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Old 09-07-2014, 11:29 AM   #1
donoharm
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Beware of the Boyue T61!

Hello internet,

I just wanted to share my experience owning a Boyue T61 after I bought it from Banggood.com. I'm not sure if this also applies to the Icarus Illumina or not. The hardware is the same, but obviously the company is different...

I was so hopeful about the promise of this open ereader. I eagerly bought my Boyue T61 since on paper the specs seemed to be better than the Kobo or Kindle. Sadly, my Boyue T61 ended up only lasting for a day before running out of battery even though I wasn't even using the device or reading a book. After requesting to return it, banggood.com had the audacity to suggest that this is "normal for android" and denied my return. Luckily, I had used paypal to pay for the item and Paypal authorized a return under their buyer protection guarantee. For those who are considering purchasing this device, I'd strongly recommend not to buy based on my experience. For those who are in a similar situation to me, I'd recommend you just call your credit card company or Paypal to facilitate the return.
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Old 09-07-2014, 12:50 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by donoharm View Post
Hello internet,

I just wanted to share my experience owning a Boyue T61 after I bought it from Banggood.com. I'm not sure if this also applies to the Icarus Illumina or not. The hardware is the same, but obviously the company is different...

I was so hopeful about the promise of this open ereader. I eagerly bought my Boyue T61 since on paper the specs seemed to be better than the Kobo or Kindle. Sadly, my Boyue T61 ended up only lasting for a day before running out of battery even though I wasn't even using the device or reading a book. After requesting to return it, banggood.com had the audacity to suggest that this is "normal for android" and denied my return. Luckily, I had used paypal to pay for the item and Paypal authorized a return under their buyer protection guarantee. For those who are considering purchasing this device, I'd strongly recommend not to buy based on my experience. For those who are in a similar situation to me, I'd recommend you just call your credit card company or Paypal to facilitate the return.
I just ordered the T62 from them and I hope the larger battery helps. Did you look at battery stats to see what was causing the battery to run down so quickly? How long did you have it before returning? Did they make you pay return shipping?
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Old 09-07-2014, 12:58 PM   #3
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I just ordered the T62 from them and I hope the larger battery helps. Did you look at battery stats to see what was causing the battery to run down so quickly? How long did you have it before returning? Did they make you pay return shipping?
Paypal is requiring I pay for the return shipping and get tracking. Banggood wouldn't even accept my return, but they are forced to now that paypal has agreed with my claim. I just used it for two days to test how long the battery would last. I wasn't really impressed with the other aspects of the product either. I didn't look at the stats, but I did try reset to default settings after the first day. Still the same problem.
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Old 09-09-2014, 04:35 AM   #4
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Have you tried updating the firmware before you return it? Did you have the same result?

Some Chinese post said the same about high power usage, but another noted that it didn't happen and was using the firmware 20140719. Officially the latest firmware is 20140801.

Rumor is that somebody installed the Icarus firmware fine on Boyue T61. Anyone actually find the source of such claim? Isn't that Icarus' download is a "update" file?

Hopefully mine won't be problematic.
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Old 09-11-2014, 02:58 PM   #5
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Check my post here (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...=244339&page=2) #28. What was available and did install was the 'update.zip' by Icarus (the complete firmware was not available at their site; if anyone has it I would use it).
The result is what I described in my message (and on the attached picture).

As for the battery drain:
I noticed it too, but then I read Icarus's manual and on p. 7 it states (Standby .vs. Shutdown), that if you don't use it very often, you should set the e-reader to shutdown (I set mine to do so after 20' and it's OK).
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Old 09-12-2014, 07:01 AM   #6
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Thank you. Great link. Going to study the thread closely. But is all you did just placing the update.zip file in the root directory and allow it to update on its own? No complex rooting procedure described by didierm?

Thinking of trying the 0719 update first before trying the latest Icarus update and see what's the difference.

Found the Chinese forum that have a user posting photo of the battery usage history which shows the charge last about 2 days. It seems the "Awake" is running alot, maybe it is because he is using it alot during those two days? (http://bangpai.taobao.com/group/thre...0.0.0.0.rLlQLz)

So it is the price of having an ereader running Android 4.2.2. I am okay with that.
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Old 09-12-2014, 08:37 AM   #7
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It could have been a dead battery. Somebody was speculating that they use old / reject components for these e-readers, but I saw no proof of that.

One thing to try is to look at what processes are eating the battery. Android on e-readers can come with the processes for a phone still active. I can't remember the names of the process. You'll see them under battery use statistics. There's a couple of them and they suck the battery. Basically, the e-reader is trying to call to a cellphone network! You need to identify these processes and remove / rename them.

This was the case on the Nook ST. Boyoue should have removed these processes out-of-the-box, but it's worth a check.

Anyway, that would explain the battery drain. Though it might just be a dead battery.
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Old 09-12-2014, 11:59 AM   #8
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Yes. That's all I did. No rooting. I used 'didierm''s excellent message to install Raccoon, on my Windows PC, so that I can download the E-reader store application, as well as anything I could not find using that store afterwards. I am not concerned as much in terms of privacy, because I use another (large) e-reader for most of my reading.
Regards.

Last edited by crt; 09-14-2014 at 10:58 AM.
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Old 09-14-2014, 11:15 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla View Post
It could have been a dead battery. Somebody was speculating that they use old / reject components for these e-readers, but I saw no proof of that.

One thing to try is to look at what processes are eating the battery. Android on e-readers can come with the processes for a phone still active. I can't remember the names of the process. You'll see them under battery use statistics. There's a couple of them and they suck the battery. Basically, the e-reader is trying to call to a cellphone network! You need to identify these processes and remove / rename them.

This was the case on the Nook ST. Boyoue should have removed these processes out-of-the-box, but it's worth a check.

Anyway, that would explain the battery drain. Though it might just be a dead battery.
Maybe that's true (probably do use reject components) but I can also state with certainty that According to Banggood.com customer service, "this behavior normal for Android device". Also, the software was horrible. Even in English mode, there were tons of apps that stayed in mandarin and I had no idea what they did.

I just spent $60 to ship the ereader back to China, but it's honestly worth it because I'm keeping this POS out of the American market.
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Old 09-20-2014, 12:53 AM   #10
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Sorry to hear about the poor performance of the T61 battery. Just as a comparison point, I got a T62 delivered about 10 days ago. It arrived showing the charge at about half, so I plugged it in the first night after messing about with the set up, and I didn't plug it in again until yesterday. This was with at about an hour's use per day, wifi mainly off, and frontlight at halfway or above. Certainly not in Kindle Paperwhite territory, but it seems usable for what it is. I knew going into the purchase that a device like this would involve a number of compromises. I'm hoping some of the ereader apps will start to optimize their interfaces for e-ink screens. I'm also interested in trying to modify the launcher to be able to change the default reader app, and change the apps on the dock.
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Old 09-21-2014, 02:53 PM   #11
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I have the T61 for about two weeks now, also purchased from Banggood. I was aware of the possible problems with the Android dual-core ebook device and battery life. Don't get me wrong but this kind of device (Android based e-ink reader) is not for n00bs. If you don't do anything with it the battery life could be compared to any cheap tablet-and that is what people are getting.
In reality, after updating the firmware, rooting, playing with the CPU scaling, making the device shutdown instead of standby, not using wifi much, moderate light - my battery life is great - I am perfectly ok with it. It means you can expect at least a week long usage-and maybe more... For Android device, I think it is more then enough.

Does anyone knows anything about other Android readers performance?
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Old 09-30-2014, 04:40 PM   #12
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Hi

Can anyone tell me how long the battery last without wireless and android app usage? Also how is the backlight?

thanks
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Old 12-14-2014, 09:35 PM   #13
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Not sure about the negativity around T62. I have one and I love it because I use different aps for different formats and T62 lets me do that just fine. Battery life is not so great but as long as I get to charge it every couple days it works fine. I do not use wireless or google play store. I have Cool Reader, Fbreader, Koreader, Alreader and EbookDroid on it. It works great.

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Old 01-20-2017, 08:15 PM   #14
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I have a T62 and it's great. But you have to know your stuff with these e-readers. Otherwise get a Kindle.

I updated the FW to the latest and I installed a deepsleep app to lengthen the life of the battery. I could go in and shut down superfluous cell-phone apps draining battery (if they are there) but the deep sleep app should shut them down for me. If tou have battery problems install an app to getter bettter stats on battery usage.
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Old 01-21-2017, 12:07 PM   #15
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... I have Cool Reader, Fbreader, Koreader, Alreader and EbookDroid on it. It works great.

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How did you instal Fbeader (current) on it (or do you mean the old version that comes pre installed) ?

Thanks

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