[ab78727]

My Inkpad Eo came in yesterday. Some initial impressions:

* Writing experience is currently not as good as my rM2 - main reasons for the lukewarm sentiment are the writing feel on the screen though the latter improves (imo) when I use the Staedtler Noris Digital, and the still-rough writing experience (eraser, writing styles, templates). I couldn't tell any difference in writing latency between the rM2 and the Eo so I was happy about that.

* The two reader apps and the library section are a bit confusing to me atm but I'll re-read the manual more thoroughly to get more familiar with operation. Edit: as the post #10 above says, the Reader is for pdfs and Xreader is for epubs - I should have re-read that post before using.

* The Android on this device seems a bit weird - all installed apps by default get app-installing privileges, for example. Registering the device with Google to get Play access worked ok though was a bit clunky. Apps installed via F-Droid and Play seem to work well so far - the Libby app installed fine and reading a magazine from there, in color, made me a bit happy.

* The display is quite nice and the device is relatively responsive.

* As far as I can tell, there is no built-in integration with the Pocketbook Cloud and etc. - I guess I can install their apps to get there but I'm surprised it wasn't built-in.

* No case or cover was included and there seem to be no magnets in place to hold the stylus. I am not sure I'll pay 50usd for the separate Pocketbook cover for the device so I'll wait for Fintie or kwmobile to release a case - I tried using the rM2 Fintie (spare since I have the rM2 keyboard cover) flip cover but the Eo is too short and a bit too wide to fit.

I'm still in the process of setting things up and may update or add later but so far I think it is a pretty good value for the price. I guess being a Bigme white-label device, some rough edges are to be expected and hopefully it will improve. I am running the June-16-2024 (?) firmware version, which is listed as the latest available.

(edit:20240715):
some negatives (imo) are as follows:
* Like most other Pocketbook devices, the ability to set a PIN or password on the screen seems to be disabled. This makes the device a bit useless for writing and etc. This is a baffling decision. If someone knows how to enable PIN on the lock screen, pls. let me know. I will open a support ticket with PB as well to see what they say.
* Advanced network settings to allow for the specification of DNS servers and etc., common in most Android devices, seems to be missing as well.

(edit: 20240716)
the trick was to get access to the 'real' settings app - I worked around it by installing a vpn app from f-droid, which gave me access to it from its settings. Once there, I was able to set a lock screen PIN and also specify DNS servers of my choice. PB support replied that they will add the ability to lock the screen via PIN in a future update - it just seems so pointless to hide the real Android settings in their launcher.