Today Onyx has officially released their first ebook reader that uses E Ink’s new color Kaleido screen technology.
Like the PocketBook Color that was just released, the Poke2 Color has a 6-inch E Ink screen that can display 4096 colors. Text renders at 300 ppi, but because of the way the color filter works color content renders at 100 ppi.
The Poke2 Color has a high early-adopters price of $299. It’s available to purchase from Onyx’s website and from one of Onyx’s resellers on Amazon (oddly Onyx currently doesn’t have it listed on their own Amazon store).
The $299 price is a lot higher than 6-inch ereaders with monochrome E Ink screens ($110 higher than the regular Poke2, which is pricier than most itself). But if you want a color E Ink screen there aren’t many options.
The Poke2 Color has some pretty nice specs. It has a 2.0GHz octa-core processor with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It has a frontlight but lacks color temperature adjustment, and it supports dual band Wi-Fi and USB OTG. It has a 1500mAh battery and microUSB port. The device weighs only 150 grams.
Like Onyx’s other Android devices, the Poke2 Color runs Android 9.0 and is open to install apps, including the Kindle app, so that makes it a lot more versatile than a typical e-reader. Unfortunately it doesn’t have a Wacom touchscreen like Onyx’s larger models.
Stay tuned for a full review of the Poke2 Color later this month!
Correction: The article initially stated the frontlight had adjustable color temperature, but it turns out that is not the case. It just has a regular frontlight.
On Twitter I asked Onyx why their Poke devices aren’t for sale at U.S. Amazon. They said they restrict sales to their China site. No real reason was given but perhaps it’s because the price difference between a Kindle and theirs would be too jarring and not lead to enough sales for the hassle of sending them in bulk to the U.S.. That’s just speculation. I look forward to your review of the color Poke.
I asked an Onyx rep about that once too and the gist I got was they have a good thing going selling their larger models on Amazon and don’t want to offend Amazon in some way by directly competing with Kindles. My take is Amazon could care less if they sell their 6-inch models as well but whatever…
Yeah, steering clear of Azn was the subtext too. But I think they also like keeping as much profit as they can by selling direct.
Either way it doesn’t make any sense. Now there are two different resellers selling the Poke2 Color on Amazon for the same price Onyx is charging directly from their website. Why not just sell it on Amazon themselves?
Is the battery life on these Android devices comparable to a Kindle’s? They look interesting but with all those extra services running I’m worried it wouldn’t last much longer than a traditional tablet.
It depends on which Kindle you’re talking about. Some models have like double the battery life of others. From my experience Android can be a bit more of a drain, but it seems Onyx has removed a lot of the unnecessary stuff. Battery life is quite good on the Note2 with WiFi off most of the time, but I haven’t used any of their recent 6-inch devices yet to compare. I’ll find out with the Poke2 Color.
FYI: Someone did an in-depth battery test of the monochrome Poke 2. https://youtu.be/7qvNLj4rK-U Poke Color has same size battery.