E Ink announced Gallery 3 – a new color ePaper device

E Ink is best known for the black and white reader from Amazon, the Kindle eReader. Loved for eBook reading, the E Ink devices have been a big enabler for reading electronic books. The low power consumption means minimal batteries are needed, making the devices very light. And, although originally only available as a black and white device, E Ink screens are also available as color devices. E Ink recently announced a new ePaper device, the E Ink Gallery 3, that greatly improves performance.

E Ink’s Gallery 3 color ePaper device

The announcement of their new color panel reveals that they have been able to make improvements on both the resolution and performance of the color panels.

Original panels in black and white had refresh rates of 2 seconds, while their initial color devices even had refresh rates of 10 seconds. Acceptable for an eBook reader maybe, but limiting a lot of other practical applications.

The new Gallery 3 panel has refresh rates of 350 milliseconds for black and white displays and between 500 and 1500 milliseconds for color displays (depending on the color mode used). You still won’t find the panel in your next gaming laptop, but the improved refresh rates do enable more practical applications of the color ePaper panel.

A second improvement is the doubling of the resolution, from 150ppi to 300ppi (pixels per inch). More details can be shown, which again greatly enhances the practical usage of the screens.

Since low light conditions have always been a big drawback of E Ink devices, E Ink has decided to add a front light to the device.

What is E Ink again?

E Ink itself is a company. But what they make are electronic devices for displaying information using an electronic paper display. The company was started in the nineties and started transforming MIT research into commercial solutions. The technology works much like paper and pen but uses electronics to charge particles to affect the display of capsules with black and white pigments in a fluid. More details on the E Ink technology can be found on their site.

E Ink Benefits

The technology uses very little power, which means that the batteries are much smaller than those used for LCD and OLED screens. There are a few benefits to this:

• Less electricity used for charging the devices
• Smaller batteries are required for the devices resulting in a much lower weight
• Use of E Ink devices prevents the need to cut trees for the paper versions of these books
• The E Ink devices do not emit blue light (they reflect light)

The weight advantages make it great for reading devices. Who likes holding a (heavy) tablet for a longer period while reading an eBook? The environmental advantage is the second benefit that is very important in today’s climate challenges.

The lack of blue light emission is a great way to prevent the health risks associated with blue light.

E Ink Drawbacks

Of course, the E Ink devices also have limitations. As we have seen in the paragraph on the new device, the screen resolution and refresh rates are not at par with LCD and OLED screens.

This means that E Ink devices are not suitable for gaming and video applications and applications that require high refresh rates and quick responses.

A second disadvantage is that, since the E Ink panels do not emit light themselves, they need sufficient ambient lighting. So, using the device in a low-light environment will be a challenge. Using it on the beach, an environment challenging to LCD displays, will be great.

Quite a few eBook readers using E Ink screens have an extra light to allow for usage in the dark. This however will affect battery life, so can result in a large battery being used again…

E Ink applications

E Ink makes its own devices like the now announced Gallery 3, but they mainly create ePaper panels that are used in third-party solutions.

Amazon Kindle eBook readers are the best know application. The 11^th generation Kindle Paperwhite are using the E Ink Carta 122 panels. Another popular eReader brand using E Ink screens is Kobo.

But you can also find E Ink screens in laptops, retail information displays, wrist wearables, smart home displays, and other applications.

Gallery 3 Availability

E Ink has not yet announced the exact availability date for the device to consumers. But it will display the device during Touch Taiwan and Display Week. It announced that even a flexible version of the display will be shown. Maybe a future for foldable phones?