My Boox has arrived!
I have some initial impressions that may very well be wrong, as I haven't spent much time with it yet.
-- It comes with a cover! I hadn't seen any indication that it did, so I'm quite happy. It's not a great/attractive cover, but it's sturdy enough that the screen is
reasonably safe from damage. The cover has two little elastic bits sewn in to hold the stylus. It's not perfect, but it is functional. With the cover, the whole thing weighs 26.5oz (750g).
-- The screen is sharp and clear, and there is virtually no difference in the text/contrast of this M90, my K3 or my Sony 950. They all look terrific.
-- The touchscreen is not very sensitive. Where my Sony 950 I can swipe/tap with a finger, you really need to give this screen a good TAP with the stylus to get it to respond and sometimes it's just better to hold the stylus down on the screen until it responds. Like most things, I imagine this will just take some getting used to. Also, you can't use your finger (at least I couldn't), and the stylus from my Sony 950 didn't work. I have a multi-function pen that has a stylus tip that looks just like the Boox stylus, and that didn't work either.
-- It does not appear that you can turn pages by swiping. It's either the turn buttons on the left side, or the IR toggle. The IR toggle seems to work well enough for turning pages. It is backwards from the Sony, on which you "sweep" right to left to turn the page, on the IR you sweep left to right. I was hoping that there might be a way to adjust this in settings, but it appears to be fixed that way.
-- No manual in the box, or on the device. It is available
online now. In my brief time looking at it this afternoon, I would say that the manual is rather poor. I think there is a lot of detail missing, and the subjects are all over the place. It looks rushed, hopefully it will be improved over time.
-- Interaction with iMac & Calibre: I plugged it in via USB, but the drive didn't mount. Then I checked the Boox screen, and you have to tap a button to tell it to go into USB mode. The Boox then mounted just fine. I opened Calibre, and after about a minute Calibre found the Boox. I loaded up three different book files: one .mobi and two epub via Calibre (all liberated i.e., no DRM]).
• Calibre put the files in folders on the Boox by Author Name, as it does on the iMac. This I don't like. I would prefer just to have the books and the authors listed. I'll have to see if there is some setting in Calibre that changes this.
• Ejecting the Boox from the Calibre app did not unmount it from my iMac, as it does for my Sony and Kindle.
-- The .mobi file formatting looks messy, but it could be the book. I haven't looked at this book yet on my Kindle, I will do so and put up comparison pics.
-- Both ePub files looked good. However, the ePubs would not use the default sans serif font that I chose in the settings, and I was unable to adjust the font style in either of the ePubs I loaded. The .mobi file allowed for different font styles, and loaded in the default font I had chosen.
I'm going to have to load a lot more files before I can really make a proper review, and test out some of the different functions. I can see myself having a love/hate relationship with this device. I think it will be great for just reading, but the interface leaves a lot to be desired. Why on earth the touchscreen won't function without that flimsy stylus boggles my mind.
I'll post pics and comparisons with the K3 and Sony950 next week when I have time to take the pics and organize them.