7 ms·

I'd like to see a laptop with an e-ink display I can code on. That way I can go and sit in the sun.

paulie_a 8y ago
Personally I wish the reflecting shiny screen would go away. Why in the world did that become standard?
robin_reala 8y ago
That was always the promise of Pixel Qi screens. Shame they never hit critical mass. There are eink standalone monitors (e.g. http://dasungtech.com/ http://dasungtech.com/ ) but nothing in a laptop form factor that I’m aware of.
- dmos62 8y ago
  The Dasung's Paperlike monitors are a bit expensive. Onyx Boox Max2 [0] seems a bit more recent, slightly larger, has many more features, including usage as an exterior monitor through HDMI. It's an android-based ereader, with extensive note-taking, drawing, pen writing, music sheet drawing features. It's also cheaper $500+, compared to Paperlike's $900+. I'm not a fan of bloat, which is where Max2 might be leaning, judging by a quick glance, but I'm enticed by it doubling as a large-format (portable) ereader. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdRFMWff5CI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdRFMWff5CI
  - hultner 8y ago
    Wow a HDMI input is so great, I've been looking for a tablet with something like that in order to make it double as extra monitor on the go. Tried duet with the iPad but it isn't good enough over lightning with video compression and such.
    - JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
      I was doing this with a Nook HD+ (still a pretty good deal second hand as a 9 inch HD screen if you see one cheap) and TwomonUSB a few years ago. Not the most stable software in the world but it worked well enough as a second screen (hot reloading webpage and terminal stuff on it, code on my main screen)
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  I really want some e-ink screen setup for a RPi but not sure how it will work.
  - FullyFunctional 8y ago
    You can get off the shelf for that easily, but the large modules are $450+$350 (https://shopkits.eink.com/product/concerto-driving-board https://shopkits.eink.com/product/concerto-driving-board) and not ideal for a mobile application.
adrianN 8y ago
I wonder why transflective displays are not more common for laptops. My hiking GPS has one and it's really great. The brighter the sun shines, the better you can read it.
joombaga 8y ago
My thoughts exactly. They replaced the keyboard. They should've replaced the display.
simias 8y ago
My only personal experience with e-ink displays is from my almost decade old Kindle and that was way too slow to be usable interactively for anything complex. Has the state of the art improved to the point that coding on a e-ink display is viable? What about color? Regarding TFA typing on a flat surface sounds painful, at this point you effectively have a tablet-style keyboard. That being said I'm a keyboard snob who's currently typing on a mechanical keyboard with blank keys so I'm obviously not the target audience.
- hultner 8y ago
  See my comment about hacked Nooks, they're both really cheap and looks super fast. In general newer e-ink displays can render new content without refreshing the entire screen like in the early days. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17885138 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17885138
  - JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
    I wouldn't say they're super fast but a $20 Nook Glowlight is an absolute steal if you want to get someone a starter eReader. Load it up with a few books and they're off. Not too hard to get the kindle store running on it iirc, never bothered though.
- FullyFunctional 8y ago
  My Kindle Voyage has an amazing display and refreshes plenty fast (you can see the partial updates when moving the screen brightness setting up and down quickly). The only problem with it is that the screen is too small (physically). The same quality at 13+" would work great for Emacs + pdf reading.
johnchristopher 8y ago
Well. Just flip the laptop, enable the on screen keyboard and wait for the screen hack thingy that will enable the use of the e-ink as the main screen to be released on github.
- zaarn 8y ago
  As someone who had a Kobo EReader a long while ago; coding on eink is painful. The screen latency and constantly flashing will ruin your day even with the joy of being able to code in bright daylight. Unless there is some magic advancements in eink latency that I don't know about...
  - adrianN 8y ago
    It's not cheap, but there are EInk displays that have low latency: https://youtu.be/i3wP-GSG1NY?t=242 https://youtu.be/i3wP-GSG1NY?t=242
  - hultner 8y ago
    I've seen hacks on the Nook Simple¹ allowing for even runnig PSX games with good refresh-rate, ever since I saw those demos I've been dreaming about a decent resolution EINK screen for my terminal sessions. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0wAmMbFgI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0wAmMbFgI
  - setr 8y ago
    easy solution: an lcd screen for editing and a e-ink screen for reading maybe just split the monitor down the middle (open up half your laptop? :-) and drag documents between each for the best [worst?] of both worlds
amelius 8y ago
I want an e-ink display on which I can read scientific papers. Sadly, this isn't possible unless the whole paper fits on the screen, because scrolling on e-ink quickly becomes a real chore due to the refresh rate.
- dbingham 8y ago
  What about the Remarkable (https://remarkable.com/ https://remarkable.com/)? It's both got a larger screen and it's supposed to have a vastly improved refresh rate. I haven't tried it, but I'm really really curious about it.
  - Seanny123 8y ago
    It's beautiful hardware matched with absolutely horrid software. It's Android 4.0, which means literally nothing works. They've tried to fix it with custom apps, but I still can't achieve a decent work-flow and there's no community to make it better. It's actually the worst.
    - LanceH 8y ago
      I read books with it and it's wonderful.
    - Thimothy 8y ago
      That is awfully wrong, it boots a custom linux-based OS, not Android. You are probably talking about other device (probably the yotaphone). http://remarkablewiki.com/tech/specs http://remarkablewiki.com/tech/specs I use the remarkable for taking notes on online courses, and works wonders.
      - Seanny123 8y ago
        Whelp, they marketed it as Android and it had access to the Google Play store, so I thought it was Android... Seems I was wrong! I still maintain its very poor for reading papers I've found on my phone and then syncing the annotations.
hultner 8y ago
Exactly what I was thinking when I saw this. I just want to attach a tmux/vi session to that EINK panel, I'll even bring my own wireless keyboard.
- ianai 8y ago
  Same here. I’m sure plenty want that, but apparently not enough.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Yep, same here. E-ink screen and keyboard is all I need; I'd be totally fine with black&white, I'd just switch Emacs to monochrome coloring (using different fonts and bolds/italics/underlines instead of regular syntax coloring).
FullyFunctional 8y ago
I came here to say the same thing. I might have to make it myself which is looking increasingly possible. Useful displays aren't even that expensive, a 13.3" 1600x1200 display _module_ (not including driver) is $450, making a mechanical keyboard is easy, SBCs like the ODROID XU4 are plenty fast. Just a small matter of finding a few months of spare time /s
devmunchies 8y ago
Would you be losing syntax highlighting though?
- radus 8y ago
  > Would you be losing syntax highlighting though? Grayscale, italics, bold
  - nathancahill 8y ago
    V A R I A B L E S
- chongli 8y ago
  There are colour eink displays!
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

Personally I wish the reflecting shiny screen would go away. Why in the world did that become standard?

That was always the promise of Pixel Qi screens. Shame they never hit critical mass. There are eink standalone monitors (e.g. http://dasungtech.com/ http://dasungtech.com/ ) but nothing in a laptop form factor that I’m aware of.

dmos62 8y ago
The Dasung's Paperlike monitors are a bit expensive. Onyx Boox Max2 [0] seems a bit more recent, slightly larger, has many more features, including usage as an exterior monitor through HDMI. It's an android-based ereader, with extensive note-taking, drawing, pen writing, music sheet drawing features. It's also cheaper $500+, compared to Paperlike's $900+. I'm not a fan of bloat, which is where Max2 might be leaning, judging by a quick glance, but I'm enticed by it doubling as a large-format (portable) ereader. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdRFMWff5CI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdRFMWff5CI
- hultner 8y ago
  Wow a HDMI input is so great, I've been looking for a tablet with something like that in order to make it double as extra monitor on the go. Tried duet with the iPad but it isn't good enough over lightning with video compression and such.
  - JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
    I was doing this with a Nook HD+ (still a pretty good deal second hand as a 9 inch HD screen if you see one cheap) and TwomonUSB a few years ago. Not the most stable software in the world but it worked well enough as a second screen (hot reloading webpage and terminal stuff on it, code on my main screen)
giancarlostoro 8y ago
I really want some e-ink screen setup for a RPi but not sure how it will work.
- FullyFunctional 8y ago
  You can get off the shelf for that easily, but the large modules are $450+$350 (https://shopkits.eink.com/product/concerto-driving-board https://shopkits.eink.com/product/concerto-driving-board) and not ideal for a mobile application.

adrianN 8y ago

I wonder why transflective displays are not more common for laptops. My hiking GPS has one and it's really great. The brighter the sun shines, the better you can read it.

joombaga 8y ago

My thoughts exactly. They replaced the keyboard. They should've replaced the display.

simias 8y ago

My only personal experience with e-ink displays is from my almost decade old Kindle and that was way too slow to be usable interactively for anything complex. Has the state of the art improved to the point that coding on a e-ink display is viable? What about color? Regarding TFA typing on a flat surface sounds painful, at this point you effectively have a tablet-style keyboard. That being said I'm a keyboard snob who's currently typing on a mechanical keyboard with blank keys so I'm obviously not the target audience.

hultner 8y ago
See my comment about hacked Nooks, they're both really cheap and looks super fast. In general newer e-ink displays can render new content without refreshing the entire screen like in the early days. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17885138 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17885138
- JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
  I wouldn't say they're super fast but a $20 Nook Glowlight is an absolute steal if you want to get someone a starter eReader. Load it up with a few books and they're off. Not too hard to get the kindle store running on it iirc, never bothered though.
FullyFunctional 8y ago
My Kindle Voyage has an amazing display and refreshes plenty fast (you can see the partial updates when moving the screen brightness setting up and down quickly). The only problem with it is that the screen is too small (physically). The same quality at 13+" would work great for Emacs + pdf reading.

johnchristopher 8y ago

Well. Just flip the laptop, enable the on screen keyboard and wait for the screen hack thingy that will enable the use of the e-ink as the main screen to be released on github.

zaarn 8y ago
As someone who had a Kobo EReader a long while ago; coding on eink is painful. The screen latency and constantly flashing will ruin your day even with the joy of being able to code in bright daylight. Unless there is some magic advancements in eink latency that I don't know about...
- adrianN 8y ago
  It's not cheap, but there are EInk displays that have low latency: https://youtu.be/i3wP-GSG1NY?t=242 https://youtu.be/i3wP-GSG1NY?t=242
- hultner 8y ago
  I've seen hacks on the Nook Simple¹ allowing for even runnig PSX games with good refresh-rate, ever since I saw those demos I've been dreaming about a decent resolution EINK screen for my terminal sessions. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0wAmMbFgI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0wAmMbFgI
- setr 8y ago
  easy solution: an lcd screen for editing and a e-ink screen for reading maybe just split the monitor down the middle (open up half your laptop? :-) and drag documents between each for the best [worst?] of both worlds

amelius 8y ago

I want an e-ink display on which I can read scientific papers. Sadly, this isn't possible unless the whole paper fits on the screen, because scrolling on e-ink quickly becomes a real chore due to the refresh rate.

dbingham 8y ago
What about the Remarkable (https://remarkable.com/ https://remarkable.com/)? It's both got a larger screen and it's supposed to have a vastly improved refresh rate. I haven't tried it, but I'm really really curious about it.
- Seanny123 8y ago
  It's beautiful hardware matched with absolutely horrid software. It's Android 4.0, which means literally nothing works. They've tried to fix it with custom apps, but I still can't achieve a decent work-flow and there's no community to make it better. It's actually the worst.
  - LanceH 8y ago
    I read books with it and it's wonderful.
  - Thimothy 8y ago
    That is awfully wrong, it boots a custom linux-based OS, not Android. You are probably talking about other device (probably the yotaphone). http://remarkablewiki.com/tech/specs http://remarkablewiki.com/tech/specs I use the remarkable for taking notes on online courses, and works wonders.
    - Seanny123 8y ago
      Whelp, they marketed it as Android and it had access to the Google Play store, so I thought it was Android... Seems I was wrong! I still maintain its very poor for reading papers I've found on my phone and then syncing the annotations.

hultner 8y ago

Exactly what I was thinking when I saw this. I just want to attach a tmux/vi session to that EINK panel, I'll even bring my own wireless keyboard.

ianai 8y ago
Same here. I’m sure plenty want that, but apparently not enough.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  Yep, same here. E-ink screen and keyboard is all I need; I'd be totally fine with black&white, I'd just switch Emacs to monochrome coloring (using different fonts and bolds/italics/underlines instead of regular syntax coloring).

FullyFunctional 8y ago

I came here to say the same thing. I might have to make it myself which is looking increasingly possible. Useful displays aren't even that expensive, a 13.3" 1600x1200 display _module_ (not including driver) is $450, making a mechanical keyboard is easy, SBCs like the ODROID XU4 are plenty fast. Just a small matter of finding a few months of spare time /s

devmunchies 8y ago

Would you be losing syntax highlighting though?

radus 8y ago
> Would you be losing syntax highlighting though? Grayscale, italics, bold
- nathancahill 8y ago
  V A R I A B L E S
chongli 8y ago
There are colour eink displays!

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]