Onyx Reveals Boox Poke2 Color with E-Ink Kaleido Display in Action
As reported a few weeks ago, PocketBook announced an e-reader with a color E-Ink display for this fall (PocketBook Color). At that time, I already pointed out that a few Chinese manufacturers also plan to launch similar models.
Onyx is one of these manufacturers. Shortly after our report, the company released a YouTube video showcasing their color model in action. The video demonstrates various displays featuring colored content:
Many of the image transitions in the video are edited, so at first, you don’t get a clear impression of the display’s speed.
However, several direct touchscreen interactions are shown. It is noticeable that the display refresh appears to be just as fast as current black-and-white E-Ink Carta screens. It might even be faster, because, as E-Ink notes on a description on their website, animations and videos can also be played.
Resolution remains unclear
Onyx lists a few specifications and the device name in the video description. The Boox Poke2 Color is said to use Android 9.0, with an octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. It has 32GB of internal storage and measures 153x107x6.8 mm, with a weight of 135 grams.
Thus, like the other known color models, this is also a 6-inch device. The exceptionally low weight is noteworthy. It shows that directly integrating the plastic color coating clearly doesn’t make the devices heavier. Compared to E-Ink Triton, this is a significant advantage, at least in this regard.
However, Onyx still hasn’t provided details about the pixel density of the color display. The Digital Reader reportedly learned directly from PocketBook that the color resolution would be 100 ppi. This contradicts information provided by the Chinese manufacturer iFlytek in their blog post regarding the announcement of the color e-reader. Therefore, it will be interesting to see whether there are different versions of the display technology, whether the pixel arrangement is crucial for various counting methods, or if simply incorrect information is circulating (which is what I personally tend to believe).
Unfortunately, the E-Ink webpage updated to reflect the Kaleido technology still doesn’t provide any new insights on this matter.
