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Onyx Boox Kepler Pro Coming Soon – Android 4.0, Waterproof, Flush-Mounted Carta E-ink Screen

onyx-book-keplerHere’s an interesting addendum to yesterday’s ereader video from Charbax. Regular TDR commenter Hrafn has identified the 6″ ereader shown late in that video, and posted the info over at MobileRead.

It’s called the Kepler, and Onyx has already posted the product listing. There are going to be three models, and one, the Kepler Pro, will be a competitor to the 3rd-gen Kindle Paperwhite (we don’t have the specs for the other two models).

The Kepler Pro runs Android 4.0 on a 1GHz CPU with 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, and a microSD card slot.

It has a flush-mounted Carta E-ink screen (1442 x 1072 resolution) with frontlight and either a capacitive touchscreen or a digitizer with stylus (the listing contradicts itself, but no stylus was shown in the video). Under that screen you’ll find Wifi, Bluetooth,a 3Ah battery, all  wrapped in a waterproof shell.

For obvious reasons there’s no headphone jack or speaker, but the Kepler Pro does have audio support via Bluetooth. It can play mp3 files or stream TTS over a Bluetooth speaker.

Weighing in at 205 grams, the Kepler Pro measures 8 mm thin.

All in all, this ereader is bound to appeal to a wide variety of users. If the flush-mounted high resolution screen doesn’t draw you in, the waterproof shell might, or Android, or the Bluetooth support.

All in all, this is about three-quarters of the ereader many wish the Kindle Oasis would have been. The only way Onyx could improve upon this design is to put page turn buttons on one side of the screen to make it easier to use one-handed.

Who knows, maybe that will turn up in the next model.

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Comments


vicente April 21, 2016 um 8:47 am

It is great the variety of e-readers that are available in Europe. I am in Spain and have a Onyx M92, wich is wonderful to read large pdf, and an old Sony prs-t1 to read other formats.

Nate Hoffelder April 21, 2016 um 9:00 am

I’m a little jealous, yes.

poiboy April 21, 2016 um 12:03 pm

i agree.. quite geo-jealous.


javi April 21, 2016 um 10:56 am

Oye Vicente y ¿cuánto te costó el Sony si no es mucho preguntar?
Yo la verdad envidio el que los estadounidenses (e ingleses y alemanes) tienen Amazon Instant Video…

vicente April 21, 2016 um 12:30 pm

Pues me lo trajeron de regalo de EEUU al poco de salir. Creo que les costó, al cambio de euro/dolar de entonces, sobre 120 €. Sin impuestos de aduanas, por supuesto, porque lo trajeron como si fuese suyo.


Marie April 21, 2016 um 11:28 am

I still love my Kobo Aura, but I have to admit, the photos here have me almost drooling.


Alain April 21, 2016 um 12:31 pm

Very interesting, cannot wait to learn more.
I have noticed that the product page on Onyx’webpage mentions "Only with two buttons on both sides as flip keys and one power button" – do you not think the so called flip keys could be page-turn buttons (although the placement looks unusual on the illustration)?
Incidentally the website also mentions a 'Kepler Lite' without the two buttons.

Nate Hoffelder April 21, 2016 um 12:33 pm

I was going by the image. it doesn’t show oage turn buttons, so I thought it didn’t have them.

Edit: No, wait, I see that the buttons are on the edge. I thought that was a power button or something. But you’re right, those are page turn buttons.


Fbone April 21, 2016 um 12:42 pm

Your second pic shows one of the "flip" keys.

Nate Hoffelder April 21, 2016 um 2:38 pm

I didn’t realize that is what we were looking at.


Frank April 22, 2016 um 10:47 am

While this e-reader may be better to us, the commenters, I have to give some credit to Amazon’s research. Maybe the Oasis is exactly what many people want in an e-reader.

However, the Fire Phone shows they may not research things enough.


Solitude April 22, 2016 um 2:41 pm

This looks like a pro a le purchase for me. I bought an I86ML and have been happy with it, and this could replace the KPW1 I carry around. Onyx support has been decent from Booxtor.

That said, I like the features the Kindle Oasis offers to people with arthritis or various arm and hand injuries. I suspect that those will be popular at retirement homes and health ambulatory care centers. I might look into getting one for my dad.


BDR April 23, 2016 um 3:01 pm

The problem in the states has been distribution and all of this does us little good if we can’t get it; or have to wait 3 weeks for fulfillment from very sketchy businesses.

Here, they’re in desperate need of a distributor and B&N is in desperate need of products that will make it relevant again. Seems like a good fit to me.


vaishali April 26, 2016 um 8:20 am

Agreed with the article, the features seem quite interesting. When compared to amazon’s new kindle oasis, this seems to have almost the same features, however it lacks the extended battery life! When i referred the comparison http://www.ebookreadervs.com/en/onyx-boox-kepler-vs-kindle-oasis/comparison-1120-118-0, onyx kepler seems better with respect to the storage and size. But again it lacks the extended battery life and one handed operation. Hope onyx kepler would also be worth the value once the price is out!


Onyx Boox Bering 3 Android eReader – $99 | The Digital Reader April 26, 2016 um 1:22 pm

[…] mainly comes to the attention of the west when they unveil high-end ereaders like the Kepler Pro or the Max, but in Russia they are also experimenting with budget models for the low end of the […]


Hands-On with the Onyx Boox Kepler Pro Android eReader (videos) | The Digital Reader June 2, 2016 um 10:12 am

[…] unveiled in late April, the Boox Kepler Pro is Onyx's answer to the Kindle […]


Onyx Boox Kepler Pro Now Available – Android, Carta E-ink Screen, $233 | The Digital Reader November 9, 2016 um 1:42 pm

[…] announced in late April and then shown off to the public in June, the Boox Kepler Pro is Onyx's answer to […]


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