Cute but no cigars for the Meebook M6C

This e-reader has a lot going for it if only it could fix a few snags

After becoming supremely frustrated with the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 I had a look around for a cheaper Android option that would feel like less of a risk if it was rubbish. I saw a lot of people mention the Likebook, which has since rebranded into the Meebook. They run an Ali Express Store and their e-readers sit around the lower to mid-level of cost for e-readers on the market.

I decided I do actually like colour e-ink even though it decreases text sharpness a bit due to the extra layers needed for the screens. It's just nice to see colour covers and colour in-text images with e-ink, as well as having the option of reading colour comics. For digital comics nothing is going to beat a regular tablet for vividness, but colour e-ink kind of reminds me of a newspaper print type of effect. It's not bad, just somewhat desaturated. That won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.

I saw reviews for the Meebook M6 black and white e-reader and the user interface (UI) is what prompted me to take a chance with the Meebook M6C colour e-ink equivalent for £151 as it looked a lot nicer than the Boox. Here's how the Meebook stacks up against my requirements list:

• 6 inch e-reader that's perfectly pocket-sized for me
• Can install any e-reader apps compatible with Android 11*
• Can sync between compatible e-readers apps and my phone
• Can buy e-books via e-reader apps with stores, or browsers
• Dark mode via reading apps*
• Comes with 2 lightweight case options
• Has a nice looking UI for an Android e-reader
• A frontlight with brightness and warmth settings*

Snag #1

No dark mode for the main menu screen. You can trawl through to the Android settings to find a dark mode option, but because nothing is optimised for that setting, it doesn't apply to the main menu. It also makes it really difficult to navigate the Android settings menu as various UI elements basically become invisible.

Snag #2

The frontlight is much too bright on its lowest setting. It feels like it's stuck on max brightness when you turn on this e-reader in the dark, even with the brightness set to the minimum level. It pretty much lit up my bedroom when I tried night reading with it. I don't want a table lamp in my face, I just want enough discreet frontlighting to read by without waking up my partner. The Meebook M6C really fails to deliver here.

Snag #3

Not waterproof. In fact, I couldn't find any Android e-readers that are waterproof. Not one. The best offering was the Onyx Boox Go Color 7's theoretical splashproofing with no certification or evidence for the claim. So the lack of waterproofing with the Meebook M6C is, sadly, typical for any Android e-reader on the market right now.

Snag #4

Android 11 is old. This is a gripe I probably should have also had with the Onyx Boox Go Color 7 too as it runs Android 12. Support for both these versions of Android seems to have ended. Android 12 support ended very recently, but it still means neither of these systems are getting any new Android security updates. This means these devices could become quite vulnerable when connected to the internet over time, if they aren't already. I'm not sure how comfortable I am taking that gamble so early on in the lifespan of a new device.

Snag #5

Who even makes this device? They seem nice enough from store reviews but who trusts AliExpress store reviews? What kind of company are they? What are their business ethics? How do they manage their supply chain? Who owns the company and who profits from it? How did they get into the e-reader market and why? All questions with no answers because this information does not exist for whoever makes the Meebook M6C. It's hard to assess the trustworthiness of a business, or the ethics of a product when you can't find any information about the company. Which is really such a shame because I genuinely think the Meebook M6C is overall a really well designed device out of all the Android e-readers I've used. It's clear some real thought and care has gone into its form factor and UI. But by who is anybody's guess.

Snag #6

The Meebook does need some e-ink settings tweaks for comic books to reduce ghosting. It does have a "cartoon" preset in the "Color" tab of the "Refresh Settings" menu which enhances the colours and reduces ghosting on when the refresh rate is set to "Default". However, even with these adjustments, comics apps with page animations still produce some ghosting, so I do miss the animation filter and Regal refresh settings of the Boox which are lacking on the Meebook. Like the Boox you can set gestures for easy page refresh if you get excessive ghosting, but this not an ideal fix.

Another gripe similar to the Boox when it comes to comics reading is the apparent lack of a zoom-in setting for the default reading app. This isn't much of a bother for me as I don't use the default reading apps, but it's kind of annoying on a colour e-ink e-reader. Not thinking about the need to magnify images is an odd oversight for devices you'd expect would want to sell themselves on colour image display.

Plus point #1

The UI of the Meebook M6C is really nice. Everything from the really cute branding of the loading and sleep screens, to the nice clean grid menu, to the way it mostly just works right out of the box with no ghosting for regular reading. There's some ghosting on menu screens and things but the e-ink settings are far less involved compared to the Boox. It's genuinely a much more pleasant experience.

It has a "Black and white mode" in the "Refresh Settings" menu under the "Display" tab. So if you're reading non-colour comics or just want a slightly crisper regular reading experience, you can switch to black and white mode really easily.

There's some very minor instances of poor English translation on initial startup and deep in the settings, but nothing that makes using the device confusing or difficult to use. This is a breath of fresh air right after the settings and options hell of the Boox Go Color 7.

Plus point #2

As well as the really nice UI, the physical form factor of the Meebook is really nice too. The back of the white plastic shell has this pearlescent effect to it that is very pretty. The cases it comes with also offer aesthetic options, with one being a clear case if you want to decorate the back of your device and don't need to worry about protecting the screen, and a book-fold type case in a pleasant dark duck egg green. Both cases are extremely lightweight but feel substantial enough to protect the device from the occassional drop or bump.

And that's another great positive to this device. It's got the smallest and lightest form factor of any e-reader I've bought that has a case. It weights just 181g on it's own, and up to 239g with either of the included cases. It easily fits in my admittedly large pockets, and is amazingly light and comfortable to hold during long reading sessions. The Meebook has also got slightly raised screen bezels so I don't have to worry about accidentally turning the page like I do on flush touchscreens like the Kindle Paperwhite or Boox. But a nice improvement compared to the bezels on the Kobo Clara Colour is that they have a low enough profile on the Meebook, making them much less intrusive.

Plus point #3

While the Meebook doesn't have waterproofing like my Paperwhite or Kobo, and it doesn't add extra functionality like the speaker on the Boox, it does offer the ability to expand the device storage with a microSD card. This means you can even load e-books, audiobooks, and/or digital comics, or what have you, onto different micro SD cards and swap them out as you like. This gives you the option to customise the content you load onto the device in a pretty portable way. It also means you can control the content on the device without necessarily needing any kind of internet connection. For example, if you're travelling to the USA you could even swap your usual progressive titles for a decoy microSD full of pro-MAGA content to reduce the risk of ICE detaining and deporting you... Don't we all wish that could just be a joke...

Plus point #4

The battery life on this device lasts a pretty long time. I can go without charging it for multiple weeks at a time if I'm not using it a lot. It's got some good built-in features like disabling the wifi when the device isn't in use, and defaults to turning itself off after prolonged inactivity, all of which helps to preserve the battery life. I've found the Android e-readers can really struggle when it comes to draining the battery fast, but the Meebook is definitely one of the better devices for efficient battery usage. It easily outlasts all my other Android e-readers with normal use.

Thoughts

Now, I want to go on a bit of a tangent about the lacking company information available about basically all of the companies offering Android e-readers on the market. Not only do they all seem in agreement about not offering waterproof devices, but they all seem to have pretty vague and hard to pinpoint information about their companies. As far as I can tell, the Android e-reader market seems to be mostly a result of companies based in China. That's about it.

They offer no information on the environmental impact of their materials, or the repairability status of their devices. Most of them also don't bother to offer plastic-free packaging either. So while they do offer a technically more open and customisable alternative to many other e-readers on the market, there are a lot of assurances missing that other e-readers offer you. These assurances include a limit on who you can expect to be harvesting your data.

Google will be tracking how you use any Android device on any Android system still using Google for it's fundamental services like the Play Store and other things. You don't even need to log in or open any apps for this tracking to happen. There are also vague concerns about the safety of your data with Chinese companies considering the widespread surveillence used by their government, with phones, unencrypted calls, and telecom network technology, being targets of suspicion in the past, and now even Chinese electric vehicles coming under scrutiny. How concerned any of us should be about this remains to be seen, but who has your data and what they're doing with it is something to think about when purchasing any modern smart device. Especially, considering things like the recent leak of sensitive electric vehicle data from VW (definitely worth translating this link), and the volatile state of global politics. We have never been more vulnerable to the misuse of our data than we are right now.

Verdict

I really like the Meebook M6C. If you want a light, portable, ergonomic, extremely cute Android colour e-ink e-reader with expandable storage for a reasonabe price, you can't really go wrong with this little device. I doubt it's one for the privacy-conscious, which is likely the case for any Android-based e-reader, but the Meebook M6C really has a lot going for it. I just wish the dimness settings on that frontlight could go significantly lower.

At some point I'll make a post about some of the things I've done to limit what data Google can harvest from me via these Android e-readers. But for now, even though this isn't the ideal device for me it's far from a terrible option. I genuinely wish I'd bought the Meebook M6C instead of the Boox Go Color 7 first time around. I made the mistake so you don't have to I suppose, assuming you have the same requirements anyway.

See you next time for either a review of the Kobo Libra Colour or something else depending on how I'm feeling.