Onyx Boox M92 sample has arrived. First imression - I love it!

[lunohod]

Originally Posted by jbaach

I assume that the difference you see could be compensated by software, but I am not 100% sure - could be the actual vizplex/pearl difference as well. Does anybody know?

The difference cannot be compensated by software. Pearl screen just has got deeper black color.

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by lunohod

The difference cannot be compensated by software. Pearl screen just has got deeper black color.

The devices are not that far apart at 100% - its more at 80% and lower where they really differ. And that could be to some extend 'scaling', e.g. if the 903 would translate a 'pdf 50% grey' into a 'pocketbook 75% grey'.

[lunohod]

Well, I see the difference. I do own an Onyx M90 and a PB 912.

[initx]

Originally Posted by Booxtor

Yes, it works with PDF docs.
Click here

Wow. That's amazing... I need this device. Now.

[initx]

Originally Posted by lunohod

Well, I see the difference. I do own an Onyx M90 and a PB 912.

And which one do you prefer?

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by measure

Do you think you could take a similar quality photo of the Folland book I uploaded, where it is zoomed out just enough to see the entire page (so that no scrolling would be required to view any content on it)? Page 10 would be perfect as it has a small inline matrix (well, page 10 according to the labeling in the book, which is actually page 18 of the file).

Here you go: http://baach.de/Members/jhb/folland_djvu.jpg/view

In reality its readable on both devices. The m92 is blacker, but also more blurry on the edge of the letters. What the 903 lacks in ink, the m92 has too much :-) (I would probably prefer the m92 though).

[lunohod]

Originally Posted by initx

And which one do you prefer?

I don't like them both (M90 and PB912). But if I had to buy a device now, I'd take M92 without any doubt.

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by lunohod

Well, I see the difference. I do own an Onyx M90 and a PB 912.

Thanks a lot. So maybe I need to give up hope? :-/

I see that you also have a kindle 3. How does that one compare? Also, while I look at your profile description: how suitable do you find the pocketbook 9x and the boox m9x for openinkpot? And whats your take on their 'open-source'-ness?

Originally Posted by lunohod

I don't like them both (M90 and PB912). But if I had to buy a device now, I'd take M92 without any doubt.

Is there another device that you would prefer?

[lunohod]

Also, while I look at your profile description: how suitable do you find the pocketbook 9x and the boox m9x for openinkpot? And whats your take on their 'open-source'-ness?

I'd like to run OI on any new device, but it is much work and we have no kernel developers to make it real.

Pocketbook is pretty much closed. There is an SDK and you can create new applications, but you cannot change anything in the stock firmware. It's not possible to flash custom firmware. I cannot even start porting OpenInkpot because there is no way to run your own kernel.
They've released the sources for some components after ignoring and violating the GPL for about two years. But these sources are incomplete and almost pointless given that you cannot fix or adjust anything in the stock firmware.

Onyx has got git-repositories on the github.com. You can even send them patches with fixes and adjustments. It is possible to create and flash a custom firmware. You've got root on your device right out of the box.

Is there another device that you would prefer?

I like my kindle 3 and I use it for reading mobi files. It is fast and has got a pearl screen.

M92 seems to be one of the best 9.7" devices. It has got better hardware than M90 and the software seems to be more polished.

[a.a.k]

what about comparing PB912 with M92?

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by maindoor

@Jbaach: Can you please try out the chm file that I just linked in "TestFiles" above ? There are hyperlinks throughout the chm file. Can you see if you can move around easily ? Thanks.

Here you are: http://youtu.be/eizivegEM2I

I have the feeling that the file is quite a nasty one. Besides that: fbreader does not handle it good (903 and m92), but htmlreader on m92 does. Seems to work 'ok', the buttons/joystick could be integrated better. Paning on the page with the stylus doesn't work.

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by lunohod

Pocketbook is pretty much closed. There is an SDK and you can create new applications, but you cannot change anything in the stock firmware. It's not possible to flash custom firmware. I cannot even start porting OpenInkpot because there is no way to run your own kernel.
They've released the sources for some components after ignoring and violating the GPL for about two years. But these sources are incomplete and almost pointless given that you cannot fix or adjust anything in the stock firmware.

Onyx has got git-repositories on the github.com. You can even send them patches with fixes and adjustments. It is possible to create and flash a custom firmware. You've got root on your device right out of the box.

Thanks a lot for your insight. I saw the gpl violations mentioned somewhere before, and wasn't sure about the looked firmware loader. Having confirmation from you is good but sad info. Shame on you, pocketbook!

I also saw the onyx github repository and the root shell.

For me that alone would be probably a deciding factor in favour of onyx/m92 (I use an n900). I really hope that onyx can form their system into a development platform that is taken up by lots of people.

And that pocketbook will see the light some day :-)

Coming from this point of view - isn't the kindle a dead end in this regard as well?

Originally Posted by a.a.k

what about comparing PB912 with M92?

Please send me one :-) (seriously - I don't think that many people have a 912 and an m92 at this point in time)

[a.a.k]

Originally Posted by jbaach

Please send me one :-) (seriously - I don't think that many people have a 912 and an m92 at this point in time)

, i am just concern it will be below your standard after using M92.

i only mentioned as its the newest PB e reader.

[Schmitti]

Hi jbaach, thanks for your great work so far. Much appreciated. I have uploaded a test file (large scanned PDF from my university, ca. 400 MB, no OCR). Things to test would be (1) the overall readability on the M92, incl. Greek glyphs in the footnotes, e.g. on page 27, (2) browsing such a large document (loading times etc.), (3) checking if the remove-margin-functionality works with scanned pages, and (4) how the M92 handles these large files if they're loaded into the reader software directly from an inserted SDHC. (I'm asking because I vaguely remember reading that some Boox models had problems/glitches when dealing with files from external storage media.) Thank you in advance.

[janwas]

Thanks for the great discussion here, guys - especially to jbaach for your thorough testing!
I, too, am looking for a large 9" reader for PDFs.
The M92 looks very suitable, but I have noticed in jbaach's videos
that the touchscreen often doesn't do what he wants (misses a click or two).
I would prefer a keyboard, especially for typing emails, since I don't and won't have a smartphone/tablet. It seems there is such a device - the Jinke/Hanlin V90.
The hardware looks very similar, it's also using an e-ink pearl display, and
despite some reports of a 400 MHz CPU, the majority claims 800 MHz.

Here's the meager information I have scraped together:

http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/E...tail.asp?id=47

http://translate.google.com/translat...hp%3Ft%3D20319

http://translate.google.com/translat...nze%2F&act=url

http://translate.google.com/translat...110498&act=url

What do you think? I'm a bit hesitant to buy it sight unseen, we don't know much about the firmware.