Onyx Boox Darwin 2 – an example of successful evolution

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The company Onyx has unveiled a new e-book series Boox called Darwin 2 is the second generation of the original “Darwin”, which received significant enhancements and improvements. From the original reader is left the name, concept and design, basic electronics, including, of course, the screen has changed. It is touch screen has become the main feature of the book Onyx Boox Darwin 2, which came to us for test. Interesting to see how highly evolved device, and offered him the use of a new electronic component.

“Darwin 2” refers to the segment of classic ebooks that manifests in its design, ergonomics, screen type and even physical dimensions, although differences from all competitors it is not just a lot, but a lot. Will try to cover them all as part of this test review.

Packaging

The box comes Onyx Boox Darwin 2, decorated very nicely, so the well-known expression “book – the best gift” fits in here perfectly – in such a packaging device is not ashamed to give neither the family nor beloved, nor the Director or business partner.

All decorated in a win-win combination of black and white colors, and the beauty of the packaging design combined with informative – no need to study the Internet or pester the sales consultant to ascertain the possibilities stored inside this very thick cardboard device. All the details, including the basic hardware specifications and key competitive advantages are listed here.

Package contents

Roomy box, which comes in Onyx Boox Darwin 2, contains, in addition to the books, the instruction manual in Russian, data cable, charger and warranty card, plus let’s not forget about the stylish case-book, which will be discussed separately. The latter is not always supplied with readers, so this is one of the advantages of the new “Darwin 2”. Manual, which is nice, very detailed and includes almost all aspects of the book, but the owners of mobile devices based on Google’s Android OS can not read it, because the same platform is installed and on Onyx Boox Darwin 2, which significantly expands the list of her skills.

Specifications

Source of information about the capabilities of the reader can be packaging and instruction manual and web site of the manufacturer: for a reconciliation of these differences is not revealed.

Below are the specifications Onyx Boox Darwin 2 disclosed by the developer.

Screen: 6 inch, E Ink Carta Plus, the contrast is 14:1, 1072х1448 points touch;
— Screen light: Moon Light;
— Processor: ARM, 2-core, 1 GHz;
— RAM: 512 MB;
— Built-in memory: 8 GB;
— Supported file formats: Text: TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, MOBI, CHM, PDB, DOC, DOCX, PRC, EPUB; Graphic: JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP; other: PDF, DjVu;
— Wireless interface: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n;
— Battery: Li-ion, 1700 mAh;
— Case color: Black, dark gray;
Interfaces: microUSB 2.0, microSD;
— Operating system: Android 4.2;
— Dimensions: 170х117х9 mm;
— Weight: 169 grams.

As can be seen from the list, the touchscreen here is endowed with a high for the diagonal resolution, besides the firmware has been updated to version 4.2, giving a most apps from Google Play. We would like to pay attention to the amount of internal memory – at least 8 gigabytes of additional storage in the face of a microSD card is not required, since such volume will be enough for several thousand books.

Design

To our test the book Onyx Boox Darwin 2 arrived in black body. The model is characterized by a minimalist appearance, which is manifested in the presence of very small, unlike competitors, buttons, get confused to which is simply impossible. In fact, the reader is enclosed in a monoblock is very slim, the size of which can be held in one hand. The shell is made of durable plastic with a pleasant to the touch Soft Touch cover that prevents the likelihood of slipping from the hands.

Housing Onyx Boox Darwin 2 absolutely non-marking, and you should try to leave fingerprints. However, even if we manage to do it, erased the prints effortlessly normal with a damp cloth. The same applies to the surface of the screen being matte, it also doesn’t collect fingerprints. The build quality pleased – there are no squeaks, backlash is also, inside nothing rattles and loose parts, even the hardware buttons sit firmly in place and not rattle.

Ergonomics

As mentioned above, the hardware buttons have Onyx Boox Darwin 2 quite a bit – in fact, exactly five, but each one is helpful and has eased the process of interaction with the software interface of the device. Let’s start with the front panel, the lion’s share of which is touch screen e-ink. On the sides of it are slightly recessed into the body of the button turning left and right, which can also perform certain action when a long press is configurable by software.

Under the display are placed the convex back button on main screen shell press – Home. Long pressing it will activate or deactivate the backlight, which is also very convenient, because you won’t need to call for this software menu. Move all three buttons clear and confident, but at the same time quite smooth, so to put pressure on them with full force no need.


The side faces of the body of the e-book does not contain anything, and the upper end of the body acquired the remaining two physical buttons – Power and Reset. The first is responsible for switching the device on and activate sleep mode, and its very easy to find by touch, but from accidentally pressing it in some way protected – pressed relatively tight, and the book will not turn on upon contact with anything solid. Reset button and is recessed deep into the housing and can be pressed only with a clip or needle.

On the bottom edge “Darwin” manufacturer placed a block of interfaces including a microUSB port for charging and PC synchronization and slot for memory cards microSD.

The back of the reader contains nothing, except the serial number and manufacturer’s logo.

Cover

Case kit Onyx Boox Darwin 2 is designed to protect the device from influence of external factors., in particular, accidental damage to the screen by a strong pressure on him. Cover, made in the form of books, has a base of durable plastic to protect the rear of the case and an unknown, but very tight material that covers the entire front panel.

The inner part of the latter has a velvety coating to protect from scratches and chips and two sewn-in magnets, one of which locks the cover in the closed position, and the second is the effect on the reader built-in reed switch and activates the sleep mode.

The exterior of the case is covered with faux textured leather light brown color with this line. Applied front surround is a schematic depiction of the tree of evolution. As a complete artwork, in our opinion, deserves the highest ratings, but it has one drawback: the book is kept in it with the help of parts of durable plastic, but so hard to get her out without additional tools is not possible, and there is a risk to damage the gadget.

On the other hand, it makes no sense to pull a book from its cover, as the back of the panel there is nothing useful, and the top button and bottom interfaces it closes.

Display

The screen is the main component of any modern gadget, and Onyx Boox Darwin 2 is in this respect an exception. The manufacturer has paid a lot of attention to this component and immediately refused to install not only the usual TFT panels, but the E-Ink screen of the previous generations. As a result the book is equipped with a panel E-Ink Carta Plus, the latest at the time of writing this article, which has increased to 1072х1448 pixels resolution and superior contrast. This means you can make the display much more information in comparison with other 6-inch books with no loss of readability, plus the image may remain black-and-white, but look at this screen very well, virtually grain-free. All this results in savings of battery: Onyx Boox Darwin 2 displays more data on the display, thereby reducing the number of proglatyvanie pages, and contrast enhancement leads to no need to read with the backlight always on.

The screen is E-Ink Carta Plus doesn’t fade in the sun has a 178-degree viewing angles both vertically and horizontally, without any blown highlights – a feature of the technology of electronic ink. Its built-in signature illuminated Moon Light further improves the readability of text, and in our case, for comfortable reading in the sun light it’s not needed, and when artificial light was sufficient 30% brightness, which, we note, can be adjusted. In the dark is also not necessary to Unscrew brightness on a full 50% of us have more than enough, and, again, the battery is not so quickly discharged. Moon Light fills the screen a milky white light completely evenly – the manufacturer clearly has upgraded the backlight, because the display no tints, no shadows from the LEDs, which is nice happy.

We should also mention that the screen is one of the management tools book – he touch and is able to recognize up to five simultaneous touches.

Work offline

Since we’re talking about the battery, on the spot, and will test it. The developer never provided data about the time for its battery life, so to compare it to, and so just let’s see the results of our audits.

– in mode: 14500 pages;

– in mode with backlight at 50%: a little over 10,000 pages;

– in mode with backlight at 100%: almost 8400 pages.

For 6-inch books with illumination, endowed with a very slim and, consequently, standard capacity battery, is almost a record, so you can not to think about the likelihood of an unexpected shortage of a charge is not gonna happen. In idle mode, the book is clearly working at least a month, also it has built-in automatic shutdown and sleep mode. Check that the number of pages is the number of updates installed electrophoretic display.

Software

The book Onyx Boox Darwin 2 runs on Android OS 4.2 Jelly Bean with access to Google Play and its own shell, optimized for comfortable reading. There is the possibility of installing the desired applications, including e-books and is supplied a functional reader OReader. It has all the features including fine-tuning of the font and zoom, bookmarks, jump to specific page, and so on. With such a set of features, in our opinion, additional software is not required, especially as OReader easily cope with opening all popular formats of books.

Clarify that not all apps from Google Play to support work on e-books: for example, we have not started the program for taking screenshots, and many of them did not want to work without root rights, the receipt of which leads to loss of warranty. But in this case it is necessary to consider features of the electrophoretic screen: it is designed primarily for comfortable reading of books and documents, and then to run third-party applications, as expressed, including in the number of supported colors 16 shades of gray. In other words, to Angry Birds and similar applications should use tablet computers.

In General, software component complaints: there is the ability to configure many parameters, loads the OS very quickly (cold start – less than a minute), but in the directory of standard application already includes the calendar as an electronic notebook for notes and electronic dictionary to the case of the presence in the text of the unknown word.

Performance

To measure the performance of all known benchmark AnTuTu we failed – the program refused to run on Onyx Boox Darwin 2. Spare tester in the face of GeekBench, in contrast, earned, and gave the result of check in the amount of 258 points. Good, very good. However, these scores are a clear demonstration of the books, so she had to open a pre-prepared 350-megabyte PDF document that we stuffed scans, formulas, text and full-color images. This action was spent not more than one minute, so you can imagine how quickly the reader will discover a conventional book in the format FB2.

Flipping pages in OReader, regardless of the volume of the open document is virtually instantaneous – it is a merit of the new 2-core CPU and, of course, e-ink Carta Plus generation. Thus, rendering the new page in case 2 Onyx Boox Darwin takes less time than flipping through the pages of the paper book.

Conclusion

The book Onyx Boox Darwin 2 we really liked, frankly. It has merit even very much, but the shortcomings – enough to swear, so we, in fact, nothing to complain about. We highly recommend Onyx Boox Darwin 2 to buy those who reads a lot and does so primarily outside the home, as the compact size of this book will allow you to carry it and the iPad smart cover will protect it even from a fall from a relatively low height.

All defects found in the reader as a test, can not be called global or critical – on the contrary, they even are subjective, and in the case of the case and did I can go for another advantage. In its price range (average price in “Yandex.Market” at the time of this writing, 16,000 rubles) is the second generation of “Darwin” is simply no.

Pros Onyx Boox Darwin 2:

– extended completion (added cover);

– modern OS;

– supports most modern formats;

– ultra-modern screen E-Ink Carta Plus with a high resolution;

– long battery life.

Cons Onyx Boox Darwin 2:

– excessively tight fixation of the books of the housing;

– support all Android applications.

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