Onyx has announced the upcoming release of two new 6-inch ebook readers in their Poke line, the Poke2 and the Poke2 Color.
They’re accepting orders for the Boox Poke2 on their website for $189 USD, making it the most expensive 6-inch ebook reader on the current market, and it’s not even the color version.
The Poke2 Color is still a mystery. It’s briefly mentioned at the end of Onyx’s announcement for the Poke2 with no further details provided whatsoever, just an unrealistic computer rendering (see below).
Teasing the Poke2 Color at this time seems like an odd thing to do. It’s more likely to hurt sales of the Poke2 if people think a color version is coming soon.
This confirms my suspicion that color E Ink screens are still inferior to regular black and white E Ink screens. If text was just as crisp and clear on the color version then there would be no need for a separate black and white model.
The Poke2 is kind of like a smaller version of the new 7.8-inch Onyx Nova2, minus the Wacom touchscreen and it has a micro-USB port instead of a USB-C port, and it only has 2GB of RAM instead of 3GB.
The Poke2 also has a new updated design. Onyx is claiming it’s the smallest ebook reader in the industry, weighing just 150 grams.
Like the other current Onyx ereaders, the Poke2 runs Android 9.0 and is open to install apps. It has a 2.0GHz octa-core processor with 32GB of internal storage space. It also has dual band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a microphone, and USB OTG support.
It has a 300 ppi E Ink screen with an adjustable warm and cool frontlight. They say it uses a “4th generation” E Ink Carta screen for “sharper and clearer text”.
For some reason Onyx doesn’t sell their 6-inch ereaders from their Amazon store (it’s like they’re afraid to offend Amazon by directly competing with Kindles) so if you want to get a Poke2 you’ll have to order it from Onyx’s website or from Aliexpress.
Again, they haven’t provided any details about the upcoming Poke2 Color, but it looks like a few companies will be coming out with 6-inch color E Ink ereaders later this year, including Pocketbook in Europe and the iReader C6 in China.
Nathan, one possibility for a separate b/w model may be that color screens may be more expensive. So far I suspect you are right on screen quality…only comics displayed in photos of devices. Even if they can only display about 4000 colors, we should have seen a few photo images on display models.
Good point. Price could be a factor. But at nearly $200 for the regular model, I’d hate to see how much the color version will be. It’s already the most expensive model and it isn’t even waterproof and it doesn’t have page buttons.
I absolutely adore this site!!!! I can always find out when the latest e-readers, digital notebooks, etc will be available. I appreciate the person and/or persons who run this well managed site. It’s truly a blessing for readers. Keep up the good work. Stay safe
I believe Onyx’s claim about the size. The first gen Poke is tiny. It’s easily pocketable even in the case.
I wonder what the weight is. They say both 135 grams and 150 grams on the same page. The battery is also much smaller than the previous model (1500mAh vs 2500), which I forgot to mention above.
I am really interested in the Poke 2 but it is now showing unavailable on the website.
Hi, ist there any of you that had experience with Shi Kent from Onyx to Europe?
I finally got my Poke 2 from Hong Kong. It’s light, fast and versatile. I did not find the included software to be useful – I did not like the e-reader, the pdf reader, the font selections, etc. But with Google Play, it is customizable. I installed Adobe Acrobat (the on-board pdf reader can only only increase flowable text size a little bit), a bunch of fonts (thanks for the directions!), a better epub reader, and Chrome, I am stoked that I can read Scrib’d. books on an e-ink reader instead of having to use a tablet. Oh, and the USB cable included didn’t work, but fortunately I have a several dozen lying around.
Hi Jeff, I’m thinking about to get this model. This is my first e-book. Would you recommend me to buy It in general? What about the battery life? Thank you for your response!