Onyx Boox Max vs. GoodEreader 13.3" (no name)

[plusz]

Hello, I was curious, as many of you, about the GoodEreader but after a lot of thinking I took the decision to buy Onyx.

Here are my thoughts after first day:
1. out of the box display looks crappy, fonts rendering issue - some letters are black contrasted but others are washed out. Looks like it's distributed in waves over the display surface. It turned out that I had to set screen refresh to on-every-page-trun (instead of the default at-5-pages) and rendering is perfect! I don't see any slowness or any other inconvenience with this setting, page turning is fast. I would suggest to make it a default so the out of the box experience would be very positive. Why not, anyway? Is there any issue with having the screen refresh every page turn?

2. Device is big, really big. I have to keep it with my arms stretched otherwise I find it odd - I am used too much to reading on 9"

3. when inserting new sd card be patient! I have moved my sd card from previous reader, containing ca 100 pdfs. Navigating through the storage was awkward, next. prev. buttons did not worked leaving me very puzzled how to scroll through your books. In setting I disabled reading metadata from the books, also I started playing with google play store etc. and when I finally came back to the storage it worked flawlessly, fast.

4. Using the stylus is OK. The sensitivity is very good - very fast reaction. Some buttons are designed however to activate when you keep them pressed for some time, there is no visual feedback so it makes the feeling that you should press harder - non of such thing, just tap gently and keep the pen on the spot It's easy to get used to it.

5. The hardware is good enough. The deciding factor why I resigned from GoodEReader was the small RAM, only 512MB. I read about the RAM subject a lot and I have found out that ICS require ~300MB of RAM for itself (the kernel + the android) so really not much is left for apps albeit probably enough for just one pdf reader app. Nonetheless I have found out that each newer android consumed more RAM, about 50MB more.... so I realized that upgrading GoodEreader to modern android was a blunder but with Onyx it should be possible. Just now I have checked my Onyx - 392MB used by the system (on 512MB it would mean only ~100MB for app). By the way, according to my research for pdf app 100-150MB of RAM should be enough but that always depend on the complexity of the pdf.

Hope that helps anyone, have a good evening!

EDIT:
I thought that I may post some picture demonstrating the font rendering issue I mentioned. Maybe someone from Onyx read this forum and can just let me know the thoughts.
- screen refresh on every page turn
[Image violates Posting Guidelines for size - MODERATOR]
- screen refresh every 5 pages
[Image violates Posting Guidelines for size - MODERATOR]

Sorry for the quality, I'm just photographer amateur having a smartphone plus I downsized the images to lower file size from 2+ MB to 40+ KB, still the images perfectly demonstrate what I was talking about. In case of any question about the screen quality in general, it is very sharp and nice white - these are just pictures taken without flash lamp and downsized so they lost the sharpness significantly.

[Dr. Drib]

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Please take a few moments to read our Posting Guidelines, in particular the part about the maximum image size allowed (600x600 pixels). Images that violate those guidelines may be deleted.

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[plusz]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Please take a few moments to read our Posting Guidelines, in particular the part about the maximum image size allowed (600x600 pixels). Images that violate those guidelines may be deleted.

It is every member's responsibility to read our Posting Guidelines and follow them.

Thanks.

Excuse noob Actually it is fine as the images are easily accessible from attachment.

By the way, why the rule on image size? isn't it better to limit max byte size - 600x600 px JPG is not the same as 600x600 px 64 bit depth BMP. I don't understand the point of such limit of px size.

[Dr. Drib]

Please take your question to the Feedback Forum.

Thank you.


Don
(Moderator)

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

It appears as if the link to the blog (posts above) no longer work.

Well, the support page is still there and people are still posting while the support forum remains virtually silent.

Just a couple of recent comments from the page to give you an idea of the level of support which is currently being offered:

hs kim • 2 days ago

when will the firmware be upgraded to 5.0 as planned? one of my favorite app has a compatibility problem and they said "upgrade"

Michael Kozlowski • a day ago

We plan to do this once the vast majority of people have received their units.

Hmmm, somehow I don't see that happening anytime soon... or possibly ever?

Kkeil75 • 2 days ago

My e-reader is stuck and can't be gotten out of a frozen screen despite the paper clip reset or hold in down home key and power key. What I was doing prior to this was to read ebooks on both the ezpdf and moon + readers. I tried several books and then a big book making ereader browser sluggish. I got out of that and then was fixing the home-reader for colors reset by accident to change the colors back to original settings. I was able to fix most of that except for one instance for the Google web page section where the dark background could not be reset to light background. Somehow I got onto the Google sign in page to the internet and and signed in to look at apps and froze there.

None of the solutions worked for paperclip reset or pressing button combos. Taking out the sd card
did not work. Now charging the new reader and hoping this is not the end. And no, I hadn't installed the latest fixes yet.
😟


Michael Kozlowski • a day ago

Try following the instructions here - http://goodereader.com/blog/up...


kkeil75 • 2 hours ago

The factory reset method does not work. The light blinks on and off on the power button for a little bit and then stops. The factory reset never occurred.

The paper clip method does not work. The light blinks on and off on the power button and nothing happens.

Taking out the SD card does not work. Still frozen.

Attaching the power cord to the e-reader while trying all of the three above did not work.

I still have a frozen e-reader.

HELP!!!!!! Nothing is working!

HELP, HELP, HELP, HELP, HELP!!!!!

[Dr. Drib]

Thanks for the update, Question Mark.

None of this bodes well for owners of that device.*



*I am not an owner, but someone who wishes to follow these two units.

[Randy11]

At this moment, the link http://goodereader.com/blog/up points to nowhere : "Not found, error 404". Is it the good URL ?

[fgdas]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Thanks for the update, Question Mark.

None of this bodes well for owners of that device.*

*I am not an owner, but someone who wishes to follow these two units.

Working support links for GoodEreader at:
http://goodereader.com/blog/good-e-reader-13-3-support
Or
http://goodereader.com/blog/forum

@Dr.Drib: It's time to consider to create separate section for "Question Mark's" rants against this ereader.
Or he might prefer Netronix/GoodEreader sub forum.

As anybody can see from their indiegogo campaign more units are being sold and shipped because majority of buyers are happy.

As expected some of the the current applications are not compatible with old 4.0.4 Android. Same as on Onyx Max.
We will see how app compatibility will improve this summer with new ereaders having new i.MX7 hardware supporting newer Android versions.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by fgdas

@Dr.Drib: It's time to consider to create separate section for "Question Mark's" rants against this ereader.
Or he might prefer Netronix/GoodEreader sub forum.

My "rants" on this device warrant their own section?

Including this post, I have just 8 posts in this thread, one of them not even specifically related to this device.

Originally Posted by fgdas

As anybody can see from their indiegogo campaign more units are being sold and shipped because majority of buyers are happy.

Whether the majority of users are happy with their devices or not, I don't know yet. I suspect many of them haven't had very much time yet to get acquainted with their devices. I was simply pointing out some of the issues which were arising.

As I noted in a different post, there are usually birthing pains with any device. There certainly have been with the Boox Max and with the Kobo Aura One.

How a campaign is run and how issues are dealt with are important considerations when looking to make any major purchase.

Originally Posted by fgdas

As expected some of the the current applications are not compatible with old 4.0.4 Android. Same as on Onyx Max.

Exactly. However, this device was not touted as simply being an ereader. It was stated, "The Good e-Reader 13.3 Inch has full support for Google Android Market, which has over a million apps." That doesn't seem to be the case...

It was also stated, "One of the most exciting things we are doing is getting a proper USB Host Controller system working on our device, so you can attach a keyboard and use it to navigate around or simply be more productive." That was 11 months ago, and the campaigners have known for at least 10 months that there was no host controller in their device, yet they never bothered to mention that in any of their updates. Instead, the information was buried in the comments section on their blog...

This might be useful information to anyone thinking about purchasing such a device.

Personally, I hope everything works out for all involved. Competition is good for driving innovation. However, I am curious as to why you seem to want to silence honest discussion on the topic.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

It appears as if the link to the blog (posts above) no longer work.

The link doesn't work because it's not correct. Here is the correct link.

http://goodereader.com/blog/good-e-reader-13-3-support

[plusz]

I just wonder about that. Onyx Max does not have replaceable battery at least not by the user as the whole device is tightly assembled with no moving parts.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The link doesn't work because it's not correct. Here is the correct link.

http://goodereader.com/blog/good-e-reader-13-3-support

My bad. After looking at your link, I went back to look at what I had posted... Seems I included and extra http:// in the link. Not sure how I managed that.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by plusz

I just wonder about that. Onyx Max does not have replaceable battery at least not by the user as the whole device is tightly assembled with no moving parts.

Have yet to see an ereader or a tablet with a battery designed to be easily replaceable by the user. Mind you, that would be a great selling point were a company ever to offer such a feature.


That said, apparently a lot of batteries can be replaced without too much difficulty...

Last year, I bought a super cheap tablet for its HDMI port so that I could hook it up to a projector at work. I was tired of carrying my nicer tablet back and forth. Initially, everything seemed fine and dandy. However, I soon discovered that it would not hold a charge, and when I went to get it replaced under warranty, I discovered the company had gone bankrupt.

I was all set to throw the tablet out, but then thought I might pop the back off the device and see what the battery looked like. I had nothing to lose since it was going into the recycling bin anyway.

So I watched a few YouTube videos to get a feel for how various tablets are put together, and eventually popped the back off it. I was able to see exactly what kind of battery is needed, and have ordered one off of ebay. Looks like it will be very easy to replace. Just need to borrow a soldering iron from someone once the battery arrives.

[cqman]

Originally Posted by plusz

I just wonder about that. Onyx Max does not have replaceable battery at least not by the user as the whole device is tightly assembled with no moving parts.

DIY

*The photo is from internet.

[cqman]

The first e-reader 13.3 *unboxing* pictures I ever saw.

*The photos are from internet.

It rumored that e-reader doesn't have capacitive screen. Waiting to be confirmed.