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My phone is an ereader now

(www.davepagurek.com)
327 points wonger_ | 9 comments | 31 Aug 25 02:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
1. cousin_it ◴[31 Aug 25 07:39 UTC] No.45081200[source]▶
I've wished for years that there would be an actual e-ink only laptop. Or (even better) an aftermarket e-ink screen for my current laptop, because I'm quite happy with the rest of the machine.
replies(3): >>45081224 #>>45081485 #>>45081621 #
2. VoidWhisperer ◴[31 Aug 25 07:42 UTC] No.45081224[source]▶
Are there any e-ink displays with a reasonable enough refresh rate that aren't exorbitantly expensive? I know atleast as of a few years ago that was one of the issues that would've impeded an e-ink only laptop
replies(2): >>45081300 #>>45082309 #
3. Gys ◴[31 Aug 25 07:51 UTC] No.45081300[source]▶
From what I read some time ago, e-ink displays use almost as much energy as normal displays if the contents change all the time. The one benefit of e-ink is the ability to show static content without using energy.
replies(1): >>45081369 #
4. VoidWhisperer ◴[31 Aug 25 08:06 UTC] No.45081369{3}[source]▶
That is probably another reason that e-ink laptops haven't really become a thing then - practically any use besides maybe basic web browsing and emails would require a decent refresh rate to be reasonable, removing the benefit of using e-ink over the normal display
replies(1): >>45081407 #
5. Xmd5a ◴[31 Aug 25 08:13 UTC] No.45081407{4}[source]▶
I have a Hisense A5 cc pro, a color eink android smartphone. The refresh rate is good enough to watch a video
replies(1): >>45081705 #
6. xelxebar ◴[31 Aug 25 08:28 UTC] No.45081485[source]▶
You might be interested in this:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-paper-monitor

It's just a dev kit run, but I've got high hopes for the whole Modos project.

7. Elfener ◴[31 Aug 25 08:57 UTC] No.45081621[source]▶
Somewhat recently Lenovo had the experimental laptop "ThinkBook Plus Gen 4": https://psref.lenovo.com/WDProduct/ThinkBook/ThinkBook_Plus_...

It featured a netvertible design that had a regular screen on one side and an e-ink on the other. I thought that was a pretty good idea, though this laptop had some questionable decisions, like only usb-c as IO.

8. Moru ◴[31 Aug 25 09:12 UTC] No.45081705{5}[source]▶
How is the battery usage during the high refresh rate?
9. dvdkon ◴[31 Aug 25 11:17 UTC] No.45082309[source]▶
I feel like e-ink displays/EPDs are widely used, but underexplored, by major manufacturers at least. The person behind the Modos project already linked by someone else has put a lot of effort into pushing EPDs to their limits and put together the best technical documentation for EPDs that I know of: https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider

EDIT: Here's an older demo of theirs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XduK7wn9SE4