On the 9. April of 2020 Onyx officially released firmware 2.3 for their latest e-ink tablets Nova 2, Note 2 and Max 3.
Among many small improvements and changes Onyx also included some remarkable new features like the completely redesigned interactive feedback section in the settings and an integrated cloud backup for the notes. Since I wasn’t using the NeoReader that much in the past days I will skip it for now in this article and start with the changes in the notes app.
Notes
In the notes overview you will find a new section for recently changed and created notes. Since I am a heavy note taker with a couple of folders this new feature is a nice reference to the latest notes I have created or modified. Onyx also changed the name scheme of the notes from “Note” to “Notepad”.
In the notes app burger menu there is a new main entry for the sync settings. This is the first contact with the new “ONYX Cloud Notes” sync. You can easily bind an account with your mail address for example. Just enter your mail address and wait for the verification code (this took around 40 minutes in my case). You can also choose a phone number or we-chat. Below you will find the previous account management and sync settings.
Note taking experience
Wow! There must happen a lot under the hood improvements to explain the immediate response with the latest firmware.
In the previous version there was always a short delay but now, there is none, really, none! There is still the visible refresh after 400 ms that sharpens the drawings, but while writing there is no latency.
I have noticed a better latency even with the previous firmware just by installing the missing Android System WebView app from the Play Store (it is worth a try). The overall impact on the system performance was huge, but not comparable to the performance boost from the firmware itself. I guess it’s a combination of both, firmware and Android System WebView.
Update: Forget the tip to install the Android System WebView. If you access the developer settings you will realise that Onyx will still use its implemented version 66 and you can’t change it.
Among the improved performance there are other small remarkable features like the option to select the whole content of the current page with the lasso tool. The lasso tool itself is more precise and stable.
There is also a new option to disable pinch to zoom, which is the default setting. You can activate pinch to zoom from the note sidebar. Just press and hold the search icon, but be aware: Even though pinch to zoom was noticeable optimised, palm rejection is still unreliable with pinch to zoom activated.
Note syncing with Onyx Cloud
My feeling about syncing to Onyx are mixed. The integration of Onyx notes cloud sync is very easy. With an active account there will also be a sync button in the notes overview.
First, syncing to Onyx does work, but to be honest, it is super slow. If you manually sync it as a backup, the Onyx cloud sync might be a reasonable solution, but for a real time cloud sync experience it is too slow.
I tried to automatically sync when closing a note, but disabled the setting immediately after I had to wait a couple of seconds every time I closed a note. This means that the syncing process is blocking the device and you have to wait until sync is finished. The same happens when syncing all notes from the overview. With the next update Onyx should improve this behaviour by syncing changes within a non-blocking background process.
Dropbox note sync
At this point I encountered the first bug and at the same time the first bug fix. In short: Dropbox sync stopped working in version 2.3. When Onyx cloud sync is activated the notes app will only offer syncing to Onyx. But even if you unbind your Onyx account and the Dropbox account is the only remaining account in the account management, syncing does not work.
The second bug is in the account management where the Dropbox account is not visible. If you tap on manage, then the unbind prompt will appear, which means that your account is still bound to the device. I also restarted and re-bound the Dropbox account, but it still wasn’t working. Onyx already confirmed both bugs in a private conversation.
As a workaround you can take advantage of the first remarkable bug fix. In the previous firmware the notes were exported into a flat structure to the storage. The folder structure of the notes app wasn’t mirrored and two notes with the same name, but from different folders, would overwrite each other in the export folder.
Since the folder structure is now mirrored, except of the wrapping folder around every note, you can easily sync the note folder in the Storage using Dropsync for example.
Feedback
In the past Onyx was criticised for their slow or sometimes non existing response on support requests. Onyx always referred to the feedback function of the device itself but there wasn’t even a confirmation message nor the support ever answered to me.
With version 2.3 Onyx added an interactive feedback section into the settings where they promise to give feedback within two workdays and my first experience is: Yes, they do reply within two days and yes you will always receive a confirmation after submitting a feedback! This is a huge step towards a good customer support.
The feedback system is more like a chat and not like a ticket system. Topics are not separated, but since Onyx now replies to issues, I really appreciate this new feature, even if it still needs some improvements like topics and maybe an overview of known issues.
Send2boox (push.boox.com)
This is the online cloud platform of your Onyx cloud account. You can access your notes, preview, print and download them. That’s it. The user interface is nothing special, but good. The whole platform is a little slow, but this isn’t the main downside of the service: The website push.boox.com has no ssl encryption!
Update: push.boox.com is also available through https. Just enter https://push.boox.com to use the secured Onyx cloud service. The server is just not configured to force https.
Conclusion
My first experience is good, even without a working Dropbox sync. The performance boost is impressive and some bugs of version 2.2.x were fixed. There are still some old bugs remaining unfixed and further new bugs were added, but the overall first impression is good and the improved feedback system is a must have. If you can live without an active Dropbox sync, I can recommend upgrading to version 2.3.
