So, after 2 months of wait and nail-biting my Boox is finally here.
In total, with all the shipping costs, customs, and taxes it cost me almost exactly $500.
Hardware
Unboxing, hooray! The first thing I noticed when I opened a nice box was that the cover was brown, not black
It does look good though. It is very soft to the touch and all the stitches (which look awesome in yellow/gold) are done nicely and neatly. However, the case is not tight so the device slips out if turned upside-down. Something should be done about that.
Don't worry, the actual screen looks
a lot better than on the photos.
Metal back casing has a nice and assuring cold touch to it. I like it a lot.
Buttons, especially the power button are a bit flimsy and wibbly wobbly. I don't like that. Pushing them directly in with entire finger and not just your nail should solve the issue.
Boot-up time is 25 seconds. No need to express my feelings here, just take a look at a clock and see how long that is.
While not instant like opening a paper book it is tolerable, especially if you remind yourself how long it takes to find the page you left off at if your bookmark falls out of the book.
Touch screen is fairly good except near the edges where it, more often than not, chooses to ignore the stylus.
<- that's a sad face.
Wall charger that came is for US sockets, so I'll have to figure out something since I live in Europe.
Wifi
WiFi functionality is good, although I had to update firmware to 1.3 (it came with 1.2) since it didn't go past my WEP password and wasn't connecting to the router.
Talking about the firmware update... You absolutely need a SD card (which was promised as a compensation for delays in shipping, but didn't come) so I bought one for about $25 (4 GB microSD with the adapter for full sized SD).
Once you enter a password for an encrypted router, no need to enter it again, although the device needs to reconnect to it (you do it by tapping once it with the stylus, no big deal; it connects in just a few seconds).
I still haven't figured out what is the "config" button supposed to do. Maybe something for the next firmware...
Browsing
I was able to check my emails (Gmail) and reading Wikipedia also works, but due to some recent changes in its layout the Go-button of the search engine (the little magnifying glass) falls in the region of the right edge which is the stylus ignoring part, so multiple attempts are necessary to get it work.
After that, if you don't mind small letters, it works just fine. In landscape mode it looks awesome, but the search button is still hard to hit.
The width of the page is reduced to fit the screen, so no scrolling left and right is needed, but there is that menu column on the left that takes up quite a lot of screen space.
As you can see, letters are very clear, even when the font is small.
After that I tried to visit MobileRead. I successfully logged in only when I tried to post a new thread; the blue menu bar with the rest of the page is cut off somewhere in the middle so no Username and Password fields are visible (hint, hint admins
)
I managed to write a title for the thread, but got stuck at the post body. The text just refused to be entered in its field. I'll give it another go later.
Google works just like on a PC browser.
Reading
And you thought I'd never get there, right?
I haven't had much time to try it out, but so far I LOVE it. I tried only pdf, txt and html and all of them work well, but my favorite among those three would have to be txt. Font and text size changing in it is a breeze and works great. Text is immediately reflown and looks great no matter which setting you decide on. I'll try out other formats as I find them (or you can give me something you're interested in and I'll take pictures for you).
Text to background contrast is better or at least as good as than in most recycled paper books.
Time it takes to change the page is definitely not something that will bother me. I have full refresh turned off and there is a refresh button neatly placed in case shadows form.
All three picture of the same screen. Weird next-lines in first paragraph come from the original file,
not Boox formating.
Weight. The device does carry some potential for becoming a blunt weapon, but I usually read with a book resting on something so I don't think that will be an issue.
Sunshine test
So, after five days of crappy weather it is finally improving and it is a sunny morning, perfect time for exposing the screen to some light.
The theory is that it messes up the picture on display. Well, let's take a look.
In the order of appearance:
1. First, this is what a page should look like
2. The same page produced while exposed to sun, full refresh setting on
3. Partial refresh mode
4. Hitting the refresh button on the screen
Pictures were taken in shade.
As you can see, there is significant loss of text in both full and partial refresh mode, and that hitting the refresh button returns it to almost normal state. However, I suppose you don't want to be obliged to hit that button after every page to be able to read. I guess I'll pretend I'm a vampire or something and stick to the shades
***I will update this post as needed, it's getting late now and there is I Robot by Asimov waiting to be read on my new Boox.***