What’s it like to use a 13.3″ E Ink reader? From the Ereader Store, here is a YouTube walk-through of the Onyx Boox Max: “Just wanted to give you some first impressions of them. During tests I have rooted my sample and installed some third party apps. In the clip you can see how Max handles PDF, DjVU, EPUB, CBZ files and how TTS Acapella as well as Google Play, DropBox, Kindle app, Browser work.”

Excluding taxes, the price is $585 Euros (taxes and shipping not included), preorder. No front light, alas, but one is also AWOL from the costlier Sony DPT-S1. Some other basics:

First Onyx 13.3″ professional E-ink reader with Mobius flexible screen and inductive touch control; Android 4.0.4. Physical buttons combined with touch screen; Powerful Audio functions, built-in Mic. Built-in WIFI and Bluetooth 4.0 ; Built in 16G Storage, TF Card support (32G) ; 4100mAh large capacity battery (up to 4 weeks).

Is this enough for the money?

Each to his or her own. I myself would still go the iPad route, but the Onyx could still be just the ticket for very serious readers or professionals who want PDFs displayed in full black-and-white glory.

So if Amazon’s so great, what can’t it offer us more choices than readers a fraction of the Onyx’s screen size? Must everything from Amazon be for the crowds? Amazon is long tail when it comes to books, but when it comes to e-reading hardware, the tail’s snipped off.

(Via The Digital Reader.)

3 COMMENTS

  1. @RandolfT: I couldn’t agree with you more that Amazon’s dominance of the hardware market (reinforced by the proprietary format and DRM) is suppressing innovation. Fodder for anti-trust regulators? I don’t know. But if nothing else, they should watch Amazon very carefully. The big argument Amazon defenders make is that the company is good for consumers. In many many ways it has been! Amazon is one of my go-to place for books and hardware alike. But will things change, and how about current issues such as lack of hardware diversity. Prices and hardware quality are fine. I just want to see more options out there.

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.