[BanditoB]

Ugh! This is the third time I’ve written this reply as I keep losing them due to an issue with the Tab Ultra and the mobileread website. It’s getting to be frustrating.

At any rate, I’ll try this one more time.

@pepcok, I found the same instructions that you linked to on a Reddit thread and copied my dictionary files to the Tab Ultra as prescribed, but the Dictionary app wouldn’t recognize them. I even rebooted the Tab Ultra to see if that would cause it to reread the dicts folder, but it made no difference.

I was in the Files app to look around the device, but it didn’t show anything. I thought that this was strange, but moved on to other things. Eventually, I decided to add a microSD card to the Tab Ultra and after sliding it in, I went back to the Files apps to see if I could see it there. Lo and behold, this time the Files app showed me all of the files on the built-in storage as well as the microSD card. Because of this, I went back into the Dictionary app and this time it recognized my dictionary files. A very odd situation, but at least it resolved itself.

@norweger, so far, I am generally liking the Tab Ultra. It definitely has some quirks, but seems like a pretty powerful device overall.

I have found the user manual to be quite lacking. It seems to list all of the features and functions of the Tab Ultra, but doesn’t define what most of them mean or do. For example, on the Brightness panel there is a tilted rectangle icon that you can tap on and it will place a bar in the middle of the icon. Tapping again turns off the bar. What does this do to or for the Tab Ultra? It’s not obvious, but through trial and error, I found that the icon is used to lock the two brightness sliders together to that you can adjust both the cool and warm frontlights simultaneously. There is no mention of this in the manual. Here, I think that a lock icon would have been much more informative, but they chose an angled rectangle. There are lots of these little gems throughout the system.

The screen isn’t quite as nice as I was hoping for. I also have a Kindle Scribe and I find that the blacks are quite a bit darker on it. The Tab Ultra is more grayish than black. The screen is okay, just different. I was also thinking the that lower resolution of the Tab Ultra, 227 ppi vs. the Scribe’s 300 ppi, would be an issue, but I haven’t really found it to be a problem.

I just recently started playing with the handwriting recognition and have found it to be pretty good. It’s much better than other devices that I’ve used in the past and my chicken scratch is sometimes hard for even me to read. I haven’t yet tried scanning any documents, but I expect that that will be just as good or better than the handwriting recognition.

I sent a couple of questions off to Boox support and they responded to both within their stated time of 48 hours with useful and helpful information, so that’s pretty good. It would be much nicer to be able to call them and work directly with another human being, but I know that they are a small China-based company so I think that they are doing the best that they can.

I received the Keyboard Cover yesterday and have been trying it out. I’m not terribly impressed by it, but it is of course very useful to have. The cover extends about ¼” out from the edges of the Tab Ultra, so while it is attached you can’t really use the fingerprint scanner as your fingertip can’t really get into the sensor. Also, the keys are a little janky. I can type fairly quickly and rely upon feeling the key click to confirm that I’ve pressed the key. I am finding that on the Tab Ultra Keyboard, I can feel the click, but nothing actually gets entered on the device. I have to purposely press harder to ensure that all of my typing gets entered on the device. Also, the pins that connect it to the Tab Ultra are very short and if you you move the unit around very much with the keyboard attached it will disconnect. Every time it disconnects, the Tab Ultra returns to its previous screen orientation so you get to watch the screen go through its gyrations to do so. This happened once while I was typing this reply earlier and when the screen rotated, it must have also refreshed and it lost all of the text that I had entered.

As for the onscreen keyboard, I have found that the spacebar is a bit wonky, too. You can press it quickly and it will make a click sound (if you’ve enabled this in the settings) and the outline will get darker to indicate that you’ve pressed it, but no space gets entered in your text. You have to really watch this or you end up with a bunch of your words all run together.

Still, overall, I find the Tab Ultra to be a powerful device that has a great deal of built-in functionality. With the ability to add other Android apps it is also very expandable. So, I’ll continue to experiment with it and explore what it has to offer. I’m pretty sure that i will keep it, but have until the end of January to make a decision.