[pdfreaderguy]

After a half evening with the Max2.

Awesome tool for what I'm using it for.


I want to read PDFs primarily and make notes. For that, it does a good job.
But at the end of the day, it still feels like a Chinese device. No fit and finish. No finesse.

Some comments and some gripes:

PDFs. Should fix the menu more like remarkable. I can make notes and its very responsive. But it would be much more natural to have a quick button for note taking drop down a menu where you "dip" your stylus into a pen or highlighter. Remarkable got this right. The Onxy feels incomplete, though the hardware is responsive. Can I even highlight? I haven't figured it out.

Why oh why is the power button the bottom? wtf. Literally anywhere else would have been better. Top? Top right? ugh.

Apps are the game changer, otherwise Sony and Remarkable make a more polished product. Onyx, took a plain android, slapped it on some hardware, and called it a day. There just isn't any thought to a great user interface experience. Things are clunky, etc. BUUUutttt, what can I say. I can give up a lot for the ecosystems. Access to kindle and google books is great. That was a tie breaker for me, along with Sony not allowing me to just drag and drop onto their device like a hard drive. With that said, neither kindle or google or any other app is all that good on here. When I'm inside of a kindle book its flawless. But the outdated android version that doesn't have any really ereader focused menus (stick some relevant shortcuts on a fixed status bar maybe with a shortcut button?) makes getting around these apps also clunky.

No password? wtf Onyx. Really?? Hook my google account to it. PDFs. Maybe legal documents for someone? and not even a pin? Really just inexcusable given that they had to remove that from stock android.

Onyx gives an HDMI cable in the box. Its short. I don't need another one. Keep it and spend the money on English speaking support staff and software development.

B+
I'm very happy in that I can read PDFs for a long time with little charge.
The software is a C-. The screen is great. The device is heavier than it needs to be. The button and power button and plug location are all subpar. I admire that Onyx is willing to gamble bringing this device to the market. But there is soooo much missed potential with a weak UI. I am hoping that can be cleaned up with updates.

Easy updates:

-Pin/password
-A true proper highlighting like remarkable tablet
-Better menu that is both stylus and touch friendly. Get your touch targets off the corners. The recessed screen makes those difficult to touch for anything other than stylus.
-Better designed home page for the library. It is clunky and cumbersome once loaded up (the whole point of all this storage)
-Consider ways to optimize experience with major apps like kindle and google. That might just be retrofitting some menus since you are using an old version of android
-Hire an English speaker to make settings more obvious in their intent. Settings, manual, etc. are all 2nd language.