The Onyx BOOX Mira is a 13.3 inch portable monitor with a 2200 x 1650 pixel E Ink touchscreen display featuring a front-light with adjustable color temperature and adjustable screen refresh rates.
First announced in May, the Mira is now available for purchase from the Onyx BOOX Shop. But with a $800 price tag, it’s not exactly cheap.
E Ink displays are most often associated with devices like eBook readers, since they offer a paper-like reading experience. Text and graphics on an E Ink display are visible using only ambient lighting, so illuminated displays are entirely optional. And while LCD and AMOLED displays can be hard to view in direct sunlight, many E Ink screens look better under the sun.
Many people also find that E Ink displays cause less eye strain than other types of screens.
The trade-off is that most E Ink displays have a limited color palette and slow screen refresh rates. That second part has a silver lining – slow refresh rates mean that video or games don’t always look great on an E Ink display, but since these low-power screens only use electricity when the screen is refreshed, you can often get long battery life from E Ink devices.
Onyx has been making eReaders for years, but now the company is entering the E Ink monitor space with the BOOX Mira. The first model is the 13.3 inch version, which has an E Ink Mobius display with 16 shades of grey and 207 pixels per inch.
The display has a mini HDMI port and two USB Type-C ports, allowing you to connect the monitor to a PC or phone. Onyx says that Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android are officially supported, but there are some limitations – AMD GPUs aren’t yet supported, for example.
The Onyx BOOX Mira weighs about 1.3 pounds and measures just 0.22 inches thick at its thinnest point.
It has a scroll wheel and two physical buttons: one function button plus a screen refresh button that you can press if things look wonky on the display. And you can choose between “normal,” “text, ” “video,” and “slideshow” modes for screen refresh rates optimized for each different kind of content.
Unlike most Onyx devices, the Mira is not designed for use as a standalone device. It doesn’t have its own battery, but instead draws power from the device it’s connected to. And it has a kickstand, allowing you to stand it up on a desk or table rather than holding it in your hands.
While the $800 price tag makes the Mira rather expensive by portable display standards, it’s not like there’s a lot of competition in this space. The closest competitor is probably the Dasung Paperlike, another 13.3 inch E Ink display which also sells for $800 and up.
And the Boox Mira looks like a bargain compared to the upcoming Onyx BOOX Mira Pro. That model features a 25.3 inch, 3200 x 1800 pixel display with built-in stereo speakers and a stand. Onyx says the Mira Pro will be available soon for $1800.
via Notebook Italia
I really like the idea, and I would consider getting one if the pricing was lower.
However the price is understandable. E-ink panels are very expensive, and without the ability to subsidize the cost through E-book sales, this is going to be expensive.
Don’t think you meant 154.6 inch display
Well, that’s definitely one of the strangest typos I’ve made in a while. Thanks for the heads up. It should have read 25.3 inches.