Onyx BOOX Launches Tab Ultra C With 10.3-Inch Color ePaper Display

Onyx BOOX is a leading name for e-readers and electronic displays that appear similar to paper. The company already offers an extensive range of Android tablets with E-Ink displays. Today, the company announced the BOOX Tab Ultra C, a new Android-based tablet with a colored ePaper display.

E-readers have gained significant popularity in recent years because they reduce eye strain with extended usage of digital screens. The market for ePaper displays is projected to grow at a staggering rate in the coming years, and products such as Amazon's Kindle Scribe and the Remarkable 2 are helming this growth. With advancements in ePaper technology, brands such as E-Ink are moving beyond monochrome (grayscale) displays and now offering colored ePaper displays.

The BOOX Tab Ultra C builds upon Onyx's pre-existing lineup of ePaper tablets and is the third product with a colored E-Ink display after the Nova3 Color and the Nova Air C tablets. Besides a colored mode, which helps highlight and annotate text, the Tab Ultra can also be used in a black & white mode for an easier-to-read visual experience.

Starting with its display, the BOOX Tab Ultra C uses E-Ink's most advanced "Kaleido 3" colored ePaper display, measuring 10.3 inches. In the colored mode, the display has a resolution of 1240x930 pixels, increasing to 2480x1860 pixels in monochrome mode. It gets cool and warm backlighting that can be adjusted separately for comfortable viewing.

Like many other tablets from the brand, the Tab Ultra C also supports passive stylus input with an eraser at the other end. BOOX includes a Pen 2 Pro stylus within the box, and the pen attaches magnetically to the tablet so it doesn't get lost.

In terms of design, the Tab Ultra C is identical to the BOOX Tab Ultra, featuring a 16MP camera on the back, primarily for scanning documents. The Tab Ultra C also gets a physical power button and a capacitive fingerprint scanner along the edges. Additionally, there's a USB Type-C port for charging and wired connectivity. Moreover, it supports BOOX's keyboard folio case that magnetically attaches to the tablet but has to be bought separately.

Inside, the Tab Ultra C packs an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage. The company does not specify the chipset's make, but it's likely to be a Snapdragon 662 that also powers the BOOX Tab Ultra (monochrome) and Tab X models. Furthermore, the BOOX Tab Ultra C storage can be expanded up to 2TB using a microSD card.

The whole deal is powered by a 6,300mAh battery, which should last a few days, considering the ePaper display's low power requirements. There is no word on charging speeds, so we don't expect support for fast charging.

The BOOX Tab Ultra runs a unique interface based on Android 11. On top of a custom interface, BOOX also offers solutions, including cloud storage for actively sharing files to and from the tablet, an ebook store, and a notes app with handwriting input.

While Android brings support for a myriad of apps, the display may not be fully optimized for all apps. BOOX does include various options to switch between different display refresh rate modes to enable faster scrolling or viewing dynamic elements like videos but at the expense of clarity.

The Onyx BOOX Tab Ultra C is priced at $599.99 and will be available from BOOX's website and Amazon. As a bonus for early adopters, BOOX is also offering a bundle that includes the magnetic keyboard case and tablet for $649.99, thereby reducing the price of the folio to $50 from its original price of $109.99. The tablet starts shipping on May 10th.