The M96 vs. the Sony DPT-S1?

[Rosa_WM]

I was a bit disappointed with the M96 at first. Buying the device upon its release felt like being a beta-tester... Now, with the 1.7.0 firmware most of the problems which really annoyed me are gone. Neoreader works very well with pdfs and epubs, while Oreader gives me more control over epubs if I need it. I downloaded some dictionaries and extra apps for DJVU etc.

Dropbox, the mail app, web browser and other non-basic apps are quirky on the device but ok for occasional use. I wouldn't recommend the M96 to anyone who wants an e-ink android tablet. The M96 is just a big screen e-ink reader with emergency android functionality :P

I hate Onyx's production "strategy" - release hardware as fast as possible, release functional firmware year later, and I won't be buying any of their devices in the future. What I would buy however, would be a kind of Kindle HDX reader... It wouldn't have all the options android devices have but I'm sure it'd give a pleasant pdf reading experience. I believe the Sony offers just that, but with the present price tag I'm not even considering it. And it's not that I have something against huge menus... I like to customise my devices and dig through the options, I can even root a device if necessary but with the M96 it's too much of a hassle.

[machinogodzilla]

Originally Posted by isaact33

Even if you mange to work out the device it is VERY buggy. for instance a lot of times the menu would hang and the only way to access it is by scribbling on the corner and then the menu would work.

Please report the bugs so they can get fixed, for everyone's benefit.

Originally Posted by isaact33

Although there is a lot of options to use with android but doing something else other than reading such as browsing the web will bring down the battery life 2-4 hours.

How is it different from when you turn on a wi-fi radio in your phone? It's a bit like complaining that your car runs out of fuel quicker when you drive faster.

Originally Posted by Rosa_WM

Dropbox, the mail app, web browser and other non-basic apps are quirky on the device but ok for occasional use.

You can't blame the device just because some 3rd party apps that are not optimised for it don't work well there. There a lots of rubbish Android apps that don't work well on phones/tablets either. I would recommend contacting the vendors of your favourite apps and requesting them to supply, for example, themes that are compatible with ereaders. They may not even be aware that users consume their apps in such a way.

Originally Posted by Rosa_WM

I hate Onyx's production "strategy" - release hardware as fast as possible, release functional firmware year later, and I won't be buying any of their devices in the future. What I would buy however, would be a kind of Kindle HDX reader...

I'm afraid that you won't be buying anything then because Amazon (amongst others) also seems to hate that strategy (plus other factors I suppose), otherwise where are all the big ereader alternatives? I'd rather have something (that largely works) from Onyx than nothing from everyone else.

Originally Posted by Rosa_WM

It wouldn't have all the options android devices have but I'm sure it'd give a pleasant pdf reading experience. I believe the Sony offers just that, but with the present price tag I'm not even considering it.

And what is wrong with the pdf *reading* experience on M96. It opens documents and you can browse documents, as far as this particular functionality is concerned is there any problem there?

[Rosa_WM]

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

You can't blame the device just because some 3rd party apps that are not optimised for it don't work well there.

The e-mail app is not 3rd party, neither is the web-browser. They are in-built so I think I CAN blame Onyx for their quirkiness. As I said, they are ok for occasional use. But a bit sluggish... The e-mail app, though usable, doesn't really seem as if it was designed for e-ink.

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

And what is wrong with the pdf *reading* experience on M96. It opens documents and you can browse documents, as far as this particular functionality is concerned is there any problem there?

The list of things wrong with the M96 when I first bought it was quite long. Highlighting worked randomly, scribbling was buggy, there were no export options, reflow was buggy, cropping was buggy. The responsiveness of the screen was poor, as was touch accuracy. The dictionary didn't work the way it was supposed to... I had the ArtaTech version, but they get their "special flavour" of firmware from Onyx so I still blame Onyx. It took ArtaTech some time to post an update fixing the basic bugs but if you go to their site the last firmware update is from September. It's a stable update but it still doesn't have export options for scribbling, highlighting bugs are plenty, and it's impossible to simultaneously view the dictionary and the book. Of course you can use the firmware from onyx international (as I did), but one has to know how to do change it. What's more it cancels the warranty.

The 1.7.0 firmware really fixed a lot. Now it's good device on the whole, but the months preceding the update were really frustrating. I still don't like the way M96 enters scribble mode - single tap anywhere. It's a problem because I keep entering the mode by accident or by clicking "ok" in the menus etc. and in scribble mode the d-pad, menu and highlighting (duh) are disabled. It's a real distraction if you highlight a lot, so I'm still waiting for some final touches from onyx international...

To extend the kindle comparison. When I bought the PW2 (after a year of some pretty dreadful experience with the onyx i62) everything, bar some occasional memory issues, worked fine out of the box. The firmware updates basically made the device better. Perhaps saying things like "a new kindle HDX would be a better device than the M96" is stupid wishful thinking - the onyx exists, the kindle in question does not, and may never come to be - but that's just my comment on the production strategies of the two manufacturers.

[machinogodzilla]

I must say I have never used the provided email client and the browser but went straight away for my personal favourites (because with Android I can) so I thought, oops, they must be really horrible. I fired up Onyx browser, well, nothing exciting there going on really, it's a shell for webpages and it just works. A bit ill chosen colouring of the address bar and suggestions but other than that seems ok.

So I moved on to the email client, set-up my account with no problems, made one mistake, it gracefully pointed out the error, then downloaded all my mail and actually looks like a decent piece of software. The layout is simple but clean, I quite like it at the first glance. So in the whole 15 minutes I spent with the two apps nothing bad happened, lucky me? And I'm still on quite ancient 2014-10-13 fw release.

When you then mention "quirkiness" it doesn't really mean anything to me. I would again recommend listing any problems you encounter on the bugs page.


Regarding the other things, to me that's not *basic* - the 6" Kindle is basic. Anyway, you say it all in the past tense so I gather it all got sorted out in the end? Instead of being happy that things got fixed, you mention old bugs, what's the point?

I don't really know what DPT-S1 can or cannot do, I can only rely on helpful reviews like this one until it becomes affordable one day, but it doesn't seem that by making it basic they made it perfect:

• 15 minutes to search a book. I tried with M96, chose a unique word on p. 388, went back to the front cover - it took 1m30s to find it.
• Zooming slow and tricky apparently.
• Multiple pages on screen, a cool feature but doesn't work well they say.
• Unable to make notes when zoomed. Works on my M96.

I'm not saying the M96 is perfect but it is not bad, and *both* devices have issues, even the product of rich Sony corp has issues. Let's be fair then. I'm sure the problems will get fixed in both devices, it's just software, and kudos to both companies that they keep working on ereaders.

[fgdas]

Originally Posted by neonnoodle

Waiting for the Netronix hardware to be marketed in some form or another

Nicolas Charbonnier/Charbax has new Youtube video of Android based Netronix 13.3: http://youtu.be/na3EkqhOa-A

[rem736]

looks like they took the bezel for the sony and made just a small change (the power button). there's also the 6.8" version. what caught my eye was format support and the fact that it will act as a printer (in the sense that you can print from a computer to this device and the result will be a new document on the device). can't wait!!!

[Randy11]

I don't like these videos where you see someone writing on an ebookreader. I want a 13.3" to read, not to write - or only write. I want know what's the performances of the device when I read a book, how it is fast in a page turn test, what the methods of zooms for a PDF file, etc. Nothing like this here.