A Turning Point for BOYUE | Meebook M7 Review

Summary

The Mebook M7 e-reader is a significant departure from previous Mebook devices, featuring high-quality materials, customizable keymap buttons, and a 7-inch ePaper screen. Despite being on the heavier side, the M7 boasts impressive build quality, support for external storage via SD card, and audio capabilities. The device offers a refreshed UI, adjustable contrast, and various reading settings for an enhanced user experience. However, the key mappable buttons lack inherent features for page turns, and the company's ecosystem and market stability remain concerns. Overall, the Mebook M7 represents a turning point for the brand, offering a premium product with a competitive edge.

Takeaways

• 📉 Mebook faced challenges in the e-reader market with declining sales and minimal market share after taking a year off in 2020.
• 🆕 The Mebook M7 is a significant departure from previous Mebook devices, featuring high-quality materials and an attractive design.
• 🔘 This model introduces customizable keymap buttons, a 7-inch ePaper screen, and standard audio support, enhancing the user experience.
• 📊 The Mebook M7 is heavier than the Kindle Paperwhite, weighing in at approximately 247-248 grams.
• 💽 The device supports external storage via an SD card, a feature increasingly common in e-readers.
• 🎨 The M7 offers impressive grayscale levels with IMG 256, and a system-wide contrast dial for reading customization.
• 🔧 Users can customize button functions for page turns, lighting, and other features, though this limits some inherent page-turn features.
• 🌐 Google framework is enabled by default, and the device offers options to hide the store and tailor the user interface.
• 📚 The reading experience is highly customizable, allowing adjustments to spacing, font size, and other text settings.
• 🎮 Google Play integration provides access to a wide range of apps, games, and books, with a focus on books and manga.
• 🔄 Despite the M7's improvements, Mebook's ecosystem and company stability remain concerns compared to competitors.

Q & A

What is the main issue that mebook has been facing since their year off with Boyu in 2020?

Mebook has been facing a decline in sales and struggles to retain their market share in the e-reader industry.

How does the mebook M7 differ from previous mebook devices?

The mebook M7 is uncharacteristic as it is built with high-quality materials, has a good weight, and features a 7-inch epaper screen, tactile customizable keymap buttons, SD card support, and standard audio.

What is the approximate weight of the mebook M7 compared to the Kindle Paperwhite?

The mebook M7 weighs around 247-248 grams, which is on the heavier side compared to the Kindle Paperwhite's benchmark weight of approximately 200 grams.

What new features does the mebook M7 offer in terms of user interface and settings?

The mebook M7 offers a refreshed UI, customizable keymap buttons, IMG 256 grayscale, a contrast dial that works system-wide, and various device settings including button customization and Google framework support.

How does the mebook M7 handle the display of text and reading experience?

The mebook M7 provides a highly customizable reading experience, allowing users to adjust nearly every aspect of text display, including spacing, font size, and indentation.

What is the main limitation of the mebook M7's key mappable page turn buttons?

While the page turn buttons are key mappable, they do not allow for inherent features such as jumping chapters or volumes that are available on other e-readers like those from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

How does the mebook M7 support external storage?

The mebook M7 has a small door for an SD card, indicating support for external storage which is a feature increasingly seen in e-readers.

What is the mebook store's main limitation and how does the mebook M7 address it?

The mebook store mainly offers Chinese content which may not appeal to all users. The mebook M7 addresses this by allowing users to hide the store from the main screen.

How does the mebook M7 perform in terms of frame rate and movement refresh?

The mebook M7 can handle movement refresh and overall frame rate without major drops, making it one of the better-performing units from mebook-boyu.

What are the advantages of the mebook M7's implementation of Google Play Books?

With Google Play Books, the mebook M7 offers a wide range of books, manga, and audiobooks. It also allows for features like pinch-to-zoom and the use of page turn buttons across different apps.

What is the main drawback of the mebook M7's web browsing capability?

Web browsing on the mebook M7 can be slow and sluggish, especially when in full HD Regal mode, although forcing a refresh can mitigate this to some extent.