Submitted 2 weeks ago by Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://liliputing.com/e-ink-faces-growing-competition-in-the-paper-like-display-space/
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/19284817
and generally aren’t very useful for high-motion graphics like videos or games. I do like the fact that my e-reader is just for reading books without distractions. Thats also kinda the point of e-ink, to be as close to paper as possible and make digital reading better. I don’t see the need yet for a paper like screen to animate video because it won’t be as good as a normal screen. I’ll prefer specialized screens over a catch-all type any day.
I mostly agree, but it would be nice if it was a bit faster to be able to use it for web browsing. I still like reading long form articles and such but navigating and scrolling isn’t very viable yet on e-readers.
It would be neat to compare these new reflective LCDs with the 25-year-old ones used in the Game Boy Color.
Reflective LCD, like my palm pilot used? I didn’t think we would see those make a comeback.
It is almost as if there has been about 2 years of technological development since you last used that kind of tech.
The article is a bit vague on the pros and cons of reflective LCD screens.
It seems to be pros that it has a good refresh rate, can be used without a backlight so is good outdoors and indoors in a bright room, and maybe better for your eyes due to the lack of the backlight/blue spectrum light. It also may offer better colour depth than e-ink currently.
The cons are not clearly addressed but presumably battery life is worse than e-ink but better than a backlit display such as OLED or AMOLED, that colours are still not as good as other LCDs even if better than e-ink, and it seems cost (although that may be due to the small market at present).
Also there is no obvious innovation noted in the article so its not clear what has changed about these displays? It sounds more like some small companies are just using the displays in a new way to try and mimick paper. But maybe thats wrong or will change?
Maybe this would compete with e-ink if cost comes down. The battery benefit of e-ink with a static image is one of its big benefits, to the point that its being used for shelf labels in supermarkets. E-ink isn’t going anywhere but good to have more choices in the tablet space.
Backlit OLED? You may be thinking of QLER because OLED is self emissive
I think what he means is emissive in general. OLED, LCD, whatever, all are powering through ambient light, so need really high brightness in high lighting scenarios.
E-ink and these reflective screens use the ambient light to their advantage, so they’re almost always lit at the appropriate level automatically, and you can supplement with much less fatiguing front-lighting in low light scenarios.
This article has completely missed a selling point of e-readers for people like myself: no constant refreshing.
My eye strain, when reading for a long time, doesn’t come from the light (or lack thereof), which is evident as a positive of backlit Kindles and other e-readers, though the constant flicker of screens. E-ink solves this issue perfectly, and with every device in that article mentioning “60Hz” on their alternatives I feel as though they’ve missed a big point of having an e-reader and what exactly constitutes as “paper like” (it’s a lot more than just “low/no backlight”).
“Runs a custom version of Android”. God fucking shitnuggets. I just want computing to be mine again.
Welcome news, with the caveats others have highlighted. E-ink is still quite expensive for reasons I dont understand. Someone said there were only a couple of manufacturers.
Cheap (and by that I mean rubbish) 10” tablets are available for under £30 in china, but if you want e-ink it’s at least double .
The secret lies in patents and Monopoly.
That someone was correct.
I’m perfectly happy with the progress of e-ink in motion. It’s not good, but it’s enough to follow the occasional animation in a mostly static environment.
I don’t hate the idea of better progress in rLCD. I’d be pretty interested in a steam-deck-like that worked well outside in harsh sunlight. But I have a hard time seeing it match eink in contrast for static content. E-ink has a lot less ground to cover to get to “flawless”.
What devices are these, in the video and photos?
That’s the Boox go color 7.
So, like the screen in the PlayDate?
Especially excited bout the smaller screen sizes. I like my small eReader but sometimes need something larger for PDFs and to make highlighting and searching easier in non-fiction books. The giant tablet I am typing this on is nice for web and video, but it’s just too massive for reading and it appears tablets have the seem problem as smartphones with becoming ever bigger.
Mine is about 20cm in diagonal, and I find this size perfect. Most of my textbooks are only available as PDF/DJVU, often as scans. And those that do have a text version often end up with messed-up formatting or a lot of recognition errors that make readib annoying, so even then I usually opt for a “raw” scan, despite lesser convenience.
You can get 7,8,10 inch screens for ereaders, in addition to smaller ones. Where is there a gap?
(The only reason I haven’t pulled the trigger on a 10 inch color one is because I’ll just be annoyed when 13 finally happens. Reading on big screens is awesome.) But there are options all over sizes below that.
9 inches.
jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
More and better e-ink, please. It’s just the best at the things it’s good at. Give me a foldable phone with one e-ink screen!
abfarid@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
“E Ink” is a company, producing displays with a very specific proprietary technology. I think you mean to say more “e-paper”, which is a generic term for “paper-like” displays. And unfortunately, right now the only real competition is RLCD (reflective LCD), which is arguably non paper-like enough to qualify. Yes, it’s reflective, but other than that, it’s just a higher density Game Boy screen. Which is great and all, but it can’t compete with E Ink in a lot of aspects. It doesn’t have retention, you gotta power the screen, so no signage and stuff. It has LCD-grade bad viewing angles.
RLCDs are cool for certain uses though. For example, I sometimes choose to play on my AGS-001 over my Analogue Pocket if I’m outside in bright daylight.
paf0@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I wish they made more e-ink watches
JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Which one do you prefer?
And don’t say Pebble, that’s an e-paper, not an eink.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
No foldable but screens on both side.
EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 2 weeks ago
Seen a noname Aliexpress phone with a normal display on one side and an e-ink one on the other.
espentan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Would that be because of creasing issues, or are there other practical differences?