[mandel717]

Well, I've had a bit of time to play with this, and compared to my iPad, I must say my first impressions are not exactly fantastic. Okay, yes, it's less than half the price, so I've adjusted my expectations. But my sense is this is a bit of a rushed launch for them, considering it needed an update right out of the box (and that some of the machines didn't have the Kobo app installed at all).

Some thoughts so far:

Scrolling is a bit laggy. Button presses sometimes need a moment or a re-tap to register. In the Kobo app, I looked through the cookbook - page transitions are slow, and it sometimes takes a second or two with a little rotating icon before you see the next page. Also the formatting is such that in portrait or landscape you get a grey bar at the top and bottom of the page; the page doesn't fill the screen.

I only got one of my three books at first. When I went in to the library app later, the others downloaded. I clicked the user guide and was told the next chapter wasn't included in this preview but I could get it at no cost. I clicked 'download free ebook' and it appeared to download, but when I tried to read it, the same thing happened. Sigh.

I downloaded Angry Birds from the app store built into it (a version of the getjar website) and once I did, it showed up in the 'downloads' folder. It then told me 'install blocked - for security your phone is set to block installation of applications not obtained from Android Market.' That's a bit of a surprise, considering it doesn't have access out of the box to Android Market! I just enabled non-market installations in settings to fix this, but it's a glaring oversight. Angry Birds itself was not as smooth as on my iphone / ipad, but playable.

I called Kobo support to ask about enabling access to Android Market and was told, helpfully, that the Vox is not an Android device. After I corrected the guy on the phone, he kept mentioning that it was an e-reader and they don't really support Android related stuff on it.

Definitely seems that was a rushed launch using an existing tablet model from a Chinese manufacturer they used to get a quick device out the door before Amazon. Now, I was hoping to use this as a cheap tablet for an upcoming trip, but I'm seriously considering returning it to the store. I've been spoiled by the iPad/iPhone.

Perhaps in comparison to a Kobo e-ink reader it will seem more exciting, especially if you don't try to use it too much as a tablet?

Update. I'm returning it. Life is too short to wrestle with this. Even the instructions for how to do a factory reset were not correct - I had to search for the correct setting myself. Sheesh!