Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C Review: A Versatile Productivity Beast
Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C smashes a color eReader, digital notebook, and laptop into a 10.3-inch productivity beast. This hybrid device can replace laptops for some students and professionals. However, it’s worth noting that a lack of regular security updates, washed-out colors, slow-refresh rate, and high cost means it’s not for everyone.
The $599Onyx Boox Tab Ultra Csmashes a color eReader, digital notebook, and laptop into a 10.3-inch productivity beast. This Chimera of a device can replace laptops for students and professionals. However, some users may have concerns about its lack of regular security updates and high cost. Our takeaway is if you need a backlight-free iPad alternative, look no further than the Tab Ultra C.
Why Buy an Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C eReader-Tablet Hybrid?
The Tab Ultra C makes two key value propositions. First, its backlight-free E Ink color panel makes long reading, writing, and note-taking sessions eyestrain free. Second, its large 10.3-inch screen, handwriting input, long battery life, custom software, and optional keyboard make it a productivity beast.
Because of its versatile design, the Tab Ultra C surpasses other eReaders on the market. It’s more comparable to a tablet in its form and function. With an elegant chassis and aluminum unibody, the Tab Ultra C looks as good as any iPad or Samsung tablet. But the color E Ink panel lacks the color vibrancy of an iPad, and its refresh rate and responsiveness feel sluggish in comparison. You might think of it as an eReader that can do most of what a high-end tablet can, without the eyestrain.
That means the Tab Ultra C is more of a wellness product that can reduce the health consequences of endlessly staring into a glowing display. In fact, a 2023 study from Harvard found thatE Ink screens are up to three times healthier than an LCD panel. Additionally, the study found that children were more susceptible to the impact of LCD emissions. This means E Ink might be even more suitable for students. Or anyone concerned about macular degeneration.
Display and Touchscreen
The shining jewel of the Tab Ultra C is its 10.3-inch Kaleido 3 color E Ink display. The secret behind its bistable prismatic screen is that it’s really two technologies sandwiched on top of one another. First, it’s an RGB color panel (4,096 colors). Second, beneath the color layer, is a black-and-white Carta 1200 screen (2,480 x 1,860). The big difference between older iterations of Kaleido technology, such as Kaleido+ (ourNova 3 Color review), is that the color layer offers greater vibrancy, while the black-and-white layer offers improved contrast and refresh speeds.
The update of both technologies delivers improved image quality, especially for black and whites. However, enabling the color layer will cause a substantial reduction in resolution, dropping down to 1,240 x 930 pixels. In fact, all single-layer RGB color layers reduce resolution because they interfere with the light twice. First, as light passes through the display stack. Second, when it reflects through the stack. This is a fundamental design problem with all reflective display technologies, such as reflective LCD andother ePaper screens. It’s also why the contrast ratio on E Ink Carta panels without a color layer is slightly higher than on color E Ink panels.
Good Processor and OK RAM
Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor, the Tab Ultra C offers adequate performance for productivity tasks, although it may not match the capabilities of high-end tablets, like the iPad. The processor’sheterogeneous multiprocessing(HMP) design assists with snappy page turns and excellent battery life, compared to most quad-core processors. However, the 4GB RAM module limits the device’s ability to handle numerous apps simultaneously, causing some sluggishness during transitions between apps.
While the Snapdragon 665 is among the fastest and most advanced processors used in eReaders, it’s still behind the curve when compared to similarly priced tablets. Something that might give buyers pause is that Qualcomm’s largest competitor,MediaTek, announced a recent partnership with E Ink. While MediaTek’s moldering MT8183 chip isn’t anything to brag about, the collaboration between the firms may lead to faster and cheaper processors. That means the price on Onyx’s eReaders might come down in the future.
Outstanding Battery Life
The Tab Ultra C’s 6,300 mAh battery is large. And thanks to its bistable E Ink panel, it gets roughly a week of battery life while connected to the internet and set to never power down. However, if used without Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled, the battery life can reach over a month. If you set the device to power down between uses, the battery life may reach two months or more.
Storage and Wireless Connectivity
With a spacious 128 GB UFS 2.1 storage module, the Tab Ultra C provides adequate space for eBooks and eComics. For users requiring additional storage, the device offers a MicroSD card slot, supporting up to 1TB. While the Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 5 wireless connectivity options may not be the latest and greatest, they are sufficient for most productivity tasks. As you hopefully won’t be streaming 4K HDR video on an E Ink panel, Wi-Fi 5 is more than enough.
The option to add additional storage to the Tab Ultra C is a leg up over its competitors, such as the iPad or Kindle Scribe. Not only do users save money on storage, they can also move their MicroSD card to a new device if they ever upgrade. The impact on users is a lower cost of adoption and better modularity.
Frontlight Technology and G-Sensor
The Tab Ultra C’s variable color temperature frontlight allows for comfortable reading in various lighting conditions, and its low brightness setting ensures readability in pitch-black environments. While the amber frontlight may affect the vibrancy of the color display, it’s eye-friendly for nighttime reading. Furthermore, the frontlight’s brightness can scale down to barely perceptible in pitch-black darkness.
The device’s G-sensor enables smooth screen rotation when transitioning between portrait and landscape modes, providing convenience when taking notes or reading double-wide PDF scans or eComics. However, we found that frequent use of the autorotation feature generated a great deal of image ghosting and artifacting. Manually triggering the full-screen refresh mode mostly eliminated any visual burrs and other defects.
Something else worth mentioning is that the frontlights are color-shifted red over previous editions of Onyx’s color eReaders, even when set to cold white. Personally, I prefer warmer colors over colder ones, but personal preferences can vary. Onyx and E Ink advertise this as a wellness-related feature because it reduces the amount of blue light that users are exposed to.
Camera and Productivity Features
Equipped with a 16MP rear-facing camera, the Tab Ultra C is capable of document scanning and digitization. While not ideal for photography, the camera’s main strength lies in its ability to integrate with Onyx’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. This feature enables accurate transcription, translation, and text reflow, eliminating the need for paper backups. Additionally, users can directly write notes onto scanned documents using the included stylus.
Unfortunately, there’s no image stabilization and no flash. That means you’ll need to shoot images with adequate lighting or otherwise suffer from blurry images. You’d be better off using a smartphone camera to perform most image captures. Even so, it’s convenient having a camera integrated into the device.
Note-Taking With a Stylus
The Tab Ultra C’s Wacom touch layer works with a stylus for handwriting input and it uses custom software for transcription to digital text. In other words, you can convert your handwriting using character recognition software into digital text. The one-two combination knockout punch? You can then throw transcribed text into other Android apps, such as Google Keep or Microsoft To-Do. There’s an endless number of possibilities. On the downside, you’re pretty much limited to using Onyx’s first-party applications for writing on eBooks or making sketches. The lag when using third-party apps, like OneNote, renders them unusable.
The passive stylus doesn’t use a battery and offers replaceable tips. Although extra tips aren’t included in the box, many off-the-shelf tips will fit.
Software and Operating System
Magical Transcription and Translation Software
Onyx’s software currently ranks at the very top of eReaders, beating even Amazon’s Kindle series. Unlike a Kindle Scribe, the Tab Ultra C can do almost anything with a document. Two standout features include translation and optical text reflow. The translation feature can use Bing Translate or Google Translate to turn a digitally transcoded text into almost any language using the NeoReader app.
The optical text reflow feature can reflow scanned documents so that they better fit on a page. Previous iterations of text-reflow software could only reflow digital text. In other words, the reflow algorithm would require that the text exist as ASCII characters in order to crunch it into a page. Onyx’s method doesn’t require recognizing a digital character but instead can optically recognize text and reorient it to better fit onto a page. I’ve seen nothing like it in the eReader world, and it’s the absolute best tool for reading scanned PDF documents.
Good Document Scanning, Bad Camera
The Tab Ultra C’s document capture abilities are a mix of good software combined with a bad camera. The 16MP camera lacks image stabilization, which leads to blurry, out-of-focus text when images are taken in low light conditions. However, when you do have a good-quality capture, there’s a strong mix of image-to-text software, note-taking importation, and more, which can transcribe scanned text into digital notes.
Android 11, Security, and Certification
Onyx includes an official copy of the Google Play Store, without the need for additional certification steps as required in other iterations of its eReaders. The Tab Ultra C supports a wide range of document formats, making it versatile for reading and productivity tasks. While it may not excel in entertainment, its functionality for media consumption is sufficient for productivity-related work.
But not everything is gravy. The Tab C Ultra has a serious issue with security updates. While Onyx pushes out feature updates for an extraordinary five years for their devices, it doesn’t issue security updates or upgrade versions of Android. Compared to such tablet manufacturers as Samsung and Apple, Onyx lags behind. However, Google’s official position on security updates is that ifAndroid 11 has the 2020 patch, then its most dangerous security vulnerabilities have been fixed. The appSecurity Patch Checkerreports that the Tab Ultra C is up-to-date on its security patches.
Additional Features
Fingerprint Sensor and Power Button
The Tab Ultra C incorporates a fingerprint sensor within its power button, offering fast and accurate biometric authentication. I found that simply touching the power button turned the device on and authenticated the user. On the downside, because Android 11 includes full-disk encryption, if you forget your password, you’ll have to factory reset the Tab Ultra C.
Lack of Fast Charge
The USB-C port supports Power Delivery (PD) charging, allowing the device to reach a full battery charge within two and a half to three hours.
While the built-in speakers provide satisfactory sound quality for video calls, users seeking a more immersive experience should use Bluetooth headphones.
Expandable Storage
The Tab Ultra C’s expandable storage capability addresses a major design shortcoming of previous Onyx eReaders. Like on smartphones, there’s a removable MicroSD card tray. The slot supports up to 1TB of additional storage. We tested the slot using a 128 GB Samsung card and maxed out the storage capacity using an offline dump of Wikipedia using the amazing Kiwix app (thebest offline Android Wikipedia apps). As expected, there were no odd performance issues and offline Wikipedia worked as it should.
Should You Buy the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C?
The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C combines the versatility of a tablet with the battery life and comfort of an eReader. Its software and features make it a powerful productivity tool, ideal for reading, note-taking, and text digitization. However, the lack of regular security updates and the inherent limitations of a slow-refresh screen may turn off many potential buyers. Overall, the Tab Ultra C stands out as the best option in the market for users seeking an eye-friendly eReader, an electronic notepad, and a laptop substitute with a large, color display.
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