Icarus has launched a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo for their new 13.3-inch Icarus A4 Android ereader. It’s a rebranded Onyx Boox Max, so both are mostly the exact same aside from the branding and a few tweaks here and there.
Here’s the link to the page for Icarus’s 13.3″ ereader. The funding goal is $25,000. They shouldn’t have any problem surpassing that mark in 2 months time.
The price for the device is set at $699 USD, plus shipping.
There’s also an upgraded package that adds a 6-inch Icarus ereader for $759, plus shipping. Or you can pledge $10 if you like giving money away.
The 13.3-inch Icarus ereader is expected to start shipping in July, which is a bit later than some of the other retailers for the Onyx Boox Max.
Pre-orders for the Max are expected to ship later this month from the new seller on Amazon. Plus the price is only $650, with $3.15 for shipping, and it comes with a memory card and some other bonus items. However, the seller is brand new and has zero feedback.
Icarus on the other hand is a well-established company in the ereader industry. They’ve been selling ereaders since 2009, and they already delivered on a similar crowd-funding campaign last year for their 8-inch Icarus Illumina XL ereader.
It’s good to see more retailers starting to sell Onyx’s new 13.3-inch ereader either way. Hopefully it’s on its way to carving out a niche in the market.
Below is a video demo uploaded by Icarus on YouTube showing their 13.3-inch ereader. Check the updates tap of the description page for more video demos.
Joel says
Hi
How is the screen compared to the new Kindle?
Is it sharp?
I bought the 8″ Illumina XL from
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/icarus-a4-13-3-inch-android-e-reader#/story
And that screen is not good.
My idea for using e-reader, is for the eyes. But this one is worse than reading on your cellphone al night…. 🙁
How is the sharpness of text on these bigger e-readers?
Nathan says
These large ereaders are a lot more bold than sharp. It has 150 ppi, half that of the Kindle, so high pixel density enthusiasts will automatically look down on it with disdain. People aren’t getting these to use at the smallest font sizes anyway so there’s sort of a disconnect there, especially since everything is scaled up for the larger screen. Having more pixels in more important on smaller screens. Plus it would bog it down and kill the battery life having to refresh all the pixels it would require on a screen that large with 300 ppi.
George says
I see they stopped the campaign. Promise to come back with Google play support or something like that.
Interesting about theirs campaigns so far, no one had been accomplished!
Only marketing stuff?
Nathan says
Yeah, the Onyx Boox Max on Amazon has been pulled temporarily as well. Apparently the manufacturer is having problems mass producing them so they’ve been delayed for another few weeks. I don’t know if that’s what’s holding up the campaign or not but it certainly doesn’t help.