E Ink displays are low power screens which you can see without a backlight. They’re most often found in eReaders like the Amazon Kindle or B&N NOOK Simple Touch, but Chinese company Onyx is showing off new products including an upcoming smartphone featuring an E Ink display.

The company also has a product which looks like an eReader, but which acts more like a tablet thanks to its Android operating system and support for third-party Android apps.

Charbax from ARMDevices has a video demonstrating each type of device.

Onyx E43 smartphone

The Onyx E43 phone has a 4.3 inch E Ink display, a 1 GHz processor, and it’s expected to launch this summer. The tablet/eReader is still a prototype which hasn’t yet entered mass production.

Nate at The Digital Reader did some digging, and uncovered two different versions of the Android eReader.

Onyx R65
Onyx R65

The Onyx BOOX R65 has an E Ink screen, WiFi, a front-light, and an IR touchscreen. It’s powered by a 1 GHz ARM COrtex-A8 processor, has 256MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and runs Android 2.3 software.

The Onyx BOOX C65 has similar specs, but it appears to have a capacitive touchscreen instead of infrared.

Onyx C65
Onyx C65

Both models feature eBook software that supports EPUB and PDF files with Adobe DRM, as well as other formats such as HTML, TXT, and FB2. The each have microSD card slots and support for text-to-speech.

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6 replies on “Onyx introduces Android phone, tablets with E Ink screens”

  2. So, do they have Google Play? Can you sideload apps? Is it compatible with the Amazon Kindle app?

    1. When I say “Is it compatible with the Amazon Kindle app?” I am not asking if the stock software is compatible with azw files. I’m asking if the actual Android Kindle App will run on it.

  3. Make it rugged and you have a field device that would run android logistic and data entry apps. Perfect for the field service industry. They would have switched to smartphones already if it wasn’t for short battery life and lack of daylight readability.

  4. I would very much like to own this. Make it rugged with long battery life and you’ve got your new Nokia. I’m assuming no camera, but there’s no reason for it not to have one. Viewfinders were all we had back in the day.

    “What is you name…”

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