Reading your posts I get the impression that you're talking about a different reader than I have
I had formerly Onyx Boox i62 and in some sense understand certain prejudices.
Contrast is good, maybe bad impression does slightly darker background than the Pearl screens . On the other hand, black is more black - in a good light very comfortable screen reading .
In environments with poor lighting, additional lighting switch (long press the back key) works perfectly. In a completely dark place (night in a room without light), lighting is not too bright when set to 2-20%.
Install applications downloaded from the internet (not Google Play) is very easy. For me, in the reader work flawlessly: AlReader, Color Dict, Dropbox, Opera, Pocket, Mail, Total Commander and a few others - and so this is too much for a reader e-books
Refresh mode is changing very easily on the top in the system bar - you simply point to the circle on the right side. If the circle is empty, then we have the usual refresh, if in the circle is "A2" we have a fast, smooth refreshing (in which black is not so very black, there is also a little ghosting, but you can play animations
).
No, on the contrary, when the illuminator is turned on, the contrast is even better than without. Lighting brightens the background and does not show through the black.
I see that you were in the hands of many readers, it would be good if you saw with your own eyes also this model, not to invent nonsense.
Remind yourself, whether in the circle at the top of the screen was not the symbol "A2" ?
If someone switched on the fast refresh mode, it could be worse contrast ...
What to cheaper clones Onyx C65, ie readers Tagus, they could be mounted another series / batch e-ink screens than in the AfterGlow.
On the Polish readers forum (
http://forum.eksiazki.org/post108942.html#p108942), there are a few (fairly dark) images showing the reader C65 against the common book (paper). is there any comparison ...
Here is an example:
[Image size violates posting guidelines - MODERATOR]