Tablets haven’t evolved much since their inception and they’re basically stuck in limbo screen-wise for years. The max resolution is still 2560 x 1600 even 4-5 years after such a res first popped up. Anyway, E Ink is still evolving and eReaders are always trying something new. E Ink has just introduced “Print-Color” displays.
If you want high contrast and low power screens, E Ink has the thing for you, also in color now. It’s dubbed “Print-Color” and it lets each pixel on an electronic paper show black, white, red, green and blue, or a combo of the colors. The new display tech can be used on eReaders, but we have no idea if it’ll be produced in such a large scale in order to go mainstream. Scaling up production may also allow people to buy the eReaders on a budget.
For now E Ink plans to implement this in areas like education, retail and business. The folks of Good eReader managed to check out a prototype of the new panel a month ago and it was a 10.3 inch panel with support for the Wacom EMR pen for writing and drawing on the screen. E Ink is going to finalize the Print-Color screens by the second quarter of 2020, so we may see products in the second half of 2020.
Just like other E Ink products power is drawn only when the image shown on the screen is changing. A loaded image will stay on the screen, even sans power. E Ink screens are also only visible in ambient light, so you may need a front light to see things in low light areas. E Ink screen devices like Onyx Note2 and Sony DPT-CP1 can cost $450 to $600, but the new color ones may even go into $800 territory. Well, at least there’s purpose in using them in education: no damage to the readers’ eyes.
