News Boox's E-Ink External Monitor for Laptops Available, 25-Incher Incoming

[Admin]

The Boox Mira is not fast or furious, but it will offer added comfort for code, texts, and spreadsheets.

Boox's E-Ink External Monitor for Laptops Available, 25-Incher Incoming : Read more

 

[falcon291]

I enjoy my Kindle very much, and it almost replaced my paper books, but an E-Ink monitor with 16 shades of gray? It just seems like back to 1980s.

 

[Araborum]

I myself grabbed a Kobo Clara HD and haven't looked back since. Paper books slowly got replaced though a keep a handful of my favorites on the shelf. The monitor does seem like a strange move but i can still see its applicability in some cases. In this case, like with their larger screen e-readers, being able to read a PDF document without having to zoom and scroll around the page without straining your eyes is appealing. Granted its probably going to be a niche use case, but still, there is some potential.

 

[InvalidError]

I'd love to have an e-Ink monitor for reading, though I'm not willing to pay more than the $300 of a decent quality conventional LCD for one.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, an e-ink screen such as on my Kindle is vastly superior to a regular monitor, for 'just reading'.

For coding, you'd lose all the color enhancements in an IDE.

This is neat, but very much of a niche product.
And at $1800? Pass.

 

[InvalidError]

For coding, you'd lose all the color enhancements in an IDE.

With 16 shades, you can still have some color-coding, just not quite as obvious.

Using e-Ink for anything animated like typing text can be somewhat of a bother with ~1Hz refresh rate. Got to pause typing and wait for a bit for the display to finish refreshing to see the text exactly as it currently is in the frame buffer, same goes with waiting the display to catch up with a moving pointer or cursor. Also need to manually force a refresh to clean up ghosting and other artifacts from partial re-draws every now and then when using the fast-draw mode for responsiveness.

 

[voyteck]

And now people will use the built-in lighting and the entire point is moot since the only thing that really affects eyes is the contrast against the background, the contrast of the text being a distant second.

 

[Chung Leong]

I enjoy my Kindle very much, and it almost replaced my paper books, but an E-Ink monitor with 16 shades of gray? It just seems like back to 1980s.

Dithering with 16 shades at 200 DPI should look decent enough. Should be superior to output from a laser printer (which can, of course, only produce black dots).

 

[lorfa]

25.3" 3200x1800 display that is mostly black and white.. for $1800?? What am I missing here?

 

[USAFRet]

What am I missing here?

That you are not the target audience.

 

[InvalidError]

25.3" 3200x1800 display that is mostly black and white.. for $1800?? What am I missing here?

It is e-Ink.

If you are the sort of person who feels like LCDs and other emissive displays are gouging your eyes out during extended reading sessions, these things can be life-savers. I am one of those people who still prefers doing non-trivial reading in dead tree format, can't focus on on-screen reading for more than about 30min at a time.

 

[frogr]

Have you ever
It is e-Ink.

If you are the sort of person who feels like LCDs and other emissive displays are gouging your eyes out during extended reading sessions, these things can be life-savers. I am one of those people who still prefers doing non-trivial reading in dead tree format, can't focus on on-screen reading for more than about 30min at a time.

Have you ever tried reading on a 27" 4k monitor? It's still emissive but so much clearer.

 

[InvalidError]

Have you ever tried reading on a 27" 4k monitor? It's still emissive but so much clearer.

It may be sharper but it still is fundamentally staring at a 5-10W LED flat-panel light bulb for hours at a time. Some people have problems with that.

 

[USAFRet]

Have you ever tried reading on a 27" 4k monitor? It's still emissive but so much clearer.

My 7" Asus or Fire HD 8 is "clearer" than my kindle paperwhite

The Kindle is soooo much easier to read on.

 

[falcon291]

Dithering with 16 shades at 200 DPI should look decent enough. Should be superior to output from a laser printer (which can, of course, only produce black dots).

I am not arguing that e-ink has advantages, and this advantages even can led some people to prefer it as a computer monitor. But for me an IPS screen is way to go, as I cannot do with 16 shades of grey.

 

[targetdrone]

$800 for a mono-chrome display? 🤣

 

[InvalidError]

But for me an IPS screen is way to go, as I cannot do with 16 shades of grey.

How much reading are you doing that requires more than B&W? Most engineering and architectural plans are B&W too. If I had to do engineering or even just general technical writing work on-the-go, I'd love to have one or more high-resolution e-Ink monitors to display reference material without nuking my laptop's battery like LCDs would.

 

[Eximo]

The 13" is tempting, but if I was going to blow that much, probably go for the 25". Sad part is the displays themselves aren't that expensive, just that the market is too small so the price has to be high.

My book reader is 14 years old and still ticking, only on its second battery. (Reminds me, I should totally get a few on ebay)

 

[Chung Leong]

I am not arguing that e-ink has advantages, and this advantages even can led some people to prefer it as a computer monitor. But for me an IPS screen is way to go, as I cannot do with 16 shades of grey.

You can put an e-ink screen flat on the desk, under the primary display. With an IPS screen that arrangement would be super distracting. Being able to check reference material by simply looking down is potentially a big productivity booster. It's a much quicker motion compared to turning your head to look at a second screen.