[mdp]

Originally Posted by elementarythree

If you need a small monitor you can get one for the fraction of the cost

For that matter, the same tricks here can be used to hook a system to an OLED screen, and it's a whole new visual experience. Of course, a technology still very limited by environmental light...

Originally Posted by elementarythree

The biggest issue I have with the Max 2 is that Onyx put it together poorly. [...] I have an old Sony PRS-350 which feels much nicer [...] It just works

The "five font sizes including a few sight-impaired-big ones will be plenty" (for the skimmers: two or three font sizes real option) device? Oh my. Sony's PRS is the proof we need control - to take it and to be given the ability to take control. To fix the fumblings of aristocratic producers with a lineage so long that it remains confusing to see how the just-pulled-themselves-out-of-the-muddy-land Onyx seem to spit saliva less frequently during speech in front of the Queen. «It just works», just not the way you may reasonably expect it.

(By the way: mine came with a silverly frame, which is exactly what you want to use in exactly the environment you expect to use it, to read Sacher-Masoch and "How to use NLP to win a political general election".)

Originally Posted by elementarythree

If this was a normal tablet (not eink) the condition of the software for the price would be unacceptable

Of course the display cost being most of the price... ; )
(Though for fairness I remember some fellows unconvinced of the price/quality ratio after subtraction of the display cost.)

Originally Posted by elementarythree

The specs look good on paper but as it is often with Android-ware, the reality is often different because of the mess that is Android

I thought one of the goals of Android was battery optimization: do we have data on how a Linux Desktop fares against it?

Originally Posted by elementarythree

You can also hack the device a little (with rooting) and kill the android stuff and run GNU/Linux distro out of a chroot enviroment. It's complicated, though

Did not you have a serious performance hit, especially with X11? Have you managed to try Wayland?

Originally Posted by elementarythree

Chinese drive-by engineering at it's finest

Without any offense meant to the Chinese (the burdens of history on society are crucial here), but really not unrelatedly, yesterday I was telling myself how refreshing the experience with Epson is being. "Ahh, a well thought device where the project writers ask themselves the mandatory question, «What may I want it to have when using it...»".

Originally Posted by elementarythree

a serviceable screen and even computer [...] It bothers me to have a computer that's locked down and at a dead-end like this

Locked down, where true, that is a sin and a crime. But I would not say it is at a "dead-end". Many of those spaces for improvement can still be filled. Surely, with work on the consumer's side - that's the way it is, be contented or strive (or both).