For years E Ink has been marketing their low power electrophoretic displays for all kinds of different applications besides just ebook readers such the Kindle and Nook. There are E Ink watches, signs, traffic lights, and plenty of other things you wouldn’t suspect.
Given the number of cell phone users worldwide, phones look to be one of the more promising markets for E Ink. You may recall the video interview with E Ink last month that showed a two-sided smartphone prototype, with an E Ink screen on one side of the device and an LCD screen on the other.
This time around we’ve got a look at a full-fledged E Ink smartphone prototype that Onyx International is working on. Onyx also makes ebook readers and have been recently developing Android software for them so this isn’t much of a stretch for Onyx.
Basically it’s just a regular Android-powered smartphone with an E Ink screen instead of LCD. The software hasn’t been optimized for E Ink so there are some issues to be worked out, but it’s surprisingly smooth and refreshes are quick.
As the video below points out, the main benefits of an E Ink phone over LCD is the screen is much more readable in bright light, with no glare and reflections, and the battery can last a lot longer. Battery life is quoted at 1 month in the video, but it’s actually more like 1 week, which is still really good considering the average battery life of smartphones with LCD screens.
Onyx’s phone is said to use a plastic-based E Ink screen, making it a lot more durable than the glass-backed screens currently used for ebook readers.
It will be interesting to see what makes it onto the market first, a two-sided E Ink phone or full E Ink phone like this one.
Wow that video is incredibly annoying to watch. Their biggest success was reaching a “the number you have dialed cannot be connected” message. The E Ink woman subtly kept trying to take the phone back as well. I hate reviews were people spend like three minutes trying (and failing) to connect to Wifi. Just painful to watch.
On the other hand, it was pretty cool to see an E Ink phone!
I agree. The video really could have used some editing.
I haven’t edited a video since 2005. And you’re not convincing me. I prefer to post 100 videos per conference without spending all my time editing.
No worries, Charbax. You do great work! And I like how you were cracking jokes along the way.
My first cell phone had a black and white screen and I was bummed out when they went to color. When you are on your cell or smartphone you are usually outside or in bright lights and it’s hard to see the screen. Color screens are neat indoors but the color screen just doesn’t hack the program outside. When someone perfects the E-Ink phone, I’ll be the first one in line!
Pretty cool. By far the biggest advantage is battery life. I could see it catching on for certain applications, but not really to the masses like the current cheap LCD phones.
Steve