It took a long time for e-readers to get colour-capable displays. The new E Ink Kaleido 4 screen, announced by its maker, promises that improvement won’t take quite so long.
Don’t go expecting OLED-like perfection from the incoming screen tech, though. The Kaleido 4 panel offers a wider colour gamut and better contrast, but it still won’t match the vibrancy of even a mediocre LCD. But if your primary screen is one that replicates paper, this will be a marked improvement.
Kaleido’s scope
You can even have access to the screen tech early, if you’re willing to search. The first product to include it is the Hanvon M10C II, an ePaper notebook available from the Chinese market. Odds are good that the regulars like Kobo and Kindle will offer a similar upgrade as soon as their device refresh schedule allows.
Most of what we know about the screen tech derives from the Hanvon product, as it happens. There’s a new TFT oxide backplane that allows for faster refreshes. That’s been a problem with the colour ePaper devices we’ve tested in the past. Black and white is fast enough for comfort. Loading a full-colour page slows the whole experience down a fair bit.
Other improvements, to hear E Ink explain it, are derived from Hanvon Technology’s own work on the display. The company made a custom controller to enable faster page turns, and there’s something called ‘Enhanced Pressure Floating’ tech that isn’t explained.
On E Ink’s side, the Kaleido 3’s colour range has expanded from 4,096 shades to more than 40,000. There’s also “video playback at up to 18 frames per second,” if you can stomach that speed. It’s not quick by anyone’s measure, but it’s also not something you’d expect an e-reader to be able to do.
Right now, the Hanvon notebook is the only one confirmed to be using the Kaleido 4 screen. We expect others to appear in short order, once the Chinese company has achieved its ‘first-to-market’ claim to fame.
