06.01.2015
E-ink’s fancy looking wall hanging got a lot of press this morning due to their press release but that’s not the most interesting gadget in their booth.
In addition to the Yotaphone 2, a new messaging platform, and that aforementioned wall hanging, E-ink also had a prototype 13.3″ USB monitor on display. It’s called the PaperLike (I think).
In case you were wondering , yes, the stripe down the center of the E-ink screen is a defect.
The monitor was on loan from DaSung, one of E-ink’s Chinese partners. It was launched late last month in China but only came to my attention today. It uses a 13.3″ Fina E-ink display (screen resolution 1,600 x 1,200) to mirror what you see on the paired laptop.
It’s powered by the USB connection to the laptop, and is surprisingly fast. As you can see in the video below, the monitor has several display modes. In addition to the standard 4-bit 16 level grayscale mode found on your ereader, there is also a mode with only 5 shades of gray as well as a mode with 2 (black and white, basically). The faster modes sacrifice detail for speed, resulting in a refresh rate which is almost as fast as an LCD monitor.
I was told by E-ink that it is still under consideration, but according to what I read on Chinese language sites, the monitor is available now with a retail price of 4,999 yuan, or about $804.
Allow me to take a moment and express what we are all feeling: Damn.
I don’t know about you but if this were offered for $400 I would have ordered one already. But at this price I’m going to have to lean on E-ink to get DaSung to lend me one.
Well, at least it looks pretty.