olor e-paper displays have spent years looking like a comic book left out in the rain: washed-out, dim, and frustratingly slow. E Ink announced the latest generation of its color display platform called the E Ink Kaleido 4, promising to fix the muddy colors and sluggish frame rates that made reading anything with graphics an exercise in patience.
As E Ink chair and chief executive officer Johnson Lee admitted, color e-paper needed to deliver more than simply color to survive in a market dominated by cheap tablets. According to the company, the new Kaleido 4 panels feature a color gamut more than twice as wide as the previous-generation version. On top of that, E Ink states that the Kaleido 4 panels provide a 50% increase in overall contrast compared to the previous generation, alongside a 15% improvement in reflectance to deliver whiter whites.
E Ink claims the new Kaleido 4 panels feature a color gamut more than twice as wide as the previous-generation version.
These screens rely on reflective technology rather than backlighting, meaning they need light from the front—ideally natural sunlight—and move physical ink particles to render images even when the power is completely removed. That keeps power draw low and visibility in bright sun high, but previous versions suffered from painfully slow refresh rates that measured in seconds per frame, turning page turns into a slideshow.
The Hardware Reality Check
The real test of any display technology is what happens when it lands in actual consumer hardware rather than vendor slides. E Ink Kaleido 4 will first appear on the market in an electronic notebook device from Hanvon Technology, marking the global debut of the M10C II featuring E Ink Kaleido 4.
Hanvon Technology is launching the world's first product featuring the new tech, and Hanvon vice-president Wang Jie insists this is not simply a screen upgrade. Instead, the company positions the M10C II for productivity scenarios such as research and development tools, professional document review, meeting records, and mobile office applications.
Refresh rates, meanwhile, have been boosted through the use of a novel algorithm — to the point of being able to deliver video playback at up to 18 frames per second.
According to E Ink, refresh rates on the Kaleido 4 have been boosted to deliver video playback at up to 18 frames per second through a novel algorithm. That brings motion closer to a usable interface, though 18 frames per second still falls well short of the buttery smoothness of standard screen technologies. More importantly, E Ink had not confirmed pricing for the new panels at the time of writing, leaving the actual cost to buyers sitting firmly in question.
If you are waiting to buy a color e-reader for comics or documents, hold your wallet until the devices actually land in stores and independent reviewers measure the screen brightness with their own tools. Vendor claims about color gamuts and contrast look great in press releases, but until you can read a graphic novel in a dim room without turning on a blinding reading light, color e-paper remains an expensive experiment. Paying top dollar for unpriced panels that still require daylight to read is a great way to subsidize manufacturer prototypes.