Onyx Boox Tab Mini C review: Colorful and compact, but not without compromise

All the specs are here, but the lack of a store holds the experience back

When I use a product from Onyx, I feel like someone who chooses Donkey Kong in Mario Kart. He can’t accelerate to save his life, and his handling is garbage, but if you can overcome that, his top speed is absolutely glorious. It’s a niche playstyle. And, if you know what you’re getting into, it can be effective and a lot of fun.

I can say the same about the Onyx Boox Tab Mini C — a 7.8-inch E ink color tablet. It’s not for everyone, but if you know how to use it and value its unique capabilities, it can be a great tool for work and school.

The Onyx Boox Tab Mini C features a 7.8-inch color E ink display. Its Wacom layer allows for more accurate pen input than other E ink tablets, and its 5,000mAh battery can last a week or more on a single charge. Bluetooth connectivity makes it ideal for podcasts or audiobooks, even if it's limited by a lack of a proper store.

The Onyx Boox Tab Mini C is available through Amazon, Best Buy, and Onyx for $449. A case and pen for the Mini C are included in the box, but additional pens can be purchased through Onyx for $80.

It’s easy to appreciate the build quality of the Tab Mini C as soon as you pick it up. It’s premium all the way around, from the metal construction to the solid weight. It’s also a relatively sleek device with a thickness of only 8.3mm. I think Onyx nailed the design of the Tab Mini C. The case and pen magnets are strong, and everything snaps into place as it should. It’s the presentation you’d expect from a device in this price range.

You won’t find much around the frame of the Mini C; only a microphone, dual speakers, sleep/wake button, and USB-C port break up the unibody design. I was a little surprised not to find a MicroSD card slot. I would’ve expected a media device like this, even if focused on smaller files like PDFs, to have expandable storage — especially when the e-reader only comes with 64GB of onboard memory.

At first glance, the Tab Mini C appears to have a fairly standard 7.8-inch E ink display. However, the more you dig into the device’s features, you realize how far from the truth that is. Unlike a Kindle, which is limited to inductive touch, the Tab Mini C supports capacitive touch — pinch and zoom are possible in your favorite Android apps. In addition, the panel features a Wacom layer to aid pen input. I’ll discuss the pen later, but the Wacom layer makes a noticeable difference.

While the touch layers are impressive, the actual resolution falls a little flat. Onyx lists a resolution of 1872x1404, which might seem adequate — but that’s only for black-and-white content. When you add color, the resolution falls to 938x702, and the pixel density drops in half — from 300 to 150. It makes a difference you can see with your eyes.

Even though the Tab Mini C can display 4,096 colors, content like Webtoon and Tapas is not nearly as sharp as you’d think. Ghosting is another issue. Onyx does its best to provide solutions in the software to minimize it, but it’s still an E ink display with limitations. If I’m spending more on color, I would want the experience to be better for the content where color actually matters.

On the other hand, black-and-white material is wonderful to view on the Tab Mini C. Even though the MOON Light 2 front light system works well, I prefer the display with the lighting off. Black text is clear and jumps off the page, putting it up with the best E ink displays I’ve seen. It’s a frustrating contrast between the washed-out color and the laser-sharp black-and-white experience.

Onyx ships the Tab Mini C with a heavily modified version of Android 11. It doesn’t look familiar from the start, but after you spend a few minutes with it, you’ll feel at home. Android 11 might seem a bit dated, but it’s not uncommon for E ink devices like this. Amazon has a similar situation with Fire OS 8, which is based on Android 9. Unlike a regular tablet, the important part of the Android experience on the Tab Mini C is how the modifications aid the E ink display.

Onyx includes several solutions to keep ghosting to a minimum. There are four refresh rate settings on the Tab Mini C. Within each app you can decide whether a higher refresh rate or better resolution is the priority. While tempting, the higher refresh rate comes at a cost — sharpness suffers. Web browsers and Twitter scroll much better at higher refresh rates, while an app like Webtoons benefits from more detail in each frame. It’s a bit of legwork at the start to dial in individual e-books and apps, but once you get your settings locked in, it makes a significant difference to the user experience.

I strongly recommend using the navigation ball or choosing button navigation over the available swipe gestures. The swipe gestures work, but they require a conscious effort to ensure enough pressure is applied to the screen. Button navigation also carries an added benefit. While you’ll still find the three default Android buttons, Onyx includes a button to force the screen to refresh. If you find artifacts left over from a previous screen, one press, and the display is repopulated cleanly. It comes in handy more than you’d think, even with tweaks to the refresh rates.

Onyx’s native apps work well, and the most popular media formats are supported. BOOXDrop allows users to swap files seamlessly from their PC to the Tab Mini C — this is especially useful due to the lack of MicroSD card support. The Notes app is well laid out and offers several templates for you to use. I like that you can set up your Tab Mini C like a physical planner, with the Boox pen completing the experience. Android apps downloaded through the Google Play Store also work well. It adds another layer of versatility to the device you wouldn’t get on other e-readers.

A major advantage of the Onyx device over a product like the Amazon Kindle is the ability to play audiobooks and podcasts. The Tab Mini C has Bluetooth 5.0 support, and my wireless headset is always paired within moments. I could even listen to the AP podcast straight off the website. In addition, you can transfer over MP3 and WAV files for all your listening needs. RSS feeds, ideal for an E ink tablet, can be set up through PushRead.

Even though the Tab Mini C contains an app labeled as a “store,” it’s anything but. It’s mostly a collection of public domain works that can be downloaded. It’s a drawback of the device, the lack of a native retail store to purchase commercial e-books. I know Onyx doesn’t design its products to be as walled off as Amazon’s, but it would be enjoyable to have at least some popular content available to purchase through the device itself without the need for third parties.

The Onyx Boox Tab Mini C is powered by a Qualcomm octa-core processor paired with 4GB of RAM. It won’t be confused as a flagship, but given the nature of the device, it doesn’t need to be. Onyx also included a custom GPU to help drive each of the display layers. App performance is snappy, and the only slowdowns you’ll encounter are inherent to the display.

When it comes to the screen, the Wacom layer in the display is the highlight of the tablet. Pen sensitivity is excellent, and writing displays naturally on the Tab Mini C. Given the device’s refresh rate, I didn’t expect pen input to be this smooth; it’s a bit jarring that the writing feels so good. Palm rejection is another highlight of the Tab Mini C.

I could lay my entire wrist on the tablet while writing, and it did not consider anything but the pen input. Marking up PDF files was a dream, and I could toggle between different highlighter colors and styles right from the overlay. If your school or office work requires a lot of PDF or document reading and proofing, the Tab Mini C becomes a tablet worth considering.

E ink devices are known for outstanding battery life, and the Tab Mini C is no exception. It features a 5,000mAh battery capable of several days of use on a single charge. Obviously, your mileage may vary — more intensive apps will drain faster, but for typical E ink usage, expect extended battery life up to a week.

Standby drain is also virtually non-existent on the Tab Mini C. If you set it down with 93% battery left in the evening, expect to pick it up there the next day. Flexible battery life is always great, as you’re never at the mercy of whether your device can make it through the day. That’s the last thing you want to be thinking about in the morning as you get ready for work or school.

The Amazon Kindle Scribe offers many features of the Tab Mini C at a $340 price tag. You gain a larger display with the Scribe, but you lose out on base storage and a color display. If you like the idea of the Tab Mini C but are still tethered to the Amazon ecosystem for your literary content — the Kindle Scribe is worth a look.

Although a bit unorthodox, Onyx’s Tab Ultra matches up favorably against the Tab Mini C. It’s more expensive at $499, but the additional features make it compelling. The Tab Ultra has a larger battery, bigger display, MicroSD card expandable storage, and a camera for document scanning. I can see the ability to scan and mark your own documents as a huge benefit to users.

The Onyx Boox Tab Mini C isn’t an easy device to love. Given its execution, I question how necessary the color display is — especially considering the added cost. Even still, I find myself liking it a great deal. It’s an impressive E ink device, with fantastic pen input. Once you start to use the extra features you pick up with a full version of Android, you begin to realize how limited the Kindle experience really is.

It’s not for everyone, and you must make peace with it costing as much as an iPad, but if you do, you’ll enjoy it. After all, Donkey Kong is perfectly capable of winning — you just have to know how to use him.

The Onyx Boox Tab Mini C features a 7.8-inch color E ink display. Its Wacom layer allows for more accurate pen input than other E ink tablets, and its 5,000mAh battery can last a week or more on a single charge. Bluetooth connectivity makes it ideal for podcasts or audiobooks, even if it's limited by a lack of a proper store.

Steve writes product reviews for Android Police and can be found on YouTube covering your favorite tech.