Onyx has released two new Android-powered E Ink devices that double as ereaders and notepads. There’s a 10.3-inch Note Air and a 13.3-inch Max Lumi.
The Max Lumi is the first 13.3-inch ereader to feature a frontlight, and the Note Air has a new design that’s thinner than the Note2, and it’s also cheaper, but they left out a few features.
Both devices come with an upgraded octa-core processor and they run software based on Android 10. Onyx added some new software features with the update, including split-screen to view two apps at once.
Onyx claims the new processor is 30% faster and 10% more power-efficient than the previous processor. Both devices have USB-C ports with support for OTG, along with Bluetooth 5.0 and dual band WiFi support, and the Max adds an HDMI port so you can use the devices as an E Ink monitor.
A lot of folks have been waiting for a 13.3-inch ereader with a frontlight, and now the Max Lumi finally fills that niche. Onyx claims they built 108 prototypes over the past nine months before they could get the frontlight uniformity just right.
The design of the Note Air is very similar to the new Remarkable 2. In fact they pretty much copied the Remarkable’s design, even adding a magnetic side to hold the stylus in place.
The name of the Note Air is a bit of a misnomer because it’s actually 40 grams heavier than the Onyx Note2. It also lacks the fingerprint sensor and the physical back button, and it only has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage space instead of 4GB with 64GB, although the RAM spec is LPDDR4X opposed to LPDDR3. The battery is also smaller at 3000mAh—it’s 4300mAh on the Note2.
Another weird thing about the Note Air is it has an Carta screen instead of a Mobius screen. The resolution and size is the same but Carta screens are less durable because they have a thin glass backplane instead of a flexible backplane like Mobius screens, so there’s a greater chance of the screen breaking.
However, at $479 the Note Air has a lower price than the Note2 at $549, although it’s been on sale for $519 lately. The retail price for the Max Lumi is $879. Both devices can be ordered now with a $20 discount from Onyx’s website. Onyx is going to sell them from their Amazon store as well, but they aren’t available to order just yet.
Nathan,
Can you get them to send you a review model of the Note Air? I am a fan of one side devices and may pull the trigger on this one. Wish for page turn buttons. Suprised it is heavier than the Note 2-probably glass screen.
The future of big e-readers is looking brighter…will Amazon finally jump on board…Kobo refresh its larger e-readers??
I no longer accept review units because I don’t feel like it’s a genuine way to do reviews. I don’t trust reviews by people who don’t purchase the products they review, so I’m not going to do the same. I might buy one to review, but probably not. To me it’s a clear downgrade from the Note2, and it’s hard to keep reviewing the same thing over and over again, especially with Onyx because they release a new model every 3 months and functionally everything is still 95% the same as before. It’s also discouraging spending a bunch of time reviewing a product that’s just going to get replaced by a newer model in a few months anyway. They’ll probably release a Note3 in January with the new processor and RAM specs so what’s the point. Just buy from Amazon and then return it if you don’t like it. Doing reviews is getting to the point where it’s not really worth the time anymore. In this niche it’s just the same thing over and over again. Sometimes I feel like Bill Murray in that movie Groundhog Day.
You just earned yourself a new level of respect for the way you approach reviews. Wish more people took a similar approach.
What a big fail is Note Air! Glass screen? Mon Dieu!
Even a sudden temperature chage can break it!
Regarding your decision to no longer accept review units because it’s not a genuine way to do reviews: I agree that this COULD be an issue. We absolutely need clear disclosures from tech reviewers in such a way that the reviewer openly and honestly tells us:
– was the unit purchased on your own or supplied (to keep, or to be returned)
– is your content being reviewed
– was there an agreement to do a “favorable review” or is it strictly a neutral and honest review
For great examples of this, watch a couple Lon.TV videos on Youtube. He is a tech reviewer and has been giving his disclosures at the very beginning and it does a great job of building trust. Obviously, he COULD lie to us. But somehow his openness and disclosures seems quite genuine. He even recently posted a video where he suggests that all tech reviewers pledge to state these disclosures.
To me it’s not even about the disclosure because it’s easy to spot phony reviews. To me it’s more of an issue of why bother posting a review if it’s not a product you’re deeply interested in, and if you truly are interested in the product then why not just buy it yourself to review—that’s a sign of true commitment. It’s more about the meaning behind the review than it is the review itself. If someone isn’t interested in buying a product to review then they really aren’t interested in the product the same way a paying customer is so everything is being filtered through a skewed perspective.
Hi Nathan,
Any rumors or news of new 7.8 inch devices or are they gonna stick with the Nova 2 for a while?
Thanks.
The Nova2 was just released 5 months ago so I’d guess it has a little life left, but with Onyx you never know. There’s a rumor they might release a color version but the cost would likely be astronomical. The Nova2 is already by far the most expensive 7.8-inch model on the market at $339 so how much would they want for a color version? $450? Nobody in their right mind is going to pay that much, especially considering the flaws with color E Ink.