As a former Max Carta and present Max2 e-reader owner, it might be interesting for some of you a personal review of the strengths and weaknesses of both models.
Max Carta is a great e-reader whose positives number: the somewhat whiter background due to the missing capacitive screen layer and the consequently higher contrast, the SD card slot and the longer battery life due to the less powerful hardware. Besides you still get there the several dedicated apps for reading ebooks that you won't find on Max2 because Neo Reader2 is an universal app (for pdfs, docx and ebooks alike). On the downside, Carta is a bit slow and rarely even non-responsive, which can be annoying. Also Android 4.02 limits the external apps you can install on the device. Nonetheless the Onyx software is pretty good and in theory you don't really need third party apps, unless you also want access to Amazon or Kobo libraries. The stylus is not very accurate on the upper and lower segments of the screen.
Max2 is a significant improvement in many respects. Better hardware specs and subsequent shorter reaction times, which brings it closer to a tablet, touch screen and a way better stylus, though it slips easily from its holding, Android 6 that brings many new possibilities via third party apps, and the monitor function. The screen is only marginally darker (barely visible with the naked eye) given the touch screen layer.
On the downside worth to be mentioned are the missing sd-card slot, the placing of the on/off button at the bottom of the device (same for Max Carta), the not so great Max2 as monitor experience when watching videos (yeah, the automatic A2 mode decreases resolution, while the rendering is still rocky) despite the enthusiastic descriptions everywhere (though for reading and text editing programs it is well suited), and the somewhat shorter battery life.
All in all the Max two is very responsive and the Neo Reader2 app has new useful functions that have not been implemented yet in the same app for Max Carta. Do I regret buying such an expensive device? No. After all, people easily buy smartphones or tablets in the same or higher price category, and shouldn't complain for buying such a specialised tool, which is produced only in small numbers, therefore entailing higher costs per unit than in any smartphone model.
Last edited by Drew22; 02-02-2018 at 08:45 AM.
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