Hi everyone,
Thought I’d share my impressions so far with the MK. Previously I was using the Hibreak Pro as my daily driver and it’s a great device but the size is not suitable for me. I went looking for other smaller eink phones and apart from the MK nothing else is available really.
I decided my workflow will be, use the Hibreak pro as an ereader and for hosting banking and other apps I need and use the MK mostly as a phone with one messenger app, a browser and an e-reader while on the go.
Regarding the apps on the MK: the ereader is not worth investing more efforts into. It’s so basic and limited that getting it to be up to par with the rest would be too much effort. Leave it as it is and let users side load a proper one. Or better yet, add an open source one to the Mudita OS. There are plenty of options to choose from, no need to reinvent the wheel. The weather app is pretty good, the maps need navigation but this was already stated many times. Investing in the maps actually makes sense because most map apps aren’t optimized for e-ink, although this one also doesn’t feel much better either. The music player is also useless and no point in investing in it, users will most likely side-load something else.
The screen: the feature I’m most looking forward to is some kind of control of the screen contrast, DPI and quality. I’m sure this screen can produce much sharper text than what is currently available. I believe this should be the main priority, some users see this as the main feature of the phone. Otherwise a stripped down smartphone would do the same job. This and the battery life which has been solid.
My setup for using the MK as an ereader is to use KOreader in parallel on my other eink devices. Initially I tried the built in progress sync, but this didn’t really work well. I’m in the process of doing the syncing by using dropbox and storing all books and the progress in a shared directory and repeating the same setup on all devices.
KOreader has options which makes reading on the MK as it is more acceptable. I increased the contrast and the font width, the text is still fuzzy reminiscent of an old book. On the plus size, the screen is whiter than most other eink devices I know, it allows for using the MK without a front light 90% of the time. That said, the next updates should also add having a warm front light if possible.
Overall nice device with a lot of potential, the form factor and battery life are great. In my opinion focus future efforts on improving all other areas apart from the built in apps.
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All agreed. The weather app seems the best one in stock. I’d only add rain probability/volume forecast.
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Great feed back I think people need to be patient and see how the device develops. If you look at the Light phone 2 for example and @Jose_Briones can attest to this when it came out it was bare bones, literally did nothing else besides call and text but he stuck with the phone and he literally used it for 5 years, and through that time they added so many new things, podcasts, music, notes, etc and the device grew into a great one
I like the idea of sticking with a phone and watching it grow and improve. I am CONFIDENT that Mudita will have the same success with the Kompakt but yes it is going to take time for it to get there
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Yeah. I agree. The phone got better and better. Hoping the MK does the same and that the 3 year update promise can be extended beyond that
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Some more thoughts after 30 days of daily use.
The good things:
- The volume buttons are very satisfying to use, responsive and have a nice click to them. In KOreader they are automatically mapped as page turn buttons. Much better than the ones on the HiBreak Pro, often unresponsive.
- Reading is decent despite the grainy screen, contrast and font size can be adjusted in KOreader.
- Loving the camera, it’s probably not intentional but the photo quality resembles scanned film. I’m taking more photos than I was expecting.
- I mentioned this earlier, but the screen is very usable without the frontlight. 99% of the time I don’t use the front light and even in low light conditions, it’s good enough.
The not so good:
- It’s been mentioned a lot but the notifications. Seems like this was not thought through, by not having any notification on the lock screen or the LED, you end up using the phone more and wasting away the battery, than having this information available. I want to make sure I haven’t missed a phone call, so at least this should be available at a glance. I don’t want to pick up the phone to check if I left it in another room.
- Again e-ink controls, please just add the HD mode and a contrast toggle. It would make like with the MK so much better for anyone wishing to read on it.
- It’s been mentioned a lot: accidental unlock or emergency services dial. Super annoying.
- I’ve sideloaded a single messaging app, but every now and again it stops running in the background. I’ve also noticed the audible alert for a message coming in 10min late for some reason.
- No task manager and an easy way to manage if applications should stay in the background or not.
Other thoughts:
- Would love to be able to use the MK for driving navigation somehow. I know the implications of running Android Auto but perhaps make it easier to install the google services spoofing application without rooting? I’m not sure how the navigation would work on a screen of this size even if you implement the turn by turn navigation for the maps.
- Overall great device and with some more well focused dev work, it would be at the forefront of “dumphones”. For me sideloading, size, e-ink screen, battery life are killer features that no other device currently has. To be honest, if there was a version with a fuller Android (notifications, android auto, google maps and wallet), I’d probably go with this one. I mean the eink screen is already just enough friction to combat smartphone addiction.
4 Likes
@bogdan Thank you so much for taking the time to share such a detailed and honest 30-day review. We really appreciate your thoughtful feedback, both the highlights and the areas where you’d like to see improvement.
3 year update would be great!
- LP2 user since 2023 and now switching to Kompakt
2 Likes