Earlier this year a new brand of ereaders and eNotes started turning up on Amazon under the Musnap name. They run Android, and they appear to be heavily inspired by Onyx’s Boox devices.
Two new Musnap ereaders called the Ocean and Ocean C recently turned up for sale on Amazon. Both have 7″ E Ink screens. The Ocean has a Carta 1300 screen and the Ocean C has a Kaleido 3 color screen.
The BW version is selling for $249 and the color model is selling for $289. Both show a stylus in the main picture, but apparently it’s not included. However, there is a bundle for the Ocean that includes the stylus and a cover and it’s only $10 more at $259.
The description doesn’t say anything about what type of stylus technology these Ocean devices use, but it’s definitely not Wacom because the page for the stylus says it requires a battery, and it’s not cheap at $69.
The product page for these Ocean devices is light on details, but both appear to share the same specs outside of the screen. They have 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage space, and they’re powered by a 2.2GHz octa-core CPU. They support WiFi and Bluetooth, and they have a frontlight with adjustable color temperature.
I tried checking the Musnap website for more information, but that didn’t really pan out. Their website is a worthless mess with more pictures than text, and they even managed to misspell their own company name on the product page for the Ocean—Musanp.
The Ocean and Ocean C both run Android, but the description and website don’t say what version of Android anywhere. The description does say they support installing apps, and one of the pictures on the Musanp website shows some app optimization settings, similar to Onyx’s devices.
The design of these Ocean devices is reminiscent of the Kobo Libra Colour and Libra 2, minus the edge that flares up on the handle side of the Kobos. They have what appears to be a basic all-plastic design with an indented screen, which is rather unusual for devices marketed as eNotes.
Frankly, I’m not sure why anyone would choose these Musnap models over the Boox Go 7 and Boox Go 7 Color when they have a nicer design and more overall features for basically the same price. There’s also a new Bigme B751C S model from Bigme that runs Android 14, and it’s currently $25 cheaper than the Musnap Ocean C and it comes with a stylus. I never understood these companies that come out of nowhere and charge more for similar products than more established companies, but having more options is a good thing.
You stated you did not know why anyone would choose this over an Onyx Boox. I would say possibly because learning the Onyx Boox is no easy task. There is a steep learning curve in my opinion.
I agree, but this is going to have a pretty steep learning curve as well since it runs Android and looks like a Boox clone software-wise. I doubt it has anywhere close to the same amount of software features as Boox devices since Onyx has been customizing their software for many years, but that’s one of the main reasons why Boox is at the top of the Android ereader/eNote market.
Why does the title call them “Kobo clones” but they cost more than the Kobo? Is this a name brand in some other countries or something? I don’t get why you’d pay MORE for an off-brand reader that’s likely way less user friendly (kobos have overdrive integration for easy library borrowing, the comfort light that shifts to phase out blue at nighttime, the Kobo bookstore, etc etc).
Because they basically copied the design of the Kobo Libra, and Android ereaders are usually more expensive since they aren’t making money from selling ebooks like Kobo and Amazon, and the hardware is typically more advanced (faster CPU, more RAM, some have memory card slots, SIM slots, etc).
i did some looking around, following up on a reddit comment, and these are definitely rebranded iReader devices. apart from the fact that iReader has a long-running line of “Ocean” devices, you can see in the user manuals on the musnap website that the ocean uses “SmartOS”, which is the ‘proprietary’ iReader OS. i can’t find any trustworthy english-language reviews of iReader products, which is a shame because some of the stuff in the manual looks pretty interesting to me.
I am a Vine reviewer for Amazon, and I have been sent the Ocean and Ocean C. The pen is coming tomorrow. They are competent devices. I’ve installed Kindle, Kobo, Marvel Unlimited, Zinio, and direct PDFs, and they are great. I’ve had Android tablets in the past and Kindle and Kobo devices, do this is my first e-ink Android experience. The refresh on the Kindle and Kobo are much better, but with enough tweaking, I can comfortably read anything on them. I’m looking forward to the pen experience tomorrow.
I, too, have the Ocean C and am quite happy with it. It has a bright screen, which is unusual for a color ereader. I also have the Meebook M8 and M8C and they have an even brighter screen – even the color version. I very much like them. I have pens for all of them. By the way, the Meebook M8C actually has a Wacom pen and will also work on the Kindle Scribe.
Like another commenter said, these are rebrands of the iReader Ocean5Pro and Ocean5C with (assumedly poor) Musnap software flashed onto the device. I would be wary of ordering one, since reviews on Musnap’s other rebranded devices complain about the software with some people reporting their device being bricked on restart after an update. Hardware should be great though. I have an Ocean5Pro and left a longer review for it on Reddit
Also this is definitely meant to compete with the Boox Go 7 rather than the Libra