ONYX BOOX Faust - He who seeks is not forced to wander

Hello! In the comments on the ONYX BOOX review of James Cook 2 , which recently visited our blog, some were surprised that the device in 2019 comes without a touch screen (Karl!). But for some, this is strange, while others specifically look for a reader with only physical buttons: for example, older people are more comfortable with what they can feel; random swipe on the screen can “break everything”, and returning to reading may not be so easy. Yes, and if such e-books were not needed by anyone, they would simply not be released - manufacturers also don’t really want to chase their suppliers for nothing.

Today, according to numerous requests, we still talk about a device for reading books with a touch screen. And although you won’t surprise anyone now, ONYX BOOX Faust deserves close attention, because this reader is a lite version of the top model ONYX BOOX Darwin 5. And it costs two thousand rubles cheaper (yes, we’ll go straight from the trump card).

ONYX BOOX reader graduation

It is no wonder to get confused in such a variety, because the more devices are available on the market, the more difficult it is to make the right choice. We have already done a comparative review of new products from ONYX BOOX, so we will not once again draw attention to them. However, to understand the entry-level readers it was easier, we give a brief description for each of them:
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• ONYX BOOX James Cook 2 - the cheapest and easiest option, without a touch screen and with a small resolution (600 × 800 pixels);
• ONYX BOOX Caesar 3 - an advanced reader with increased resolution (758 × 1024 pixels);
• ONYX BOOX Faust - the initial reader with a touch screen and a resolution of 600 × 800 pixels;
• ONYX BOOX Vasco da Gama 3 - a device with a capacitive multi-touch screen and a resolution of 758 × 1024 pixels.

In fact, Faust will be an excellent choice for those who definitely need a touch screen display, but do not want to give more than 8,500 rubles for a reader (which is how much it costs). Plus, this is a simplified version of one of the ONYX BOOX flagships (Darwin 5), which was made available by reducing screen resolution and RAM. For the rest, this is a device with a top-filling, which is enough for the eyes not only to read works of art, but also to work with PDF files.

ONYX BOOX Faust Features

Features of ONYX BOOX Faust

Despite the fact that in fact this is the youngest model in the line of ONYX BOOX readers with a touch screen, it received an E Ink Carta screen. The device has the ONYX BOOX proprietary software shell, which is an “add-on” for Android, supports all major text and graphic formats, and also allows you to work with texts in other languages ​​- some of the dictionaries are already preinstalled here. Resolution is not the largest, but for an entry-level e-book, such a display is quite enough, not only due to the fine adjustment of the temperature, but also due to its good responsiveness and high definition of letters even when choosing a small text size.



The case is already familiar to us by other readers of the manufacturer and is made in matte black, made of good plastic. There are four physical control buttons: one is located in the center and acts as the “Home” button, you can call an additional menu and return to the desktop, almost like the Home button in iPhones (which has already ordered a long life). And the other two are symmetrical on the sides, which by default serve to turn the page.







Well, the power button on top is with an LED indicator. When charging, it lights up in orange, during boot - in blue. A trifle, but nice.

If someone flatly refuses physical buttons, you can use the touch screen to control while reading - the current generation (especially children) will find this way of interacting with content more familiar. Since this is a multi-touch display, some familiar gestures work with it, including a “pinch” with your fingers to change the scale of the text.



At the bottom are a microSD-slot for a memory card and a microUSB connector for charging and transferring files.

Screen

ONYX BOOX has not in vain opted for E Ink Carta. It is built on the type of "electronic paper" and is very different from what we saw in the readers several years ago. Such a display has a higher contrast and is characterized by the absence of a flickering backlight (than LCD screens do so). This, in turn, allows modern readers to work for a long time without recharging. But the most important thing is that in such a screen the image is formed using reflected light, so you can read a book on a reader for several hours without eye fatigue.

Many probably noticed how their eyes begin to get tired if they “stick” to a smartphone or tablet for a long time. With a screen like “electronic paper” this does not happen, due to another principle of operation, you can read from it for several hours without getting tired.

At first, it might seem that a 6-inch screen is not enough for some kind of content (and this is true, it is better to study complex schemes on a device like ONYX BOOX MAX 2 ), but you don’t notice this when reading books or technical literature. Yes, the resolution here is far from FullHD, but due to the specifics of E Ink, it is enough to clearly display small elements. It is pleasant to look at the screen, the eyes do not strain, the fonts of a comfortable reading size remain clear. And if you want to consider something closer, there is always a multi-touch zoom at hand.

MOON Light +

Without Moonlight +, it's already hard to imagine ONYX BOOX readers. And this, perhaps, is my favorite feature, which migrated to the new Faust. This is a special type of backlight with which temperature adjustment is possible: for warm and cold light, there are 16 degrees of backlight control (MOON Light + separately adjusts the brightness of “warm” and “cold” LEDs). In most other readers, the backlight is just a slider with brightness adjustment, and the screen always remains white. With a paper book, the eyes are very tense, and when artificial lighting from a smartphone and tablet still appears in the dark, it gets much worse.





MOON Light + at times simplifies reading before bedtime, it’s enough to set a more yellow shade with a filtered blue part of the spectrum and you can calmly read Goethe’s “Faust” for another half an hour, although not everyone will like this reading at night, it’s better to use something from Tolstoy choose. Why even set up a warm light, because you can read with the usual? This, of course, is true, but with a cold (white light) there is a problem with the production of melatonin - the main hormone-regulator of circadian rhythms. The synthesis and secretion of melatonin depends on the light - an excess of light reduces its formation, and a decrease in light increases the synthesis and secretion of the hormone. That is why if you read for a long time from your smartphone before going to bed, then sometimes you sleep restlessly (they even take special medications to ease falling asleep or to adjust the circadian rhythm).

And for comfortable reading from an e-book, even half the backlight is enough.



And most importantly - if you cannot read a paper book in the dark without an external light source, then you turned on the backlight here - and let's go.

Snow field

Of course, Faust technology did not pass by SNOW Field technology, which minimizes the number of artifacts on the screen during partial redrawing, so there are no residues from the previous image. The diagonal of the device is ideal for reading literature, including the one that mainly consists of images.

Interface and Performance

The interface is almost the same as in ONYX BOOX James Cook 2: in the center are the current and last opened books, at the top is the status bar, which shows the battery charge, active interfaces, time and the Home button, at the bottom is the navigation bar. But here, unlike the initial model, there is a Wi-Fi module that allows you to access the Internet - for good reason, the “Browser” application appears here on the lower navigation bar. The latter pleases with its responsiveness, you can visit our blog (and any other) on your favorite Habré and participate in discussions. Redrawing, of course, is, but does not interfere.





ONYX BOOX Faust uses a quad-core processor with a clock speed of 1.2 GHz, 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory with the ability to use a memory card - this is the gold standard for entry-level readers. The book is notable for its good performance, it quickly turns on and off, nothing hangs. Powered by Android 4.4 KitKat. Not Android P, of course, but the reader is no longer needed.

Since now we are all dealing with smartphones and tablets, where there are 2-3 buttons, it is much easier to deal with a touch screen than with physical controls that you still need to get used to. Therefore, the touch screen on the electronic reader is an incredibly convenient solution. You can turn the page with one click, swipe the font to the left with a swipe, make a quick mark in the text, see a word in the dictionary or interact with the menu.

Access to the main functions of the e-book is provided by a line with the icons “Library”, “File Manager”, “Applications”, “MOON Light”, “Settings” and “Browser”. We have already talked about them in detail in other reviews, so we will not stop once again. Most often, you will probably use the library - it stores all the books available on the device, which can be viewed either as a list or as a table or icons. Instead, you can use the file manager, there is sorting alphabetically, name, type, size and creation time to search for the desired file will take even less time than in the "Library".





In the “Applications”, access to the built-in reading applications is realized, but there is also a place for others - you can find it in the same browser, set up mail or count something on the calculator. Perhaps not the most frequent case of using an e-book, but the very existence of such an opportunity cannot but rejoice.



In the system settings, you can change the date, energy saving parameters, see the free space, configure the buttons (for example, swap the paging keys) and so on. Plus there are settings for the field of recent documents, automatic opening of the last book after turning on the device, as well as scanning only the “Books” folder in the built-in memory or on the card. Compared to Android devices, the view is clearly simplified, but here you are unlikely to unlock the bootloader, get root rights and other scary words .

Reading

Due to the fact that the reader works with all major book formats, you can open a multi-page PDF with e-books and read Goethe's favorite work in FB2 before bedtime. In the latter case, it is better to use the built-in OReader application: its interface is designed so that almost 90% of the screen is occupied by a field with text, and lines with information are placed at the top and bottom (although there is also a full-screen mode).



A long press of the scroll key brings up a menu with text settings, where you can change the font for yourself, choose the size, text boldness and much more. You can scroll through pages with physical buttons or gestures on the screen - here, as anyone likes. In addition, there is a search in the text, which allows you to go to the table of contents or to the desired page; You can save quotes or just bookmark.







What I liked most was the ability to translate a word in a few clicks when reading literature in a foreign language: just select the word, click on the pop-up window and select "Dictionary" - after which the word translation will appear in a separate window. In addition, in the settings you can assign a dictionary call for a long press on a word - this will be even faster.







For PDF files there is Neo Reader (if you do not install third-party applications). It is more minimalistic and specially tailored for working with multi-page documentation - for example, you can conveniently navigate through a document using the progress bar. Of course, this application, like working with PDF, was also in the same James Cook 2, but here, due to the touch screen and support for multi-touch gestures, all this is much more convenient. Made a “sliver” - increased the desired fragment; if they wanted to - moved a few pages forward and so on.

Offline work

In the comments on the previous review, someone suggested that in the case of an e-book, like with an iPhone or tablet, you will have to live in a “charge to charge” mode every day. This is completely not the case: the cost-effectiveness of the electronic ink screen and the energy-efficient hardware platform make the battery life of the reader pretty good - when reading about an hour a day, the device will work on a single charge for more than a month.

With hardcore use with Wi-Fi always on, this time can be reduced to a day or two, but in the “normal” mixed reading mode, charging will be required about once every three weeks, if you do not remove the automatic Wi-Fi shutdown.

Have you put the cover on?

As you probably already noticed, yes! Comes with a cover-cover (Darwin 5 sends greetings), which simulates rough embossed leather and has a rigid frame. Soft material is placed inside to protect the screen. And thanks to the presence of the Hall sensor, the book automatically goes into sleep mode when the cover closes and wakes up when it is opened. The inscription “Faust” adorns the case.



The electronic book “sits” in it reliably, so that the accessory performs not only aesthetic, but also a protective function.

Goethe's Verdict

Unlike the traditional versions of the legend according to which Faust goes to hell, in the Goethe's book of the same name, despite the fulfillment of the terms of the agreement and the fact that Mephistopheles acted with the permission of God, the angels take the soul of Faust from Mephistopheles and take it to heaven. And it seems to me that he would give such a chance to an electronic book named after the main character of the work. She has plenty of positive qualities - from increased battery life and “useful” backlighting to supporting many formats and a touch screen.