A new Meebook ereader was released recently called the Meebook M8, and it has just turned up for sale on Amazon for $259 with free shipping.
Meebooks have been around for a while now (they used to be called Likebooks). They’re another Android-powered Chinese brand similar to Onyx, but Onyx no longer offers models in this size, and the Meebook M8 looks like it has a solid set of features for the price.
It has a 7.8-inch E Ink screen, which is a size that you don’t see very often anymore. It has 300 ppi, and a frontlight with temperature control. Apparently the screen also supports stylus input, but the listing says a stylus isn’t included so you’d have to purchase one separately.
The Meebook M8 has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space, and there’s also a memory card slot that supports cards up to 1TB. The device has an octa-core 2.2GHz CPU. It supports Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6. It has dual speakers and dual mics. It also has a rotation sensor and a USB-C port with OTG support. The battery size is 3200mAh. The weight is listed at 265 grams, and the overall dimensions are 193 x 140 x 7mm.
One nice thing about the Meebook M8 is it runs Android 14, which is a newer version than what’s available on most current Android ereaders, and it also supports Google Play for installing Android apps.
In addition to Android reading apps, the M8 also has its own built-in reading app called ZReader that supports a wide range of common formats, including EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, CBR, CBZ, AZW3, MOBI, TXT, DOC, DOCX, FB2, RTF, HTML, CAJ, DJVU, PPT, PPTX, and ZIP, among others, but like other Android ereaders it doesn’t natively support ebooks with DRM (you have to use Android apps for DRM’d content).
The biggest issue for me with this particular brand is that they use a proprietary pen. You are stuck having to use their own pen. To make things worse is that they don’t sell replacement nibs for them. To get more nibs, you have to buy another pen. the other problem is that their Android version for these devices is set, it will not upgrade to the newer versions. They don’t do frequent software updates either. I know as I got the likebook P10, which was great when I first got it. It was my firs eink notetaking device. But eventually I noticed it was way too slow to be practical. The low resolution was not helpful. The backlight was not very bright. the feel of the device is solid. But it is forever stuck on Android 8.1 and the pen doesn’t always work correctly.
FYI, it’s very rare for any of the Android ereader companies to offer updates to the Android version on their devices. Don’t expect getting updates on any of them because it will most likely never happen.
@Rod
Likebook isn’t Meebook, it may be the predecessor, but then I don’t know what obligations of Likebook the company Meebook has taken on. I assume none.
I have the Meebook Q78 (P78 Pro) and it did receive an update this year (MEEBOOK-V1.5.4-2025011617) even though the device was released in 2022.
Like Nathan said: e-ink devices hardly get any Android updates and I doubt they will even get security updates for Android regularly. The Meebook P78 Pro with Android 11 is stuck on the security update from December 5, 2021. But then I don’t do anything with it that requires enhanced security.
Since I bought some LCD devices with matte display like TCL NEXTPAPER I use the Meebook seldom these days. But I had no problems with the backlight but I only used it at night in the dark.
If it wasn’t for my preference for matte LCD screens and the fact that the P78 Pro is still working fine, I would buy a Meebook device again. I like my Meebook better than my TUC from Boox. Meebook let’s you use the normal Android settings without an additional app.
I have the Meebook M6, It’s a great reading experience and a solid mp3 player. At first there were a lot of bugs that had to get worked out, the dictionary, the poor English spelling in the OS, and I felt the light was weaker than the Kobo Clara, but I got used to it and I hardly notice. The downside is the weak plastic build, the unit is creaky with it’s cheap plastic body, the worst part is that after about six months, the power button was no longer responsive, so now I have to keep it charged up all the time. I’ thinking about getting a Kobo Color Clara.