KF6GPE
New Head-Fier
I picked up a Onyx Boox Palma, the 6" e-ink tablet from Onyx, ostensibly to use as an Android-based e-reader (It runs Android 11) running Kindle and a few other apps. It has WiFi, Bluetooth, and USB-C. It's US$279.99 from Onyx, or the usual superstores like Amazon.
It has a microSD card with the usual "up-to-one-tb supported" disclaimer, and on a lark I installed Pulsar Audio and slotted the microSD from my A&K SR35 DAP and connected it to a Fiio KA5 DAC.
Unsurprisingly, it worked fine. I get about ten hours of playback using it as a player and as a mildly engaged e-reader running Amazon Kindle. I don't know how it compares to devices like the LG, but I imagine that it's pretty similar or a little better, and the e-ink display makes (I think) for a better e-reader than you'd see on an old cell phone --- and the battery life for mixed use might be better.
One down side is that for some reason I had to tell it not to go to sleep on playback; it seems like it doesn't honor whatever Pulsar Audio is doing to keep the CPU from dozing, and audio stops when it goes to sleep. I don't think that matters much, because the display uses so little power. But there may be other things that you can force to doze if it goes to sleep and keep the audio player running. I'll look into it.
I suspect that it may replace my SR35 for long-distance travel, at least for now, because it doubles as an e-reader, and I won't freak quite as much if I lose it or it gets stolen.
It has a microSD card with the usual "up-to-one-tb supported" disclaimer, and on a lark I installed Pulsar Audio and slotted the microSD from my A&K SR35 DAP and connected it to a Fiio KA5 DAC.
Unsurprisingly, it worked fine. I get about ten hours of playback using it as a player and as a mildly engaged e-reader running Amazon Kindle. I don't know how it compares to devices like the LG, but I imagine that it's pretty similar or a little better, and the e-ink display makes (I think) for a better e-reader than you'd see on an old cell phone --- and the battery life for mixed use might be better.
One down side is that for some reason I had to tell it not to go to sleep on playback; it seems like it doesn't honor whatever Pulsar Audio is doing to keep the CPU from dozing, and audio stops when it goes to sleep. I don't think that matters much, because the display uses so little power. But there may be other things that you can force to doze if it goes to sleep and keep the audio player running. I'll look into it.
I suspect that it may replace my SR35 for long-distance travel, at least for now, because it doubles as an e-reader, and I won't freak quite as much if I lose it or it gets stolen.
