cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19284817
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”).
Are you talking about pwm? Most screens don’t refresh if nothing is changing
This isn’t technically correct. CRT, LCD, and OLED displays are generally constantly refreshing the image. There are some niche exceptions like memory-in-pixel displays but they are few and far between. eInk displays are very different in this aspect because the display itself acts as a physical memory of the image because its mechanism of creating an image involves physical changes (pigmented particles moving closer or further away from the visible plane).
I just wanted to add this video to your comment because e-ink is so cool and this guy has a bunch of macro shots of the displays that are awesome and you can see the particles in the screen changing colors.
So cool!
So, like the screen in the PlayDate?
Especially excited bout the medium 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.
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.
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 reading annoying, so even then I usually opt for a “raw” scan, despite lesser convenience.
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.
Color isn't bad either.
(Both do need either the front light cranked or a lot of ambient light to get that vibrance. They kind of fade a little in lower light without the front light)
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”.
That’s the Boox go color 7.
The video is in the fastest mode. The comics are in the slowest, regal mode. You’re going to have to manually tweak different apps with different content for the best results. But I really like what the color adds.
Good!
