Xiaomi launches the InkPalm 5 mini e-reader for 599 yuan (~$91)

[rowe]

I ordered mine on Wednesday (when they said they still had 2 in stock and it would be despatched the next day). Just had this mail...

'thank you for your order and patience again. Before we dispatch the ordered Xiaomi Moaan InkPalm 5 I would like to inform you that the only OS language available is Chinese. Do you still want the Xiaomi Moaan InkPalm 5, do you want to change devices or should we cancel your order and refund you?'

I've gone ahead, will no doubt have some fun trying to set it up

[Quoth]

Yes, @rowe, only set up that's tricky as long as Latin-Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic fonts work.
May need all the ebooks to have embedded fonts, or there might be a place to save extra system fonts?

It will interesting to read about your experience.

[positively4th]

Originally Posted by rowe

I ordered mine on Wednesday (when they said they still had 2 in stock and it would be despatched the next day). Just had this mail...

'thank you for your order and patience again. Before we dispatch the ordered Xiaomi Moaan InkPalm 5 I would like to inform you that the only OS language available is Chinese. Do you still want the Xiaomi Moaan InkPalm 5, do you want to change devices or should we cancel your order and refund you?'

I've gone ahead, will no doubt have some fun trying to set it up

I got the same message and also went ahead with it. Here’s to hoping it all works out! I just want to get the US kindle app on it, couldn’t care less about the OS language.

[Noobien]

You may have some luck with the ADB commands and using smething like simple ink launcher.

[rem736]

Originally Posted by positively4th

I got the same message and also went ahead with it. Here’s to hoping it all works out! I just want to get the US kindle app on it, couldn’t care less about the OS language.

i think you are mistaken. by "OS language" i believe they mean the interface/navigation, not the programming language behind the device.

that is, unless you read chinese.

[Owl_]

The OS is Android, then the language issue can be solved installing KOreader

[ottischwenk]

Here you can see the unpacking and the first impression.
The screen is not matte, it is reflective - nothing for me.

[rowe]

Interesting, the Cect listing says the anti-glare film is factory applied. Seems not at least on the good ereader one.

On the Hisense A5 the film was pre-applied, but it was almost irrelevant as the A5 has terrible ghosting under direct sunlight (on mine at least). And I suspect poor sharpness on the A5 is as much to do with the surface layers as a DPI that's a little less than most modern readers.

If given the option between glossy/matte, I'd prefer matte. But glossy does usually have darker blacks and seems sharper.

The best screens IMO use glass-like surfaces that are micro-etched to get the best of both worlds. I think the Kindle Voyage had this, and it's still the best e-reader screen we've ever had the opportunity to buy. Unfortunately this seems to be rarely used in screen manufacturing due to cost (it's a £300 option on iMacs).

[MikeOsborn]

his is great news, thank you! I so owe this. Who else follows the news of technological innovations?

[enlightened_j]

Received my order from JD.com. Can’t wait to play with it after work. Side by side comparison with iPhone mini.

[binaryhermit]

I'm curious what the dimensions are, particularly the height and width, or a comparison photo with the Pixel 3a or Pixel 4a

EDIT: Its product page on a certain good(sic) site suggests it's 143.5mmx76.6mmx6.9mm.

[enlightened_j]

The experience has been pretty good so far. So far have tried simple ink launcher, koreader, moonreader, a music app, and a podcast app and all installed fine using build-in file manager. I did have to dig around to allow apps to run in the background without being killed.

The downside is that even though the system language can be changed to English using adb, build-in apps shows only simplified Chinese. The "Setting" app crashes if launched from simple ink launcher (will be in English) but then crashes every time when I try go into app settings.

[rowe]

Got mine this afternoon, good first impressions here too.

The main things I wanted this to be compared to a Hisense A5 (which I've had for a while and read at least a book a week on):
- Lighter
- Smaller
- Sharper text
- Warmer light
- Dimmer lowest light setting
^ it does all of these things

---

My setup so far...

First I installed Amazon Appstore from the built in browser (it has an English keyboard selection).

From there I installed Moonreader Pro, but MRP was in Chinese.

So then I went through steps 1-3 on here using my Mac. Moonreader (and parts of the OS) and now in English.

That's all I need, but I'll probably tinker with it a bit more.

The screen is quite shiny, and I haven't applied the screen protector as I never like them. I'll see how that goes, I could never use the A5 in direct sunlight anyway as the screen ghosting went into overdrive.

[ouya]

Thanks for these updates. I’ve been watching eagerly for the deliveries to arrive to see what the first impressions are.

Just ordered one ��

[ouya]

Thanks for the updates. I’ve been waiting eagerly for your orders to arrive and get the first impressions.

Just ordered one ��