It looks like Onyx is back to their old tricks of abandoning products that have only been on the market for a few months.
Apparently when they announced the released of the new Boox Page last month, that also meant the end of the Leaf2 because now the product page at B&H says it’s been discontinued, and it’s also no longer available to purchase from Onyx’s website either.
Onyx first announced the Leaf2 at the end of last October, but it was mostly out of stock for the first couple of months, especially the white version, which has only been available for about 6 or 7 months tops.
Now I’m glad I didn’t waste the time and money reviewing the Leaf2 (I had planned on buying the white one but it was always out of stock for the first few months after it was announced). That’s one of the main problems with Onyx; they rarely commit to anything for longer than a year. They’d rather release something new every 6 months or so and keep churning out new models with minor changes than sticking with existing products.
The new Boox Page is a perfect example of that. It has the same design as the Leaf2 (in fact, the dimensions are identical), but they changed the CPU, added 1GB of RAM, and increased the battery size by 15%. So essentially they made a few minor changes to the Leaf2 and jacked up the price by $50. That’s a standard Onyx move. By this time next year they’ll have moved on to the Page2, and it’ll be 95% the same as the original Page.
There are a lot of things to like about Onyx’s devices, but their business practices are a different matter entirely. They don’t abide by the same set of laws as other companies, and they often discontinue products at the drop of a hat. It makes it hard to trust buying anything from them with such a transient business model, and it’s not like the newer models they keep releasing are a big step up from previous versions. Most of their “upgrades” aren’t even worth it.
The Leaf 2 was terribly slow, so not sad that it has been discontinued, but absolutely agree on your points.
They’ve got some good devices in production. All would really benefit from some time spent on the software, which is a bit of a mess.
Thank you for pointing this out.
I never had an Onyx product, and I thought from seeing reviews their products were top of the range.
After reading this, I wonder what one should buy.
You have these brands with proprietary, locked-in interfaces, like the Amazons and Kobo’s.
Then there’s the more open ones using Android, such as the Boox devices from Onyx.
But if the latter don’t get any software upgrades, then that is not good either.
I don’t know what remains besides that.
The kobos don’t have a lock in. I’ve got plenty of side loaded manga and ebooks on my elipsa. If you want something that’s completely open, stable with long support Pocketbook might be worth a look.
Kobo might not be locked in, but it is limited to reading ebooks, comics, etc.?
And reading Kindle books you bought before for an Amazon device won’t work, right?
You cannot install any Android apps, right?
So it feels more limited than an Android device, where you could install the Kindle app, the Kobo app, etc.
Pocketbook is another option, but aren’t those devices technologically less advanced than the Onyx Boox brand?
Like the Colorpad 2, just released, but uses Kaleido Plus instead of the newer Kaleido 3.
Personally, I don’t think simplicity is a bad thing in a reading device. Even with all of Onyx’s advanced features, Kindles and Kobos still do the basics better, and the Kindle and Kobo Android apps aren’t on the same level as Kindle and Kobo ereaders (Kobo’s Android app is especially bad compared to their ereaders). Onyx’s PDF app has a lot more features than other devices, so that’s one area where I’d definitely recommend a Boox device over something else, but for just reading ebooks there are better options, IMO.
I read Amazon books on my Kobo. All you need to do is strip DRM, convert to EPUB or KEPUB, load on your Kobo, and there you go, off and reading.
At any rate, it’d be nice to see Onyx and Pocketbook step it up a little, provide more competition.
And if you don’t care much about staying up to date with latest software updates you are good with one Onyx device for at least 5 years (or more).
I mean, now there isn’t so much difference between Android versions. Yes you don’t get security updates, I wouldn’t put a bank app in an Onyx, but with Android 8 you still get the latest version of most apps, it’s not like the jumps from Android 4 to 5 in the past. I have an old Samsung tablet (2016, and it’s not one of the top of the line models) I use for entertainment with Android 8.1 OS and I’m getting updated versions of Firefox, Chrome and the usual apps. It’s more a hassle to get enough space for the apps I use, now 16G of internal memory are not enough, but apart from that, it’s functional.
A Hisense 5 I use for reading with Android 10 is more than enough for me, I don’t need more modern Android with security updates, of course, your uses might be different so you need security updates, but in general, with a modern enough OS to just read you have a device for years.
“And if you don’t care much about staying up to date with latest software updates you are good with one Onyx device for at least 5 years (or more).”
Unfortunately, my Boox Note died after just over a year. It was great while it worked, but I’m hesitant to buy another one at this stage. A pity, as it was the best solution I’ve seen for reading long academic PDF texts!
I still have a non-pro 1st gen Poke. It works fine. If you don’t feel the need to rush out and buy whatever is new, I don’t see the problem here.
My daily driver (Nova Air C) was recently replaced in the lineup with something that has better tech and 50% better color resolution. If Boox changed models like Amazon that wouldn’t release for another 3 years. I don’t need it and won’t be upgrading until my breaks, but I’m glad they released it for the newcomers to the brand.
I’m not mad at Boox. I’m thankful they do this. It pushes the industry forward.
The Leaf could have been like the Kindle Oasis.
For me it’s not so much about the short time frame (when they release a dud they should pull it early), it’s the fact that they rush as many new models onto the market as possible without really testing them thoroughly to see if there are any issues. By most reports the processor downgrade on the Leaf2 made for a very unpleasant user experience. Onyx should’ve known that would be an problem if they weren’t in such a rush to release new products all the time. They have a tendency to treat their customers like beta testers, which is fine if they’re up front about it like they were with their new Palma device, but usually that’s not the case.