Onyx Boox touchscreen eReader gets hands-on review by Engadget

10:18 AM, Sep 22nd, 2009 0 Comments

The Onyx Boox eReader - Only in China for now

Though only released in China, the new Onyx Boox touchscreen eReader seems to have a lot going for it.

The WiFi enabled Boox has eBook, music playback and web browsing capability as well as a comic or manga mode. It has a SD card slot for extra storage and a battery that will last through 8,000 pageflips (an average of a few weeks charge). The interface is a little different from most eReaders that we see on Best Tablet Review. It has four circular buttons surrounding a thumbstick that can be used to interface with the device in addition to the touchscreen.

The Onyx Boox also allows for stylus calibration and considering one of the device’s partners is Wacom we’re expecting it to be very accurate. It has a variety of language selections, including English, and more on the way depending on market appeal. Onyx will also support the device with an online books store similar to Amazon and Sony’s efforts. The device seems very malleable, with options to increase or decrease width, height and zoom (from 75% to 400%) with font support. It also supports all the major eBook formats (PDF, EPUB, TXT, CHM, RTF, PRC, HTML, PDB, JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF) and has handwritten annotation.

All in all a decent looking eReader. No price or possible North American release was mention. Thanks to Slashgear for recapping the translation from Engadget China.