Immerse yourself in what is happening in the book. Review of e-book Onyx Boox Edison

I have been using the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite e-reader for a long time now. And many books have already passed through my hands, I even wrote reviews for several, but the same Kindle remained in my favorites. But then I met ONYX BOOX Edison. The unequivocal favorite, which won in the nomination of the favorite book immediately, on the first impression, and then later confirmed its title in my top. Let’s take a look at what this book can do and what’s special about it.

Technical specifications

1. Book screen diagonal 7.8″;

2. Features Screen backlight • Touch screen • Wi-Fi module • Built-in speaker • Bluetooth;

3. Screen type E Ink Carta Plus;

4. Android operating system;

5. The amount of random access memory (RAM) 3GB;

6. The amount of built-in memory 32GB;

7. Screen resolution 1872 x 1404;

8. Headphone jack No;

9. Supported file formats TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, FB3, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, PDB, EPUB, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, PDF, DjVu, MP3, WAV, CBR, CBZ ;

10. Dimensions 194 × 136.5 × 6.3 mm;

11. Weight 235 g.

Packaging and equipment

Acquaintance with the product, of course, begins with the packaging. And manufacturers who are focused on long-term respect for the buyer think about this issue just as seriously. For the reviewed book, a positive buying experience begins with the packaging. This is the same feeling when the WOW effect starts right away. The box is dense, almost wooden, white in color, a light bulb is drawn on the front side and the product model is signed. The box gives the feeling of a book, has a hard cover. On the side face there is information on the manufacturer and model.

We open the box and see how the view of the device itself opens inside.

The flaps of the box close and are fixed with the help of hidden magnets. In order to get the book, there is a satin ribbon that will easily allow you to remove the device. This approach to packaging is aesthetically pleasing and allows you to feel that an expensive thing is in your hands. This has never happened to the Kindle.

Under the book are the components of the package. The standard package includes:

1. The e-book itself;

2. User manual;

3. Warranty card;

4. Serial number sticker;

5. USB-TypeC cable for battery charging and data transfer.

Appearance

The book itself immediately pleases the eye with its cover. The cover is made of high-quality leather (rather, of course, a substitute) with an embossed image of the model’s symbol — Edison’s light bulb.

In the next two photos, let’s look at the front side of the cover in more detail. The cover material is pleasant to the touch. On the tactile side, it’s soft leather that feels nice under your fingers, but feels secure when holding the device.

I liked the thickness of the device, even considering the cover. Interfaces are placed on the bottom end:

• Two speakers on the right and left;

• Type-C connector in the center;

• To the right of the data connector and charging hole is the microphone.

The rounded edges of the book itself give several points to ease of use. On the top end there is a lock and unlock button.

Exploitation

Let’s start with the most pleasant. We open the cover. The inner layer of the cover is soft terry, protects the glass of the book from unnecessary problems. Even without power supply, the book immediately pleases with the title on the display. The name of the model and the main advantages are written. The main features of the book are:

• Screen type E Ink Carta Plus;

• Touch control;

• 2-color backlight without flickering Moon Light;

• Asahi protective glass;

• Octa-core Qualcomm processor at 1.8 GHz.

• 32GB permanent memory;

• Wi-Fi in two bands 2.4GHz and 5GHz;

• Bluetooth 5.0;

• Long battery life;

• Android 10.0;

• Metal case;

• Cover with buttons.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the elements of the book.

It is very easy to remove the cover, it is held on strong magnets, you just need to pull the book to the right. Contacts become visible.

The body of the book is metal, on the reverse side there is just a flat plane, at the bottom there is a plastic insert with model data.

The device is turned on by holding the button at the top of the case for a long time. The image on the display changes to the brand logo, then the light bulb already known to us lights up. Next, we see the inscription the device is starting and we see the launch of the OS android.

The book has an E Ink Carta Plus display with a diagonal of 7.8 inches, made using «electronic paper» technology. Reading from such a display is identical to reading from a regular book. High resolution (300 ppi) and contrast correspond to paper printing. The screen does not light up and almost does not glare in the sun, and the backlight makes it comfortable to read even in complete darkness. By increasing to 7.8 inches, it displays 68% more information than similar 6-inch reader screens. At the same time, the book is still convenient to use on trips and travels.

Management is implemented using clear and customizable gestures. Habitually called curtain access to quick settings. The library tab contains the last book you read and access to the library of books.

The book has many useful applications:

• AiriderXpro;

• email;

• neobrowser;

• WEB reading;

• Quick menu settings;

• Gallery;

• Voice recorder;

• Screensavers and calendar;

• Calculator;

• App store;

• Broadcast;

• Player;

• Dictionaries;

• Clock.

Next is the settings tab:

• Language;

• Date and time;

• Nutrition;

• networks;

• Applications;

• Account;

• Additional settings;

• System update;

• Feedback.

A cool point that distinguishes this particular model is that even screensavers in the Edison concept are thought out here.

It is convenient to use a smart button, which, when pressed, displays a list of options. Including familiar android navigation buttons

The very first thing you notice when using the ONYX BOOX Edison is the thoughtfulness of the backlight.

The reader has a built-in MOON Light 2 backlight with flicker-free color tint adjustment (Flicker-Free). Not only is it absolutely flicker-free, but it is also adjustable in terms of brightness and color warmth to the most suitable for you.

Let’s move on to the capabilities of the device.

Firstly, the interface for reading books is very convenient. With a familiar gesture with two fingers, you can increase or decrease the font. Moreover, the font size is signed on the display. You can choose the font, size, spacing, line spacing and much, much more. With a simple selection gesture, you can select a translator, copy functions, bookmark text, share via e-mail or Bluetooth, add to favorites, and listen to the text.

For the correct operation of all network functions, we need to connect to the Internet, you can look up a dictionary for the translation of a particular word or an entire phrase.

You can, as in a smartphone, view all running applications using a special button either in the notification shade or by an active point. The functions of the quick button can be customized to suit your needs.

Using the Neobrowser application, you can safely visit familiar sites and read articles and posts. Of course, it is worth considering that all images are in black and white.

In the gallery app, you can select the image albums that you have on your device. In the voice recorder application, you can take notes with your voice, and I highly recommend listening to an example recording. The quality of the microphone is decent. The calendar is also cool, you can see automatic records of your reading process today and make notes, even in text, even handwritten. Here is an example of a recording from a book recorder. The voice changes to a very pleasant one, as if the announcer is speaking.

In the screensavers section, you can choose from pre-installed screensavers or create one from your photos

There is its own application market, which is divided into categories reading, news, training, office, work. These are applications in apk format and are not particularly different from similar applications on a regular smartphone, having all the network and work functionality.

After downloading the application, you can find it in the APK folder in the file manager. The installation is standard for an android device.

In the data transfer application, you can quickly transfer information to a book or to a PC. There is a familiar standard clock application. In the settings, you can adjust the power of the book, how it will behave, the settings are more advanced than the standard android. It is possible to update the software of the book, as they say, over the air. To do this, you just need to go to the appropriate settings item.

In reading mode, you can double-click on the text, and the quick settings menu will appear. You can select night mode, add to bookmarks, highlight text, go to full screen mode, turn on auto scrolling. Particularly interesting is the reader mode, which will read a book to you with a voice. You can adjust the reading speed, as well as choose different voices. In Russian, 5 options are available, including both male and female voices. It is possible to search for text, navigate to content and view bookmarks. The speakers of the book make it possible to listen to books.

An interesting function is to broadcast the screen to other devices, if you need to transfer and show what you have on the display on the big screen of a TV or projector.

To throw information on the book, you can use the application of wireless data transfer.

This is done very easily. We open the data transfer application on the book, and on a PC or phone, enter the address that the book tells us. Or scan the QR code. For example, I have a link like this http://192.168.0.110:8083/

And there, by clicking the download button, we select the files we need, and it doesn’t matter what files, everything will go to the book, I threw both music and PDFs and archives. Everything spread and is available on the book in a second. You can immediately listen to the tracks from the data transfer application and view the PDF file. A PDF file can be easily viewed by zooming in and highlighting the desired part. Heavy book files are also not bad.

I really liked the ability to connect headphones via Bluetooth. This is done as usual on the phone and you can listen to your favorite tracks and read books at the same time, of course, this works for listening to audiobooks and in the book reader mode.

You can connect the book to a PC with a cable and transfer files just like on a memory card.

Conclusion

The ONYX BOOX Edison e-reader is a modern solution for reading books. Not only are you completely immersed in what is happening in the book, thanks to the excellent display quality, which gives the feeling of reading as if from a paper book. And for reading in the dark, the most customizable backlight is made. So you also have absolute functionality for dictionaries, translators, surfing the Internet, bookmarks, notes, player and great freedom of transferring files to and from the book. I have tried any of the supported formats. All open without problems and even heavy PDF files are easy to read. Books in FB2 archived ZIP archive, by the way, it opens instantly. You can highlight text, send quotes via Bluetooth and e-mail, mark your favorite sections of the book and just feel the maximum comfort from communicating with the device. You don’t have to charge the book often, about once a month, and the cool cover, when closed, puts it to sleep.

You can buy a reader on the official website

Or save on Yandex Market