Onyx Boox M92 sample has arrived. First imression - I love it!

[ignacio ferrer]

Originally Posted by jbaach

While I am testing things - please tell me what you (other members of this forum) would be interested in. Put up / link your files on https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/TestFiles, and ask the related question here.

I think I am not the only one who is mainly interested in PDFs as far as 9.7" devices are concerned.
Not only the actual viewing, but overall handling - i.e. annotations, notes and navigating between those two.
Judging from what I read, heard and saw, the M92 seems to have at least a slight edge over the PB 903 - but who knows?
Or get the Color Jetbook, although I don't understand how they could have delopped such superior technology where others are still struggling.

[Dulin's Books]

they did not develop it. Eink of course created the color display. Hanvon developed the device with input from Eink. Hanvon has been creating eink based readers with pen touch for 4 years. they have their own EMR pen and capacitive touch soulutions in house. Hanvon brands the device for Jetbook.

Underneath their firmware layer is Windows CE though and not linux if Im not mistaken. That makes it easier for them to have PDF annotations etc because the libraries are already built for windows when they are not freely available to linux developers

[jbaach]

Maybe half OT - I have uploaded three videos about the browsing experience of the boox m92 compared to the pocketbook 903. These three differ in resolution and fps (I am pretty new to taking videos, and please excuse the not so great quality of my webcam).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g-AZPOf-CQ - 800x600, 25fps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4K8c4BnkpM - 960x720, 10fps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzl6ZTj9h8k - 1600x1200, 5fps

Which quality would you think is best for the future videos?

[vsh1ft]

Could you tell something aobut the M92? Does it freeze a lot or have any similar firmware errors as M90? I prefer 800x600 quality. because of FPS.

[PF4Mobile]

@jbaach

Thanks for volunteering to test our scenarios.
I would be interested in the following:
-PDF annotation -is exporting possible
-PDF annotation -would it be possible for you to annotate a file of 2-3 pages and post the file and the files created after annotations were made/added? I would like to have a look at the file to see if there is any way to export the annotations or to make the annotations visible on desktop

thanks
PF

[newray]

@jbaach

Hi jbaach
Thanks for taking the trouble to make and post this video!
It is really informative about the web browsing experience on the M92.
Thanks again,
Ray

[jbaach]

@PF4Mobile

Originally Posted by PF4Mobile

@jbaach

-PDF annotation -is exporting possible
-PDF annotation -would it be possible for you to annotate a file of 2-3 pages and post the file and the files created after annotations were made/added? I would like to have a look at the file to see if there is any way to export the annotations or to make the annotations visible on desktop

From what I understand the pdfs themselfes are not touched. Both devices store the annotations externally. I made another video that shows how I made some annotations to a sample pdf on moodle. The exported annotations are attached.

The m92 files (two files, one starts with a dot '.' are actual sqlite databases). Not sure about the format of the contained blobs.

The 903 is html + images (png, svg). From a quick test I did one could write a little parser to modify the html to include the pngs as backgrounds for the pen annotations that are stored as (transparent) svgs.

[initx]

Hi jbaach.
My question is, how convenient is the device for navigating a book? Let's say if you wanted to learn a 300 pages long book, and want to navigate between different locations in the book fast, let's say between page 38 and the appendices at the end of the book, is it comfortable to do it with the pen?
SQLite annotations can be saved and then loaded back together with the book if needed, am I right?
Does the screen seem to be scratch resistant?
Thank you so much.

[jbaach]

@ignacio ferrer

And while I was as it, I made a somewhat lengthy video showing a bit more about pdf handling on the devices. Sorry about being lazy with the (non-)editing of the videos.

The video is about:

- glyph thickness on the m92
- zooming on both devices
- select zoom area on m92
- column mode on 903
- failing to open a pdf
- success in loading a version of the pdf that was modified by 'briss'
- highlighting multiple areas
- scribbling in the pdfs
- screenshots on the 903
- integration of notes into table of contents on the 903

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by vsh1ft

Could you tell something aobut the M92? Does it freeze a lot or have any similar firmware errors as M90? I prefer 800x600 quality. because of FPS.

I can't compare to the m90 at all - I never had that device. So far (using it for some hours) there were no crashes or freezes, I think. I rebooted the device once or twice, but not sure why that was.

[EDIT: I actually just had a more real crash - even though it woke up after long pressing the on/off for a while...]

On the video quality - would be good to hear more opinions on that. Right now I am doing the 960x720@10fps, not sure.

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by initx

Hi jbaach.
My question is, how convenient is the device for navigating a book? Let's say if you wanted to learn a 300 pages long book, and want to navigate between different locations in the book fast, let's say between page 38 and the appendices at the end of the book, is it comfortable to do it with the pen?
SQLite annotations can be saved and then loaded back together with the book if needed, am I right?
Does the screen seem to be scratch resistant?
Thank you so much.

On navigation: to jump between e.g. page 123 and e.g. appendix a on page 300 one would have to constantly enter the page numbers in the 'go to page' function. Thats actually much better on the 903, where you have a list of the last opened pages. I had to use it in one epub, because the endnote numbers only allowed jumping to the endnotes, but there jumping back did not work.

The annotations are kept on the device, both on the m92 and the 903. So it survives rebooting etc.

I am very hesitant to test how scratch resistant the screen is :-) However both books come with covers (the one for the m92 can be flipped open, and is lighter then the reader).

[measure]

jbaach:

Firstly, it goes without saying that the information you're providing is greatly appreciated by us potential buyers. You're essentially our only source for information on the M92.

I added a few links to some djvu files (in particular, ones which I read!) on the wiki in hopes that you could use them to show how the M92 performs displaying djvu files of varying quality. I am also quite curious if the M92 supports searching for text in pdf and djvu documents (and how quickly it can do it, if possible). Djvu files are quite different from pdf, as they are efficient images with arrays of text associated to points of the image (this is how the text search functions, ans far as I understand).

On a bit of a different path, how does it feel to actually hold the M92. While the skinny bezel is more aesthetically appealing, does it seem like there's not enough to hold onto?

Regarding the video quality: For me the difference in picture quality 1600x1200 versus the 960x720 does not warrant the significant difference in fps. Speaking mathematically, it would be ideal to record at twice the maximum refresh rate of the two devices, as this would ensure there are no artifacts in the videos due to the fps of the recording (this is called the nyquist frequency). Speaking personally, especially because of the resolutions youtube allows, the quality of the picture in the 800x600 is too low. I think the 960x720 is the right choice between these three.

Again, I'd like to thank you for your hard work. I'm quite close to purchasing the M92, but it still needs to prove itself after reading of the myriad of issues with the M90. At any rate, it does seem like an impressive device.


Thanks,
Ryan

[maindoor]

Hi Jbaach,

Nice videos. Thank you for helping us out in choosing a good e-reader.
1) How is the reading experience of the two e-readers in natural light ? Is it true that PB903 feels like a newspaper but the M92 feels like a high quality print book ?
2) Does the M92 have any options to adjust the screen contrast ?
3) How is the build quality of M92 compared to PB903 ? Does M92 feel flimsy ?

Thanks.

[a.a.k]

IS IT capable of reading RSS (subscribe to RSS feeds)? the old one cant as you can see here
https://www.onyx-boox.com/faq/1-freq...ribe-rss-feeds

thanks

[Randy11]

@Jbaach, Thanks you for the videos.

I'm intersting in the search of text in PDF and EPUB files (technical books), I search for the occurences of an expression. Could you give some informations ? compare with Adobe ? include this test in your video ? All answer is welcome.

Thanks.