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I'm submitting this mostly as a curiosity, but I'm sorry, this product is deprecated due to Pixel Qi closing shop. I wonder why this projects never take off, wh

I'm submitting this mostly as a curiosity, but I'm sorry, this product is deprecated due to Pixel Qi closing shop. I wonder why this projects never take off, while I see plenty of people interested in an outdoors-capable laptop. It seems that there's still some movement in the transflective screen space, but always in other devices. If someone here in HN has the money and the willpower to do it, it would be more than enough to provide screen replacements for thinkpads and other popular laptops IMO. I currently do some work in the outdoors. I love to somewhere surrounded by nature, open my laptop and use my phone as hotspot, but I feel the fatigue after some time. A transflective screen for my x260 could be a game changer. A color e-ink with a decent refresh rate too (although improbable, but there's a community trying to make it real https://forum.ei2030.org/t/proposal-ei-2030-the-community-built-e-ink-laptop-project/118 https://forum.ei2030.org/t/proposal-ei-2030-the-community-bu...). I've been looking for this kind of solutions for years, and it seems there's plenty of people looking for something similar too.

bjornjajayaja 5y ago
I had one of those display panels on a rugged Win7 tablet and it was pretty impressive.
- iagovar 5y ago
  Would you say it could be possible to code with such display if it was attached to a laptop?
  - wzdd 5y ago
    I have an old Acer Aspire One netbook which I modded with a Pixel Qi display. It is definitely usable for programming in direct sunlight, though the display is physically too small to get comfortable doing a lot of programming on it. Funnily enough, the major problem is not enough sunlight -- indoors, you can use the backlight, and direct sun provides a good contrast ratio outside, but in the shade outdoors, particularly after my eyes have adjusted for sunlight, the screen becomes difficult to see.
    - iagovar 5y ago
      Hmm, I see. Did you have problems to adjust to other normal screens too, or it was just with that Pixel Qi one?
      - wzdd 5y ago
        Just the Pixel Qi. In indirect light, the contrast ratio is much lower than, say, a Kindle, which is itself much lower than paper. So unless the sun is directly on it, it's harder for sun-adjusted eyes to read than a Kindle, or than it is for indoors-adjusted eyes to read a normal backlit LCD.
marvindanig 5y ago
> I love to somewhere surrounded by nature, open my laptop and use my phone as hotspot, but I feel the fatigue after some time… I think this has more value than just working somewhere in the arms of nature. The fact that we no longer see sunsets as often as we should and with mobile phones and modern IPS panel screens constantly feeding daylight (morninglight) spectrum through our eyes into our brains, we stifle our body clock [1] too easily. A screen that works outside of the covered space or even in the sunroom of my house would mean a lot. It will offer better sleep patterns than today. [1] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2017/press-release/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2017/press-releas...
GekkePrutser 5y ago
I'd really really love a Qi or even better, an eInk laptop. Black and white would be fine. Colour eInk has too bad refresh rates anyway(or useless colours with LCD overlay like eInk Kaleido) For text terminal work it would be fine and the laptop could be really low spec (think raspberry pi kind of specs) I live in Spain and it would be really nice being able to do some light work outside in the sun. You can do it with some regular laptops (especially with HDR displays) but it will kill battery life and you'll still end up squinting. It's really sad that PixelQi went out of business.
- salamandersauce 5y ago
  You can get pretty close with an Android eInk tablet like the Boox Note Air and a Bluetooth keyboard with Termux.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Close yeah but not really comfortable on the lap or anything. I always hated the Surface Pro style tablets. Or those Apple keyboards for the iPad. I've tried them but sold them again, they were a horribly unstable contraption. For me a laptop has the keyboard firmly attached to the screen at all times :) Especially for portable use.
alex-a-soto 5y ago
Hi, I and many others share your desire to work outside and not feel fatigued after working with a digital device. Making a quality transflective screen suitable for laptops and having good viewing angles is a complex manufacturing process; companies are working on it. I hope in the future this becomes viable. At EI2030, we are working on making an open-source and open-hardware e-ink laptop and tackling the challenges. Our first pre-prototype Archer is almost complete, and we are going to start working on our second prototype. Github to Archer: https://github.com/EI2030/Archer https://github.com/EI2030/Archer Talk at foss-north 2021, "Building an Open-Source Eink Laptop." https://foss-north.se/2021/speakers-and-talks.html#asoto https://foss-north.se/2021/speakers-and-talks.html#asoto Zulip community dedicated to the project https://ei2030.zulipchat.com/ https://ei2030.zulipchat.com/

bjornjajayaja 5y ago

I had one of those display panels on a rugged Win7 tablet and it was pretty impressive.

iagovar 5y ago
Would you say it could be possible to code with such display if it was attached to a laptop?
- wzdd 5y ago
  I have an old Acer Aspire One netbook which I modded with a Pixel Qi display. It is definitely usable for programming in direct sunlight, though the display is physically too small to get comfortable doing a lot of programming on it. Funnily enough, the major problem is not enough sunlight -- indoors, you can use the backlight, and direct sun provides a good contrast ratio outside, but in the shade outdoors, particularly after my eyes have adjusted for sunlight, the screen becomes difficult to see.
  - iagovar 5y ago
    Hmm, I see. Did you have problems to adjust to other normal screens too, or it was just with that Pixel Qi one?
    - wzdd 5y ago
      Just the Pixel Qi. In indirect light, the contrast ratio is much lower than, say, a Kindle, which is itself much lower than paper. So unless the sun is directly on it, it's harder for sun-adjusted eyes to read than a Kindle, or than it is for indoors-adjusted eyes to read a normal backlit LCD.

marvindanig 5y ago

> I love to somewhere surrounded by nature, open my laptop and use my phone as hotspot, but I feel the fatigue after some time… I think this has more value than just working somewhere in the arms of nature. The fact that we no longer see sunsets as often as we should and with mobile phones and modern IPS panel screens constantly feeding daylight (morninglight) spectrum through our eyes into our brains, we stifle our body clock [1] too easily. A screen that works outside of the covered space or even in the sunroom of my house would mean a lot. It will offer better sleep patterns than today. [1] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2017/press-release/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2017/press-releas...

GekkePrutser 5y ago

I'd really really love a Qi or even better, an eInk laptop. Black and white would be fine. Colour eInk has too bad refresh rates anyway(or useless colours with LCD overlay like eInk Kaleido) For text terminal work it would be fine and the laptop could be really low spec (think raspberry pi kind of specs) I live in Spain and it would be really nice being able to do some light work outside in the sun. You can do it with some regular laptops (especially with HDR displays) but it will kill battery life and you'll still end up squinting. It's really sad that PixelQi went out of business.

salamandersauce 5y ago
You can get pretty close with an Android eInk tablet like the Boox Note Air and a Bluetooth keyboard with Termux.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Close yeah but not really comfortable on the lap or anything. I always hated the Surface Pro style tablets. Or those Apple keyboards for the iPad. I've tried them but sold them again, they were a horribly unstable contraption. For me a laptop has the keyboard firmly attached to the screen at all times :) Especially for portable use.

alex-a-soto 5y ago

Hi, I and many others share your desire to work outside and not feel fatigued after working with a digital device. Making a quality transflective screen suitable for laptops and having good viewing angles is a complex manufacturing process; companies are working on it. I hope in the future this becomes viable. At EI2030, we are working on making an open-source and open-hardware e-ink laptop and tackling the challenges. Our first pre-prototype Archer is almost complete, and we are going to start working on our second prototype. Github to Archer: https://github.com/EI2030/Archer https://github.com/EI2030/Archer Talk at foss-north 2021, "Building an Open-Source Eink Laptop." https://foss-north.se/2021/speakers-and-talks.html#asoto https://foss-north.se/2021/speakers-and-talks.html#asoto Zulip community dedicated to the project https://ei2030.zulipchat.com/ https://ei2030.zulipchat.com/