4 ms·

This makes me wish there were more e-ink smartphones… Really nice execution on the hardware and software!

dragontamer 3y ago
As cool as e-ink is, I'm fully convinced that LCD technology remains superior today in practice. E-ink needs a surprising amount of voltage/current to change the screen, leading to a high "energy-per-screen change". LCDs on the other hand, are ephemeral. The liquid-crystals unalign themselves within fractions of a second, so they require a constant source (though very small amount) of electricity to remain on. But the amount of energy per screen change on LCDs is basically free. As such: today's methodology of showing information when the user is interacting (especially information that moves and needs to change within 2 or 3 seconds), is superior on an LCD screen. ------------ In fact, the lowest-power monochrome LCD screens are something like 0.1 mA (or ~100 uA) of power usage, meaning an e-ink screen needs to change once-per-15 minutes (!!!) or less to match this level of power consumption. (And the LCD screen can constantly change in those 900 seconds with full animation). https://mm.digikey.com/Volume0/opasdata/d220001/medias/docus/929/LS013B7DH03_Spec.pdf https://mm.digikey.com/Volume0/opasdata/d220001/medias/docus... The spec-sheet claims 12uA typical, 130 uA worst-case for this 1.3" Sharp memory-lcd (rumored to be the Pebble smartwatch's screen). ------------ That being said: e-ink is still cool technology and I'd like to see more designs using it.
- Groxx 3y ago
  While I really do like memory LCDs... AFAICT they are and always have been totally unavailable at actually-high DPI (they hover around 200 and lower, which is noticeably below eink's 300, and far below modern phones at 400+) and large sizes (digikey has them up to a whopping 4 inches). That's a complete deal-breaker for much beyond watches and small shopping labels. The biggest is just barely larger than my cheap thermostat's display. It's a great choice for watches (minus perhaps the low DPI), but not even slightly an option for ebook readers or even phones, much less larger signage or wall-art like https://hackaday.com/2021/04/11/a-fresh-e-ink-newspaper-delivered-every-morning/ https://hackaday.com/2021/04/11/a-fresh-e-ink-newspaper-deli... I doubt that has much of anything to do with the technology, but you can only buy and experiment with things that exist.

As cool as e-ink is, I'm fully convinced that LCD technology remains superior today in practice. E-ink needs a surprising amount of voltage/current to change the screen, leading to a high "energy-per-screen change". LCDs on the other hand, are ephemeral. The liquid-crystals unalign themselves within fractions of a second, so they require a constant source (though very small amount) of electricity to remain on. But the amount of energy per screen change on LCDs is basically free. As such: today's methodology of showing information when the user is interacting (especially information that moves and needs to change within 2 or 3 seconds), is superior on an LCD screen. ------------ In fact, the lowest-power monochrome LCD screens are something like 0.1 mA (or ~100 uA) of power usage, meaning an e-ink screen needs to change once-per-15 minutes (!!!) or less to match this level of power consumption. (And the LCD screen can constantly change in those 900 seconds with full animation). https://mm.digikey.com/Volume0/opasdata/d220001/medias/docus/929/LS013B7DH03_Spec.pdf https://mm.digikey.com/Volume0/opasdata/d220001/medias/docus... The spec-sheet claims 12uA typical, 130 uA worst-case for this 1.3" Sharp memory-lcd (rumored to be the Pebble smartwatch's screen). ------------ That being said: e-ink is still cool technology and I'd like to see more designs using it.

Groxx 3y ago
While I really do like memory LCDs... AFAICT they are and always have been totally unavailable at actually-high DPI (they hover around 200 and lower, which is noticeably below eink's 300, and far below modern phones at 400+) and large sizes (digikey has them up to a whopping 4 inches). That's a complete deal-breaker for much beyond watches and small shopping labels. The biggest is just barely larger than my cheap thermostat's display. It's a great choice for watches (minus perhaps the low DPI), but not even slightly an option for ebook readers or even phones, much less larger signage or wall-art like https://hackaday.com/2021/04/11/a-fresh-e-ink-newspaper-delivered-every-morning/ https://hackaday.com/2021/04/11/a-fresh-e-ink-newspaper-deli... I doubt that has much of anything to do with the technology, but you can only buy and experiment with things that exist.