencies - is reduced.

I am still to really exploit the Max2 in its Android side, to compare it to traditional devices. What I perceive as a slowing factor is a dumb responsiveness of the touch layer: not all of the taps are registered (which by the way gives a distorted idea of the device being slow as a processor, while in fact there is a fault in the input components...).

[mdp]

Originally Posted by flibber

Battery/Wifi: I don't accept the life of the battery on the boox. I have a cheap £99 android phone that I can leave the entire weekend on standby while connected to 4g & wifi without issue

I have a flagship phone: with 4g and GPS on, the original battery would only last a few hours.
This other flagship tablet of mine from a prominent producer has a very conservative battery life on standby - I never turn it off, it may last months unused; this dwarvens the related engineering aspect of that other tablet of mine which should be a paradigm produced under the care and signature of Google, and which on standby and airplane mode, latest firmware, loses full battery charge in a few days. Onyx devices are known for preferring being off more than on standby - this, in a very varied scenario of Android implementations.

Originally Posted by flibber

$350 screen on a $200 tablet: I fully appriciate the price of the screen but the Boox acts like a $350 screen on a $50 Tablet. If they really have got decent spec hardware inside this thing then they need to sort the firmware ASAP

I understand what you mean, and in some areas I concur. If you consider my previous post, you may for example conclude that "they went really expensive on the display and really cheap on the capacitive layer overlain" - not all of the touches appear registered (wherever is the fault).

In fact, on a similar regard, I wrote directly to Onyx in the BBS, about the forthcoming "Nova" lacking at least buttons and audio jack:

> The main point is: if you are publishing an attractive device, why do not you publish it with all features, so that you do not have users that go “Oh, unfortunately it is missing an important detail, I will pass”?

The same applies to components in general.

The software quality is slowly increasing.

Originally Posted by flibber

Not using the boox for what it is meant for: Well, from what i see Boox are selling this product as a android 6 device with full play store capability. I do not see them defining what it should be used for. You cannot really sell a device with the capability to install anything from the play store and then start claiming that you shouldn't?
Besides... one of the main issues with the boox is its built in note taking App... something they made themselves. Even if I didn't install a thing from the play store and I kept the wifi permently turned off, I would still be dissappointed with the implementation and performance of the native features

And all of that is correct and logical. In fact, of course you should, but experience varies and also does acceptance.

Originally Posted by flibber

I think the main issue is understanding what this device is supposed to be? [...] If it only has a handfull of apps that you are supposed to use,

Why should there be any problem in understanding what it is: it is a family of devices that offers both a number of embedded specialized native applications, with varying results, and the flexibility of installing third party ones, with varying results. The user is expected to decide if the experience is good enough for him - as you did.

I think the goal is excellent. The results are realistic.

[citytrader]

The cpu of this device has the same power of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, the problem is the display that has not good refresh rates and is not responsive to the touches as it should be and the pen is a joke, this device can not be used to take notes with the lag it has.

Because of the limitations the device has till now, I see it use as a bigger Kobo Aura One replacement and I bought it with that in mind with the added value of browsing the web news, something impossible with the Kobo.
If Onyx does not have the resources to improve the firmware, they should make the firmware open source and let the community work on it, the same for the applications, they should explain how can we modify them to make them optimised for this device.
The idea of having Android is fine but when you start getting lot of image retention (check Total Commander) and the unresponsiveness of the touches (with the pen is much move responsive) you start asking questions like if the firmware was bad developed or incomplete or this device has real issues and for this they don't make open source or the screen has real issues when touched?

I sent an email to support yesterday and I had no answer yet because sometimes the device remains in A2 with some applications.

For the use I do, I'm ok for the device, but it could be way better.

[Randy11]

Originally Posted by orebmur

It supposedly already is - if you were only using it for what it is designed for.

It definitely is a specialized e-reader and not the all purpose computing device everybody appears to be confusing it with.

Apparently, people here are mainly looking for an all purpose tablet without the eye strain, but not for an e-reader.
These expectations are quite a bit out of sync with what an e-reader actually provides.

it's my opinion too.

Yes, the device's price is high, some function exists (WEB, video, APK), but it's an e-reader, mainly make to read.

I'm now focused on the softwares to read : NeoReader2 and Librera. Taking notes is useful. And for the videos, I confirm the full HD is impossible, but for some WEB courses is sufficient.