Boox has just announced its Boox Poke 2 e-reader, a 6-inch Carta e-reader running Android 9. Android and 6 inches… what do you think?
It’s official. Onyx Boox now offers a high-end 6-inch e-reader on Android 9, the Boox Poke 2. On paper, the e-reader is interesting, because it features a 4th generation e Ink Carta screen with a HD resolution of 1488×1072 pixels (300 ppi), a Qualcomm Octa core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage and Wi-Fi capabilities, Bluetooth and microphone … A real small eInk tablet, which makes it the most powerful 6-inch e-reader on the market.
But is it useful? Its price is around 200 euros on the brand’s website (shipping from China), which puts it among the most expensive e-readers on the market. Android is a plus for those looking for great versatility, but isn’t the good point of an e-reader precisely a certain minimalism that allows you to concentrate on reading without being distracted? In this case, a more basic 6-inch e-reader, such as the Kindle Paperwhite or the Kobo Clara HD will probably be enough, at almost half the price!
An Android e-reader can be interesting to install your favorite applications and use your e-reader (with an eInk screen) to check your emails, build yourself a kind of eInk typewriter by adding a keyboard or to read and annotate PDF files. But for that, a 6-inch e-reader seems a bit too small: you would need an 8-inch or even 10-inch e-reader.
In my opinion, this e-reader is a kind of technological feat, but doesn’t bring much to the e-reader scene: if the goal is to read books, a simpler e-reader will do the trick; If the goal is to find a work device with an eInk screen, then a larger device – like the Boox Note 2 – will be preferable, and this second device comes with a Mobius screen, more resistant than the Carta screen with a thin glass plate used on the Boox Poke 2. This is important as this potentially means greater durability.
This e-reader is therefore interesting for anyone looking for a 6-inch e-reader that runs Android 9 for specific uses, but for most use cases, a simpler and less expensive e-reader – for which we can be more easily sure that there will be software updates on the long run -, seems preferable to me.