Last week ZTE unveiled a new Pixel Qi-equipped tablet called the ZTE Light 2 at the Mobile World Congress convention in Barcelona.
The ZTE Light 2 is the first device to use Pixel Qi’s new 7″ screen that was on display at CES 2011. The 7″ screens have a pixel resolution of 1024 × 600, the same as Pixel Qi’s 10″ screens, so with the smaller screen the pixel density is much better at 170ppi as opposed to about 118ppi for the 10″.
Pixel Qi’s screens use less power than traditional LCD displays because the backlight adjusts to ambient lighting conditions and turns off completely so that it is readable in bright light and even direct sunlight.
The lower power consumption equates to longer battery life, although no official estimates are given for this particular device. The Nook Color uses a 7″ display with the same pixel resolution and it gets about 8 hours for reading, less for Android tablet stuff. Given that, the Light 2 should be able to push 10 hours or more.
The ZTE tablet is powered by a 1GHz processor and runs Android 2.2. It comes with 4GB of internal memory, features a slim 12.6mm design, and uses a multi-touch capacitive touchscreen.
It’s unclear what part of the world ZTE intends to market the Light 2. ZTE is the biggest telecommunications company in China but is pretty much unheard of here in the US. Perhaps the Light 2 will be released here under a different brand name.
Should be an interesting entry to follow. So at 1024 × 600, I think they classify this now as a 10:6 aspect ratio. I saw a review at the Good E-Reader blog use the word “abysmal” to describe a 800×600 resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio. I don’t agree with that, but people seem to have different judgments on these things.
Regarding pixel density, it would be be interesting to compare a line of text on a 10 and 7 inch tablet for a given font size, to see if there is a noticeable difference. More pixels per inch means more distinct and readable text, I assume.
Finally, I haven’t heard too much chatter about any new dedicated E-ink readers of late coming to the U.S. market. I think there will always be a niche for them due to their 10+ continuous days of reading w/o recharge. I hope to buy one in the 7 to 8 inch range that can read EPUBs someday for less than $150.
Yeah, tablets are definitely taking over the dedicated e-ink ereader sector. Instead of these smaller companies going for E Ink ereaders, they’re going for Android tablets. The only new dedicated ereaders I can think of that are supposed to be coming out soon are the iRiver HD and the Libre Air, neither of which use E Ink. Tablets on the other hand, I can’t even keep up with all the new ones coming out. As for pixel density and color, I’ll definitely be doing some comparisons of the Notion Ink and the Nook Color this week. Both have the same 1024 x 600 but are 10″ and 7″ respectively.
Its pretty obvious why all the current announcements from the Third Tier vendors targetting ebook readers are Android LCD-based; Kindle WiFi.
When the market leader is also the cheapest there really isn’t much room to manuever for the wannabe crowd.
Its a gold rush.
And like all gold rushes it’ll peter out as quick as it started once the vendors realize that 500 of them can’t reasonably aspire to 5% market share.
At that point the mob will move to the next generic gold rush. I’m thinking Android gaming devices that can run Sony’s gaming suite. 😉