@T.W.G I don't see making a similar device to Sony a problem, Chinese or not, they see a gap in the market and hey are trying to fill it, I don't know when did the DPT-S1 dropped in price, but when it was alone in the market it was completely out of reach region and price wise. I won't be surprised if I open my Sony when it arrives and find some component made in china
. But I do understand your point, this could lead a company like Sony to drop the 13.3" ereader production, and if it wasn't for Sony there would have been no 13.3" device in the market. I still hope they release DPT-S2 when iMax7 and the new ePaper model are out, and that it will cost like $100
@xtech don't under estimate the weight factor, the Max weights about 40-50g less than my M96, but still it's about 490g, if you are planning on long reading sessions, and reading while communing, unless you are a master in the "Rock Solid Strong Fingers" Kung Fu style your palm and fingers are going to hurt, I know because this is my experience with the M96, and the funny part, I do Kung Fu
Here is also another feature that the Max has the sony doesn't, now, it could be that contrast/blackness of PDFs are not a problem, but the Max (assuming it has the same browser as M96) have the feature of turning the text to black, so web pages don't look faded, this is no problem for me because as I said, I print the pages I want to read into PDFs and transfer them to my reader, but for someone want to use it for web reading, it could mean something.
I really can't wait to see when I get it and use my full of PDFs 32G SD card how it's going to perform, I hope it won't disappoint me.
I also would like to thank all of the people who shared their experience in this thread and posted reviews and youtube reviews about the device, I hope I will be able to return the favor one day.