TCL NxtPaper 11

[Quoth]

Using MTP to the SD Card I get under 0.8 M Bytes per second.

Using an €8 SD card USB reader I get 12 MB/sec or more copying from an HDD.

Turn off the tablet before removing or inserting a card, not just sleep.

Also for any device with an SD card don't copy content before using with calibre or it will take a long time. Create the folders (directories) you need and then connect to Calibre. Untick everywhere except folders that Calibre will use. Add rules for azw3, kfx, pdf, epub etc to appropriate directories and make sure default is memory card (will need changed back for devices not using a card),

[Quoth]

Oh, rats! Copying 80,000 small files the transfer rate is only about 0.27 MB/s via MTP!. Now at 0.45 GByte of 26 GByte. Or estimation of 28 hours.

Should quit and dismount.

Edit
Now getting 30 MB/s via card removed and in cheap SD-USB adaptor. Now 4G done and 11 minutes left.,

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Turn off the tablet before removing or inserting a card, not just sleep.

That is always to be preferred. Better safe then sorry.

[Quoth]

Now have MyWrite Nebo on it. Maybe 3rd in Productivity and €9.95, not a subscription

Far better than MS One Note, which is very clunky on Android though free, and has no offline handwriting conversion other than Gboard input to a text box.
Major differences from Nebo on Kobo (Advanced Notebooks on Sage or Elipsa)

• Preview of handwriting as computer text as you write.
• No temporary drop outs
• Copy and paste works properly
• Drag and resize is instant and easy
• Conversion to text is much faster with double tap.
• Conversion of sketched boxes & lines to chart works better and faster
• Export and save as docx dramatically faster
• Share export to other apps
• Import PDF for markup/annotation (not tried it yet)
• Add and change language without changing system language (on Kobo it follows main system choice)
• Any colour. More flexible sketch insertions

There may be other better enhancements. There are Mac & Windows viewers and an iOS app. I know you can't import iPad Nebo file on Kobo. I will see can Android app use Kobo Nebo file later.

The advantage of Nebo on Kobo Elipsa and Sage is that it's free. It's hampered by eink and CPU performance. It's certainly better on Kobo than reMarkable's Notepad application.

No WiFi or server or cloud service needed (See Kindle Scribe).

[Quoth]

I tried a wired headset on the tablet via a generic USB-A adaptor in a USB-C OTG adaptor. It works, but volume too low. So I bought €17 Primark / Pennys "surrounding" the ear earphone headset as I don't like the BT buds and not loud enough. Plenty of volume at 20% on tablet media volume via BT. The headset also has 3.5mm jack and USB-C charging (will charge from tablet). The + & - buttons work on Musicolet App, which works for mp3 audio books as you can set it to remember position on all files, or just files more than x.xx duration. It can play folders or playlists or you can make playlists on it. I have now entire CD library dating back to 1992 and some LPs, 78s, singles and cassettes on the micro-SD card. Keep meaning to digitise the rest of my 1960s 45s, 1970s to 1980s LPs and the 78s, some of which my parents had before marriage. Some 78s & LPs picked up S/H.
I have a customised player for 78s, Dual 505-2 for LPs & 45s and Sony TC 186SD for cassettes. Choice of Zoom handyrecorder or Creative external HiFi USB box for capture. Audacity on Linux to cleanup.

[Quoth]

With some fiddling, a otg adapter,a hub and a USB stick I managed to get the NxtPaper 11 to recognise the Elipsa. Select use as portable storage. The file manager showed the two devices files in one window, but I was able to copy files. Eject only via Settinge -> storage.

Typed / posted using Firefox on the tablet.

[Quoth]

After a two week on/off search I found my old RTL USB-DVB-T TV stick.
I added the USB-C to USB-A OTG adaptor and a short USB-A extension cable.
The demo versions Android SDR Touch and Aerial TV worked, so I bought the €4.19 (inc 78c VAT) licence in App for the TV. The full version is an upgrade by clicking the lock icon on the running demo app, no doubt to ensure you have the required USB stick as otherwise the app won't load.

Ireland uses DVB-T for HD, so the old USB stick works also for HD and SD H.264. UK would need a newer one for DVB-T2. A DVB-T2 USB stick will work on DVB-T.
Some (nearly all old ones from UK) DVB-T setboxes and TVs will not do H.264 decoding (UK HD only, which was only ever on DVB-T2). Ireland has always used only H.264 for DVB-T, even for SD as well, so many TVs, before DVB-T2 was standard, sold as Digital TVs in Ireland only worked on analogue (till 2012 switch off), or as monitors with DVD, Consoles or set-boxes. We did a survey in 2012 and every UK owned retailer locally and most of the Irish ones (due to UK domination on wholesale back then before Brexit) had no Digital TVs that actually worked as such in Ireland, yet the €8 DVB-T USB sticks worked on a laptop to PC because the H.264 decoding was done on Windows/Linux/Mac.


The USA uses a totally incompatible system for off Air (ATSC), see map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television so the common RTL USB sticks won't work. See map for your region Digital TV.
Regions where a DVB-T or DVB-T stick won't work
North America uses ATSC
South America and one part of Africa uses ISDB-T
Japan uses ISDB-T
China uses DTMB (Hong Kong may still use DVB-T)

Most do about 42MHz to 1.2GHz for SDR, but it's only 8 bit by bypassing the MPEG-2 TS decoder. So SDR and DTV use different Android drivers (free download).

Later when I get more Playstore credit I'll get full version of the SDR Touch app, which is about €8.99. It does various radio modes and needs an external upconverter for 50KHz to 50MHz (LW, MW/Broadcast and SW) which are available on Amazon, Ebay etc. It will do FM, AM, SSB etc on bandII, Air Band, 2m, 70cm, Marine etc. I've used it with free SW on Windows and Linux, including DAB and SSTV. DAB is now turned off here since the start of May 2021. Only RTE was prepared to use it and it had less than 50% coverage.

Better SDR based tuners are available. The dynamic range of 8 bits is terrible and really 12 bits is a minimum, but the SDR Touch app is worth while with a cheap DVB-T stick for casual FM-Radio, Marine (we have local coastguard weather), Airport (we are near Shannon) and Shanwick Air control as well as listening to Amateur radion on 2m and 70cm.

Some Android tablets and phones do not have the CPU and graphics performance needed. The Irish HDTV with optional subtitles was perfect on the TCL NxtPaper11.

Edit
According to reviews the SDR Touch key (€8.99 on Playstore inc Irish VAT) on Amazon can only be used on an Amazon Fire, not a regular Android device.

[Quoth]

So far as I can tell, with macro adaptor and without tripod (lazy!), the TCL NxtPaper 11 uses a 3600 x 2000 mono panel with R G B stripes to 1200 x 2000, rather than a 2 x 2 cell on 2400 x 4000. It also seems to use sub-pixel addressing. However I'd need better photos to be sure. Despite having a similar overall resolution in dpi to the Kobo Elipsa, it looks a lot sharper; probably this is due to better grey scale (254 vs 14) and sub-pixel addressing. The eink panel cells also seem noisy, presumably because each cell is multiple black and white balls.

PDF page turns of a scanned magazine (UK format) are instant on the TCL and slow with a flash on the Kobo

[DrChiper]

Just for fun to see whether the NxtPaper could be used as an entertainment device I tried to play locally some video's and could even get a 4K format to run reasonable fluently. I used the (free) MX Player as that one seemed to produce the best result. This player, however, was not able to decode AEC3 audio (missing codec), but that could easily be resolved via this support.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

…
I tried to play locally some video's and could even get a 4K format to run reasonable fluently. I used the (free) MX Player as that one seemed to produce the best result. This player, however, was not able to decode AEC3 audio (missing codec), but that could easily be resolved via this support.

I have VLC, which even lists all the computers on the LAN with file shares.
I can log in and play video over the Wifi, though the USB-C 1Gbps ethernet adaptor for my laptop works.

Why do companies think it's a good idea to have no ethernet port and no stereo input 3.5mm jack on laptops now?

[Quoth]

I've a selection of OTG adaptors. The all-in-one USB-C to USB-A is a bit unstable for a gadget like a USB stick, SD card reader, Audio adaptor or USB-TV stick, so a USB-C OTG cable with a USB-A socket is better. It's OK for a USB-A to whatever / anything cable.
This one works well (other sellers available).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0872VN39L/

I also took off the USB-A plug and cable on a USB hub and fitted a Micro USB OTG plug and cable off a dead phone/tablet keyboard. I got the D- and D+ the wrong way on first attempt. I then added a Schottky power diode on the Supply + and a coax power jack socket for optional +5V (power bank or PSU). Works with everything except the USB-TV stick.

The USB-TV stick is fine on the cable based OTG adaptor listed.

[Quoth]

It's €167 inc VAT, ex shipping on Amazon DE today, so the Wife has bought one, pen, plus "official" case with pen holder and 256 G micro SD card* to replace her nearly 5 yo Lenovo Tab 10 that has a 128G SD card.

(*I think better value and reliability than 512 G, 1T or 1.5T).

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by Quoth

(*I think better value and reliability than 512 G, 1T or 1.5T).

Why do you think that? Just curious as I am considering a 1TB microSD for about €95 myself.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Why do you think that? Just curious as I am considering a 1TB microSD for about €95 myself.

Reliability:
Larger capacity uses smaller cells or more layers. The ideal varies with process maturity, however we really are getting near physical limits on geometry and Flash cell size, hence 3D (more layers), which reduces reliability. Best trade off of speed, price and reliability last time I looked at SSD was 512G Byte. That's two 256G storage chips on the PCIe NVMe PCB stick, so address interleaving gives about twice the speed as a one chip 256H PCIe. The full size SD cards can have two chips thus giving twice capacity of a micro SD card. No idea about speed.

Price:
The largest capacity anything is usually a bit more costly per GByte. Price of course varies with brand, but comparing micro SD cards of the same speed and brand, the 256G seems better value than larger sizes. It's also better value than the 32G Byte unless you buy a cheaper brand. I've a bunch of stuff that works with 32G SD HS max, so recently bought some Lexar. Usually I buy SanDisk.

Speed:
Tricky, as those reading the Kobo "I'm replacing my internal SD Card" posts know. Quoted speeds are always for video or similar large block transfers. The real life ordinary file i/o is rather different and via MTP can be weird. My ancient Sony-Ericsson Android 4.1x phone is about x5 faster with the new Lexar card than MTP with anything else I have. Make sure storage is set as "Portable" and don't let Android format. Dismount and use an SD card in a reader on PC if possible.

A larger than 32G micro SD card will be SDXC and should be exFat format. Don't reformat unless you are sure your OS and formatting utility properly understands SDXC and exFAT,

The larger than 4G is usually point that SDHS is used, so some really old stuff uses 4G max. Some things work with 2G max due to addressing, though SD cards use serial transfer. In theory a full size 4G SD card could use 2x 2G chips in parallel!

Anything that works with 128G or more ought to work with 1T, but there is no assurance of it.

Also quantity. Unless you are storing DVD rips a 1T is a lot. Is 256G (or 512G) really too small?

At some stage it will be economical for me to rip all my DVDs and BDs to my server the way I did decades ago with CDs. I still buy music on CDs and it's in the PC drive once and then archived in the nice dry attic.

Conclusion
I was tempted to get a 512G micro SD card for me, but I'm not tempted to get a 1T or 1.5T. I bought a 256G card for the 2nd TCL, though I did briefly consider a 512G upgrade and putting existing 256G from 3 or 4 week old TCL to new one. Though it's a 2.5 year old card.

My Lenovo Yoga Tab 10 passed on to family member without the SD card, so my TCL Nxtpaper 11 got the used 256G. The wife has my older Lenovo, nearly 5 years old replaced by the Yoga 2.5 years ago. It has a 128G card. I'll use it and its card in my workshop, so she's paying for a new 256G card. Though her laptop is SSD for OS and 512G HDD for user files on Linux Mint, even the the 128G card would take all her user files.
She's the main paper user (Duplex Colour Laser), but will consider trying to use the TCL Nxtpaper 11 instead.

[Quoth]

Only drawbacks as an ereader:

• Narrow bezel
• Android, though it's Android 13
• 10.9″ is large to read a novel. The 7″ or 8″ eink ereaders are a better size and shape.
• Aspect ratio is a bit skinny, but not as bad as common 16:9
• Not quite as good as eink for a mono text novel

Other drawbacks (not to do with reading)

• Poor built in sound because it's too skinny
• No 3.5mm jack
• No option for separate charging
• Auto brightnesss doesn't work properly (never seen it work well on anything)
• Android
• Camera Bulge on rear, making it fatter would have been fine
• Too narrow bezel
• Some USB 2.0 hubs don't work
• DVD/CD player doesn't work (but this is common!)

Positive features

• 2000 x 1200 pixels
• Fantastic screen with almost zero reflections and glare
• Great contrast
• 10% to 30% easy brightness range for night and indoors
• 25% to 100% brightness outdoors including direct sunlight!
• All the eye saver and reading modes not needed.
• Incredible run time per charge
• Perfect HD Video, even using off air live TV via USB stick for a laptop.
• BT audio is good
• BT and USB keyboards are fine
• USB-A 3.0 Hub works in USB 3.0 mode with a suitable USB-C to USB-A 3.0 adaptor.
• Some USB 2.0 Hubs work
• USB keyboard, mouse, memory stick, and Kobo ereader all work same time on a USB 2.0 hub. The TV stick only with a USB3.0 hub, though it's only USB 2.0
• Both USB to RS232 and USB to specialist TTL serial work.
• Ultra matt, low glare, high contrast screen.
• T-Pen is good and very cheap
• Digitiser/Pen for Nebo, drawing, or Gboard is perfect
• Compass works without Location enabled (Heavens Above app)
• Responsive to orientation
• SDR and DVB-T (DTT) perfect with USB TV stick (mine does 24 MHz to 1800MHz. Ships, Aircraft, Amateur Radio, FM Broadcast, SW broadcast etc). Other bands via addon converters, which I don't have yet.

Reading / annotation in use

• Pocketbook
• Xodo
• Nebo
• Jota (plain text notes)
• Libby (local library newspapers, magazines and comics)
• Borrowbox (local library ebooks & audiobooks)
• Kindle
• Kobo
• Playbooks
• LibreOffice Viewer
• Gboard with PC layout and Handwriting
• T-Pen
• EKH Switch and EKH Settings (remap BT or USB keyboard)

Found that mostly I don't need a keyboard. The T-pen or a finger with GBoard handwriting, or T-Pen with Nebo (which adds exportable computer text to PDFs of any kind).

General Applications Added & in Use

• Musicolet (can store position of mp3 audiobooks and playlists or folders)
• AA Image viewer
• Sketchbox Free
• Snapseed (photo crop and limited edit)
• Open Camera (better than standard Android)
• Canon EOS Connect
• WS View (manage FW updates etc of our Ecowitt Weather station)
• pTxRx Lite (remote CAT of 2 way radios with bigger display)
• SDR touch driver
• SDR Touch
• DVB-T Driver
• Aerial TV
• 2 x Banking Apps
• Heavens-Above (stars & sat & ISS tracking)
• Samsung Web browser
• Firefox browser
• K9 Mail
• IZ2UUF Koch Morse Tutor
• Lichess
• Robot36 (SSTV)
• Pocket Prefix Plus (Amateur call signs)
• PortoDB (uses SQLight for your own databases)
• Shortwave Schedules
• Viber (Chat by Rakuten that owns Kobo, need it on phone 1st)
• VLC (most video & audio formats and LAN)
• Morse Code Reader

Others added to test and some of the Google stuff used