[Johann Cat]

This device is really promising in terms of its hardware specs (quad core processor, lots of RAM, hi-res screen, etc.), but despite years in the e-ink Android business, Boyue inexplicably sent the Mars to distributors with an operating system that is both minimalist, and (odd in my experience of e-ink Androids), proprietary, largely locked down, and buggy. The result is something like a Kobo that has been rooted with partial success and that accepts some side-loaded apps, but none of them work well. If you only wanted to read epubs and did not care about customizing this or using it as a black-and-white tablet, then you might make peace with it, but then you'd be better off with a Kobo or Kindle, really. My experience with the Mars is overall: poor. It won't use an alternate launcher accurately, and tries to force one to use the minimalist Boyue homescreen. It sometimes takes minutes (over three) to boot, and sometimes (and not just after an update, but at random times) reboots in Chinese. Not good. Play Store did not come with this and can only, in my experience, work very provisionally with this, even if one manages to force Play into this system. The point of this--a quad core processor and 2gb of ram--could have been to offer people a lightning fast e-reader with the abilities of a color tablet. What was shipped is less than the average Kobo in terms of functionality. Another significant impediment that Boyue places on the reader is a block against side loaded fonts, something that even Kindles allow. That was really the last straw against my thin patience with this tablet. A baffling regression in the development of e-readers, given the easy possibilities.
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addendum:
I find it hard to believe that there is something wrong with the hardware (though a physical back/ refresh button would be nice) of this and maybe all it needs is a different operating system. But I wish we did not have to look forward to two years of trial-and-error posts here from people explaining their efforts to get an Onyx or some Polish eReader's operating system to replace the one that shipped with the Mars. Is it rocket science to get Android 6.0 to work on a tablet? An option: offer a version as an Android tablet (and still sell the Boyue homepage version), and let us put reading apps on it. This needn't be an ordeal at the e-ink tablet customer's end.