[Fiddler]

Thanks for this review - it was one of the main reasons for me deciding to go for the Meebook 7. My first ereader (a good few years ago) was an Icarus, which I chose mainly because I didn't wish to be tied in to any particular book store. This packed up recently, and the company seems no longer to exist. It had its idiosyncrasies, but in general I was happy with it, and what I wanted was to replace it with something similar.

So I've now had the Meebook 7 for a few days, and wanted to post my views on it, in case it helps others who need a bit more info.

I never need to go online with my ereader, I don't see the point in using any of the apps (although I know they're there if necessary), all my books are downloaded from various sources on my PC and transferred to the ereader with the usb cable.

So many people seem to expect ereaders to do all that a tablet can do, but frankly, as far as I'm concerned, an ereader is simply to read ebooks, nothing more. As long as you don't get hassled with ads from a book store, can read in any lighting conditions and have plenty of options to set up the text and the page layout as you like, what more can you ask? And if there's one thing the Meebook 7 does really well, it's customisability.

It's certain that the manual is crap, but the software is such a catacomb of options that it's far better just to spend a few hours playing around with the thing if you want to find out what you can do. You can set it up as you wish. I've configured it with a menu displayed permanently at the top, so that I can always see the time, the light settings and various other icons, meaning that I don't have to spend ages finding my way around the system every time I need to do something simple like turn the backlight on or off. It's also great that you can open different tabs with a book loaded in each, so if you're reading two things at once, you can swap instantly.

There is a bookstore (mainly Chinese stuff), but you can hide it, so that you'll never even know it's there!

It's easy enough to load fonts into the directory, which again means you have a huge amount of display options, although I loaded my favourite (liberation serif) and don't feel the need for anything else.

Dictionaries are as simple to install, at least in principle, but in reality finding the right files for download is a pain. I tried installing a whole stardict folder, but you need individual files, not folders, and I didn't have a clue which were the files I needed. Eventually I managed to follow a guide online in order to download and install wiktionary (in English), which seems to work, but I would like to install similar French and Spanish dictionaries, and also translation dictionaries between these three languages, and I'm completely stumped as to how to do so. It would be great if someone could explain the steps, with links to various download options, for non geeks. I'm not sure if Kindles and things like that have dictionaries preinstalled, which would certainly make them more foolproof, but at least we know that it's possible with the Meebook, as long as you're clever with that sort of thing...

I can't really comment much on all the apps and the browser etc, because as I said, I don't see the point of all that.

I only really have a couple of small gripes about this ereader. First, the physical page turn buttons: I'm a fan of physical buttons, although it's true that after a few years they'll probably be the first things to pack up. With my old Icarus, there were two page turn buttons on the left and two on the right, meaning that you could hold it in either hand and turn the pages with that same hand. With the Meebook 7 the buttons are on the right only. As I use this with a VOVIPO leather cover (universal for 6.8 inch ereaders), which has a hand strap (only for the left hand) you need the other hand to turn the pages, either by swiping or with the physical buttons. The other problem is that the corner straps that hold the device in place slightly obscure two of the icons (the home button and the time), and the power button, but none of that is really a big deal.

Secondly, as mentioned in the review on this thread, customisation of the light settings is a bit weird, with a huge jump between dimness and brightness; the principle is fine, but there seems to be a bit of a bug there.

And finally, it's a shame that more dealers don't sell the Meebook; if one of the reasons not to buy a Kindle is a (probably vain) attempt to boycott Amazon, that's not going to work if it's the only place you can buy this ereader!