• Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    e-ink isn’t (edit: good) color.

    Tablets are the ideal form factor for things that would traditionally require a large, full-color book. That is: passing around a photo album, reading magazines, textbooks, comics, playing turn-based games like board-games and strategy games. If you use a stylus they’re excellent for things that require free-form pen-and-paper like math homework and creating art.

    Now, when they were a $600 luxury item that didn’t really make sense as a product. But now that they’re like $150 for a solidly good tablet they’re absolutely a worthwhile purchase for those use-cases.

      • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        Ahh, yes, well I suppose if you’re mostly reading comics that were made in the '70s and you really want to capture that faded 32-colors-Ben-Day-dot-printed-on-newsprint feel, that’ll be just perfect.

        • jcarax@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          It’s limited for sure, but there are most definitely color e-ink displays now.

          But the bigger limitation is still refresh rate, and lifespan of the display in devices that try to force more frequent refreshes.

          • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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            11 months ago

            Fair point. Will correct my above post. But either way: unless you find screens particularly eye-straining or have extreme battery-life desires, I don’t really see e-ink tech as worth the downsides at this point, at least for non-text content. For a watch where I want an always-on screen and endless battery and I’ll never watch video on it? Yes, I want more e-ink and low-power LED tech and the like. But for tablets? I’m good with the vibrant colors of a glowing LED screen.

            • jcarax@beehaw.org
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              11 months ago

              Watches sound great on e-ink, but last I looked into it, the displays couldn’t support the frequency of refreshes over a reasonable life time.

              I’m with you, by the way. I do like having a compact e-ink reader, but I really don’t want to do anything but that with it.

              • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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                11 months ago

                Huh, that’s disappointing. It’s funny how everybody keeps experimenting but nobody seems to have topped the Pebble for watch form-factor: low-power gameboy-ish LED screen and more of an old-school micro-controller chip instead of a phone-like chip and just use the “shake to wake” functionality to brighten the backlight.

                Pebble might not have been the smartest smartwatch, but it was definitely the watchyest smartwatch. Always-on screen and week-long battery.

                • jcarax@beehaw.org
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                  11 months ago

                  I feel like Garmin is building their spiritual successor. They don’t try to do too much, but they do quite a lot. And there are so many models, they address most folks use cases in one way or another.

                  Btw, the dude from Pebble (also Beeper, Eric Migicovsky) is trying to build a small Android phone.