One of the downsides of the e-paper industry is that e-paper innovations tend to move slowly and only have minor incremental updates. One company powers everything from the Kindle to the Nook to Kobo, and that is E INK. The company is responsible for every part of the screen, from the touchscreen layer to the front light and how text is displayed. There is only one new thing that the company is working on in 2024: E INK Carta 1300, and Linfiny is pushing out Kaleido 3 13.3 e-notes.
Many e-readers and digital notebooks employ E INK Carta 1200, which has been on the market since 2021. The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is one example. E Ink Carta 1200 delivers a 20% increase in response time over E Ink Carta 1000 and an improvement in the contrast ratio of 15%. E Ink Carta 1200 offers the same benefits as Carta 1000. In addition, faster response time enables smoother handwriting and animations on EPD displays. E Ink Carta 1000 & 1200 both support Regal technology for image updates. Regal eliminates the need for a complete refresh, giving viewers smoother viewing transitions. This is why on modern e-readers and e-notes, you can often read an ebook, and there will only be a refresh every 20 pages.
E Ink Carta 1200 modules contain a TFT (thin film transistor), Ink layer and Protective Sheet. In addition, product designers can include a touch solution, which is incorporated into the module stack. E Ink currently offers digitizer and capacitive touch solutions. Digitizer touch technology utilizes a stylus to update the display, with the touch sensor sitting under the TFT. Capacitive touch technology utilizes finger swipes and is placed on the display module. E Ink’s touch solutions will not affect the reflectivity of the display.
E INK Carta 1300 is the same as Carta 1200 on a fundamental level, except it adds a 20 percent higher contrast and 25 percent faster response time. This results in higher performance, faster page turn speed, less ghosting and every interaction with the touchscreen. There are two products on the market so far that use Carta 1300, the iReader Smart X3 and the Onyx Boox Livingstone 3. We filmed a 4K video with E INK Carta 1200 vs 1300, so you can understand all about it. It is also important to note that E INK has not officially announced Carta 1300 yet.
A couple of years ago, Linfiny developed a 13 e-note that used Kaleido 3 color e-paper. They showed the prototype around at the E INK booth for a couple of years, and it looks like it is finally available for prime time. Sony worked on this technology with E INK, who formed a joint partnership called Linfiny. Sony is responsible for the design and ascetics, while E INK handles the screen technology and internal components. You can think of Linfiny as a new OEM, a full-stop shop for companies wanting to have someone else design the product and take care of the manufacturing; Linfiny can also take care of the software experience.
Mooink will release the first 13.3 digital paper using the latest generation E INK Kaleido 3 colour e-paper technology. This product is optimized to read A4 documents, the native format for PDF files. Customers can read these docs in full and vibrant colour, in addition to freehand drawing, reading books and listening to audiobooks. This product is in English and is available as a pre-order for $1099.99 from the Good e-Reader Store; it will begin shipping on May 1st, 2024.
The Mooink Pro 2C is a 13.3-inch colour e-note, using E INK Kaleido 3. The resolution of the black and white display is 1650 × 2200 with 206 PPI. The resolution of the colour e-paper experience is 825×1100 with 103 PPI, and it can easily display over 4096 different colours. The screen is capacitive, so you can use your fingers to touch UI elements and turn the pages of books or PDF files. There is also full EMR support for the accompanying stylus. This unit has no front-lit display, so ensure you are in a well-lit environment. Underneath the hood are a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Users can charge their devices and transfer data via the USB-C cable. It has Bluetooth 5.0, and Mooink says that users can connect to a Bluetooth keyboard, Bluetooth headset, and Bluetooth page-turners. You will get around 21 days of battery life, thanks to the 2000 mAh battery.
Readmoo is the first company to market with a 13.3-inch Kaleido 3 e-note. You can expect others to come to market with their devices later this year. Good e-Reader will be reviewing it close to the release date.
Wrap Up
I do not expect E INK to announce the Kaleido 4 colour e-paper in 2024, but it is under development. You can expect the company to have tech to show sometime next year. We will see more 10-inch tablets use 300 PPI displays for black-and-white content. The first was the Amazon Kindle Scribe, and in 2024, more products will come out.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
