ICARUS Illumina E654BK

maddz · 04-06-2017, 08:23 AM

Does any have one? Pros and cons? I'm looking to replace my Kobo Touch which is getting increasingly laggy and the problems I'm having with it and my Mac are more or less the last straw.

To me, the pros are:

Vendor-neutral. My books come from a variety of sources, and I manage everything with Calibre.

Android. This is an advantage as it means I can start running a specific app again - basically, an offline tool for browsing my entire book catalogue. I also liked FBReader from when I used to use the Nexus.

Decent quality screen. Not as good as the Boox C67ML, but perfectly adequate for my purposes.

8Gb onboard storage. I don't have to faff around with a SD card to get everything loaded.

Page-turn buttons. Capacitive screens don't work very well for me because of my dry skin. I also tend to knock them when reading so having the buttons and being able to disable the screen will be incredibly useful.

From what I can see the main con is that the initial set-up is in German; language selection seems to come later in the process.

Anything else I should be aware of before I get it?

church mouse · 04-06-2017, 09:47 AM

You will almost certainly find battery life to be not as good as your Kobo. That simply seems to be the way with e-readers running Android.

On my Energy Sistem Pro HD, I have found AlReader to be a better e-ink reader than FBreader. It may be worth you testing it out once you have your Icarus.

maddz · 04-06-2017, 12:05 PM

Battery life shouldn't be a problem - currently I do a lot of reading on the iPad; the Icarus would be for reading non-Amazon acquisitions and for travelling when I am not guaranteed to have access to a power point.

Being eInk, it should be better than the Nexus or the Aluratek in any case; both of those I had to charge more or less daily as I do the iPad.

04-06-2017, 08:23 AM	#1
maddz Wizard Posts: 1,270 Karma: 28630044 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: UK Device: Kobo Forma, Icarus, iPad Mini 2, Kobo Touch, Google Nexus 7	ICARUS Illumina E654BK Does any have one? Pros and cons? I'm looking to replace my Kobo Touch which is getting increasingly laggy and the problems I'm having with it and my Mac are more or less the last straw. To me, the pros are: Vendor-neutral. My books come from a variety of sources, and I manage everything with Calibre. Android. This is an advantage as it means I can start running a specific app again - basically, an offline tool for browsing my entire book catalogue. I also liked FBReader from when I used to use the Nexus. Decent quality screen. Not as good as the Boox C67ML, but perfectly adequate for my purposes. 8Gb onboard storage. I don't have to faff around with a SD card to get everything loaded. Page-turn buttons. Capacitive screens don't work very well for me because of my dry skin. I also tend to knock them when reading so having the buttons and being able to disable the screen will be incredibly useful. From what I can see the main con is that the initial set-up is in German; language selection seems to come later in the process. Anything else I should be aware of before I get it?

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04-06-2017, 09:47 AM	#2
church mouse Evangelist Posts: 482 Karma: 5277078 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: UK Device: Kindle Voyage, Kobo Clara HD, Kobo H2O, Boox Poke 2	You will almost certainly find battery life to be not as good as your Kobo. That simply seems to be the way with e-readers running Android. On my Energy Sistem Pro HD, I have found AlReader to be a better e-ink reader than FBreader. It may be worth you testing it out once you have your Icarus.

04-06-2017, 12:05 PM	#3
maddz Wizard Posts: 1,270 Karma: 28630044 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: UK Device: Kobo Forma, Icarus, iPad Mini 2, Kobo Touch, Google Nexus 7	Battery life shouldn't be a problem - currently I do a lot of reading on the iPad; the Icarus would be for reading non-Amazon acquisitions and for travelling when I am not guaranteed to have access to a power point. Being eInk, it should be better than the Nexus or the Aluratek in any case; both of those I had to charge more or less daily as I do the iPad.

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