E Ink has unveiled new color screens called E Ink Gallery 3 that are designed for ereaders and eNotes and they bring some significant improvements over previous color E Ink screens.
E Ink’s new Gallery 3 displays are based on their ACeP technology so they are able to cover the full color gamut using four different-colored particles of E Ink: cyan, magenta, yellow, and white. The new screens have 300ppi so resolution has improved as well.
E Ink just announced new Kaleido 3 screens earlier this month too so now they have two different types of color technology that can work with ereaders and eNotes. I think the main difference is the Gallery 3 screens have better color and they are true 300ppi, whereas the Kaleido screens are faster but they’re basically just a black and white screen with a color filter on top so colors aren’t as vibrant and color resolution is only 100ppi.
Refresh rates have improved significantly over earlier Gallery screens, but it can still take up to 1.5 seconds to refresh the screen with full color. With the earlier generation screens it took up to 10 seconds.
Unfortunately E Ink doesn’t mention anything about contrast with their new Gallery 3 displays and how it compares to regular monochrome E Ink screens. That’s the main drawback with Kaleido screens: text contrast is noticeably worse than regular E Ink because of the added filter layer over the top of the screen.
E Ink seems really determined to create a market for color ereaders and eNotes, but I’m just not sure people are that into E Ink, especially when color ereaders sell for several times more than tablets with LCD screens.
Here’s a quote from the press release:
“E Ink is very excited to announce this significant breakthrough with E Ink Gallery 3,” said Johnson Lee, CEO of E Ink. “For the first time, our Gallery full color ink platform series can be offered for an enhanced reading and shopping experience for eBooks, and for colorful document viewing and editing in eNotes. We have invested over $100 million dollars in R&D resources and budget to improve every aspect of this technology. Our team across the world has worked tirelessly over the past several years, and has made a product we can all be proud of.”
That’s a lot of money to spend developing color screens. No wonder E Ink wants to get them in more markets. The Gallery 3 screens are also foldable and rollable so that opens the doors to even more possibilities.
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