Onyx Boox is a company that many people know about. They have been developing e-readers and e-notebooks internally for over ten years. They make their money selling physical hardware and do not have any software, books or a premium subscription-based drawing experience. Over the past couple of years, they released over 15 new devices per year, domestically and internationally. 2024 has been a slow year for the company, as they likely face some financing hurdles. In 2024, Onyx released three new international devices, the new GO series.
The Boox Go 10.3 is likely the best of the bunch. This device forgoes the typical front-light system, so there are fewer layers between the text displayed on the E INK display and your eyes. The writing experience is also superb and one of Onyx’s best releases. The WACOM display has palm rejection and is compatible with various styluses on the market. It supports 4096 degrees of pressure sensitivity. It is also fragile and thinner than the new iPad Pro. What are the key selling points? The Go 10.3 is the first Onyx-branded device with a large screen and 300 PPI for resolution. This ensures that the overall quality of content will be tremendous. Everything will be readable whether you read an ebook, magazine, newspaper or academic PDF. Overall performance is excellent due to the hardware. Google Android 12 and full access to the Google Play Store right out of the box. This ensures you can download all your favourite apps, regardless of country or region.
The sole colour device they released in 2024 was the Onyx Boox Go 7 Color. This model is a dedicated book reader with the latest generation of e-paper, Kaleido 3. The screen can display over 4,000 different colours, which makes it ideal for reading digital content such as comics, magazines, webtoons, and PDF files. The big selling points are the physical page-turn buttons, Android 12, Google Play and a thin design, making it portable.
The final release of 2024, so far, was the Boox Go 6. A barebones book reader that heavily competes on price alone to appeal to book-reading consumers. It uses the brand-new E INK Carta 1300 e-paper display that increases overall performance and page-turn speed. The 300 PPI display ensures that your books look good and have no fuzzy anti-aliasing. Google Android 11 is the operating system with full Google Play Store access. It has weaker specs than any of the models on this list, and the cons certainly outweigh the pros.
I highly doubt Onyx will release anything else this year, at least internationally. The company again focuses on the domestic Chinese market and released nearly ten new devices there this year. Indeed, since this is where Onyx is based, it is one they understand and allows them to compete.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
