[downeaster59]

I admit it - I'm a sucker for devices like this. I bought an Onyx Boox T68 last year, and then a Boyue T62 later in the year. Seeing that the AfterGlow 2 was available, I was curious. Too curious? Well, an impending tax refund made this a good time to indulge. Since Arta Tech and Amazon were out of the AfterGlow 2 - and since I don't use TTS anyway - I chose to order my C67ML from Banggood. My T68 and my T62 are the reference points for what I'll be saying about the C67ML.

First of all, the Banggood experience. I ordered my Boyue T62 from Banggood with free shipping, and it took three weeks for me to get it. Feeling a little flushed with refund money, perhaps, this time I chose Banggood's "Expedited Shipping Service" ($7.99 US), which promised the device in 3-7 business days. Sure enough, my device arrived on the seventh business day after my order. It was quite well-wrapped and packaged. Banggood includes a case with the C67ML, all for $128.60 US. I accepted the risk of having a faulty device and then the possibility of needing to ship it back to China. But the ordering and shipping experience was fine.

The device itself has a simpler physical button layout compared to the T68 or the T62. One button on the left, one on the right, and one below the screen. Quite intuitive - the left button turns your ebook page back, the right one turns it forward, and the one below is a back button to get you out of the ebook or an app. The power switch is at the top. There is no physical refresh button. The device feels very light but solid. It makes my Boyue T62 (with the bigger battery) feel a bit overweight, even though it is also very easy to hold and read with.

If you've owned an Onyx reader before, the home screen is familiar. You have a status bar at the top, the "Now Reading" and "Recently Added" sections for ebooks you are reading, and the bottom menu, with icons for Library, Storage, Apps, Light, and so on. The device boots up fairly quickly. If you've had a T68, you'll be impressed by the overall performance of the C67ML. The T68 desperately needs a dual-core processor like this one. It is working with a screen that is larger and that has a higher resolution than the C67ML, but with a single-core processor. The C67ML has specs similar to the Boyue T62, so overall performance is similar.

The C67ML has 4 GB of internal storage, but app storage is a very small part of that. Be warned! If you look under Settings/Storage, you'll think you have 2.5 GB of space to happily install apps with. Not quite. But to find this out, you need to go to Settings/Extension/Application Settings/Manage Apps. Then you'll see that you have only 350 MB of app space. Compare this with the 480 MB of app space on the T68, and the one gig of app space on the T62. Pre-installed apps take up some of that space. The C67ML does not have Play Store pre-installed. Be aware that Play Store and Play Services, combined, will take up 80 MB of your app space. Should you save the space and sideload apps? Or should you install Play Store? That depends on what you want to do with your device.

Having rooted my Boyue T62, I found that the same process I learned there worked flawlessly with the C67ML, as well as the process of installing Play Store.

Here I'll say a word about battery life. Once I rooted my device, I installed a CPU control app. To my surprise, I discovered that the kernel provides only one clock frequency - 912 MHz. That cannot be changed. I'm not an expert with these things, but that seems to imply that the C67ML runs at full throttle all the time, whether it needs to or not. This would obviously impact battery life, and battery life is so-so, actually similar to the T68. The best way I see to improve battery life significantly would be with a custom kernel, but there may not be enough information available for a dev to build one.

Touchscreen accuracy seems fairly good - as good as my T68, maybe a tad better. Contrast looks better on the C67ML than on either the T68 or the Boyue T62. This is a definite advantage for long term reading or use.

As I mentioned previously, there is no physical refresh button. The device has a partial refresh mode which makes scrolling work (generally) much better than on the T68. However, sometimes I wanted a refresh button. The partial refresh mode was too literal at times, not refreshing when needed or simply going to a blank screen for a moment. Scrolling on the screen brought it back. The feature seems to need more tweaking. This was not a problem with ebooks, however.

For reading, you have four pre-installed reading apps - OReader, OnyxReader, Onyx NeoReader, and FBReader. NeoReader works especially well with PDFs - though if you work a lot with PDFs, you may feel more comfortable with the larger Onyx M96. I prefer OnyxReader for ebooks, though everyone will have their own preferences. Moon Reader works well. English and Chinese StarDict dictionaries are pre-installed. Several Chinese ePubs are also pre-installed. I deleted those, as my Chinese isn't very good.

Calibre Companion works quickly and flawlessly.

The light is adjustable, and can be turned down to a lower level than the T68 - which even at its lowest setting felt a little too bright. It is much easier, then, to find a comfortable level of lighting for any usage. Shadowing along the edges is quite minimal on my unit.

The C67ML has Pico TTS, but I haven't used it.

Overall, I have found the C67ML to have fewer glitches and to be smoother than the T68. It is smaller and lighter, and so more portable. Performance is good with the dual-core processor. Battery life is limited, and the partial refresh mode needs tweaking. A future update could fix the partial refresh. Perhaps Onyx or Arta Tech could give us a better kernel, too. App space is very limited. If you want Play Store, you'll need to root it.

Should you buy one? That depends. This device could work well for you if 1) you are comfortable with rooting and tinkering with your device; 2) you want an eInk device that lets you do more than simply read ebooks; 3) the so-so battery life isn't a deal-breaker; 4) you have something very specific in mind for the device's use - ebooks and perhaps one or two other apps you want on eInk.

If you need more battery life or storage space, the Boyue T62 is a better choice and a better buy. However, if you are comfortable with the limited storage space, the C67ML could work well for you.