Onyx Boox M90 available

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by AkumaTakeshi

As pidgeon92 said I wouldn't recommend this e-reader as a first one too or any other 9.7" reader. But that depends of the use you're going to give it, if its for PDFs only, I think it really is the best but as for reading novels may be way too big, distracting (because of so many lines) and just a great wall of text.

When I first though of buying an e-reader the purpose intended was to help me read and access all the Programming and Game Designing PDFs I have, but I don't have enough money for a 9.7" now and as I wanted to read some books too secondarily I bought a Kindle and thought I could still try to use to read PDFs. But now I use Kindle much more for reading novels.

On the product itself, I'm a potential buyer, but I'm waiting for it to mature and I have to save some money. So I recommend that you wait a bit if this is going to be your first reader. Kindle DX I think is only worth it if you exploit it to update it to the Kindle 3 software, and you can use Duokan too that may still be better for PDFs. The other option is Pocketbook Pro 902/903, this one still has some problems but is a bit more stable, particularly the 902 is the more secure one if I'm not mistaken, as 903 still has some issues. And sony 950, I think it may be a bit small in relation to the other ones.

Well sorry for the long post. Bad habit of mine, hope I don't bore you to death

From what I have seen so far and judging by the advance that they have had on the market Kindle/Amazon and Sony are should be due with some good tablets. Next step for Kindle is touch screen for the 9-10" and stylus while Sony has toget bigger 10"
Although I have seen many people crying for PDF related issues I don;t think that statistically we represent the majority and the big number of the customers and for that reasons these features will not be developed before other things get fixed or implemented....

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by AkumaTakeshi

As pidgeon92 said I wouldn't recommend this e-reader as a first one too or any other 9.7" reader. But that depends of the use you're going to give it, if its for PDFs only, I think it really is the best but as for reading novels may be way too big, distracting (because of so many lines) and just a great wall of text.

I'm going to have to disagree with the screen being too big for novels.... The large screen is the very reason I bought the M90. The text on the page is very similar to the amount you will find in a hardcover. I think the text on a 6" screen is often less than you will find on a paperback.

My issue is the bugginess of the whole thing. I'm very forgiving of my electronics, and my fear is that others might try this thing, and think that all ereaders respond to input this poorly; and they just don't. I have faith that a few firmware updates from Onyx will solidify the performance, but since I'm only using it as an ereader I am not as disappointed as other more demanding users might be of the M90 in its current firmware state.

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

I'm going to have to disagree with the screen being too big for novels.... The large screen is the very reason I bought the M90. The text on the page is very similar to the amount you will find in a hardcover. I think the text on a 6" screen is often less than you will find on a paperback.

Your conclusion might be wrong, read here

Conclusion
The best available research suggests that users will read fastest if the line lengths are longer (up to 10 inches). If the line lengths are too short (e.g., two and a half inch columns), the line length probably will impede rapid reading. Users tend to prefer lines that are relatively short (about four inches).

I support and prefer the last sentence of the conclusion since my eyes have to pocus one time per line and just move to the next line
While I read 10" long lines I have to focus on the line in two or three steps in order to read the entire line (moving the eyes two or three times). After that my eyes have to go back to the begining of the next line
Shorter lines means you can get one line at a time, no need to go left to right and back to the left side for the next line... that is how it works for me

[DaleDe]

Well a 10" reader is a dimension measured diagonally. It is not the line length. A 4:3 screen that is 10" diagonal is only 6" wide and 8" tall counting the margins. A 5" screen would be 3" wide and 4" tall.

Dale

[paola]

Originally Posted by AkumaTakeshi

The other option is Pocketbook Pro 902/903, this one still has some problems but is a bit more stable, particularly the 902 is the more secure one if I'm not mistaken, as 903 still has some issues.

just for the sake of precision: the only issue that the 903 has is that free-hand annotation of pdf and djvu files is still primitive in this sense: to do so you have to highlight a portion of text, save it as an image, then edit that image (all doen fm inside the book). This is not really like the overlay annotation that I see the Onyx appears to be able to do. But the overlay style free-hand annotation (and highlighting) is available for EPUB, MOBI etc.
The 902 does not suffer from the same problems simply because it does not have a touchscreen input, so the issue of free-hand annotation does not arise.

I am really checking out whether Pocketbook delivers free-hand pdf/djvu annotation before or after Onyx irons out the issues with their new devices before taking the plunge again - but I don't think we'll have to wait that long, both devices appear to have the hardware in place, so hopefully helpful competition will speed up software developments.

I agree that those of us who are academic or need these readers for extensive annotation of pdf and djvu files are not (yet) a large chunk of the market, but the fact that Pocketbook and Onyx (and Asus) prefer to put on the market products which are not quite there suggests to me that they really want to put a foot in before this niche takes off, and I really think it will.

[Onyx Europe]

Guys, I've added a firmware page to our website so you can always check if there's a new version and you can download it.

https://www.onyx-boox.com/onyx-boox-firmware

[QueenPepper]

Originally Posted by PF4Mobile

From what I have seen so far and judging by the advance that they have had on the market Kindle/Amazon and Sony are should be due with some good tablets. Next step for Kindle is touch screen for the 9-10" and stylus while Sony has toget bigger 10"
Although I have seen many people crying for PDF related issues I don;t think that statistically we represent the majority and the big number of the customers and for that reasons these features will not be developed before other things get fixed or implemented....

Thanks for everyone's advice! I think that you and Paola are right -- there's probably a new crop of 9-10" ereaders in the works out there. I'd buy one from Sony in a heartbeat. I may wait into the autumn and see ... though I'm pretty keen to get my eyes off backlit computer monitors for a greater portion of the day.

One thing I am still wondering about the M90 -- how does it handle the navigation of pdfs that are zoomed (not reflowed)? Is moving around at a fixed zoom level possible and/or convenient?

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Well a 10" reader is a dimension measured diagonally. It is not the line length. A 4:3 screen that is 10" diagonal is only 6" wide and 8" tall counting the margins. A 5" screen would be 3" wide and 4" tall.

Dale

True!
I missed that ...sorry
However the initial idea is still valid
I feel I read easier and faster on a narrower screen.

[pidgeon92]

The screen on the M90 is 8" tall, and 5.5" wide. I'd sooner not read a very wide paragraph either.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by QueenPepper

I'd buy one from Sony in a heartbeat.

I would too, no questions asked. I love Sony's ebook reader line. I usually read PDFs off of my iPad, and while I am happy with it, I would love to have a 9.7 eink reader as well. I'm still half-considering getting a Kindle DX, but I think that I will wait on the large screen e-ink device for a few more months.

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

The screen on the M90 is 8" tall, and 5.5" wide. I'd sooner not read a very wide paragraph either.

I thought that reading fiction off my iPad would be uncomfortable, due to the large screen size, but it really isn't. Especially if you like to increase the font and keep the margins intact. I imagine that reading fiction off of a large eink screen would be a treat for me at the end of the day when my eyes are tired and I can really bump up the font, while keeping quite a few words on the page.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by paola

j
I agree that those of us who are academic or need these readers for extensive annotation of pdf and djvu files are not (yet) a large chunk of the market,

oh i very much disagree. I believe you are a very large chunk of the market whose needs were not being adequately addressed. Every other question here on Mobileread about which reader to buy concerns reading academic and professional materials with a need to annotate.

Im hopeful that Onyx and PocketBook can address those needs considering past performance on the Boox 60 and PB 360.

[paola]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

oh i very much disagree. I believe you are a very large chunk of the market whose needs were not being adequately addressed. Every other question here on Mobileread about which reader to buy concerns reading academic and professional materials with a need to annotate.

Im hopeful that Onyx and PocketBook can address those needs considering past performance on the Boox 60 and PB 360.

that's what I am betting on - nad I do very much hope you are right!

[K_Dua]

I second that.. as a 9"/10" ereader (future)consumer .
It seems that developers are only now realizing that there's a section of the market that's not been explored yet, and although they're being quite slow and sceptic about it (business as usual, naturally) the next 3 to 10 months probably will show us pretty good news..

To me.. at this moment :
_ Asus' hasnt got a Pearl screen, neither does Pocketbook.
_ the M90, besides being in very early firmware development hasn't got finger/touch option, and is lagging behind in hardware i think (for a brand new product)_ just compare it with the PB 902, for eg.
_ Then .. there's the Sony DE 950 , albeit being smaller .. appears to be the more solid, in almost all aspects. I'm actually keen on getting it.. but Sony Europe doesn't even sell it.. and even Sony USA seems to have it off limits, cos one is unable to order it online. Besides, it seems that might the cause of them being about to launch a replacement for it.. so.. i guess I'll wait too.
Maybe it will be a 9" .. and although it'll probably be like 400+€ .. i'll probably get my hands on one as soon as it is available.

In the meanwhile .. the nook touch seems to be a great option, on a different approach_ as it is 6" . I might get smaller one like it now .. and go for a 9" one in a few months. If you root it, it almost functions like an Android tablet_ blazing fast net browsing and very handy, design and apps wise.
But then again.. B&N isnt in Europe either.. so.. :/ ..




PS: Are these ppl sleeping ???! I'm like number 995.000 of those interested, waiting in line, here!

[sarah11918]

If you don't mind function over form and aren't afraid to load apps yourself, I still think the entourage edge (10" version) is the best pdf-handling e-ink device out there. It's not perfect, and as someone else said about the M90, it may not be the best "first e-reader" but short of a tablet PC, I haven't seen another device yet come close to handling pdfs the way the edge does.

They're out of business, but our forum here is quite active with helpful devotees. If you can find a used one at a decent price, (there are lots of the smaller PEs floating around, but not the larger EEs) it's totally worth a couple hundred dollars for pdf work. (The Pocket edges work just as well, but the screen size isn't as conducive to pdfs. You really do want the 10" for that.)

Right now I don't think the M90 compares to the EE for pdfs. Of course, as the M90 improves, (something the EE will never do) it could be great. So if you can get your hands on an EE in the meantime, until the M90 progresses, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one.

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by K_Dua

I second that.. as a 9"/10" ereader (future)consumer .
It seems that developers are only now realizing that there's a section of the market that's not been explored yet, and although they're being quite slow and sceptic about it (business as usual, naturally) the next 3 to 10 months probably will show us pretty good news..

To me.. at this moment :
_ Asus' hasnt got a Pearl screen, neither does Pocketbook.
_ the M90, besides being in very early firmware development hasn't got finger/touch option, and is lagging behind in hardware i think (for a brand new product)_ just compare it with the PB 902, for eg.
_ Then .. there's the Sony DE 950 , albeit being smaller .. appears to be the more solid, in almost all aspects. I'm actually keen on getting it.. but Sony Europe doesn't even sell it.. and even Sony USA seems to have it off limits, cos one is unable to order it online. Besides, it seems that might the cause of them being about to launch a replacement for it.. so.. i guess I'll wait too.
Maybe it will be a 9" .. and although it'll probably be like 400+€ .. i'll probably get my hands on one as soon as it is available.

In the meanwhile .. the nook touch seems to be a great option, on a different approach_ as it is 6" . I might get smaller one like it now .. and go for a 9" one in a few months. If you root it, it almost functions like an Android tablet_ blazing fast net browsing and very handy, design and apps wise.
But then again.. B&N isnt in Europe either.. so.. :/ ..




PS: Are these ppl sleeping ???! I'm like number 995.000 of those interested, waiting in line, here!

I totally agree!
I got the Nook touch yesterday
My wife has a Kobo. Nook is better in many respects..I have to admit it.
I hopte that Sony will come with a good one...950 is to expensive for what it does. I preffered to get the Asus 800, cheaper and I can still use it as Notepad after I get (hopefully) a better 9-10" eink reader with good PDF functionality
Something makes me believe that it is not impossible to get proper highlighting and PDF reading with Nook in Landscape mode... I am currently investigating this...