A Chinese company Hanvon will soon introduce the first e-reader with a color e-Ink display but will it be enough to compete against tablets like the Apple iPad or the Nook Color?
There isn’t much in the way of details about the Hanvon device but its color e-Ink display will offer many advantages over LCD screens. First of all, the battery life should be tremendous, as you’ll probably only have to charge it once every few weeks or so. Additionally, the color e-Ink display will also make it much easier to read in the sunlight – Amazon recently poked fun at the iPad’s lack of direct sunlight reading in a commercial.
We’ve seen some color e-reader displays from Mirasol but most of the major players in the e-reader space don’t believe the technology is ready for mass consumption yet. We’ve heard that we can expect these Mirasol displays which can show color and videos in the first quarter of 2011.
Apple and other tablet makers seem fine with LCD displays over color e-Ink, as it makes it easier to provide touchscreen support. Samsung is even producing 7-inch Super AMOLED screens for a variety of tablets next year.
Even other e-reader makers like Barnes & Noble appear to be moving away from e-Ink color technology, as the company’s Nook Color sports a 7-inch touchscreen IPS display. The Nook Color is more in line with a traditional tablet because it runs Android, has a full color touchscreen, can browse the Internet and it will be able to run a variety of Android-based apps.
Is color e-Ink going to be the wave of the future for these reading devices? It’s way too soon to tell, as Amazon – the king of this space – is reportedly prepping an Android tablet and I’m pretty sure this won’t be an e-Ink display.
[Via The New York Times]