If you want to have something that you never had, start doing what you never did.Richard Bach, writer
Over the past couple of years, e-books have again begun to gain popularity among book lovers, and this happened just as quickly as in their time with the disappearance of readers from the everyday life of the majority. Perhaps it would continue to this day, however, manufacturers could interest readers with new technologies that were previously inaccessible to all readers. One of the industry innovators can safely be called the ONYX BOOX brand, represented in Russia by the company MakTsentr, which volunteered to confirm its title with an unusual niche, but no less interesting device -
ONYX BOOX MAX 2 .
For the first time about this new product it became known at the end of last year, and in January ONYX BOOX took MAX 2 to the CES-2018 exhibition, where it demonstrated the reader’s capabilities (can you call it that?) In all its glory. Now, when the device’s sales have officially begun, you can get to know him better, because there are a lot of questions for such a device.
What you immediately notice is the differences in the new generation MAX from the previous one (yes, if there are numbers in the naming, it is logical to assume that our hero had a predecessor). Some could skip ONYX BOOX MAX, as it was more a niche device for professionals. In the new iteration of their product, the manufacturer listened to the wishes of users and decided to do everything in one fell swoop: added a high-resolution display with a double (!) Sensor, updated the operating system to Android 6.0 (for the world of readers, this is very cool), used SNOW Field technology and .. .HDMI input. Yes, this is the first device in the world for reading electronic books that can be used as a primary or secondary monitor.
About how you can turn the reader into a monitor, we will tell later, while I want to pay attention to the display. One of the drawbacks of the ONYX BOOX MAX was called an induction sensor - the display did not react to finger or finger presses, it was necessary to work only with a stylus. In the new generation, the approach to the screen has been radically revised: a capacitive multi-touch sensor has been added to the WACOM induction sensor with 2048 degrees of depression. This means that now it is not at all necessary to reach for the stylus every time, you can open the application or do something on the screen with your finger.
Dual touch control is provided by two sensor layers. A capacitive layer is located above the surface of the ONYX BOOX MAX 2 screen that allows you to scroll through books and scale documents with the intuitive movements of two fingers. And already under the E Ink-panel there was a place for the WACOM sensor layer to make notes or sketches using the stylus.
The display itself with a diagonal of 13.3 inches has a resolution of 1650 x 2200 pixels with a density of 207 dots per inch and is made using advanced technology E Ink Mobius Carta.
A distinctive feature of this screen is its maximum similarity with the paper counterpart (technology is not for nothing called "electronic paper"), as well as a plastic substrate and less weight. The plastic substrate has at least two advantages over the traditional glass - the screen becomes not only lighter, but also less fragile, and the reading is made almost indistinguishable from a regular paper page. Plus karma can be given for energy saving, the display consumes energy only when changing the image.
By the way, we noticed that ONYX BOOX is gradually leaving the names of devices in the style of famous historical personalities (Cleopatra, Monte Cristo, Darwin, Chronos) and gives its readers more concise names with a hint of key functions. In the case of MAX 2, everything is clear - the name clearly illustrates the giant screen sizes of the device; and in ONYX BOOX NOTE (it was shown along with MAX 2 at CEA 2018), the emphasis was apparently made on the ability to use the reader as a notebook for notes. But still I want to believe that it will not be completely to abandon the original names of ONYX BOOX, because it is always nice when they put a meaning in the name of the device, and not just give it a name from a random set of letters and numbers.
But let's take a closer look at what is the ONYX BOOX MAX 2.
ONYX BOOX MAX 2 Specifications
Display
| touch, 13.3 ", E Ink Mobius Carta, 1650 × 2200 pixels, 16 grayscale, density 207 ppi
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Sensor type
| Capacitive (multi-touch enabled); induction (WACOM with support for determining 2048 degrees of depression)
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operating system
| Android 6.0
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Battery
| Lithium-polymer, capacity 4100 mAh
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CPU
| 4-core 1.6 GHz
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RAM
| 2 GB
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Internal memory
| 32 GB
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Wired connection
| USB 2.0 / HDMI
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Audio
| 3.5 mm, built-in speaker, microphone
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Supported Formats
| TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, FB3, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, PDB, DOC, EPUB, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, PDF, DjVu, MP3, WAV
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Wireless connection
| Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.0
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Dimensions
| 325 × 237 × 7.5 mm
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Weight
| 550 g
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Contents of delivery
The box with the device looks impressive, largely because of its size, but at the same time it is rather thin - the manufacturer placed the package compactly. On the front of the box, the reader itself is depicted with a stylus and a photo where the device is used as a monitor (the accent is immediately visible), the main technical characteristics are placed at the back.
Under the box is just a triumph of minimalism - the device itself is in a felt case, and under it is a stylus, a micro USB cable for charging, an HDMI cable and documentation. For each element of the set has its own notch, so that nothing sticks out. This approach to organizing a place is much more efficient than placing all the components together, but not always the manufacturers have the opportunity to use it. Here, the device itself is big, so it is logical to “grow” along, rather than up.
The cover is made very high quality and made of a material very similar to felt. In general, this is not even a case anymore, but a folder, it is not for nothing that it has several compartments: you can put the device itself in one, and a number of documents (even a macbook can fit).
Appearance
With the design, like all ONYX BOOX readers, everything is in order, and there is nothing to complain about. The frames around the display are not too thick and are made specifically so that the device can be held in the hands and not accidentally fall on the screen with your fingers. The case is made of metal and very light: when you first see this “tablet”, it seems that it will weigh like a MacBook Air. But no - in fact only 550 g.
The manufacturer has placed all the controls and connectors on the bottom, where you can find a micro USB port for charging, a 3.5 mm audio jack, an HDMI port and a power button. In the last built-in indicator light, which lights up in different colors depending on the task being performed. If the device is connected via USB, the red light is on, in normal operation it is blue. Yes, they removed the slot for microSD memory cards, considering that 32 GB of internal memory will be enough (compared to 8 GB for sure).
In the lower left corner of the logo of the manufacturer, next to which fit four buttons: "Menu", two buttons that are responsible for turning the pages when reading, and "Back." There are no complaints about the location of the buttons (as with the same “Cleopatra”), placing them in this place was clearly a better solution than on the sides, as in most other ONYX BOOX readers. A device of this size you are unlikely to hold with one hand.
It should immediately be said that this device is not suitable for reading lying on a bed before bedtime - it is best to use it standing or sitting. The best solution is to hold the MAX 2 with two hands, with the thumb of your left hand you can comfortably reach the control buttons.
Top right is the label with the logo where you can put the stylus. The stylus itself looks more like a regular pen, and this makes it even more likely that you are holding not a gadget for reading electronic books, but a sheet of paper.
On the back there is a speaker (yes, the player is already built in), which allows you to listen to music and ... even watch movies, yes. Watching a movie looks unusual due to redrawing (it’s still not a full-fledged tablet), but everything works, tracks and video files are recognized without problems.
And about the display!
We already talked about the diagonal of the screen, its resolution and dual sensor at the very beginning, but these are far from the only features of the ONYX BOOX MAX 2 screen. First, the image on the screen really looks like on a book page, be it a work of art, comics, technical documentation or sheet music. Yes, such a device is very convenient for musicians to use: notes can be seen very well, you can turn the page with one touch, and how much text is placed! When dealing with a small e-book, the page has to be turned over after 10 seconds, in this case, the reading is stretched several times.
When reading books, the page seems to be “paper” and even slightly rough, and this gives even more pleasure. In many ways, this is achieved by the absence of flickering backlight and the principle of forming an image using the “electronic ink” method. From the usual to all LCD screens that are installed in smartphones and tablets, E Ink screen type "electronic paper" differs primarily in the formation of the image. In the case of an LCD, light is emitted (using the lumen of the matrix), while images on electronic paper are formed in reflected light. This approach eliminates flicker and reduces energy consumption.
If we talk about less harm to the eyes, here, of course, wins E Ink display. The evolutionary human eye is “tuned” to the perception of reflected light. When reading from the screen emitting light (LCD), the eyes quickly get tired and begin to water, which subsequently leads to a decrease in visual acuity (just look at modern schoolchildren, many of whom wear glasses and contact lenses). And this happens because a long reading from the LCD screen leads to a decrease in the size of the pupil, a decrease in the blink rate and the appearance of “dry eye” syndrome.
Another advantage of electronic ink devices is comfortable reading in the sun. Unlike LCD displays, the “electronic paper” type screen almost does not glare and does not highlight the text, so it is visible as clearly as on plain paper. In MAX 2, this adds a high resolution of 2200 x 1650 pixels and a decent pixel density, which minimizes eye fatigue — you don’t have to look at the image.
E Ink Mobius Carta, 16 grayscale, high resolution - all this, of course, is good, but there is another important feature that migrated to MAX 2 from other ONYX BOOX readers.
Snow fieldThis is a special screen mode that can be turned on or off in the program settings for reading. Thanks to it, the number of artifacts on the E-Ink screen decreases noticeably when partly redrawing (when it’s like turning a page and you still see some of the content of the previous one). This is achieved by disabling full redrawing in activated mode. It is curious that even when working with PDF and other heavy files, artifacts are almost imperceptible.
We have already tested several ONYX BOOX e-books and cannot but note that MAX 2 is distinguished by good responsiveness, despite the low speed of updating E Ink screens as a whole.
Performance and Interface
The “heart” of the ONYX BOOX MAX 2 is a quad-core ARM processor with a 1.6 GHz operating frequency. It differs not only high performance, but also low power consumption. Needless to say, books on MAX 2 open not just quickly, but at lightning speed, textbooks with a large number of graphs, charts and heavy PDFs open a little longer. An increase in the RAM up to 2 GB also contributed. For the storage of books and documents provided 32 GB of internal memory (some of which are occupied by the system itself).
Wireless interfaces in this device are represented by Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b / g / n and Bluetooth 4.0. Wi-Fi allows you not only to work in the built-in browser and download applications from the Play Market (come on, this is after all Android), but also, for example, download dictionaries from the server in order to quickly translate words right on the go in the same Neo Reader.
It can not but rejoice that in ONYX BOOX they decided to go further and instead of the usual Android 4.0.4 readers they “rolled” on MAX 2 Android 6.0, covering it with an adapted launcher with large and clear elements for ease of use. Accordingly, the developer mode, USB debugging and other delights are included here. The first thing the user sees after switching on is the download window (only a few seconds) and the familiar inscription “Start Android”. After some time, the window is replaced by a desktop with books.
The current and recent books are displayed in the center, at the very top is the status bar with the battery charge level, active interfaces, time and the Home button, and the navigation bar at the bottom. It consists of a line with the icons "Library", "File Manager", "Applications", "Settings", "Notes" and "Browser". Let's briefly go over the main sections of the main menu.
LibraryThis section is not much different from the library in other ONYX BOOX readers. It consists of all the books available on the device - you can quickly find the desired book by searching and viewing the list or in the form of icons. Folders here you will not find - for this we go to the next section "File Manager".
File ManagerIn some cases, it is even more convenient than a library, since it supports sorting files by alphabet, name, type, size, and creation time. Giku, for example, is more familiar with working with folders than with just beautiful icons.
ApplicationsHere are both pre-installed applications, and those programs that will be downloaded from the Play Market. So, in the Email program, you can set up email, use the Calendar for planning cases, and Calculator for quick calculations. The “Music” application deserves special attention - although it is simple, but it allows you to listen to audiobooks or your favorite library without any problems (the .MP3 and .WAV formats are supported). Well, in order to somehow get distracted, you can load a not too heavy toy - you can easily play chess, but in Mortal Kombat you will probably see the inscription “KO” before the player strikes a blow (you can't get away from the redrawing).
SettingsSettings consist of five sections - “System”, “Language”, “Applications”, “Network” and “About Device”. The system settings provide the ability to change the date, change the power settings (sleep mode, time interval to auto power off, Wi-Fi auto power off), and also have a section with advanced settings - automatic opening of the last document after turning on the device, changing the number of clicks until the screen is completely updated for third-party applications, scanning settings folder «Books» and so on.
The note
The developers have not for nothing put this application on the main screen, because in the notes you can quickly record important information using the stylus. But this is not at all a familiar application like in an iPhone: for example, you can customize the working area of the program by displaying a stave or grid, depending on what is relevant for your needs. Or just make a quick sketch on an empty white box. Or insert a shape. In fact, there are so many opportunities for keeping notes difficult to find even in a third-party application, but here everything is also adapted to the stylus. A real find for editors, students, teachers, designers and musicians: everyone will find a suitable mode of operation for themselves.
BrowserBut the browser has undergone changes - now it is more like Chrome than old browsers from previous versions of Android. The browser string can be used for searching, the interface itself is familiar, and the pages load oh-so-very quickly. Go to twitter or read your favorite blog on Giktimes - yes please.
As they say, it's better to see it once, so we prepared a small video demonstrating the main features of ONYX BOOX MAX 2.
Reading
If you choose the correct position (with this screen diagonal, it is sometimes difficult), you can get real pleasure from reading. It is not necessary to turn the page every few seconds, and if there are drawings and diagrams in the textbook or document, they “unfold” on this large display, and you can consider not only the length of the ventilation duct on the house plan, but also each sign in a complex formula. The text is displayed qualitatively, no artifacts, extraneous pixels and other things. SNOW FIELD, of course, makes its contribution here, but the “electronic paper” screen itself is designed in such a way that even after a long reading the eyes do not get tired.
All major book formats are supported, so you do not need to convert 100 times. Wanted - they opened a multi-page PDF with drawings, Tolstoy's favorite work in FB2 or “pulled” your favorite book from the network library (OPDS-catalog), the presence of Wi-Fi allows you to do this.
As mentioned earlier, two applications for reading electronic books are preinstalled in MAX 2. The first (OReader) provides a comfortable reading - lines with information are placed at the top and bottom, the rest of the space (about 90%) occupies a field with text. To get access to additional settings such as the size and "fatness" of the font, change of orientation and appearance, just click in the upper right corner. Pages can be turned both with swipe and with the help of physical buttons.
As well as in other ONYX BOOX readers, we didn’t forget here about searching through the text, a quick transition to the table of contents, setting a bookmark (the same triangle) and other possibilities for comfortable reading.
OReader is ideally suited for works of art in the .fb2 format and others, but for professional literature (PDF, DjVu, and so on) it is better to use another built-in application - Neo Reader (you can select the application that opens the file by long pressing on the icon document). The interface is similar, but there are additional features that will be useful when working with complex files - changing the contrast, cropping text and, which is very convenient, quickly adding notes. This allows you to make the necessary adjustments to the same PDF as you read with the stylus.
Since professional literature is often not available in Russian, it may be necessary to translate (or interpret the meaning of a word) from English, Chinese, and other languages, and this is done in the most natural way in the Neo Reader. Simply select the desired word with the stylus and in the pop-up menu select “Dictionary”, where the translation or interpretation of the meaning of the word will appear - depending on what you need.
The presence of Android opens up additional possibilities - you can always install from Google Play with a third-party application for certain documents - from Cool Reader to the same Kindle. At the same time, the manufacturer correctly set priorities and made a separate application for artistic reading and a separate one for work, so there is hardly any need to install a third-party solution (if only for the sake of sports interest).
Stop, and where is the monitor?
This is one of the main "chips" MAX 2, so it should be considered separately, because this is the world's first e-book reader with a comfortable E Ink screen for the eyes. Everything was arranged as intuitively as possible: they connected a complete HDMI cable to a computer, launched the Monitor application in the appropriate section - voila! Just a minute ago it was a book reader, and now a monitor. Interestingly, you can work on it very comfortably, as on the LCD-analog. Yes, it will take some time to get used to, but then you feel all the delights of this unusual decision.
To install the monitor, you can either build the stand yourself or use the brand from the manufacturer - it looks stylish (though sold separately).
Of course, you will not play games on such a monitor, and it is unlikely that you can handle photos, but for working with text, MAX 2 as a monitor is very good. A real find for journalists, writers and publicists. We connected it to Mac mini, MacBook and Windows - in all cases it works as stated, no additional configuration is required. The best solution is to connect the reader as a second monitor: for example, write code on the E Ink screen (yes, this is very unusual, but convenient), and debug it on a regular monitor. Well, or read Geektimes from MAX 2. Well, or send telegrams / mail to it - so that the application window can be seen, but nothing distracts in it.
Autonomous work
The battery in the ONYX BOOX MAX 2 is set quite capacious - 4,100 mAh, although when you look at its size, it seems that the battery will be seated in a few hours. However, due to the fact that the electronic ink screen is very economical, and the hardware platform is energy efficient (plus there are various nishtyaki like automatic Wi-Fi off and going to sleep during inactive use), the battery life of this device is impressive. In the mode of "normal" use (3-4 hours of work per day) MAX 2 will work for about two weeks, in the "light" mode - up to a month. Extreme loads, such as a permanent connection to Wi-Fi and continuous operation as a monitor, are also ready for the reader, although in this case he will ask for charging by the evening (and in general it is better to connect a 5V / 2A charger, since the consumption in monitor mode will increase ).
So a tablet or reader?
To make a verdict is very difficult, because the device is multifunctional. On the one hand, this is a great "reader" and a tablet, since it has Android on board; on the other - also a monitor. It seems that ONYX BOOX should boldly start a new hybrid category of devices, because there are simply no MAX 2 analogues on the market.
The E Ink Mobius Carta screen provides comfortable reading, SNOW Field technology helps it, high resolution and pixel density, and support for 2048 stylus clicks makes the device a full-fledged tool for taking notes. Plus, the presence of a capacitive touch layer simplifies the work of multi-touch gestures.
As for the price, it surprisingly remained unchanged, despite the jumps in exchange rates and the use of the latest technologies from the manufacturer’s arsenal. As ONYX BOOX MAX once cost 59,990 rubles, and for
MAX 2 the same price tag was “rolled out”.
And this is despite the fact that the manufacturer pretty hard worked on performance, added another touch layer, technology to reduce artifacts, monitor function and many other nishtyakov. Yes, this is undoubtedly a niche device (this is partly due to the price) and, above all, a professional tool, but once you start using it, you don’t want to look at the analogs. Although someone to look at, if they simply do not have?