The OKPad is a dual-screen Android tablet without a physical keyboard. Instead it has an 8.9 inch IPS LCD display on one side and a 7.8 inch E Ink screen on the other. Both are touchscreen displays, and the E Ink screen supports pressure-sensitive input from a Wacom stylus.
You can unfold the OKPad and use the bottom screen for input and the upper display for viewing. And thanks to a 360-degree hinge, you can also flip the screens so they’re back to back and use the system as a tablet or eReader, depending on which screen you’re looking at. A startup called Bluegen has launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the OKPad with Super early Bird rewards starting at $199 (or 50% off the suggested retail price of $399).
In some ways the OKPad is a new take on an old idea – Lenovo launched a Yoga Book dual-screen laptop with E Ink and LCD displays back in 2016 and a follow-up model in 2018.
But those shipped with Intel processors and support for Windows (although Lenovo did offer an Android version of the first model). The OKPad is very much a device that has more in common with Android tablets and eReaders than laptops.
It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 series processor and features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
The color screen is an 8.9 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel IPS LCD display, while the E Ink display is a 7.8 inch 1872 x 1404 pixel black and white display. Bluegen notes that it’s the same display used in the Onyx BOOX 7.8 inch tablets.
Other features include a 7,000 mAh battery, 8MP rear and 2MP front-facing cameras, stereo speakers, a USB Type-C port and 3.5mm audio jack, and support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2.
The digital pen that works with the E Ink display is a Wacom EMR stylus with support for 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt detection, and battery-free operation. Bluegen also notes that the screen supports palm rejection when you’re using the pen. There’s also an eraser function that lets you use the back of the pen to erase your writing or drawings.
The OKPad measures 226 x 162 x 14mm (about 8″ x 5.2″ x 0.9″) when folded. It weighs 790 grams (1.74 pounds).
Bluegen says the OKPad should ship in August, 2024.
While Android can be a poor fit for devices that only have E Ink displays with slow refresh rates, it might make more sense as an operating system for a device like this that features two different displays using different screen technologies. You should be able to run most Android apps on the color display with its 60 Hz refresh rate, while relying on the on E Ink display for tasks that primarily involve reading or writing, for example. You can also turn off either display when you’re not using it.
Before pulling out your wallet though, you should keep a few things in mind. One is that the OKPad ships with Android 10-based software. That’s an operating system that was first released in 2019. Why use something that old? My guess is because the operating system is based on the software that generally ships with Android-powered eReaders like the Onyx BOOX Note series, and those usually lag the latest Android releases by years.
Another possible issue? The processor used in this tablet is pretty old, which could also make it difficult for Bluegen to bring any newer versions of Android to the OKPad even if the company wanted to.
And, of course, there’s always some risk involved with backing a crowdfunding campaign, especially one for a first product from a startup like Bluegen. So it’s possible that the OKPad won’t ship on schedule, won’t ship at all, or won’t live up to expectations if and when it does ship.
That said it looks like the company has shipped working hardware to at least one independent reviewer – YouTuber Kit Betts-Master, who specializes in reviews of E Ink products, has released a first look video that seems pretty honest (and surprisingly critical for a video that’s actually featured on the Kickstarter page).
Fun fact: Bluegen also says the OKPad has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8x processor with Kryo 250 CPU cores… which isn’t a thing. The only Snapdragon chip with those CPU cores is the Snapdragon 632.
But according to Betts-Masters, the unit he received has a Snapdragon 636 processor, which has Kryo 260 CPU cores.
Either way, we’re looking at 6 or 7 year old processor with four ARM Cortex-A73 CPU cores and four Cortex-A53 CPU cores.
Update: As spotted by Mike, it looks like the OKPad is a rebranded version of a Chinese dual-screen tablet called the OK S5Pro that’s available in China from Taobao.
Source: bing.com
