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There was "mirasol" which was full color high refresh rate passive display technology. It is unclear to this day why it never made it to market considering tha

by sprash 4y ago

There was "mirasol" which was full color high refresh rate passive display technology. It is unclear to this day why it never made it to market considering that E-Ink is a far inferior product.

mekkkkkk 4y ago
Had to read up on this, because it's very interesting. The short of it seems to be that production runs of Mirasol panels had very high fault rates, which lead to delays and losses. Qualcomm ultimately decided to abandon it and to fully focus on the Snapdragon processors which were perfectly aligned with the booming IoT space at the time. Mirasol was apparently very promising and ahead of its time, albeit immature. It was based on electro-mechanical mirror pixels rather than dye. The biggest technical downside seemed to have been that the colors were pretty washed out and bland. EDIT: It actually did make it to market. There was even a smartwatch powered by Mirasol (the Toq). It was never implemented by the big e-Reader brands though.
- Wildgoose 4y ago
  I don't think these colours look washed out. They look sharp and bright to me, (mirasol on the right, colour e-ink on the left). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGRlsKzai4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGRlsKzai4
  - mekkkkkk 4y ago
    I just summarized what I read elsewhere. I have never seen one in real life. It does look good in the comparison you linked. It is being backlit though, while the E-ink is not. Maybe the mentioned blandness is more of a problem when used fully passively. It seemed to have been a good competitor regardless, and it's sad that it got mothballed.
Wildgoose 4y ago
I would love a mirasol screen on a laptop or tablet and actually be able to view/read a screen in bright sunlight. I really hope that either Amazon decide to resurrect the technology for their Kindle e-readers, or that smartwatch manufacturers adopt it en masse.

by sprash 4y ago

There was "mirasol" which was full color high refresh rate passive display technology. It is unclear to this day why it never made it to market considering that E-Ink is a far inferior product.

mekkkkkk 4y ago

Had to read up on this, because it's very interesting. The short of it seems to be that production runs of Mirasol panels had very high fault rates, which lead to delays and losses. Qualcomm ultimately decided to abandon it and to fully focus on the Snapdragon processors which were perfectly aligned with the booming IoT space at the time. Mirasol was apparently very promising and ahead of its time, albeit immature. It was based on electro-mechanical mirror pixels rather than dye. The biggest technical downside seemed to have been that the colors were pretty washed out and bland. EDIT: It actually did make it to market. There was even a smartwatch powered by Mirasol (the Toq). It was never implemented by the big e-Reader brands though.

Wildgoose 4y ago
I don't think these colours look washed out. They look sharp and bright to me, (mirasol on the right, colour e-ink on the left). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGRlsKzai4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGRlsKzai4
- mekkkkkk 4y ago
  I just summarized what I read elsewhere. I have never seen one in real life. It does look good in the comparison you linked. It is being backlit though, while the E-ink is not. Maybe the mentioned blandness is more of a problem when used fully passively. It seemed to have been a good competitor regardless, and it's sad that it got mothballed.

Wildgoose 4y ago

I would love a mirasol screen on a laptop or tablet and actually be able to view/read a screen in bright sunlight. I really hope that either Amazon decide to resurrect the technology for their Kindle e-readers, or that smartwatch manufacturers adopt it en masse.