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Old 10-25-2014, 05:40 PM   #1
Purple Lady
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Boyue T61/T62 / Icarus Illumina E653 review and Onyx T68 comparison

I had an Onyx Boox T68 and I returned it because it had too many defects. I have none of the problems with my T62 that I had with my T68 except battery life does kinda suck.

Screen accuracy on the T62 is incredible and the T68 was poor even after a firmware upgrade. The T62 has 1 GB to store apps - I have more apps installed than on my T68 and plenty of space left, and only Tapatalk is installed on the SD card. The T62 has much less of the white on white problem than the T68. It also is much better with motion on the screen than the T68 - you don't have to choose a different display mode, it does this automatically. Scrolling thru your book list in Calibre Companion works very well and book readers that can't turn off page animation look ok too. The fonts on the T62 are much darker in my installed reader apps than on the T68. Some people are using bold fonts using Moon+ on the T68, but you don't need to on the T62. One thing better on the T68 is the larger screen size, but for most everything else, the T62 wins hands down.

There is a great rooting and Google Play installation guide by nightboy on this MobileRead thread - https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=245888 .

The one issue in multiple apps is a problem where text doesn't show up on some menus - a sort of white text on white background, but usually in areas you won't need often like settings menus.

If you want to use the page turn buttons in most apps, you can on the E653 firmware, but not the T62 - just set the buttons to be used for volume buttons in settings. I think that's in User Defined Settings, but I'm currently on the T62 firmware so I'm not sure exactly where the setting is, but it works in apps that you can set to use the volume buttons as page turn buttons like in the Kindle app.

I had to set a static IP address in order to connect to my home wifi. Wifi does work in other locations.

You can have full screen anywhere if you set Statusbar to hide in Display Settings or in user defined settings for the E653. Use Button Savior to get back, home, recent apps, and menu buttons and more.

Button Savior swipe from bottom does not seem to work if status bar is not hidden, so I use Swapps to create a shortcut to turn the status bar on and off. It takes a bit to get used to swipe from the bottom, but I also use this on my Nexus 7. It helps if you start the swipe with your thumb on the edge of the bezel and swipe at an angle instead of straight up.


Reader apps

Moon+ is my favorite on my Nexus 7, and it works quite well here too. Just make sure you use the outdoor theme to get a white background and black text. The latest version now has all menus visible - it used to have the white on white problem.

Moon+ uses Color Dict dictionary and that works well. You need to install your preferred dictionary, the ones you need are on the app install page. There are English and other languages available.

Mantano, Nook, Google Play Books, and FBReader work well.

Calibre Companion works very well, I have 800+ books on my T62 now. If you use Calibre, Calibre Companion is a must have for organizing your books on your device.

I also installed InoReader rss reader and it works very well. IIRC it's a pain to set up so I restored the version that's on my Nexus 7 using Titanium Backup. Yes, Titanium Backup works if you're rooted, but the text is not visible in a number of places.

Kindle works much better on the T62 - the page turn animation is less noticeable and the Kindle store works.

Kobo thinks I have a larger page size so text is cutoff on the right and you can't change margins because all controls are displayed on the right side where you can't see them.

Overdrive flashes black for every page turn. The page size is slightly off so when you get further into a book the page shifts so that it falls off the left side and you can see part of the next page on the right. But if you go ahead using the toc it's ok. If you set a book mark the page is still offset so that won't help.


Other apps

Nova launcher works great and you don't need to be rooted to use it. I use a launcher app on all my Android devices.

Tapatalk installs and works too using the light theme, but quoted text can be hard to see.

ES File Explorer and Root Explorer are good file managers.

Swapps is good since there isn't a recent apps button. You can set favorite apps and widgets, recent apps, and all apps to come up with a swipe from any app.

Titanium Backup works much better on the T62 because there's less of the white on white problem.

AnyCut is useful to get shortcuts to the Brightness app and the Boyue launcher. This allows you to set Nova as your permanent home but still access the Boyue launcher home page.

I had trouble with Opera mini - I couldn't make the fonts big enough very easily. You can't install Dolphin mini through the Play Store, but I installed it on my Nexus 7 and restored it using Titanium Backup to the T62 and it's working better than Opera Mini.

Amazon appstore, Dropbox, Gsam battery monitor, and Hackers Keyboard all work. I still have lots of space to install more apps!

Last edited by Purple Lady; 12-29-2014 at 04:12 PM.
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Old 10-25-2014, 07:19 PM   #2
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Very interesting, thank you for the review !
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Old 10-25-2014, 09:19 PM   #3
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Very interesting, thank you for the review !
You're welcome!
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Old 10-26-2014, 10:53 AM   #4
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Is the lower resolution (not the screen size) diminishing the experience (vs the Lynx 68) in any way ?
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Old 10-26-2014, 10:54 AM   #5
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How does the battery life compare to Lynx T68 ? (eg: is it the same w/ Wifi off, or even if wifi off it's still not good) ?
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Old 10-26-2014, 10:56 AM   #6
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Where did you order it ? Amazon (arolesplace43) ? How fast did it arrive ?

Sorry for the many disparate questions. I'm thinking of ordering one too
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Old 10-26-2014, 11:10 AM   #7
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As far as I read the Boyue T62 has 3000mAh vs only 1700mAh of Lynx T68 ... That's a huge difference. Is it not reflected in your observations ?
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Old 10-26-2014, 11:11 AM   #8
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Is the lower resolution (not the screen size) diminishing the experience (vs the Lynx 68) in any way ?
I don't think so because since the fonts in most reading apps was so pale on the T68 the higher resolution didn't make a difference. I didn't care for the default reading apps on either.
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Old 10-26-2014, 11:15 AM   #9
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How does the battery life compare to Lynx T68 ? (eg: is it the same w/ Wifi off, or even if wifi off it's still not good) ?
I like to leave wifi on so my reading position is synced. The battery seems better on the T62, but still not too good. I end up turning it off to save battery. Rebooting takes about 1 minute.
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Old 10-26-2014, 11:21 AM   #10
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Where did you order it ? Amazon (arolesplace43) ? How fast did it arrive ?

Sorry for the many disparate questions. I'm thinking of ordering one too
I bought it at Banggood.com and it took about 3 weeks. The price on Amazon is a much higher price so I didn't think it was worth it. I would recommend ordering the case too. It wasn't available when I first ordered and the one I bought had straps to hold it in that blocked the power button.
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Old 10-26-2014, 05:02 PM   #11
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Thanks, most helpful!
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Old 10-26-2014, 07:53 PM   #12
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I just recently received my new T62 from Banggood, and I've been trying it out. My experience is very similar to Purple Lady's thus far. With the Onyx T68 and the Onyx reading app, I usually needed to put my fonts in bold in order to see them well. That is not necessary for the stock Boyue T62 reader. Every reading app I wanted to have on an E-Ink device runs well on the T62. The T68 was fussier on that account. As for resolution, the difference isn't noticeable with text. It can be seen with app icons and book covers, but it's not a huge difference.

I have only seen a couple of very minor nit-picky issues with the T62 thus far. I'm using the Boyue launcher. Unlike the T68, my most recently read books don't appear on the home screen after the device has been awakened or rebooted. I need to push the Jingdong Reader icon, which immediately crashes the launcher. Then, my recently read books appear! Secondly, mild shadowing can be seen along the edges when the light is on. The T68 has a slight edge here. But it's not distracting at all, nor does it interfere with reading.

As for the white-on-white issue, I have found that some menus that have the white-on-white problem on the T68 don't have it on the T62. But the reverse is also true for a few apps.

So much for the nit-picky stuff. Now for the praise that it has earned.

The T62 does everything I want it to do. It is a little smaller and thicker than the T68, so some people may find it easier to hold. It does some functions, like checking storage, MUCH quicker than the T68. The T62 seems more stable than the T68. As for battery life, it may not match a Kindle or a Nook Glowlight, but I have installed SetCPU and that seems to give me a little more battery life. One thing I've noticed: the T62's battery will read at 99% for quite a while (using the Battery app). Once the percentage begins to decline, it starts to decline at a faster rate. I haven't measured how much time I get on a charge yet, but it seems comparable to the T68, maybe slightly better.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the T62. It does all I want an E-Ink device to do. It costs less than the T68. It has twice the app capacity, and well over twice the interior sdcard capacity. It will take an external sd card (of course). And, no problems yet! If my first impression holds up to the test of time, my T62 will become my go-to E-Ink device.
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Old 10-27-2014, 07:02 AM   #13
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downeaster59, thank you for your review as well!

I too don't believe too much in the (higher) resolution. I still like best the way the screen looks on my Nook STG!

It sounds like a lot of the Lynx T68's issues are working correctly on Boyue T62.
The battery seems to sort of have the same issues:
- the reading is not exactly correlated w/ the discharge
- it doesn't last long while Wifi is on (and device used as Android tablet)

Can we confirm that SD card is working correctly ? (T68 was slow w/ a lot of files on SD card)

One thing that I like on T68 is that it has bluetooth, although I am still to really use this capability (mostly for external keyboard).

Last edited by dnastase; 10-27-2014 at 08:04 PM.
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Old 10-27-2014, 07:11 AM   #14
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I haven't added an sd card to my T62 yet. When I put in the sd card that was in my T68, the T62 came up with a "bad card" error. I think that was because the sd card was in the wrong format. I need to check this, but I believe that the T62 uses only FAT. I'll look for an sd card that I don't need, format it, and see what it does.
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Old 10-27-2014, 07:55 AM   #15
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The sd card works great in the T62. I'm using the same one that was slow in the T68 and it's much better. It's recognized quicker in the T62 and Titanium backup is much quicker writing to it.
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