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Building an E-Ink Laptop

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Re: Building an E-Ink Laptop

#81

Post by sammorrowdrums »

_ph_ wrote: post #78

As there are now several eReaders on the market which have a 10 inch eInk screen, it would be so great, if there was one which implements displaylink and could just be plugged via USB into any computer. This would immediately enable a lot of usages.

I have an Onyx Boox Max Lumi, which is a 13.3" and can use it as a USB monitor easily. I believe I just set to monitor mode and plug it in.

I find even with its top end refresh rate, it still is hard to get into a good workflow with it, but it is possible.

Re: Building an E-Ink Laptop

#82

Post by vinay427 »

retrac wrote: post #57
polshaw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Power consumption is not the only thing going for e-ink. The major win for e-ink IMO is readability in direct sunlight. If it's a nice day outside I have to stay indoors (or at least in shade) in order to do work. The only reason is that I can't see my display well. As noted, we already have e-ink phones that can do both colour and video[1], while there is some ghosting it's getting to the point of usable. Just need…

A hybrid display, both e-ink, and either an OLED layer or an LCD layer sandwiched inside, seems like it could be done. It would be perfect for a tablet or phone format device. Active lit display when necessary, passive reflective display otherwise. It would be very expensive, but is probably already technically feasible today. I do hope something like that comes to the market affordably eventually.

A transflective LCD already does both of these to a very large degree. They're used by many watch manufacturers that prioritize outdoor use (e.g. Garmin) and/or battery life (e.g. Pebble, now defunct).

I've owned two devices with them so far, and quite frankly the newer one works just as well (if not better) than E-Ink outdoors but still has a backlight when necessary. Also, it can display color and smooth motion. The minor downside I see is the lack of an ability to display an image with zero battery consumption, such as on E-Ink, but the consumption is still so low that the transflective LCD watches can last weeks with an always-on display.

Re: Building an E-Ink Laptop

#83

Post by hutzlibu »

vicda wrote: post #33
jonnycomputer wrote: post #26

I wish I had a large e-ink display for coding. I imagine a large screen would be prohibitively expensive, and the latency will be terrible. Too bad. It would be nice for my eyes.

I did this. Latency sucks but that didn't matter for text editing. But the drivers sucked and the screen was too small and you want to have a white background text editor just for the eink screen. Switch that to the wrong screen and you're suddenly blinded. Was fun, but I wouldn't recommend it. Making everything dark mode is easier, or keeping screen brightness super low is the easier option.

"Latency sucks but that didn't matter for text editing."

Huh? Don't matter to you, or don't matter so much to you? Because I get annoyed, when there is a system stutter and I am editing text, because then the edits are not always where they should be.

Re: Building an E-Ink Laptop

#84

Post by _ph_ »

sammorrowdrums wrote: post #81
_ph_ wrote: post #78

As there are now several eReaders on the market which have a 10 inch eInk screen, it would be so great, if there was one which implements displaylink and could just be plugged via USB into any computer. This would immediately enable a lot of usages.

I have an Onyx Boox Max Lumi, which is a 13.3" and can use it as a USB monitor easily. I believe I just set to monitor mode and plug it in. I find even with its top end refresh rate, it still is hard to get into a good workflow with it, but it is possible.

Thanks, that is valuable information. It is quite a bit more expensive than the 10 inch readers, but then it offers a bigger screen. I will certainly give it a lot of consideration.

Re: Building an E-Ink Laptop

#86

Post by jonathanstrange »

est wrote: post #59

Lenovo had a dual screen botebook with e-ink https://www.engadget.com/lenovo-thinkbook-plus-gen-2-i-e-ink...

Yes, but the e-ink screen was on the wrong side of the device. People like me and the author need an e-ink display for writing in broad sunlight.

Re: Building an E-Ink Laptop

#88

Post by sammorrowdrums »

_ph_ wrote: post #84
sammorrowdrums wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an Onyx Boox Max Lumi, which is a 13.3" and can use it as a USB monitor easily. I believe I just set to monitor mode and plug it in. I find even with its top end refresh rate, it still is hard to get into a good workflow with it, but it is possible.

Thanks, that is valuable information. It is quite a bit more expensive than the 10 inch readers, but then it offers a bigger screen. I will certainly give it a lot of consideration.

Yes, it comes at quite a premium, but it does run Android, so you can also add custom apps via ADB. And you can read DRM e-books and it has a front-light.

I in many ways prefer the ReMarkable, but the Lumi does have a lot of features for different use-cases, like using as external monitor.

Re: Building an E-Ink Laptop

#89

Post by ChrisRR »

I would love an e-ink laptop because the screen backlight is one of the biggest battery drains.

It'd be interesting to see what the battery life of an e-ink laptop actually is. A laptop with the battery life of a kindle seems like an impossible dream

Re: Building an E-Ink Laptop

#90

Post by lima »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #62
polshaw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Power consumption is not the only thing going for e-ink. The major win for e-ink IMO is readability in direct sunlight. If it's a nice day outside I have to stay indoors (or at least in shade) in order to do work. The only reason is that I can't see my display well. As noted, we already have e-ink phones that can do both colour and video[1], while there is some ghosting it's getting to the point of usable. Just need…

But other screen technologies have actually _better_ contrast than eInk in direct sunlight (e.g. reflective LCD, mirror-backed). State-of-the-art eInk technology these days has actually WORSE contrast than in the early days! -- https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2021/01/20/contrast-on-e-i... (proving how much people care about it) eInk's primary advantages are power (and only if your idle period is long enough; if you…

Are there any reasonably-sized reflective LCD monitors?
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