They waited for him, and he did not disappoint: ONYX BOOX Nova Pro

Hello, Habr! After several months of waiting, we still waited: ONYX BOOX released its first reader of the 2019 model year, and this is a professional version of the Nova e-book , which was a great success last year. The advantage of the new device is that it has an additional WACOM touch layer (paired with a stylus, of course) and an application for creating digital notes that allows you to draw as well as edit PDF files. Yes, this time they decided not to pull and discarded all the lyrical digressions, it’s better to go under cat.

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For those who do not like to read, here is a short list of technical specifications:

So, Nova Pro. This reader has a screen with a diagonal of 7.8 inches (E-Ink Carta Plus) with a resolution of 1872 × 1404 and 300 PPI. It is completely flush with the frame. You can read in the dark with the backlight - and yes, the MOON Light + color temperature adjustment is available here.



It is possible to adjust the color temperature from cold to warm tones, and both sliders can be used both together or separately. For an evening reading before bedtime, it is better to set a more yellow shade with a filtered blue part of the spectrum, since the blue color prevents the production of melatonin - a “sleep regulator”. Accordingly, in daylight, a cold shade is more suitable.





There is 32 GB of internal memory, 2 GB of RAM, USB-C, a battery capacity of 2800 mAh and Android 6.0. There are several built-in applications (such as a calculator, mail, and a couple of reading programs).



Well, the browser, where without it?



The design of the ONYX BOOX Nova Pro is pretty minimalistic. He has a black matte plastic case with a Home button at the bottom of the device’s front panel. It also has a USB-C port at the bottom, although the microSD slot is not “delivered,” you have to rely only on the built-in memory. Not to say that 32 GB will not be enough, but if you download a lot of technical literature with heavy pdfs, difficulties can arise. There are no speakers or even a 3.5 mm headphone jack, so this is primarily a BOOK. The back of the reader is almost naked - only the ONYX BOOX logo adorns it.







The dimensions are 196.3 × 137 × 7.7 mm and the weight is 275 g. It is much lighter than any tablet (hello to all lovers to compare the incomparable) .

Software / Interface

A few months ago, ONYX BOOX moved its modern line of e-books to a new hardware platform, as a result of which many aspects were revised. Among them, an increase in the speed of opening PDF files by 30%, improved work in the "two pages" mode, handwriting, text input from the keyboard through notes, application management and general optimization.


Nova Pro has already managed to get the firmware update right out of the box, which applies only to this particular model, as well as to future generations of Note Pro. Among the major changes, it is worth noting the improvement in editing PDF files and a handwriting recognition system that converts it to text.

Since we started talking about the interface, we will touch on some of its features. At the very top of the screen is a group with Android user interface icons. It includes the remaining battery power of your device, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and volume buttons. If you click on the top of the screen, a small drop-down menu will appear that allows you to quickly turn off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.



ONYX BOOX has done something interesting with a library that stores all your PDFs and e-books. She can scan metadata to add covers to books that don't have them. This is often found not only in free books, but also in those published by major publishers. Very cool, because you no longer need to use programs like Caliber for this. This is all in addition to the already familiar library functions, such as displaying books as a list or as a grid (and deleting, of course).



The file manager allows you to view all the files that you downloaded to your device, including e-books and PDF files that are not directly copied to the main section with books, as well as downloaded applications.

Dual touch control is provided by two separate sensor layers. Above the surface of the ONYX BOOX Nova Pro screen is a capacitive layer that allows you to flip through books and scale documents with intuitive two-finger movements. And already under the E Ink-panel there was a place for the WACOM touch layer to make notes or sketches with the stylus. And this despite the fact that the distinguishing feature of such a screen is its maximum resemblance to a paper analogue (it is not for nothing that the technology is called “electronic paper”).

There are several text input modes - for example, traditional, using the keyboard. This text can be moved with the frame that surrounds it. For example, if you need to rotate it 180 degrees, make it larger / smaller, or drag it to any place in the document. A cool thing for artists who draw comics or manga - you can simply add “bubbles” with the dialogs of the characters. But most importantly - if you write a bunch of text by hand, the system automatically converts it into the desired text.



Using the stylus delivers true convenience; erasing content is also very simple. On the side there is an eraser, which by default simply cancels the last action. But there are more advanced settings for deleting content in a certain area, highlighting, as well as deleting all content on any page. Yes, it is not necessary to delete each word (or God forbid a symbol) separately.





The stylus itself is more like an ordinary pen, and this makes you feel even more that you are holding in your hands not a gadget for reading electronic books, but a sheet of paper. Support for 4096 degrees of stylus taps (twice as much as Apple Pencil, for example, but the norm for WACOM tablets) makes the device a complete tool for taking notes. Why so many? The greater the number of degrees of depression, the closer the experience with the device is to plain paper. They wanted to draw a thin-thin line - they slightly stroked the screen with a stylus; a little fatter - put a little effort.

It feels like the stylus is very cool calibrated - you can easily slide with a pen (you can't call it any other way) and reproduce visual images as accurately as possible with a normal pen (the author of this review does not really draw, but appreciated the function). The stylus is constantly active and does not require recharging: if you wanted to sketch or record something - you got it and did it.

And since we are talking about using Nova Pro among professionals, there are several different backgrounds for entering text, for example notes or plain white text. At the same time, it is possible to import your own backgrounds that you use at work (or if you just decided to go shopping).



All notes can be saved in PNG format, which remain in the internal storage. Of course, you can also connect Nova Pro to your PC or Mac and manually transfer files to your computer via a USB cable, since USB-C is here.

Reading

ONYX BOOX Nova Pro has a standard e-book reader application that works with files in PDF, EPUB, TXT, DJVU, HTML, RTF, FB2, DOC, MOBI, CHM formats.



A 7.8-inch screen is enough to read your favorite works and work with technical documentation, but MAX 2 remains my favorite in this matter , since it supports A4 documents (and can work as an external monitor). However, this is a player from a slightly different league (in general, a different one, to be frank), and it costs more.

Paging is fast and there are many settings that let you change the font type, font size, line spacing, margins, and so on.







Nova Pro has several different features that I really really liked. When reading an e-book, you can turn off the navigation bar and other windows of the user interface, so the entire page is just text, without any annoying notifications in the system tray.

Contrast adjustment allows you to change the hue of the text. I like how thickening of thin lines is implemented, because you do not need to select a separate "bold" font (like Ember Bold), you can just use your favorite one. By the way, a useful thing when working with scanned documents, where text and graphics are usually too pale. If you define text settings that completely suit you, you can put a special checkmark in the settings to apply them subsequently to each book.


As in other ONYX BOOX readers, we have not forgotten about text search, a quick transition to the table of contents, bookmarking (the same triangle) and other features for comfortable reading.

For avid book lovers (and just those who like to edit documents) there is an opportunity to give yourself more freedom in landscape mode. For example, a blank page will be on one side of the screen, and the text will be placed on the next. This allows you to draw and take notes while reading, while drawing directly on e-books is not yet possible. But there is an editor!




Nova Pro does a great job with PDF files. You can draw directly on a PDF document if the corresponding mode is enabled. Edited PDF documents can then be saved and downloaded to a computer.





Since professional literature is often not available in Russian, it may be necessary to translate it (or interpret the meaning of the word) from English, Chinese, and other languages. In Neo Reader, this is done as natively as possible. Simply select the word with the stylus and select “Dictionary” from the pop-up menu, where a translation or interpretation of the word’s meaning will appear, depending on what you need.

Do not disappoint!

There are currently several 7-inch e-books on the market that Nova Pro is competing with. We will not name specific names here, but note that these devices block you in your ecosystem. ONYX BOOX basically generates all its income through hardware and does not limit its users, so every year a lot of new e-books appear in the manufacturer’s portfolio, and each generation is better than the previous one.

Nova proDefinitely suitable for people who want a large 7-inch display with a WACOM screen and a stylus. This is a big advantage over other readers, which basically just let you read books. Nova Pro will be appreciated by professionals who want to replace paper with an advanced solution, and students in search of a device for quick recording of notes and lectures, so as not to go bankrupt on more expensive devices.

Yes, 27 thousand rubles (which is exactly what Nova Pro costs) is also a rather big amount, but you need to understand that for this money the manufacturer offers not just a “reader”, but a full-fledged working tool with an advanced E-Ink screen (by the way, a monopolist on the market displays, which also determines the price).

Wait a minute, what's in the box?

In fact, when writing this material, there was no purpose to make a normal boring review with uppacking, benchmarks and other buzzwords . You can look at it more from the side of the first impression and experience of use, but for members of the supply sect , which is sometimes the author of this review, I’ll tell you what is in the box: a stylus, a USB-C cable for charging and documentation.







Everything was done cool, each element has its own notch, the box is straight beautiful-beautiful - in general, Apple style, it’s not a shame to present without gift wrapping. The only thing that upset (and this is probably the only significant minus) is the lack of a cover-cover in the kit. However, it can be purchased separately - with a solid frame, material to protect the screen and keep it clean, a hall sensor, a stylus holder and other goodies.




But for dual touch control and autonomy (a month without recharging is not a myth for this reader) - it’s excusable.

Ready to answer your questions in the comments.