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machinogodzilla · 07-10-2014, 04:42 PM

Hi derball,

I couldn't resist and took the plunge, M92 waits for a new home in an auction now :-)

It's been just a few days and I haven't had that much time to fully explore and unearth the bugs but I skimmed through the functionality of M96. I run it with the 2014-07-01 firmware.

I must say that even though I was excited I was also sceptical. Then the reader arrived in a very short time (great service from Booxtor). First blow - what have they done to the cover?! It looks and feels much nicer than the horrible faux leather of M92 cover but they moved the stylus holder from the inside of the spine to the top of the side where the reader sits. If you are a frequent stylus user you will feel the pain, I do. Then another blow. I was trying to update with OTA and it didn't find any updates, I had to do it manually. Not a good start.

But if you forget about these two initial problems, the reader itself feels much sleeker now. The outside, case, buttons etc., there is no difference from M92 but the inside... it feels soooo much more usable. First, the menus are nicer and the keyboard is nicer too. The pages turn very fast in the so called quality mode and almost instantaneously when you turn on the mysterious 'A2' refresh mode. Not only that, but this mode also removes flashing as you turn pages. Wow! If you are in that fast mode the quality degrades beyond the acceptable level occasionally but I haven't figured out when exactly. When it happens long press (about 1 second) of the home button does a full refresh and brings the quality back to normal.

Then there is the scribble function. It's very sleek. In M92 I had an impression that I was scribbling with a nail. The lines had rough edges, it was usable but far from pretty. Now the lines are very smooth, I think it makes my handwriting looks better than it actually is

You can use Google Play store to install apps. I haven't had any problems so far although I've only installed about a dozen of different PDF readers to try them out. All of them installed fine and none of them crashed during use.

Finally the web browser. It was barely usable before. Now it just works! I browsed this forum and I browsed the BBC pages without a glitch. Tabs work, bookmarks work, connection to wifi works.

My initial impressions are very positive and I'm happy I've upgraded. There are some problems (here is an example, watch this thread for specifics) but I remain optimistic that with Booxtor in charge they will get ironed out sooner rather than later.

I hope it helps a little. If you have any questions, shoot, and I will try to help. It's a bit like walking in the dark as there is no manual apart from the quick start booklet, same old story...

07-10-2014, 04:42 PM	#13
machinogodzilla Addict Posts: 208 Karma: 176052 Join Date: Dec 2008 Device: PBook 902† Kindle† Nook SimpleTouch† Onyx M92† i86† M96 N96ML NotePro	Hi derball, I couldn't resist and took the plunge, M92 waits for a new home in an auction now :-) It's been just a few days and I haven't had that much time to fully explore and unearth the bugs but I skimmed through the functionality of M96. I run it with the 2014-07-01 firmware. I must say that even though I was excited I was also sceptical. Then the reader arrived in a very short time (great service from Booxtor). First blow - what have they done to the cover?! It looks and feels much nicer than the horrible faux leather of M92 cover but they moved the stylus holder from the inside of the spine to the top of the side where the reader sits. If you are a frequent stylus user you will feel the pain, I do. Then another blow. I was trying to update with OTA and it didn't find any updates, I had to do it manually. Not a good start. But if you forget about these two initial problems, the reader itself feels much sleeker now. The outside, case, buttons etc., there is no difference from M92 but the inside... it feels soooo much more usable. First, the menus are nicer and the keyboard is nicer too. The pages turn very fast in the so called quality mode and almost instantaneously when you turn on the mysterious 'A2' refresh mode. Not only that, but this mode also removes flashing as you turn pages. Wow! If you are in that fast mode the quality degrades beyond the acceptable level occasionally but I haven't figured out when exactly. When it happens long press (about 1 second) of the home button does a full refresh and brings the quality back to normal. Then there is the scribble function. It's very sleek. In M92 I had an impression that I was scribbling with a nail. The lines had rough edges, it was usable but far from pretty. Now the lines are very smooth, I think it makes my handwriting looks better than it actually is You can use Google Play store to install apps. I haven't had any problems so far although I've only installed about a dozen of different PDF readers to try them out. All of them installed fine and none of them crashed during use. Finally the web browser. It was barely usable before. Now it just works! I browsed this forum and I browsed the BBC pages without a glitch. Tabs work, bookmarks work, connection to wifi works. My initial impressions are very positive and I'm happy I've upgraded. There are some problems (here is an example, watch this thread for specifics) but I remain optimistic that with Booxtor in charge they will get ironed out sooner rather than later. I hope it helps a little. If you have any questions, shoot, and I will try to help. It's a bit like walking in the dark as there is no manual apart from the quick start booklet, same old story...