MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Xiaomi launches the InkPalm 5 mini e-reader for 599 yuan (~$91)

qwerty12 · 05-19-2021, 10:45 AM

I've had my inkPalm 5 for a couple of days now and I am happy. It won't replace my Boox as the device I take out - my Boox's screen is much better in sunlight for one and if I have the space to comfortably use it, I do like having a bigger screen - but at night, it's the inkPalm all the way for me.
The backlighting is actually pretty good. The text contrast is good. It's nice enough to hold (although part of me wishes it was 5" instead) and the volume buttons are great, so I'm able to turn off changing pages by touch in Moon Reader without a second thought.

Many of the stock apps can be uninstalled from the original launcher; for the rest, there's ADB (well, I used ADB AppControl because it shows applications' icons).

There's no Google Play store (certified or otherwise, which isn't a surprise given this is a device meant solely for China), so I grabbed F-Droid. On my E Ink devices, I prefer the unofficial F-Droid Classic (with Foxy Droid being a runner-up).

I replaced the stock browser with SmartCookieWeb, a fork of the Lightning browser. Both Bromite and Ungoogled Chromium crash on start up. With only 1GB of RAM present, I didn't try Firefox.

I disabled the Sogou input method it came with. After trying Simple Keyboard, OpenBoard and AnySoftKeyboard (which was nearly perfect), I settled on FlorisBoard. FlorisBoard does suggestions but more importantly, it lets you turn off the flashing of keys as you press them. On my Boox, Gboard actually gives me a decent experience here because it doesn't flash the keys for long. The only thing I cannot work out in FlorisBoard is how to add a simple line border to the keys.

Using the USB-C adapter that came with my Samsung phone, I was able to plug in a FAT32-formatted 32GB USB stick into my inkPalm. The 23b test text file I had on there was able to be read fine and I was able to copy a 300 KB file onto the stick with Total Commander. Exhaustive testing, I know. Though opening (I think Moon Reader attempted to handle it) the autorun.ico file the formatting tool placed onto there eventually caused the whole device to lock up.

I'm using "E-Ink Launcher" which works well, but I'm going to seek out alternatives, because I don't like that apps' icons can't be manually sorted and I also miss a way to jump to an application's management page when tapping-and-holding. (I also see the original launcher at times; I suspect this device is being too eager in killing the replacement launcher. I did see an option to exempt applications from "optimisation" in the settings and I'll give that a go with Google Translate.)

scrcpy works but the screen is mirrored - a quick hack to scrcpy to flip it back works.

What I do not like:

I'm not usually someone who cares about something being plastic, but the plastic used on the back here is very slippery. This slides out of your hands really easily. Another reason why I couldn't use this outside.
I don't see the point of adding a microphone to the device. When there's no speaker or headphone jack, the microphone's presence makes me nervous
I have no idea what Xiaomi excised from Android to make 8.1 run on a RAM-starved device, but they've rendered NetGuard useless.
- They've also intentionally limited the Wi-Fi settings: the only thing you can set is the WPA key. No static IP assignment, and no way to override the ISP's DNS servers from being used
The bootloader doesn't seem to be locked, but there's still no way as of this moment to root the device. To nobody's surprise with a device like this, there's no kernel source to download. The only way to get the kernel image used on the device is from the original firmware, which is nowhere to be found on the Internet. As it stands, I don't really trust using this device on my Wi-Fi network. AFWall and AdAway would alleviate that feeling for me.

05-19-2021, 10:45 AM	#91
qwerty12 Member Posts: 14 Karma: 2168210 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Boox Nova 3, Xiaomi inkPalm 5	I've had my inkPalm 5 for a couple of days now and I am happy. It won't replace my Boox as the device I take out - my Boox's screen is much better in sunlight for one and if I have the space to comfortably use it, I do like having a bigger screen - but at night, it's the inkPalm all the way for me. The backlighting is actually pretty good. The text contrast is good. It's nice enough to hold (although part of me wishes it was 5" instead) and the volume buttons are great, so I'm able to turn off changing pages by touch in Moon Reader without a second thought. Many of the stock apps can be uninstalled from the original launcher; for the rest, there's ADB (well, I used ADB AppControl because it shows applications' icons). There's no Google Play store (certified or otherwise, which isn't a surprise given this is a device meant solely for China), so I grabbed F-Droid. On my E Ink devices, I prefer the unofficial F-Droid Classic (with Foxy Droid being a runner-up). I replaced the stock browser with SmartCookieWeb, a fork of the Lightning browser. Both Bromite and Ungoogled Chromium crash on start up. With only 1GB of RAM present, I didn't try Firefox. I disabled the Sogou input method it came with. After trying Simple Keyboard, OpenBoard and AnySoftKeyboard (which was nearly perfect), I settled on FlorisBoard. FlorisBoard does suggestions but more importantly, it lets you turn off the flashing of keys as you press them. On my Boox, Gboard actually gives me a decent experience here because it doesn't flash the keys for long. The only thing I cannot work out in FlorisBoard is how to add a simple line border to the keys. Using the USB-C adapter that came with my Samsung phone, I was able to plug in a FAT32-formatted 32GB USB stick into my inkPalm. The 23b test text file I had on there was able to be read fine and I was able to copy a 300 KB file onto the stick with Total Commander. Exhaustive testing, I know. Though opening (I think Moon Reader attempted to handle it) the autorun.ico file the formatting tool placed onto there eventually caused the whole device to lock up. I'm using "E-Ink Launcher" which works well, but I'm going to seek out alternatives, because I don't like that apps' icons can't be manually sorted and I also miss a way to jump to an application's management page when tapping-and-holding. (I also see the original launcher at times; I suspect this device is being too eager in killing the replacement launcher. I did see an option to exempt applications from "optimisation" in the settings and I'll give that a go with Google Translate.) scrcpy works but the screen is mirrored - a quick hack to scrcpy to flip it back works. What I do not like: I'm not usually someone who cares about something being plastic, but the plastic used on the back here is very slippery. This slides out of your hands really easily. Another reason why I couldn't use this outside. I don't see the point of adding a microphone to the device. When there's no speaker or headphone jack, the microphone's presence makes me nervous I have no idea what Xiaomi excised from Android to make 8.1 run on a RAM-starved device, but they've rendered NetGuard useless. They've also intentionally limited the Wi-Fi settings: the only thing you can set is the WPA key. No static IP assignment, and no way to override the ISP's DNS servers from being used The bootloader doesn't seem to be locked, but there's still no way as of this moment to root the device. To nobody's surprise with a device like this, there's no kernel source to download. The only way to get the kernel image used on the device is from the original firmware, which is nowhere to be found on the Internet. As it stands, I don't really trust using this device on my Wi-Fi network. AFWall and AdAway would alleviate that feeling for me.