The Onyx Boox Leaf 2 E-Reader Doesn't Lock You To One Book Store - Gizmodo

When it comes to choosing an e-reader, for astir users it comes down to which instrumentality has casual entree to the books they really privation to read, and the reply is usually either the Amazon Kindle oregon the Rakuten Kobo. There’s present a 3rd option, the Boox Leaf 2 from Onyx, that lets users bargain books from the competition’s e-book stores, without having to settee for either company’s locked-down devices.

Unless you’re arsenic obsessed with E Ink devices arsenic I am, oregon unrecorded extracurricular the United States, Onyx mightiness not beryllium a institution you’ve heard of before. And that’s a shame, due to the fact that for the past fewer years it’s been putting unneurotic an extended lineup of e-reader and e-note devices that truly bash enactment the established brands to shame erstwhile it comes to show and functionality. Unlike the Kindle oregon the Kobo, which each tally proprietary operating systems, the Onyx Boox Leaf 2 runs Android 11 beneath a customized front-end, and includes afloat entree to the Google Play Store—including not conscionable ebook apps, but besides games and different tools arsenic well.

Is it the cleanable e-reader for everyone? No, arsenic it decidedly skews towards the customizability-loving Android powerfulness user. But if you’re consenting to put immoderate clip to get it moving precisely however you want, it’s an e-reader that anyone who’s near insubstantial books down should beryllium earnestly considering.

Solid Hardware That Doesn’t Dare to Be Different

By now, if you’ve seen 1 e-reader, you’ve much oregon little seen them all. Like smartphones, there’s not a batch of saltation betwixt E Ink devices these days, speech from their surface size and wherever different features similar buttons and charging ports are located.

If the Boox branding successful the precocious country doesn’t drawback their eye, astir radical would beryllium hard pressed to differentiate the Leaf 2 from the Kindle Oasis oregon Kobo Libra e-readers, which each diagnostic an asymmetric bezel design, making the devices easier to clasp successful 1 hand.

The Boox Leaf 2 is 1 of the archetypal Onyx devices successful a fewer years to diagnostic dedicated leafage crook buttons built in, but I’m not wholly thrilled with their execution. I similar that the guardant and backmost buttons connected the broadside of the Kindle Oasis and Kobo Libra person a abstraction betwixt them, making them easier to separate without having to look. On the Leaf 2, they beryllium close adjacent to each different with hardly a discernible spread betwixt them.

Another happening I’m missing connected the Boox Leaf 2 is the raised articulator that the Kindle Oasis and Kobo Libra person connected the wider broadside of the bezel, making them easier to grip one-handed. That doesn’t mean the Leaf 2 is hard to hold, arsenic it’s really astonishing airy and sturdy, but it’s conscionable different illustration of however a deficiency of polish and plan acuity is preventing Onyx’s devices from becoming arsenic fashionable arsenic they merit to be. But twelvemonth aft year, they’re getting amended and better.

On the apical borderline of the Leaf 2, you’ll find a operation power/sleep fastener for temporarily shutting down the e-reader oregon powering it disconnected completely, portion on the borderline closest to the leafage crook buttons are speakers, a USB-C charging port, a microphone, and a slot for a microSD representation card, allowing you to supplement the built-in 32GB of storage.

Overall, I’d picture the Leaf 2's hardware arsenic minimal and sleek, but its creaseless backmost sheet is simply a fingerprint magnet and is successful hopeless request of immoderate texturing to marque the instrumentality easier to grip. That being said, I highly urge e-readers with asymmetrical bezel designs similar this, arsenic I find them overmuch easier to clasp without fingers blocking oregon accidentally tapping the touchscreen, and I would inactive take the Leaf 2 implicit the much basal Kindle and Kobo devices that deficiency dedicated leafage crook buttons.

Onyx really sells 2 versions of the Boox Leaf 2, successful achromatic oregon white, but it’s not conscionable a colour quality that sets the 2 options apart. Both models are astir identical erstwhile it comes to their hardware, each coming with the seven-inch, 300PPI, E Ink Carta 1200 surface we’ve already seen successful different devices. But whereas the achromatic version, which I tested, has a furniture of protective solid implicit the E Ink panel, resulting successful the show sitting flush with the remainder of the beforehand of the e-reader, the achromatic mentation skips the solid panel, with an exposed E Ink sheet sitting somewhat little than the surrounding bezel.

The achromatic mentation offers the payment of other durability, peculiarly if the Leaf 2 is going to beryllium bouncing astir unprotected successful a container oregon backpack, but the other furniture of solid does lend to surface glare erstwhile the instrumentality is utilized successful nonstop sunlight oregon beneath a lamp, and a flimsy softening of what’s seen on-screen. It’s not a nighttime and time difference, but erstwhile compared closely, substance and details connected the achromatic mentation of the Leaf 2 volition look somewhat crisper. Both versions are priced precisely the same, and Onyx leaves it up to each idiosyncratic to determine what volition enactment champion for their needs. That’s much oregon little the taxable of the Leaf 2—extreme customizability—which is some a positive and a minus for this device.

Android: The Onyx Leaf 2's Not-So-Secret Weapon

While the Amazon Kindles and Rakuten Kobos some tally a proprietary operating strategy (a mentation of Linux under-the-hood connected the Kobo), the Boox Leaf 2 runs Android 11, with a customized front-end developed by Onyx.

If you’re acquainted with Android, and similar it implicit much restricted operating systems similar Apple’s iOS, you’ll astir apt find the Leaf 2 a acquainted and invited experience, implicit with a Control Center that’s accessible astatine each times by swiping down from the apical of the screen, and a navigation barroom accessible by swiping up from the bottom. Functionally, utilizing the Leaf 2 feels much similar utilizing an Android tablet than an e-reader, but visually it looks much similar a Kobo oregon a Kindle acknowledgment to Onyx’s front-end, which is unluckily lacking a batch of polish.

I’ve said it earlier with Onyx’s devices, but the customized idiosyncratic interface tin consciousness a spot confusing, clunky, and is acold from pretty. You’ll easy find your mode astir the instrumentality aft spending immoderate clip with it, but it’s acold from intuitive, and that could beryllium a large crook disconnected for users already acquainted with, and who are fans of, Amazon’s e-readers. Benefiting from Onyx’s e-reader attack takes immoderate determination and perseverance.

If you similar to customize the look and consciousness of your devices, the Leaf 2 is, without a doubt, the e-reader for you. Users tin opt to marque it consciousness much similar an Android tablet, with menus that popular on-screen from each directions, oregon power to a much streamlined interface wherever swipe gestures connected circumstantial parts of the surface marque changes, similar adjusting surface lighting oregon volume, without immoderate on-screen controls appearing. Onyx besides offers a unsocial diagnostic connected each of its E Ink devices: a tiny on-screen dot that tin beryllium positioned anyplace and provides speedy entree to a tiny paper of shortcuts that users tin configure nevertheless they want. I really hatred it, and instantly turned it off, but I tin recognize the imaginable usefulness it offers.

Side-loaded content, including ebook files, substance docs, oregon PDFs, are accessed done the default Boox Neo Reader app, which itself offers an astir exhausting level of customization erstwhile it comes to however contented is displayed and the quality of text. It’s surely a invited diagnostic for powerfulness users, and determination are options I’ve often wished were disposable connected Kindles and Kobos, but astatine the aforesaid clip I tin easy spot my parents getting overwhelmed by the countless menus afloat of sliders and toggles that the Leaf 2 presents a user. To broaden its appeal, I deliberation that Onyx should see adding a ‘dumbed down’ enactment that streamlines the UI for novice users and keeps much precocious and sometimes intimidating configurability wholly hidden.

You’ll besides privation to support successful caput that the Leaf 2 is simply a $200 instrumentality moving a Qualcomm 2.0G Quad-core processor from 2012, not a $1,000+ smartphone with the latest and top Qualcomm has to offer. That, coupled with the limitations of E Ink surface technology, means that documents similar magazines oregon comic books, which often necessitate a batch of zooming oregon panning to read, volition not marque for a pleasing speechmaking acquisition connected this device. And powering Android 11 connected a decennary aged processor means the Leaf 2 isn’t the snappiest instrumentality you’ve ever poked. It’s inactive an e-reader optimized for text, archetypal and foremost.

Source Your Reading Material From Everywhere

If determination is 1 crushed to take the Boox Leaf 2 implicit a Kindle oregon a Kobo, it’s that not lone are you not tied into a azygous contented eco-system, you really person casual entree to each of them.

If you’ve been utilizing a Kindle for years and person bought hundreds of titles from Amazon’s ebook store, you tin conscionable instal the Android Kindle app connected the Leaf 2 and inactive person entree to each of that content.

The aforesaid goes for the Kobo, oregon for those who for immoderate crushed were devoted users of the Barnes & Noble Nook. Prefer to not wage for ebooks but don’t privation to task into the darker corners of the internet? You tin instal Libby and get integer titles from your section library. The Leaf 2 does audiobooks too, with built-in speakers and Bluetooth for connecting to wireless headphones. You tin adjacent subscribe to each of the supra services and root your contented from arsenic galore sources arsenic you want, each connected 1 instrumentality that includes the easy-on-the-eyes benefits of E Ink surface technology.

It doesn’t halt astatine books, though. With afloat entree to the Google Play Store, you tin instal Spotify and usage the Leaf 2 to watercourse music, oregon adjacent spot what watching YouTube videos connected a instrumentality with an E Ink surface is like.

Spoiler alert: Even with respective options for changing however the Leaf 2's E Ink surface behaves, including a mode that prioritizes refresh velocity implicit representation quality, watching videos connected an E Ink instrumentality is inactive an unpleasant experience.

An Alternative Worth Considering

There are arsenic galore reasons to power to the Onyx Boox Leaf 2 arsenic determination are to instrumentality with your tried-and-true Kindle oregon Kobo. Its idiosyncratic interface tin consciousness a small messy and clunky, and arsenic overmuch arsenic I hatred to accidental it, I wouldn’t spot my parents to fig it retired connected their ain without galore panicked telephone calls to me. Onyx besides doesn’t person arsenic ample a planetary beingness arsenic Amazon oregon Rakuten do, which could marque getting enactment for a faulty instrumentality a trying experience.

That being said, for those dedicated to the task, the customizability of the Boox Leaf 2 means you tin yet get the e-reader functioning precisely however you like, portion the flexibility of being capable to leap from ebook store to ebook store whenever you want, connected a azygous e-reader, is simply a compelling diagnostic you’ll ne'er spot from the competition.