I'm considering an E ink phone, like the Mudita Pure. Does any one have experience with an E ink mobile device? What are your thoughts? Pros? Cons?
Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
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Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#2I live in places where the sun always shines; it's almost impossible to work normally outside (which is my preferred office) without eInk. I wish there were more laptops because it works fine for coding (I have Boox devices which I use sometimes to write code). Phone same thing. Of course with the great extra of having very long battery life.
My wife writes/reads books on eInk devices and I do reading, browsing and shell/coding. It works really well.
Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#3I live in places where the sun always shines; it's almost impossible to work normally outside (which is my preferred office) without eInk. I wish there were more laptops because it works fine for coding (I have Boox devices which I use sometimes to write code). Phone same thing. Of course with the great extra of having very long battery life. My wife writes/reads books on eInk devices and I do reading, browsing and s…
It's monochrome though right?
I can't imagine using a monochrome computer screen nowadays.
Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#4I live in places where the sun always shines; it's almost impossible to work normally outside (which is my preferred office) without eInk. I wish there were more laptops because it works fine for coding (I have Boox devices which I use sometimes to write code). Phone same thing. Of course with the great extra of having very long battery life. My wife writes/reads books on eInk devices and I do reading, browsing and s…
It's monochrome though right? I can't imagine using a monochrome computer screen nowadays.
There are color touchscreens (Boox has one, there are phones that have those), but yeah I work in monochrome when there is sun or when I run out of battery; it works very well for me. But obviously YMMV! It beats sitting inside or squinting into my Macbook screen by a large stretch.
Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#5I live in places where the sun always shines; it's almost impossible to work normally outside (which is my preferred office) without eInk. I wish there were more laptops because it works fine for coding (I have Boox devices which I use sometimes to write code). Phone same thing. Of course with the great extra of having very long battery life. My wife writes/reads books on eInk devices and I do reading, browsing and s…
It's monochrome though right? I can't imagine using a monochrome computer screen nowadays.
Oh, do books print the text in color now?
Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#6Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#7I live in places where the sun always shines; it's almost impossible to work normally outside (which is my preferred office) without eInk. I wish there were more laptops because it works fine for coding (I have Boox devices which I use sometimes to write code). Phone same thing. Of course with the great extra of having very long battery life. My wife writes/reads books on eInk devices and I do reading, browsing and s…
It's monochrome though right? I can't imagine using a monochrome computer screen nowadays.
Most E-ink devices are B&W, usually multi-shade greyscale, with higher-end devices being 16-shade. Dithering or halftoning gives quite good results on images.
There are some colour devices, though more usually ebook readers. Colour is muted -- more pastel than saturated, but gives some distinction for manga or color-differentiated graphics.
Video review of the Onyx BOOX Nova3 Colour: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=aSUcnkQCa-s
Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#8Great battery life, light.Great for ebooks.
I wish there was a laptop option as well, like HP's old Omnibook.
Color is not required for many applications.
Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's monochrome though right? I can't imagine using a monochrome computer screen nowadays.
There are color touchscreens (Boox has one, there are phones that have those), but yeah I work in monochrome when there is sun or when I run out of battery; it works very well for me. But obviously YMMV! It beats sitting inside or squinting into my Macbook screen by a large stretch.
What about the refresh/redraw speed? I suppose e-ink has evolved past Kindle Paperwhite standards, because otherwise I can't see how you can use it for coding. Turning a page has a terrible redraw speed, it would drive me mad -- it looks like it was with LCD screens when they were first introduced: terrible.
It doesn't matter for reading books, of course.
Re: Ask HN: Why E-Ink Phones?
#10E-ink is excellent for daylight use. I still have some issue with diffuse overhead lighting (e.g., fluorescent lighting). Detail is high, battery usage is generally low. Frontlight gives excellent indoor / dark ambient legibility.
The way I describe it: persistence is free, pixels are cheap, paints are slow, colour is (mostly) nonexistent. I find the interface far less distracting than emissive displays.
My own leaning is toward the dumbest phone I can find (though an e-ink display would be excellent), an e-book tablet, and a good laptop. Tablets are excellent for reading in ways that neither a smaller phone nor landscape laptop are.