Quote:
Originally Posted by airbus02
I purchased nrseife's Icarus gone Boyue and am liking it so far.
The good:
1. I mostly read books borrowed from Overdrive, which means I mostly read via the Kindle Android software. It works well, though not great. I miss an occasional page turn, though that would happen with my Paperwhite too. The 7.8 inch screen really helps as does 300 dpi. The size has the unexpected benefit of making one handed operation possible. I'm quite happy with the Kindle reading experience on the device.
The weight's well distributed, so I can hold it in my left hand only and use my thumb for page turns. The screen's bright enough and white enough. I've had no crashes while reading. So far, that's been about 450 pages.
I'd like night mode, but not having it isn't a dealbreaker for me.
The rubber backing reminds me of the Nook Simple Touch and I'm not thinking "Boy, the Kindle Paperwhite text was easier to read."
2. it does work with my favorite bluetooth keyboard, the Logitech k380. I use Jotter Pad
and WPS Office (kingsoft) both can access Google Drive, but updating to Google Drive is a little complicated. e-ink itself is quite slow though. It's not necessarily a bad thing when writing. It may not be a great thing for note taking.
3. It does work with Google Calendar
4. Pocket, Overdrive (the audiobook part even), Opera Mini, and, sort of suprisingly, Spotify all work fine with the proviso that e-ink simply doesn't do well with rapidly changing content with or without a2 mode.
5. it did crash once. I pulled the charge pin out while typing. It recovered fairly easily. You press the on/off switch and the back button at the same time. Having a frozen screen for several minutes was scary though.
6. I only expected some tablet functions with this. In addition to easier reading in sunlight, e-ink and monochrome can be a lot less distracting for text-intensive functions. Other than being slow, writing on on e-ink screen can be more immersive.
The bad
1. Android 4.22 means limited bluetooth support. My bluetooth receiver and 2 foldable keyboards didn't work. I suspect there may be a workaround, but it's a pain to have to search around for one.
2. More serious for me, I'll have to run an older version of Google Docs. I haven't tried ADB and all that other fun stuff with it yet as I managed to do on a 7" Kindle Fire. If I can do that, I'll probably be happier, because I'll be able to go back and forth from my regular computer/chromebook to the Icarus/Boyue. Google apparently is eliminating support for older version of Android, so 4.42 is likely only a temporary fix, even if someone managed to get 4.42 into the firmware for this.
3. it's really hard to find cases, since off-brand tablet/readers with a 4x3 7.8 inch screen are very unusual.
4. for anything but reading, the battery life is similar to a tablet of the same size. It appears to be good for a day of fairly intense use 8 hours + of mixed reading and more android like functions which inevitably involve lots of screen writes which I suspect use a fair amount of power . If you're doing more than reading, it's not a device you can leave uncharged for a week.
5. The micro usb port doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence, nor does the on/off switch.
Bottom line, it gives me most of what I wanted: a reader that also offers the flexibility of some tablet functions. If it ran a more modern android version, it would be about 95% of the way there. The last 5% may be about something that I'm now very aware of.
There's probably a difference between an e-ink reader that runs android and an e-ink tablet that's been optimized for that purpose with apps written to address some of the differences that an e-ink screen presents. Sadly, I suspect there aren't many people who want an e-ink tablet. Android tablets are sort of disappearing and most of the people who use them primarily consume media or play games. E-ink itself is primarily for text and with the rise of voice prompted devices in the ultra-portable realm, I suspect demand for an E-ink tablet is just not going to merit much development.
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Tablets are definitely on the decline. I had to go through AliExpress to China to get my hands on a Huawei Mediapad X2 (the best 7" tablet ever released) which I use for reading purposes.
I've been very interested in an E-ink tablet that combines the best of both worlds for reading but so far what I have read makes them seem pretty underwhelming.
for me, the differences between my Kobo Aura One (32GB) and my new 7" tablet are pretty obvious. The Kobo can be used in sunlight and has a great battery (although the Huawei has a huge battery for a 7" device and is good for easily 2 days).
The tablet however is vastly faster and lets me use Moon reader Pro. I carry my entire library with me on my device (and its vast) as I travel frequently. As such storage is needed as is a fast device that can index and let me browse at will.
Also, the Kobo is not great for reading series metadata, something that Moon Reader in Android is great for.