We’ve been fans of Boox ereader and Onyx tablets for a while now, especially Box Nova Airsea one of our picks for Best e-reader. The Air C has a color LCD layer on top of the black and white e-ink, but for now, the company is now pushing the E Ink closer to the full-featured tablet territory by adding features we’d normally expect on a tablet like iPad 10.9.
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra is a 10.3-inch E Ink tablet with a 16MP camera on the back, a feature we’d never expect paired with an E Ink display. The E Ink update is pretty slow, but Onyx did a massive job making the Boox Tab Ultra move as fast as it could. The tablet features a Qualcomm octa-core processor and a GPU that Onyx says is specifically designed for faster refresh rates on its screen.
We suspect the camera is not used for normal photography. Instead, Onyx touts the sensor’s ability to shoot and scan documents, which is more in line with the technology. We’re curious how well the E Ink handles the camera’s viewfinder tasks.
Onyx says the Boox Tab Ultra is built from Air Note 2 In addition to the specs, we found the Note Air 2 to be an excellent digital blogging device. The Boox Tab Ultra gets a stylus, and the Onyx wisely sticks to Wacom-style EMR technology, which is a much better option than using proprietary technology, like Apple and Microsoft. Samsung uses this technology in its S Pen.
The tablet oddly runs on Android 11, which puts it two generations behind the latest Android 13. It seems doubtful to expect that such a unique offering will get regular updates, but hopefully Onyx can keep the Tab Ultra safe.
The Boox Tab Ultra gets 4GB of RAM, which should be enough to run apps on a monochrome screen, and 128GB of storage. Don’t worry about a lack of space, because Onyx happily offers a microSD card slot.
The Boox Tab Ultra will launch in the Boox online store on October 27th. The tablet will cost $599.99 in the US. Prices in our other preferred markets are not yet available.
In addition to the Tab Ultra, Onyx is also updating some of its other popular E Ink tablets. Nova Air 2 updates Nova Air Box We called it “a nice-looking, ultra-slim, incredibly flexible 7.8-inch device for digital note-takers on the go.”
The new device has a 7.8-inch E Ink display, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, plus it supports the Onyx Pen Plus. The Nova Air 2 costs $399.99 in the US, although we’re still waiting for pricing in other markets.
The Onyx Boox Leaf 2 updates the company’s simpler line of reading devices. Instead of a stylus, this device is for reading and getting updates using page-flip buttons. It has a 7-inch screen, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, and a microSD card slot. The Leaf 2 retails for $199.99 in the US – again, prices in other markets aren’t available yet.