eBook readers or eReaders, for short, have come a long way since the day of the first Kindles and Nooks. While they still retain that book-centric DNA, many of them have become more capable and adopted new functionality, from writing down notes to becoming digital notebooks and organizers. In fact, many of these eReaders have become Android tablets and phones with E Ink displays instead of LCDs and OLEDs. Of the growing number of players in this arena, Onyx BOOX stands out as one of the most prolific brands as proven by the launch of its third new device in three months, almost like the mobile phone giant Nokia that flooded the market with innumerable and indistinguishable models.
Fortunately, Onyx does have just a dozen models under its name, but that’s only if you count the ones it currently sells. There are a few that have already been taken off its shelves, even just a year or two after they launched or even less (looking at you, BOOX Tab Ultra C). It’s not unusual for some of these models to have overlapping feature sets, at which point the older one gets booted out. And that seems to be the case with the newest member of the BOOX Go family, the BOOX Go 6.
The Onyx BOOX Go 6 is basically the offspring of the BOOX Go Color 7 and the BOOX Go 10.3. With a 6-inch E Ink Carta Plus 1300 screen, it’s smaller than both, as expected of a child, making it the ultimate portable reading device. Like the BOOX Go 10.3, it has a monochrome display, which offers crisper and sharper text but at the expense of displaying any hue of color other than shades of gray. But unlike that larger “digital notebook” and more like the BOOX Go Color 7, it actually has a frontlight that makes it usable in the dark.
Those familiar with BOOX’s lineup before this would probably remember the BOOX Poke 5 which, despite the name, is also a 6-inch eReader with nearly the exact same specs except for one or two details. The biggest difference is the slightly more powerful processor (octa-core versus quad-core) and running a more updated Android 12 operating system. The latter is still old, but that’s actually the latest that Onyx has to offer.
The BOOX Go 6 is also cheaper by $20 and is a bit lighter than the Poke 5. That said, the BOOX Poke 5 was only taken off the brand’s online store recently, so it’s unsurprising that there are many disgruntled customers about this unexpected turn of events. On its own, the BOOX Go 6 does offer the company’s most portable and simplest reading experience, though it remains to be seen if that will still be true in just a few months should BOOX come out with another 6-inch or smaller device that makes this one pointless.
Fine-turning display settings per app can be overwhelming
RATINGS:
AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
EDITOR'S QUOTE:
Wrapped in a highly portable and stylish design, the BOOX Go Color 7 delivers a joyful reading experience without the distracting and sometimes confusing extra features.
Onyx BOOX is one of the more prolific E-book Reader manufacturers in the market today, always pushing the envelope of what these devices can do. It has almost a dozen models under its name, not counting discontinued ones, and every new release adds a few more features on top of the pile. While it’s good to advance the state of E-readers, sometimes one can mistake the forest for the trees and lose sight of what’s important. With the new BOOX Go line, the company is stepping back and focusing on the essentials, and while the BOOX Go 10.3 is presenting itself as a replacement for paper notebooks, the BOOX Go Color 7 is promising a return to what E-readers are meant to do: make reading pleasurable anytime, anywhere. So we pull off the shrink wrap and press the power button to see where the BOOX Go Color 7 stands in this growing sea of similar E Ink devices.
The Onyx BOOX Go Color 7 is at once both minimalist and stylish, depending on which side you’re looking at. The front has your typical asymmetrical design where one side extends beyond the screen bezel, creating not only a convenient place to hold but also a home for the physical page-turn buttons. It’s extremely bare, without even the BOOX name, making the 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 the sole focus of your attention. The glass protecting the screen sits flush with the bezels, creating a seamless and clean appearance that speaks to the maturity of this design.
Flip the device over and you have something more interesting, both for your eyes and your fingers. Eschewing the typical matte plastic cover on these devices, BOOX uses a paper-like material that adds not just texture but also improves your grip. In a way, it tries to bring back the tactile experience of holding a paper book in your hands, a small pleasure that is lost with these devices.
The BOOX Go Color 7 is hardly the thinnest nor the lightest, even among 7-inch E-readers, but it is definitely in that group. Its compact and portable design makes it a familiar face, one that makes it clear that this is a device for reading books. It just so happens to run Android, just like a tablet.
Ergonomics
While the BOOX Go 10.3 aimed for maximum thinness and minimum weight, its smaller but more colorful sibling is admittedly a bit all over the place. Compared to BOOX’s other 7-inch devices, it’s only slightly lighter but a bit thicker than the monochrome BOOX Page, but it definitely trumps the BOOX Tab Mini C in every dimension. Suffice it to say, it’s not going to break records, but it won’t break your wrist either.
The BOOX Go Color 7 is designed with ergonomics at its core, and not just because it’s small and light. That textured back cover does more than just make the E-reader look good, it also adds to its grippiness. You definitely won’t have to worry too much about the device slipping off your hand, nor do you even have to fret about leaving greasy fingerprints on the paper-like material.
The small E-reader is also designed for one-handed use, even for turning pages. The physical buttons, or button rather, are positioned precisely where you’d rest your thumb, so you easily press down either end to move forward or backward. It doesn’t even care if you’re right-handed or left-handed, because thanks to its support for auto-rotation, the buttons know which way is up all the time. The one design gripe we have is that the page-turn button is just a single, indistinguishable bar with no gap to separate the two functions. You’ll find yourself losing a few precious seconds either trying to feel for which end is which or, more likely, looking at the button to make sure you’re hitting the right half.
Performance
Anyone familiar with the BOOX family of devices pretty much knows its DNA. Every single one at this point is practically an Android device decked with an E Ink panel, not the custom operating systems used by Kindles and Kobos. Even better, it actually has Google Play support already built-in, which means you have access to almost all Android apps available, including those that you can sideload on your own.
Of course, you’ll have to set your expectations correctly, despite all the potential that the platform has. This is not a powerful Android device, not with an aging Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor and just 4GB of RAM. It’s enough to run a few apps, especially those related to reading or even browsing the Web, but it won’t be as fluid an experience, especially with the E Ink display, which we’ll get to later. There’s 64GB of onboard storage that you can expand up to 1TB with a microSD card. Definitely plenty of room for books and even audio files or recordings.
The killer feature is, of course, the E Ink Kaleido 3 screen, which also separates the BOOX Go Color 7 from the almost identical BOOX Page. This former supports 4,096 colors while the latter is just different shades of black and white. On top of this, BOOX adds its own technologies to tweak the performance of the E Ink panel, like introducing different refresh modes to make you choose between quality and speed, among other things. Suffice it to say, Onyx’s expertise in this area clearly shows how clear, crisp, and colorful the screen can be. Plain black and white text renders at 300ppi and is a joy to read, while colored content is halved at 150ppi, which is typical for this display. Nonetheless, reading comics and magazines is still comfortable and meaningful, even with muted tones.
The BOOX Go Color 7 brings back a bit of sanity by having front lighting and configurable light temperature, something that the BOOX Go 10.3 removed for the sake of thinness. This means you can easily read with the device at night, in the dark, or in any low-light situation, whenever and wherever you feel the urge to knock a few pages off your reading list. Onyx, however, did exclude a few features to keep the product light not only in weight but also in cost. There is no Wacom digitizer for scribbling notes, for example. It also doesn’t feature the company’s famed BOOX Super Refresh or BSR, a technology that significantly reduces ghosting at the expense of battery life. Otherwise, the E-reader’s 2,300mAh battery wouldn’t last the days that it did.
At the end of the day, the Onyx BOOX Go Color 7 is hyper-focused on doing only one thing and one thing well: be an enjoyable E-book Reader, whether that’s a plain-text book or a colorful magazine. It doesn’t distract you with features only tangential to that activity, like taking notes, making sketches, or even watching videos. While you can install almost any Android app under the sun, the hardware limitations actually serve to dissuade you from subverting the product’s spirit and purpose. And when it comes to that, the BOOX Go Color 7 is definitely one of the best choices in the market today.
Sustainability
Onyx is a company that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. The number of devices it has launched is quite significant, but that also means the amount of material waste that comes from these devices is substantial as well. Fortunately, these devices are made for long-term use, unlike phones and tablets which still have a very high turnover. That only delays the inevitable, however, so we’re still looking forward to the day that the company starts switching to more sustainable materials or recycled plastics for its products.
Although Onyx does make devices with longevity in mind, the same can’t be said for the version of Android they use. The BOOX Go duo, for example, uses a nearly three-year-old Android 12, and most of its products were using Android 11 before that. Granted, E-readers aren’t exactly known for keeping up with the latest software fads, but those don’t run Android either. What this means is that not only are BOOX devices behind in terms of potentially useful features and optimizations, they’re also lagging in security patches and bug fixes that would protect users from digital harm.
Value
The Onyx BOOX Go Color 7 is a delightful little device designed to make reading enjoyable anywhere you are. It has a solid set of capabilities that focus on this core use case and isn’t encumbered by extraneous features, though it still leaves the door wide open for other experiences. On its own, it is quite a competitive product, especially with a $249.99 tag, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum and, in a way, even competes with BOOX’s other 7-inch readers. Fortunately, the distinction between them is quite clear, especially when it comes to their price tag.
Closest to it is the BOOX Page, to the point that it could have very well been called the BOOX Page Color. They share many things in common but are ultimately separated by color or the lack of it. If all you need is a plain E-book reader and don’t mind reading colored content in shades of gray, the BOOX Page actually offers a sharper screen and a slightly more affordable $219.99 price tag. On the opposite side stands the BOOX Tab Mini C, which is the portable productivity partner. It has all the bells and whistles, including a stylus, but also a heavier figure and a heavier cost at $399.99. If all you really want to do is read and enjoy it in color, then you can’t go wrong with the BOOX Go Color 7.
Verdict
BOOX’s new Go devices are quite bold, but not because they’re debuting something new and exciting. On the contrary, their audacity comes from going in the completely opposite direction, shedding off the baggage that they’ve accumulated over the years. It’s not like all those powerful features are bad, just that they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. And for those who truly love sneaking in a page or two during unexpected moments of freedom, the portability and clarity that the Onyx BOOX Go Color 7 brings could very well be what they need.
The BOOX Go 10.3 brings a refreshing change in pace that focuses on comfort and enjoyment for both reading and note-taking, but be sure to read the fine print to know what you'll be getting for that super slim profile.
E-book Readers or E-readers have come a long way since the earliest days of the Amazon Kindle, and much of the innovation in that space can perhaps be credited to companies like Onyx BOOX. The brand has been aggressive in pushing new technologies and designs, from E-readers that are actually Android tablets in disguise to bringing a pinch of color to this predominantly monochrome world. In fact, it might have gotten too aggressive with almost a dozen models under its belt. The competition is tough, of course, but it’s also easy to lose sight of the gold in the heat of the race. It seems that BOOX took a step back to take stock of where it is now and out of that introspection came out what is probably the thinnest E-reader or even tablet in the market. But what sacrifices did the Onyx BOOX Go 10.3 make to reach that achievement? We give it a spin to give you that answer.
The first thing you’ll notice about the BOOX Go 10.3 will naturally be its thickness or rather its lack of it. At only 4.5mm, it is undeniably the thinnest E Ink device in the market, at least in the 10-inch or larger category. It’s probably not a coincidence that Onyx launched this reading and note-taking wonder a little after the launch of the thinnest iPads ever, so drawing parallels isn’t exactly that difficult. For a device category that was once characterized by bulky chassis and cheap plastic, such a slim and sleek entry is a breath of fresh air.
The BOOX Go 10.3’s beauty goes beyond its remarkable (no pun intended) profile, however. It carries a minimalist and clean aesthetic that makes sure your focus is on the page and not on any extraneous decoration around it. The 10.3-inch screen is surrounded by an admittedly thick bezel, but its light gray tone makes it look less offensive as it almost blends with the white theme of the UI. The left side of the device has a white border, mimicking the margin of a notebook or the spine of a book, and is one of only two places you will see the BOOX branding.
Flip the device over and you will see a design that BOOX has never tried before. Instead of a matte metal or plastic surface, you get something akin to fabric or faux leather, definitely a much-welcome stylish detail. The metal-like strip that runs down the side, however, is an accent that will probably prove to be a bit controversial. It’s not that bad a design, just a little distracting both for the eyes as well as the fingers that will be touching that part.
All in all, there’s a very good reason for all the buzz surrounding the BOOX Go 10.3. Its mind-blowing thinness is definitely one, but its simple yet beautiful design also elevates its character even among its other BOOX siblings. And it’s definitely not just for show, because that slimness does have other usability implications as well.
Ergonomics
The Onyx BOOX Go 10.3 isn’t just incredibly thin, it’s also extra light as well at only 365g (0.8 lbs). OK, that’s not exactly the lightest figure, but it is when you put it side-by-side with other 10-inch E-readers, let alone 10-inch tablets. That’s already enough for bragging rights, but it also has an important consequence: it’s comfortable to hold up for long periods of time.
Unlike desktops and laptops and even some tablets, you often hold E-readers while using them, whether you’re sitting back or lying down in bed. With a typical 10-inch screen, your hand and your arm are bound to tire out quickly, but not so with such a lightweight device. It also helps that the BOOX Go 10.3’s textured back helps improve the grip so you can hold it with confidence for longer periods of time. Of course, smaller and lighter BOOX readers do exist, but you’ll miss out on some features like an expansive screen or note-taking.
It bears noting here that the stylus that comes with the device is also designed for better ergonomics. This special version of the Onyx BOOX Pen2 Plus has vertical ridges on its barrel for a better hold, but even the “vanilla” design of the stylus has a faceted design that makes it easier to grip like a traditional wooden pencil. Considering writing down notes or even sketching is the secondary purpose of this slate, any improvement in the pen’s ergonomics goes a long way in making that a more enjoyable experience.
Performance
Given the thinness of the BOOX Go 10.3, you’ll be forgiven for wondering if there’s any catch to that impressive design. You’d be right, of course, since there’s only so much you can cram inside a very cramped space. Onyx naturally had to drop a few things from its usual repertoire, but it didn’t do so willy-nilly. It made a conscientious effort to only cut off features that won’t be essential to reading and writing enjoyment, except for one rather controversial thing.
There is no front light, or what other brands would call a glowlight, which sounds like a rather critical flaw at first brush. It means you won’t be able to read in the dark without some external light, but even some low-light situations can prove to be challenging given the nature of E Ink screens. That said, the removal of built-in lighting does also have some advantages, and not just for the sake of making the tablet super-thin.
Having no front light means there is one less layer in between the E Ink panel and the protective glass, so there is barely any gap that could diffuse and blur the content being shown. In other words, text on the BOOX Go 10.3 looks extra sharp and crisp, which means they’re also easier on the eyes. The same principle holds for the lack of color support since the device uses the E Ink Carta Plus rather than the now-popular Kaleido 3, which removes yet another layer of interference. Yes, you give up seeing a limited number of colors, but in exchange, you get one of the best reading experiences in the market, at least with sufficient lighting.
This “gapless” display also has some bearing on the second thing that the BOOX Go 10.3 is great at: note-taking and even a bit of sketching. Thanks to a more direct interaction with the panel and Wacom digitizer, there is very little lag or parallax when writing on the screen. There’s still a bit, given the nature of E Ink displays, but it’s almost unnoticeable except to well-trained eyes. The texture of the screen, paired with the nib of the stylus, also produces this scratchy sound that makes it really feel like you’re writing on paper. If you’re the type who loves to write by hand, you’ll definitely love the device’s writing experience, along with some of the apps and features that support it. In fact, Onyx itself calls the BOOX Go 10.3 an “E-paper Notepad” to emphasize this use case and, in a way, temper the expectations of reading aficionados.
With how thin the device is, it’s probably more impressive how much BOOX was able to cram inside than how much it left out. It’s still a true Android device, running on an 8-core processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It even has some decent-sounding speakers and a mic, though you’ll probably find few uses for those outside of recording and playing back lectures and talks. There’s a large 3,700mAh battery that’s going to last you days if not weeks, considering there will be no lights or colors to drain it quickly. Unfortunately, it does leave out the microSD card slot, so you’ll have to be smarter about the apps you install or the books you save on the device.
The BOOX Go 10.3 is clearly not your average E-reader, not just from its looks but also from the way it works. With a 300ppi pixel density, it has one of the sharpest E Ink displays in the market rivaled only by the 10-inch Amazon Kindle Scribe. The lack of front light and color is responsible for that feat, but it will also be a deal-breaker for many E-reader fans. Suffice it to say, it won’t be for everyone.
Sustainability
As mentioned earlier, Onyx has been making a rather aggressive push in the E-reader market, bringing out new products regularly. For better or worse, that also means it is also contributing to the growing volume of material waste from production as well as carbon emissions. Thankfully, it designs its devices for longevity, and some even use more sustainable materials like aluminum, but the overall situation isn’t looking too positive as far as eco-friendliness is concerned. As the company grows, we hope that it will also shift its focus on such issues to help make every device not only enjoyable but also a guilt-free purchase as well.
Value
The Onyx BOOX Go 10.3 definitely turned heads and raised eyebrows with its super slim design and, consequently, its lack of a front light. It’s definitely a unique design, even among other BOOX products, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum either. Despite its distinctiveness, it actually aims for a rather specific market known to many E-reader fans, a market currently dominated by the Remarkable 2 and the Supernote A5 X. These 10-inch devices, while more than capable of displaying e-Books, are geared more as paper notebook replacements than plain E-readers.
That’s pretty much the same proposition that the BOOX Go 10.3 is making but with a twist. It’s still a BOOX device, which means having most of the features that define the brand, including full Google Play support. This immediately takes it beyond just being an e-Paper Notepad slash E-reader into almost anything you want it to become, at least within the limits of an E Ink display that doesn’t have any lighting whatsoever. For avid note-takers who also happen to love reading plain-text books on large screens, that $379.99 price tag might not look so bad after all.
Verdict
Even with the prevalence of computers and smartphones, there is still a strong culture that extols the benefits of writing things down by hand. But while paper notebooks and layouts have gained a cult following, there are many who consider digital solutions to still be more efficient and, in the long run, less expensive. The Onyx BOOX Go 10.3 is designed for such people, trying to recreate the experience of writing on paper but with a stylus. And just like paper, it doesn’t have a light of its own, which may make it sound less convincing as an E-reader. It’s admittedly still a niche market, but for those squarely living in it, the BOOX Go 10.3 offers a striking and slim design focused just on the essentials, no more, no less.
It seems that the Microsoft Duo dream, and that of the Courier concept before it, is pretty much dead in the water. While the idea looked tantalizing, execution left much to be desired, especially when it came to using a mobile platform such as Android. A tech giant’s failure, however, never stopped anyone from dreaming up other designs, as can be seen in some of the dual-screen Windows laptops being sold by the likes of ASUS and Lenovo. Of course, those are large and expensive devices that don’t capture the flexibility and agility of earlier concepts. Unsurprisingly, someone is trying to bring that idea to life again, this time with a combination that somewhat makes sense, if only the implementation does as well.
Designer: Bluegen
To be clear, this isn’t the first device that put a regular colored LCD screen and a monochrome E Ink display side-by-side. Ever the bold explorer, Lenovo launched the Windows-powered Yoga Book C930 half a decade ago, and the fact that it isn’t as widely known is probably proof of how popular the design was. To be fair, the idea had merit on its own, combining a colorful and vibrant screen with an eye-friendly and battery-efficient display to have the best of both worlds.
Lenovo Yoga Book C930
That’s the same proposition that the OKPad is making but on a smaller scale and a significantly lower price point. With an 8.9-inch IPS LCD screen paired with a 7.8-inch E Ink screen, it’s aiming for portability and convenience more than power and performance. It’s more like a sidekick than a main mobile device, useful for taking notes, typing out quick documents, or even giving a business presentation off-site.
There are, however, some details that make the OKPad a little less convincing. The aluminum alloy shell does have some aesthetic appeal, but the large bezels around both screens make it look more like a prototype or a blast from the past. There is also some confusion about the exact specs of the device, but it sounds like a mish-mash of modern hardware like USB-C and Wi-Fi 5 as well as an unidentified Snapdragon processor that might be from 2018 or earlier. And then there’s the fact that it’s running Android 10, a version that’s almost ancient by now, both in terms of features and, more importantly, security updates.
Admittedly, the OKPad concept is quite intriguing, and for people who love to read and take quick notes on the go, it does offer the best of both worlds of regular Android tablets and E Ink readers. There might be some concerns about apps, not to mention the uncertainty of a crowdfunded device, but at its price point, it’s almost too tempting not to take the risk. Then again, there are now E Ink readers with colored screens, more powerful hardware, and more recent Android versions, so those two worlds have already been bridged in some other way as well.
Samsung just unveiled its newest batch of wearables, which finally includes the much-awaited Galaxy Ring, so there is naturally some questions again on the significance of such devices. Smartwatches, in particular, have been around for a few years now, but not everyone is sold on the value they bring to our modern lives, especially those who are particularly fond of analog timepieces. It doesn’t have to be an either-or situation when it is possible to make designs that can cater to the different preferences of different people. This hybrid smartwatch concept, for example, doesn’t exactly go the way of classic mechanical watches but still offers enough good things from both worlds to create a design that tries to capture the essence of the moment.
Designer: Ravisankar R
Hybrid smartwatches have been around for a while now as well, though they haven’t gained as much market traction as either pure smartwatches or pure mechanical watches. In theory, this kind of design adds some of the key experiences of smartwatches, like activity tracking and even notifications, while planting its feet purely in the analog realm when it comes to the watch itself. Most of the time, the electronics are shoved off the watch straps or are invisible to the wearer. On rare occasions, a transparent display is overlaid on the watch’s glass, letting the user have a complete view of both faces.
Ksana takes a slightly different approach by making the electronic display completely visible but shrinks it down to a smaller circle that covers only the middle section of the watch. The more interesting detail here is that it uses E Ink display technology rather than the typical LCD or OLED screens on smartwatches. Not only is it more battery-efficient, it also ensures that it displays only essential information, without the distractions of animated graphics and colors.
Beneath that screen is a more typical analog watch with hands driven by mechanical movements. The seconds hand is noted to be quite special in that it glows in the dark to make the watch more usable at night, especially considering E Ink displays don’t give off lights of their own. The smooth and graceful glide of the dials contrasts with the almost frantic imagery of smartwatches, focusing more on the importance of being in the moment rather than stressing over your next appointment.
Ksana doesn’t go for the classic wristwatch aesthetic and adopts a design that’s closer to conventional smartwatches with sportier looks. That’s not to say it doesn’t go for premium materials, like lightweight yet robust aluminum for the clock body, sapphire glass for the protective cover, and recycled materials for the straps. In a way, Ksana is both exceptional and conventional at the same time, bridging times and themes into a single design that helps you focus on what’s essential here and now.
Samsung is a tech giant with its hands in many industries, but one of its biggest businesses is in making displays. These cover anything from TVs to laptops to smartphones to signage, supporting a variety of display technologies like LCD, LED, and everything in between. One kind of technology it has barely touched, however, is Electronic Paper Displays or EPDs, the same kind of eye-friendly, battery-efficient screens found on eBook readers. That is changing now, however, with Samsung dipping its toes into this market with a new Color E-Paper display that’s currently aimed at indoor signage and posters but could also be extended to new types of devices in the very new future.
E Ink signage is becoming more common these days, especially as these electronic paper displays start to show improvements in color rendering. It’s not hard to see the benefits of the technology for this particular use case, since EPDs don’t use power to retain their image and use very little power when changing what’s on display. Although it is hardly the first of its kind, even for the tech giant, Samsung’s presence in this growing market is pretty much a stamp of approval from a brand that sells large TVs and screens for the same purpose of advertising in indoor signage.
The new Samsung Color E-Paper display seems to be really pushing the boundaries of the technology. The 32-inch has a QHD resolution of 2560×1440, though its real boasting feature is the 60,000-color gamut (six per pixel) which is quite high for a color electronic paper. This is thanks to the new E Ink Spectra 6 panel, the very same that flaunted artistic designs and images on the ASUS ROG Project DALI at Computex 2024 last week. This laptop concept utilizes a smaller panel that acts as a canvas for owners to customize the design of the laptop cover as they desire.
ASUS ROG Project DALI laptop concept @ Computex 2024
While the gigantic size of the Samsung Color E-Paper limits it to applications like signs and posters, it does make one wonder if Samsung will stop there. Its collaboration with E Ink could, in fact, lead to more devices with smaller screens, particularly in the eReader market that Samsung has never ventured into before. And with its close ties with Wacom, it could even add stylus support for these devices, potentially putting the likes of the Amazon Kindle and Kobo on notice.
Samsung is a tech giant with its hands in many industries, but one of its biggest businesses is in making displays. These cover anything from TVs to laptops to smartphones to signage, supporting a variety of display technologies like LCD, LED, and everything in between. One kind of technology it has barely touched, however, is Electronic Paper Displays or EPDs, the same kind of eye-friendly, battery-efficient screens found on eBook readers. That is changing now, however, with Samsung dipping its toes into this market with a new Color E-Paper display that’s currently aimed at indoor signage and posters but could also be extended to new types of devices in the very new future.
E Ink signage is becoming more common these days, especially as these electronic paper displays start to show improvements in color rendering. It’s not hard to see the benefits of the technology for this particular use case, since EPDs don’t use power to retain their image and use very little power when changing what’s on display. Although it is hardly the first of its kind, even for the tech giant, Samsung’s presence in this growing market is pretty much a stamp of approval from a brand that sells large TVs and screens for the same purpose of advertising in indoor signage.
The new Samsung Color E-Paper display seems to be really pushing the boundaries of the technology. The 32-inch has a QHD resolution of 2560×1440, though its real boasting feature is the 60,000-color gamut (six per pixel) which is quite high for a color electronic paper. This is thanks to the new E Ink Spectra 6 panel, the very same that flaunted artistic designs and images on the ASUS ROG Project DALI at Computex 2024 last week. This laptop concept utilizes a smaller panel that acts as a canvas for owners to customize the design of the laptop cover as they desire.
ASUS ROG Project DALI laptop concept @ Computex 2024
While the gigantic size of the Samsung Color E-Paper limits it to applications like signs and posters, it does make one wonder if Samsung will stop there. Its collaboration with E Ink could, in fact, lead to more devices with smaller screens, particularly in the eReader market that Samsung has never ventured into before. And with its close ties with Wacom, it could even add stylus support for these devices, potentially putting the likes of the Amazon Kindle and Kobo on notice.
As much as laptop makers wax philosophical about the power of their hardware and the beauty of their screens, what most people will probably admire the most about their products will be the laptop covers. Like with smartphones, this is the most visible part of a laptop and, therefore, also the most expressive. You can almost tell a lot about the laptop owner from the design and stickers they have on their laptops or, conversely, from the lack of any embellishment. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any easy way to cater to the varied tastes of laptop owners, at least until now. At Computex 2024, ASUS is showing off one of its latest concept designs that lets owners change the design of their laptop covers with a press of a key, and it won’t cost either power or money to keep changing it on a whim.
Designer: ASUS
You could, in theory, put a second LCD screen on the back of your laptop for a dazzling display of images or even captivating videos, but that would put a drain on your laptop’s battery, especially if you need to keep that cover display visible even when the laptop is closed and shut down. As with any problem involving power-hungry LCDs and OLEDs, the solution is using ePaper Display or EPD, like E Ink’s popular panels for eBook Readers. And wouldn’t you know it, E Ink has the perfect technology for that, and ASUS is slapping it on its Project DALI laptop concept to make laptops more personal without having to stick anything to it.
Although it’s primarily being used for signage installations, the E Ink Spectra 6 brings a touch of color to the eye-friendly and battery-conservative E Ink screen. It’s not going to match the vibrant colors of even the crudest LCD, but it has one very important advantage. Once you change the image displayed on it, it will no longer consume any power and can display that image for a long, long time. In other words, it’s perfect for a semi-permanent display that doesn’t change much, something like what the back of your laptop could have.
Project DALI puts this technology to offer an unprecedented level of personalization to laptop owners, something you can’t even imagine doing with stickers or skins. With ASUS’s special software, you can either select from a few preset designs or make your own, allowing you to express your tastes, interests, and personality the way you want it. Best of all, you can change it any time you want, and it will only cost you a bit of time and effort, not money from buying new stickers or energy from cleaning off those pesky adhesive residues.
ASUS Project DALI is hardly the first to put an E Ink display on the back of a laptop, as Lenovo also demonstrated a similar idea back in January at CES 2024. DALI, however, uses a newer Spectra 6 technology with higher color DPI, though the number of supported hues is, of course, still limited. Unfortunately, there is still no word on whether Project DALI will become an official ASUS product, but it’s bound to win plenty of fans once it does.
As powerful and as helpful as smartphones have become, they have also become sources not only of distraction but also of poor health. Staring at screens all day is bad enough, but they can also affect our sleep if used late into the night. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible for many people to detach from their phones or even reduce their use, so a few designers and manufacturers have tried to come up with alternatives like minimalist phones. eReader maker Bigme is proposing a different kind of answer, one that smashes an eBook reader and a smartphone in one pocketable design, creating a phone-sized E Ink device that is actually a functional phone.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a phone-sized eReader. We reviewed the Onyx BOOX Palma a while back and found it to be quite capable as a pocket reader. But despite its phone-like looks, it’s technically a tiny Wi-Fi-only device. In contrast, the Bigme HiBreak can plug in a SIM card and connect to 4G LTE networks. Yes, 4G LTE speeds only, which is probably fine because the device’s screen won’t be able to catch up with the network speed anyway.
The HiBreak comes in two flavors with different 5.84-inch E Ink screens. One is a pure black and white screen like a traditional eReader, while the other supports a few colors at a lower resolution than black and white. Despite the advancements in E Ink technology, the ultra-slow refresh rates of these panels will take the fun out of scrolling and swiping through social media, which is probably for the best. What it offers, instead, is a gentler reading experience, especially if you’re the type who likes to read text-only documents on the go.
Of course, the Bigme HiBreak is a true smartphone, one that runs Android 11 on practically mid-range hardware. It does have Google Play support, so you can install any app available that supports that old OS version but don’t expect the experience to be as smooth as on a regular phone. On the flip side, that 3,300 mAh battery is going to last you for days rather than just hours. It has a 13MP main camera, more for “scanning” documents than taking pretty pictures, and a 5MP front camera for emergency video calls.
In terms of aesthetics, the Bigme HiBreak is truly a shrunken-down eReader, complete with wide bezels and a rather plain design. It’s almost like it’s intentionally uninspiring in order to cut down on your smartphone use unless that use is for lots of reading. But while it does solve the problem of eyecare, a device that runs a full Android stack with cellular connectivity won’t do any wonders for those distracting notifications unless you decide to ignore them since they won’t look that nice on the E Ink screen anyway.
E Ink devices are transforming into more than just simple eBook readers. Some are even really just Android tablets in disguise, promising a more eye-friendly experience not just when reading books but also when surfing the Web, typing documents, or even scrolling through social media. These devices might feel like powerful e-readers, but they are a bit less impressive as Android devices exactly because of their most important feature: the slow E Ink screen. Out of nowhere, a new device has popped up promising a performance that’s almost on par with a modern Android tablet but with the same benefits of an E Ink screen, a promise that not only sounds too good to be true but will also cost you if you do decide to make the gamble.
What makes E Ink screens more eye-friendly is the fact that they traditionally don’t blast your eyes with light, especially blue light that’s been associated not only with eye strain but also with skewed sleep patterns. Unfortunately, even the fastest E Ink display is exponentially slower than even the slowest LCD screen, which makes it less comfortable to use for anything that involves constantly changing content, including typing quickly on the screen.
Daylight DC-1 is a new kind of tablet that tries to bridge those two worlds using a new “Live Paper” display that could be a special version of Sharp’s IGZO LCD screen. Unlike your typical display, it only shows shades of black and gray, but that’s not exactly what’s special about it. The claim is that, like ePaper screens, it doesn’t emit blue light, it can be viewed under direct sunlight, and is easy on the eyes. In the dark, it can use an amber-colored backlight that is still less straining than regular white light. Unlike ePaper screens, however, it can support a refresh rate of 60Hz, which is what most Android tablets can do at the bare minimum. Technically, it can go up to 120Hz, but that still depends on software support.
That software is a custom version of Android, so this device should be able to run any Android app, though there’s no word on whether it supports Google Play Store. the Daylight DC-1 definitely makes big promises, which is basically a watered-down, eye-friendly Android tablet experience. It can do almost anything, whether that’s typing a novel or scribbling notes with the included Wacom-powered pen. It really bridges the gap between regular Android tablets and this new breed of Android-powered E Ink readers.
There is, of course, a catch, and it’s a pretty big one. The device costs $729, and that’s only a pre-order for a device that’s still scheduled to ship later this year. That’s a pretty steep price coming from a brand that popped up almost out of nowhere. The theory does sound, well, sound, and the promises are definitely tempting, but these are very high stakes for a device that has yet to actually prove that theory out in the wild.
