Verdict
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C is an impressively constructed jack of all trades , offer a large , colourful sheet for reading alongside a astute annotation - taking facility . However , for web browsing , medium playback , and pretty much any other mapping , you ’re still better off with a even smart gadget or laptop .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Some would argue that the e - reader arguably reached its final form some time ago , whenever it was that Amazon started offeringKindlesthat were as skillful - to - hold as they were sharp - to - read . Onyx intelligibly conceive otherwise .
old efforts from the business firm , like theOnyx Boox Note Air 2 Plusor indeed theOnyx Boox Tab Ultra(no ‘ hundred ’ ) , flux the E Ink readability and sterling battery life of an e - reader with the Brobdingnagian display , sophisticated software package , and wider app approach of anAndroid tablet . They also include note - taking capabilities via a bundled stylus .
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C takes that convention and snuff it one dance step further , adding a splash of colour to proceedings . At a cost of £ 600 on Amazon , this certainly is n’t a cheap digital reading and note - taking result . So is that extra outgo worth it ?
Design
In e - referee terms , the Boox Tab Ultra C is somewhat unforgiving . Those surd , feather - off open are n’t the most comfortable to confine for long periods .
While one side - bezel is around three times the heaviness as the rest , advise you should be declare onto it with one hand , an overall system of weights of 480 gravitational constant ( twice the weight of even the heaviest smartphone ) intend that you ’ll want to bring a second script into play , or to prop this pill up on your lap . The optional keyboard cover will prop it up on a flat surface for you , at the expense of add further weight .
I briefly tested that keyboard case , and find it to be a well - built accessory that provide premium protection along with a somewhat unnecessary typing provision . The typewriting experience is solid , with good key travel , if slightly too firmly sprung . However , it ’s dead no replacement for even a middling compact laptop computer . It ’s more cramped , less viable for actually typing on your overlap , and the sluggish show is n’t exactly conducive to the form of abstemious multitasking and app - switching that most written material projects need .
Further pad of paper influences can be seen on the back of the Boox Tab Ultra C with its 16MP camera . This is being set as a ‘ smart image scanner ’ , which is a reference point to its intend function as a document image scanner rather than for snapping pictures of your wiener .
There ’s a model charge plate flight strip running up the back of the entire deep side , which offers a warmer , subdued texture for your fingers to grip , as well as a likely portal vein for the equipment ’s Wi - Fi connectivity . Both of the longer edge have spellbind sections towards the marrow where the let in stylus can be affixed , though you have to make some effort to get the alignment ripe . It ’s not quite the effortless snap that I would have like .
USB - Cis in the headlines the right way now thanks to Apple ’s Pauline transition with the newiPhone 15line , but it ’s been an everyday fact of life for everyone else . There ’s a USB - coke port provide here , though middling curiously , it ’s situate on the far left of the bottom bound . Not that such odd placement really matters , given the typically larger-than-life battery life figures that such e - readers reach .
On the top edge of the Ultra C you ’ll find an elongate power clit , which also doubles as a fingerprint sensor . That ’s an strange cellular inclusion for a pure e - lector , and nod to the twist ’s intercrossed nature . You ’ll need to plunk into the options carte du jour to trigger off this , though , as it does n’t form part of the set - up mental process .
Screen
Onyx has equipped the Boox Tab Ultra ascorbic acid with a 10.3 - in Kaleido 3 tocopherol Ink display , with a maximum resolution of 2,480 x 1,860 ( 300ppi ) in smuggled and white . It ’s plenty big and shrewd enough for all book content , and it also disport strong frontlighting with full adjustable brightness and warmth .
However , the crowing feature here is the Boox Tab Ultra C ’s color output . Do n’t go await a tablet - alike experience – at just 4,096 color , this offer a very basic , washed - out pallet , while colour content also halve the screen resolve to 1,240 x 930 ( 150ppi ) . Still , it make reading comics on the twist a much better experience than on regular tocopherol - proofreader .
you’re able to technically watch YouTube videos on this tablet , but you really would n’t want to . The poor contrast , modified colour pallet , and polar refresh rate can make for a outre , almost impressionist experience .
The filmdom also suffers badly from obsess throughout . You ’ll often encounter the faint suggestion of an app icon or some other screen component that has been display antecedently .
Onyx has follow up an app optimisation organisation , which let you change the balance of sharpness and speed according to the content . It ’s on Balanced by default , but HD achieves sharper text , degraded Mode gets you better ( but still clumsy ) vane browsing , and Ultrafast is technically for TV playback . Again , though , you really do n’t require to be bank on the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C for such matter .
While it ’s just that the manufacturer has imagine about the limitation of this screen door technology , and how to palliate those issues for a variety of content , it ’s all a bit clunky . Do you really want to be fiddling about in a dedicated menu every clip you shift to a novel kind of media content ? For most casual eastward - reader users , I suspect that the result is ‘ no ’ .
It might be laggy when it come to fast - moving medium content , but the blind responds well to the bundled style . With 4,096 pressure levels and a size and feel that can only be describe as ‘ playpen - like ’ , jot down down notes feel natural and true .
Make no mistake here – while the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C might be place as a colour E Ink equipment , this is n’t a ‘ best of both worlds ’ twist by any way . Indeed , I ’d debate that the whole colour factor is ham it up at best , and superfluous at worst .
It does its best work with e - books and basic government note - taking – just like theKobo Elipsa 2E , theKindle Scribe , and theReMarkable 2 , all of which use black and white atomic number 99 Ink displays for a significantly lower price .
Performance and software
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C runs on a Snapdragon 662 splintering with 4 GB of Aries the Ram backing it up . If that makes it sound rather like an Android tablet , that ’s because it fundamentally is one .
straight , it ’s only running on flea-bitten onetime Android 11 ( Android 14is imminent in the world of smartphones and tablets ) , and a heavily simplified variant of it at that . But the family screen here looks a bit like a Classic Mac OS / Windows 95 - style demake of Google ’s nomadic operating system of rules . We ’re babble clean , basic app ikon sat on top of a blank backdrop , with larger folders for any download books or make promissory note . It works well here .
There ’s an Android - dash seafaring bar along the bottom for books , dwelling , files , and options , and you get a gang of pre - installed apps and tools just like any other Android equipment . There ’s a bespoke web browser app , a dictionary , several basic tools , and more .
Crucially , there ’s also the Google Play Store . This think of that you have accession to all of the thousands of apps that have build up on Google ’s app storage over the past X - and - a - half . Most of these will be wholly unsuited to use on this gimmick , but the chief benefit is that you ’ll be able to access any ebooks you ’ve pile up across multiple serving and swarm storage apps over the years .
Within minutes , I was download the ebooks and digital funny Koran I had bribe over the year from the Amazon Kindle app and Google ’s own Play Books app , and reading and annotating documents put in on Dropbox or OneDrive . Reading all of these format in their respective apps , or through the big Library folder in the case of download PDFs , felt all raw on the Ultra C ’s due east Ink display . Native , even .
It ’s authoritative to keep expectations in curb , however . The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C might be built like an Android lozenge , but it does n’t execute like one . Whether it ’s that humble Qualcomm chip or the dull E Ink display – I mistrust a bit of both , but predominantly the latter – most tasks beyond simply skitter through a schoolbook data file take several beatnik or more longer than you might be habituate to on your tablet or phone .
Classic Android system tasks like logging into an app , moving between menus , or opening a web Sir Frederick Handley Page feel a raft more laborious here . Again , this is all quite fast for an e - reader , but when you start treading on the toe of tablets ( Onyx itself call this an “ ePaper tablet personal computer ” ) , you should expect to be hold to a in high spirits measure .
It ’s not quite as nonrational a UI as it could be , either . You ’ll take to plunge into the preferences bill of fare to plant up some matter that you might take fundamental in a more regular Android gadget , admit a Wi - Fi connection and a password .
Meanwhile , I found the optional motion - based navigation system to be passably Byzantine . You filch up from the unexpended boundary for multitasking / app switch , up from the middle for plate , and from the right for the E Ink Centre , which lets you pluck those display preferences according to the chore . Sliding up and down on the right of the sieve , meanwhile , adjusts cleverness .
There ’s also the option to lift in from the left to go back , which I ’d commend you activate . The option to purloin up and down on the leftfield for volume control on any video or audio content feel a bit funny , at least within a tablet circumstance .
I ca n’t blame the note - taking software system , however . As well as a careen - strong writing experience with the stylus , the in - built Notes app is nonrational and sufficiently capable . scribble off on one of the document guide , then reach the AI clitoris , and the Tab Ultra C will ( after a prolonged pause ) interpret it into digital schoolbook . The handwriting acknowledgement seems to be jolly immaculate , and it supports an impressive 66 speech .
Document scan using the appropriately title Scan Documents app works expeditiously too , and of class , the combination of scanned PDFs and solid hand opens up the potential difference for easy document signing and sharing .
Onyx has pack its tablet with a 6,300mAh battery , which would n’t be specially large for a 10 - inch tablet with a major power - hungry LCD , but is absolutely vast for a low - mightiness E Ink display .
Sure enough , barrage fire lifetime is decently up there in large atomic number 99 - referee territory . That is , I did n’t want to institutionalise it once during my week or so with the equipment , barely draining half the tank car . While cranking up that frontlighting will obviously tire energy faster , the nature of E Ink means it ’s unnecessary with any kind of sane ambient lighting in play .
Standby clock time is brilliant , with the Ultra C lose only around 1 % a 24-hour interval when not in use .
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Should you buy it?
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C serve as a decent full - sized eastward - reviewer with an atomic number 99 Ink display that ’s well-to-do on the eye , but it also adds a acid of colour , pass water it viable for digital comics and illustrated rule book .
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C might have a color video display and draw on Android , but its performance and refresh rate are right smart short of even the cheapest Android tablet when it comes to entanglement browsing and media consumption .
Final Thoughts
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C is an interesting showcase of what ’s possible within the traditionale - readerspace , offering a large colouration E Ink canvass for your record book and comics and Google Play Connectivity . As a thoroughgoing e - referee , it ’s a very substantial planning , put up you’re able to live with the weight .
It ’s also a very proficient Federal Reserve note - taking gadget , with a responsive stylus bundled in and some simple but powerful software for jot down down notes and sketches . The build - in scanning function furthers its text file supremacy .
However , it ’s far from the all - encompassing crossbreed that you may be trust for . While it can surf the web and act video content , built-in limitation with east Ink technology think that you would n’t necessarily need to . It also costs a slew more than thepremium e - reader - notebookcompetition .
It ’s another eye - catch hybrid gimmick from Onyx , but the Book Tab Ultra C has us wondering whether this is the true means forth for e - readers , or just another attractive deadened - end .
Trusted Score
How we test
We quiz every e - reader we survey thoroughly . We use the gadget over the review period . We ’ll always differentiate you what we find and we never , ever , go for money to review a product .
FAQs
Thanks to an E Ink exhibit and large battery , the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C can last for days if not weeks depending on usage , and only sips 1 % a day in standby mode .
