Hello,
Maybe it could be useful to any other original Max owners.
I have just received the Max 2 and tried all its functions. Indeed it is an improvement over the original Max (I did not have Max Carta). Using finger touch is more convenient. The speed is improved but it does not differ that much in a real world usage - documents load faster but page turning nad searching within documents is about the same. Stylus writing is much more improved, it is more responsive or precise, just feels better.
I can see a few issues though:
- when writing with the pen it suddenly skips words. It happens that way: about 10 seconds since you start writing your notes in pdf it stops registering your input for about a second or two probably to process or save your progress, then the cycle repeats. It is annoying.
- the hdmi monitor works but there is no control over the gamma/contrast. The eink works in some degraded mode leaving a lot of ghosting dirt. In effect the screen is washed out and with low contrast. To manually clear it you have to do 2 taps - just touching the screen (2 fingers for example) would be more convenient. The comfortable use is at a level of an old text console screens, you have to use very large thick fonts, black on white only.
- finally the screen is yellowish
I am disappointed. I have a small Kobo H2O with Carta display which has very high contrast due to massive screen resolution and a very white background color. I thought that it is the very characteristic of the Carta technology. I was wrong. As a matter of fact the older screen used in Max is better to read indoors. Of course you have to change the settings to do a full refresh on each change, otherwise it has some redrawing issues which are not present on Carta due to Regal technology.
On top Kobo H20, left Max, right Max 2.
The picture does not reflect very well what I actually see. To give a good representation I would need to use a proper lightning and a good camera. I'm sorry, I'm just a photographer amateur using smartphone. The Max screen is a bit grayish compared to Kobo, and again the Max 2 is a bit darker and yellowish compared to Max.
I wouldn't say that the Max 2 screen is very bad. One can be happy with it. My expectations were just different. Well, I don't like to use very strong light to read. I mean I prefer to sit comfortably in an armchair or on the sofa, a bit away from the light (not directly under the light on my desk) and still have a very high contrast of the read material.
In fact now I have a hard time to decide if I would like to keep the new Max 2 and go through the hassle of selling my old Max, obviously loosing some money... Hard to say if the touch and speed improvements are important enough and screen not that bad.