Reader ONYX BOOX Amundsen: an adequate response to the paper book

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Modern realities, especially Russia, have caused many to gradually abandon paper books, because their prices are just insane. However, not everyone is ready to switch to e-readers for a number of reasons – someone difficult to get used to something new, someone not willing to get involved in the endless string of unneeded functions, and someone simply not planning to buy a new gadget, looking at the current currency rates.

However, all the above arguments in favor of abandoning the purchase of the reader is broken when it comes to the new e-book ONYX BOOX Amundsen. This model is relatively inexpensive and has extremely simple and user-friendly interface, to which a few minutes to adapt, even those who first picked up the e-reader. And today, it was in our test, and besides, in the original white color of the case, so let’s proceed to its consideration.

The book ONYX BOOX Amundsen distributed in a box made of cardboard, decorated in three colors – mainly white, additional gray-blue and black for text information. By design, no complaints: everything is stylish, beautiful and, most importantly, concisely. The quality of the packaging is to keep the hands nice, to read information easily, and here to drop its contents, on the contrary, it is difficult – two magnetic lock firmly on the top cover.

Informative boxes also have nothing to show: considering the book is not on the Internet and in stores, you can learn all about it, just studying what is written on the back side of the box – there are literally rendered all the characteristics of the device. For memories, you can pay attention to a brief biography, in whose honour is named the book you’ll find on the front of the box. In General, everything is fine.

 

Equipment

The company ONYX, which is one of the leaders on the Russian market of electronic books, developed for the current models of e-readers two choices of trim levels: the basic, he’s basic, and advanced. The first includes data cable, manual and warranty card, and the second network are added to the memory and the signature folio case with magnetic mounts.

Book Amundsen belongs to the category of readers the initial level, and because the complete set of her match. On the other hand, this is more than enough cable suitable for charging and for PC sync and manual examines in detail all aspects of the use of the device.

 

Hardware specifications

We have said that all of the characteristics of ONYX BOOX Amundsen books can be read on its box, but they can also be found in the complete instruction, and those who like shopping online can find them on the official website of the manufacturer. Comparison of three sources of differences in the data provided did not reveal.

– screen: 6 inch, no touch, E Ink Carta, 758×1024 pixel;
– processor: 1 GHz;
– RAM: 512 MB;
– built-in memory: 8 GB;
– expansion slot: microSD / microSDHC, up to 32 GB;
– wired interface: microUSB 2.0;
– 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;
– battery: Li-ion, 1700 mAh;
– operating system: Google Android 4.2;
– dimensions: 170х117х9 mm;
– weight: 169 grams;
– color: black, grey, white.

Immediately turn your attention to the lack of touch layer and the display led backlight. This fact and relates the book to the initial segment, consistent with its price: at the time of this writing, the average price on Yandex.Market” was 7500 roubles. Also I would like to mention a rich selection of shades housing three of them, and it may boast not every book, even from among the top. In our case, recall, was chosen the white color, but you can find test reviews of the other readers from ONYX, published on our website – they are done in black and gray colors.

 

First impression

The reader in white color is for the Russian market in General and for us in particular is very rare. It so happened that in our country in the course of the gadgets in dark case colors, and for good reason. But the white ONYX BOOX Amundsen definitely looks very beautiful and even richly, as it is a bright white color plastic still is not – it is more like ivory color. In General, very unusual, we liked it.

Appearance and ergonomics

Exterior ONYX BOOX Amundsen, with the exception of a chosen hue, just the same as all the current books ONYX with 6-inch screen, and in this case, consistency is indeed a sign of mastery, because this design was a long, experimenting with forms, dimensions and other parameters. The output was carefully considered proportions of the body, the appearance of which attracts the eye.

On the ergonomics also obviously worked in the industry, as all controls are located exactly where they should be, and where they are convenient to use both one and two hands. The screen of the reader, we recall, has no touch layer, and therefore does not participate in management, but the hardware buttons is more than enough.

The case has a rough surface, resembling a soft touch, and she needed to prevent slipping. It works in full – owner in the hand or hands, depending on how you prefer, like a glove. The white colour housing is one-off or even “five” by machine, because it generally is not visible fingerprints. Perhaps they are out there, but to see them we have been unable, so this shade is very winning. On the other hand, if you prefer to read books immediately after replacing the engine oil or after a couple of hours in the garden, then your path lies to dark-gray or black shades.

On either side of the ONYX BOOX Amundsen display manufacturer placed a moderately large but flat and not protruding outside the case the keys responsible for the navigation through the book and menu. To miss them is absolutely impossible.

The keystroke is quite tight, which eliminates accidental pressing, but at the same time smooth, all as it should be. The basic setup of the keys are: the one to the left of the screen, opens a different menu depending on the duration of the pressure, and to the left of the screen flipping through the book forward (short press) and rewind (press and hold). Change these settings in the menu.

Under the display are placed the five-way button square shape, is also used to move through menus and pages of the book, and if you press up and down, it is possible to quickly change the font size, thereby providing a comfortable reading without having to do it through the menu.

With front panel sorted out, go ahead. The back and sides of the housing of the reader there is nothing to prevent accidental operation during use. The upper end contains a two buttons – power and reset, and if the former has a fluted shape and blue lighting, that it was always possible to find by touch, the second is recessed deeply into the case. Doubt that Reset here you ever need, since the reader works on Android OS, known for its stability and in this case not overloaded with software.

Panel interfaces are brought to the lower face of the housing, where we can see the microSD slot and the microUSB 2.0 port – two of the most common worldwide connector. Near them round plug nothing closes, but in fact it is a 3.5 mm connector for headphones, which in this model is not provided.

 

Display

Screen books ONYX BOOX Amundsen is based on the electronic ink panel produced by the company E Ink, and currently it is the new generation of screens of this type – Carta. This fact plays a very important role, since the display has no helper in the form of illumination, and he has to answer for readability. In our opinion, it turns out he’s moderately well, although the backlight at certain moments is still lacking.

The advantages of the screen include its very wide viewing angles – at 178°, i.e. no fading here, and there is no glossy coating that turns the touchscreen of smartphones and tablets in the mirror with the bright light of the sun. In the ONYX BOOX Amundsen is no such problem: the panel is matte, not glare and 100% readable, even if the rays of the heavenly bodies are falling right at her. The contrast of the screen in this model is 14:1, which allows you to compare it with the pages of newly printed paper books. The letters clearly visible and not blend in with the almost completely white background, and high resolution allows to reduce the font to the limit and to output not just black bars, but quite legible and readable text.

Total screen books ONYX BOOX Amundsen received a high rating, but without certain restrictions not done: due to the lack of illumination, the greatest comfort in reading is achieved when there is bright lighting, natural or artificial. The floor lamp is, in principle, also nice, but everything else is already there, otherwise you’ll have to look at the display and spoil your eyesight.

 

Software

ONYX BOOX Amundsen installed OS Google Android bundled with the standard software from ONYX, which included calculator, image viewer, dictionary and reader – OReader. Her presence here is also a result of trial and error, as in the early model books installed other apps, but this reader offers the most convenient, simple and at the same time very functional interface. The possibility of its replacement by other program manufacturer provides, but we guarantee that to take it you don’t have to.


Additional software installation is only possible by copying the apk distributions to the internal memory of the book, as access to the Google Play here is not included due to the lack of wireless modules for access to the Internet.

Built-in dictionary moderately informative, but, in our opinion, will be faster to use a smartphone to search for a translation or values of the unknown words, because typing on the QWERTY keyboard without touchscreen is very inconvenient and time consuming.

 

Working with files

Because the book is not overloaded by applications, which in the case of Android smartphones hang in the background and take up precious megabytes of RAM, everything works quickly and without slowdown. Standard book of 500 pages in format fb2 reader opens in flight, but on the djvu and pdf thinking for a while, but only in case if the files are very heavy. So, for the opening of the 400-megabyte pdf document with scans, photographs, formulas and all that can easily make unresponsive, even Adobe Reader, ONYX BOOX Amundsen spends about 40 seconds. However, in most cases, the reader will work with the usual books, so wait to open them you don’t have to. With ZIP archives the device is also great.

 

Work offline

The absence of illumination of the screen in ONYX BOOX Amundsen on all 146% kompensiruet the ability of books to work on a single charge are not just long, but very long. I do not know what it involves, and how the manufacturer was able to achieve such results, but the performance is very high, although no large capacity battery is not here is already familiar to us 1700 mAh, not more. Charge regular batteries during testing was enough to 19000 pages of text, and even after that, showing only a 1% charge, the book continued to operate. In our view, this is very cool – not every reader, and even over budget, is capable of that. On the energy of the battery from a 1-ampere AC charging adapter takes about a half to two hours, and the computer charging, on average, 2.5 hours.

 


Conclusion

Something a bit too positive a review we got. Want to, of course, for the contrast to say something bad about ONYX BOOX Amundsen, but it would not be true. In fact, ONYX books are always well balanced, and even the absence of illumination in the model is replaced with a significantly increased battery life. The risk with the white color of the body was absolutely justified: the shade proved to be not just good, but actually great, hiding all the fingerprints and keeping its original appearance even after daily testing during the week, so didn’t even have to use wet wipes.

Amid all the above you can make an obvious conclusion: if you are looking for seamless e-book that can completely replace you your favorite print edition, ONYX BOOX Amundsen is exactly what you need. More suitable option is simply not to find.

 

Pros ONYX BOOX Amundsen:

– quality E Ink screen;

– good for reading;

– honed ergonomics;

– convenient enclosure.

 

Cons ONYX BOOX Amundsen:

– no backlighting.

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