Hyread is a Taiwanese company that has been making e-readers for number of years. They have released numerous models and also operate their own digital bookstore. They primarily market it in China and the surrounding areas. However, their newest model the Gaze Plus Note has some really solid hardware specs and also an SD card. If you are looking for a great book reader and e-note, it might give Readmoo’s Mooink a run for their money.
The Hyread Gaze Note Plus features a 7.8 inch E INK Carta e-paper display with a resolution of 1404×1872 with 300 PPI. The WACOM enabled screen is compatible with the stylus that comes with it and has 4096 degrees of pressure sensativity. You will be able to read in the dark via the front-lit display and also has warm light with amber LEDs. You can upgrade the performance of the Gaze with turning on A2 mode allows you to quickly refresh the screen, perform partial refresh for the content, shorten the screen refresh time, and produce slight afterimages. Therefore, A2 mode is suitable for browsing web pages or reading comics, which can increase the smoothness of visual perception and reduce the flickering phenomenon of full screen refresh.
Underneath the hood is a Quad-core processor 1.8 GHz, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. You should have amble room for your book collection, but since you will likely want to import a bunch of PDF documents to edit, there is an SD card that is capable of an additional 512GB, which is really amazing. The vast majority of e-readers or enotes on the market have abandoned SD cards, but Hyread is a pleasant exception. There is a USB-C port to charge and transfer data to the device, it also has Bluetooth 4.2 so you can listen to audiobooks, podcasts or music with wireless headphones. If you don’t feel like using headphones, there is a single speaker that has a capable audio system. It is powered by a 3200mAh battery and can become fully charged in only about 2.5 hours. It also has a built-in microphone for voice communications or audio dictation.
One of the saving graces of the Gaze Note Plus, is Android 11. You have one of the latest versions of the OS that is perfectly suited for e-readers and has great security features. Users can install their own apps, so you can sideload in your favorite content such as Kindle, Kobo or anything else your heart desires. If you want to sideload in your own books, it supports a wide array of formats, such as EPUB, PDF, MOBI, DOC, TXT, FB2, RTF, HTML/HTM, DJVU/DJV. If you speak Chinese you can purchase books from the HyRead ebookstore, which has has popular best-selling books, e-magazines, and audiobooks. There is over 100,000 titles available on the platform with multiple options to buy it outright or purchase a monthly subscription to access everything. However, if you speak another language, Hyread told me that it uses Android system languages, so it will support English.
It retails for NT$ 9,450 and can be purchased from the companies website.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.