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.
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