E Ink Announces Kaleido 4 Color E Paper With More Colors and Faster Refresh

E Ink describes wider color and faster response

E Ink has announced Kaleido 4, the latest version of its Kaleido color e-paper technology. The company says the display doubles color gamut volume and can produce over 40,000 colors, while also increasing white reflectance and contrast. E Ink also says refresh rate improvements let the screen show video content at 18 fps.

E Ink frames the 18 fps figure against e-paper rather than against the 120Hz OLED screens used in many smartphones. The company says adding an oxide backplate to the display stack improves refresh rates, a change Amazon also described for the Kaleido screens in the original Kindle Colorsoft.

Color e paper still balances text clarity and speed

Kaleido displays place a color filter over the black and white pigments used in traditional e-paper. E Ink says its Gallery displays use colored pigments instead, which produce richer images and text but take longer to refresh. That tradeoff is one reason some companies have used Gallery 3, including for text that can look fuzzy on older Kaleido 3 displays.

Because E Ink screens are used by major e-reader brands such as Amazon, Kobo and Boox, the company says Kaleido 4 could help future e-readers and writing tablets show more accurate color images while limiting the compromise to black and white text clarity.

First Kaleido 4 device is a China-only Hanvon tablet

E Ink says Kaleido 4 is officially used in one device for now: Hanvon Technology's M10 C II. The e-paper tablet is available only in China and includes a Kaleido 4 screen, a redesigned front light and micro-etched glass that E Ink says gives a more paper-like feel when writing.

Sources: Engadget