The big bezels are actually a good thing on an e-reader in my opinion. It gives you flexibility on how you want to hold it, just like a book does.

Honestly they didn't change much because they are pretty much where they need to be. Big bezels help with holding the device, slow refreshes don't really matter when reading, 16 GB is hundreds of ebooks and a plastic construction makes them light and sturdy for daily use. I never felt like I needed more from mine.

It's always funny when tech reviewers treat e-readers like underperforming tablets. There are certainly other uses for e-ink (and I am excited to see what they are), but e-readers don't need thinner bezels or more interactivity. They're made for people who enjoy reading. What a concept! I recommend it.

Honestly my main criticism for the e-ink market is that no one has honestly tried to target the art market. While yes, e-ink will never compete with an Ipad or an android tablet (even if many e-ink devices can use android), I know so many artists who would kill to have a decent digital sketchbook, that is thin, light, and easy to see in most lighting. It wouldn't even need to have that many colors to be honest. Sadly, e-ink devices are just a little too expensive, and a little too limited for that right now.

Colour E-Ink has huge potential for digital photo frames. Those displays in the shops looked awesome. And photo frames don't need a good refresh rate.

Maybe they are losing features because the actual point of e-readers is simplicity and lack of features. If you wanted features you could get a tablet, but features can be distracting if you want a device that only allows you to read. I mean thats part of the appeal of a kindle for me. Just like that product "the light phone", sometimes less is more

I will NEVER understand why the Pebble didn’t take the world by storm. It was a wonderful product. I still have it in a little plastic baggie in my tack drawer and look at it longingly every once in a while.

Ever since I first saw a larger E-ink display, I thought an E-ink monitor was the way to go. They now exist, and they're a little laggy but I think that could be a real future segment of the display market. They're very easy on the eyes and much nicer to read so if your main job is document, spreadsheet or perhaps coding work then this is a great future segment to look out for.

Less features in these e-readers make them better because it lessens the distractions. Unlike other devices, reading requires active attention. If every now and then, there will be other things you can do from these, you will definitely not able to finish what you are reading. That slow refresh rate doesn’t matter when your image is stagnant.

To me the only thing e-readers are missing is the book format. There's one from Japan with two screens (edit: is called eOneBook) that looks exactly like a book (even with dummy pages to add in the illusion) which is dedicated exclusively to manga. Is literally the coolest thing I've seen and I wish that format makes it to the rest of the world someday.

As someone who suffers from intractable migraines e ink has been a game changer for me as far as reading. On the recommendation of my neurologist I was instructed to read using an e ink device and to curtail the amount of time on a computer screen even with blue light glasses. So for me I will enjoy what I got as it does the job it is an e ink reader not a tablet ,doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and is easier to read.

I'm a little surprised you didn't mention Kobo. I am a rabid fan of my Kobo. I also have two e-ink tablets that write, because I got so tired of how quickly I'd go through notebooks. I get way, way less eyestrain on my eink devices, and they make reading accessible with a visual impairment.I love them, and I really hope e-ink devices to continue to exist.

Yes to big bezels, I have no idea how would I hold it with my fat fingers. Also, while everything here is true, I don't mind lack of features. I use my Kindle to read books and it works. I don't miss anything.

So here in Canada, Kobo has a larger marketshare. They really worked on ergonomics (incidentally making bezels larger) for comfort in holding. It also syncs up with the Toronto Public Library using overdrive/Libby so it saves me a ton of money on buying books. It also syncs with pocket which is extremely useful for long form articles. I think they were pretty early into the waterproofing and adjustable light game as well. I personally like how it really only has basic features so that I can focus on reading without distractions.

Every one of the cons mentioned are actually good for e-readers. I feels they're a mature category. The thick bezels help in holding, black and white screen with distractions removed help in concentrating while reading. They're meant to be a simple gadget. Slow progress doesn't mean bad product...

As someone with "ins" at Qualcomm, the Mirasol color e-ink panels didn't go anywhere because manufacturing one bigger than a watch face without flawed pixels was extremely expensive.

When you said "the first kindle came out 16 years ago" I was thinking like. Wow Kindles have been out since almost the 90's???? Yeah 2007 hits different now huh.

For me the kindle increased the amount of books I read, being able to carry a whole library with me at all times. Also over a month of battery ensures there's no need to even worry Bout bringing a charger of you're traveling for a week or two.

I think a focused epaper like remarkable would be great for school. My school is curruntly experimenting with iPads and there's a lot of distracting things, like airdropping memes around. And even if this is also possible with normal backlight lcd I think that eInk is much pleasant for the eyes. EInk displays could also be used as black board replacement instead of backlight lcds because they have good visability even on bright days.

With Amazon having such a massive head start and having by far the most robust book and audiobook marketplace in the world, most competitors have found it nearly impossible to compete with Kindle. Plus Amazon just has by far the biggest pockets to fund their E-readers. And it's the market that has shaped the Kindle. The whole fact that the Kindle is super simple is why book lovers like it so much. The last thing bookworms want is distractions. They don't want a ton of features and applications that give out notifications. If you want that, that's what tablets like the iPad Mini are for. The only competitors that are viable apart from the Kindle today are basically just the Barnes and Nobile "Nook" and the "Kobo" E-readers. The Nook at least does have a decent library behind it since it has access to Barnes And Noble's catalog of titles which is quite extensive to be fair. And Kobo is more popular outside of the U.S. market since some Kindle features are not available outside of the U.S. marketplace. But the Kindle still dominates globally. And especially in the United States which is by far the largest E-reader market in the world. The Kindle has full access to the world's largest online book retailer and it's fully compatible with the U.S. public library system with E-pub files and the Libby app. And the tech that Kindles do have, is on par or is better than competing E-readers. All Kindles now have the latest E-Ink displays available with 300 PPI displays across the entire range now. They have water resistance on some models. Dark modes and warm lights. Very nice note-taking abilities and other features a bookworm would want. But again they only give the features a bookworm would want. And Kindles keep it simple because that is what readers want. So a competitor needs to know this and tailor their devices to readers first. Not tech enthusiasts. Because otherwise, the public won't buy into them. The reading public wants the best reading device. Not the fanciest tech devise. Again that's what tablets and cell phones are for.

I had the original ReMarkable and absolutely loved it. When they came out with the ReMarkable 2, I instantly bought that one. If you're someone who writes a lot, needs to carry around a lot of documents, wants a battery that lasts forever and doesn't need the extended functionality that a tablet offers, these things are amazing.

I think the main issue with epaper devices is that it's not the type of device you would want to replace every 1-2 years. It's probably closer to laptops where people are more likely to replace them every 4-8 years. I also think a lot of people struggle to justify such a huge upfront cost, but I think that actually makes a lot of sense. Personally I've saved a lot because ebooks/comics are cheaper than paperback and I buy fewer notebooks.

Fascinating video on E-ink. What I think it misses with regards to e-readers is that they are already a basically perfected technology for most readers. I used my first ereader (a Nook) for years until its page turn buttons wore out. By the time I bought the second (a Kobo Aura H20) which I bought used, I only wanted three innovations the backlight you mentioned (which is somewhat more complicated than you described), a waterproof device so I could read in the bathtub, and a touch screen so there were fewer buttons to wear out. I used that one for 5 years until I literally wore out its power button. And I didn't want any improvements. I just bought a Kobo Clara 2e. The only difference I wanted was a sleep cover so that I would touch the power button less and it would hopefully live longer than 5 years. And my Aura H20 already had that option - I just didn't use a sleep cover on it. In my search, I was actively hostile to any devices with new features like a better processor or higher refresh rates if they burned battery life or increased cost. I already have a phone for that. I considered buying a used e reader. But I didn't like Kindle because of its monopolistic practices, didn't want a Libra H20 because I didn't want physical buttons that would break eventually, and didn't want another used Aura H20 given the price because they are already so old and I was afraid the power button wouldn't have many years left in it. So I got a new Clara 2e which I don't want any major improvements from but expect has some minor tech improvements. This fundamental satisfaction of most ebook readers with their devices and the saturation of the market with most people having one already meant the only innovation that mattered for most was a lower sticker price. Kindle temporarily delivered that with their ad subsidization style (which I dislike because it costs users more in the long run). Some manga readers might care about color e ink and some people might like being able to take notes in their books more easily, but they are tiny portions of the market. I don't think there is much room for better E-ink tech in the general ereader market. What will be interesting to me is if it ever gets to the point where an E-ink computer or tablet is viable not as an e-reader but for typing and browsing the internet outside. And given the refresh rate people expect from those devices, that's a daunting technological challenge.

I recently got ONYX and I love to use it. I use it majorly for reading musical score when I don't want to turn on the computer (blue light sensitivity). I started learning piano recently, so it's a lot of short, 2-3 staff exercises. I decided it's easier to keep everything in PDFs rather than print every one of these exercises on the paper. I can take seamlessly notes about what I play, how far did I go during the learning or other things like "focus more on this thing". For the second use I'm happy to do occasional session of Sudoku and Nonogram - it's great experience for a pen accuracy it offers, and Android system allowed me to install the applications I like the most. So it's the openness and writing features for me. Also looking forward wider adoption of transreflective monitors in the future.

Normally I like your reviews, but this one I found it to be rather uninformed. It’s obvious you don’t use these devices. We don’t need keyboards or audio jacks or 60Hz display or 1TB of storage or thin bezels. In fact the thick bezels add to usability. We want long battery life, a clear and comfortable front lite display and a few other features, but those are the main ones. It’s a single purpose device and personally I like it that way. Anything that doesn’t enhance its core functionality is a distraction. I just want to read my books.

I think the lack of other features (distractions) is what I love about my kindle. It’s mainly for book reading. I just want the pages to flip smoothly on the warm lit screen when I wanna read at night and that’s it.

The bezels are fine. They make holding it easier. Where Amazon has failed is adding support for a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The former would make taking notes easier. The latter would be great for page turning, particularly for those with mobility issues.

Other than the ad supported lockscreen all the others don't seem like issues at all! It's a book. Never in my years of owning a kindle did I wish for a keyboard, a headphone jack, faster refresh rate, or a huge amount of storage, like EVER! And the huge bezel I can hold onto with one hand and flip pages at the same time, why would you want to remove that? o.O In this specific case things have been going in the right direction IMO. The device got streamlined by trimming down useless features. Again, except for the ads on the lockscreen. That's because it is a book...

I love my Kobo. Great for reading on and it is easy to buy epubs from elsewhere and just copy over to it, shows up as any other USB storage device does. This flexibility is the reason I went for it over a Kindle primarily, but I also try to avoid Amazon in general anyway.

Thanks for making a hands-on video about e-ink displays!

The B2B market for e-ink technology is definitely much larger and has way more applications than the B2C market. Where I live they’ve started to use them at bus stops as departure boards and to display timetables, all powered by a solar panel. I’d love to get my hands on an e-ink notebook. I had no idea this existed, and would be game changing for me.

I think many serious readers, especially at a time when we are looking at computer screens all day for work, would never abandon their ereader for any other device. I have a phone, an ipad, many physical books, but my ereader basically never leaves me. The comfort and focused usage is irreplacable. Does an eink tablet has any potential outside of this narrow public? Probably not much, and that may be the explanation of the slow changes. It may not be obvious from the outside, but from a daily user perspective, ereaders have drastically changed in the past 20 years.

It's not a stagnation, the e-readers simply don't need more features, I'm actually glad that they have reduced the features and optimized the device. Usually devices and software get bloated and become bugged and unreliable. You have to realize that the public for those devices are not necessarily more comfortable with a lot of useless features. Also, it's not true that Amazon wiped out all competitors, there are a number of alternatives that have been there for a long time (Nook, Kobo, Pocketbook, Cybook, ...) for e-readers and other applications (Notea, ...).

I bought both generations of the ReMarkable tablet. It's great for note taking or simple sketches (I'm no artist). A device focused on doing a few things well is sometimes the better solution.

Would love to continue reading in black and white on Kindle, but enjoy full color book covers, have small graphics or maybe the first letter of a chapter colored for dramatic effect. Basically use it for highlights, covers, and little embellishments while focusing primarily on black/white reading and long battery life.

Absolutely nothing wrong with current eink devices. I've had Kindles ereaders for years and they're the perfect devices for distraction-free reading and I can carry thousands of books anywhere I want. The battery life is fantastic.

I would like to see more e-paper in *passenger information systems* and I think it's the ideal technology for this. This industry is stuck with _monochromatic LED displays_ and rarely seen combined RGB-mono or DOT-LED displays.

Fantastic video! I learned so much. I bought my first eReader just at the beginning of 2022 and love the technology. I'm actually in the process of upgrading to a bigger and a bit more advanced device. I feel that now that there's some competition in the field, advancements in the technology and space is definitely gonna produce some amazing devices within the next few years.

Bought a boox note air 2 a month or so ago and I love the device. There are some wrinkles to it, but I like that I can use it as a notebook\sketchbook. The drawing experience is way better than I expected and compared to something like iPad it is a much less demanding device. The only real downside is weight, it is kinda heavy and best used on a surface. That being said unlike the traditional tablets you should have at least a couple of good reasons and use cases in mind before you buy one of these. I bought one primarily for drawing and reading and it does what I need it to do.

Great summary! I've been covering E-Ink devices for over 12 years now and loved reviewing every device along the way. But as you said - progress has been slow for quite some time. But over the past 2-3 years E-Note devices became very popular and now with E-Ink Gallery 3 (real color E-Ink) on the way, I believe the market will change significantly in the next 3-4 years. Wouldn't be surprised if it will gain traction as fast as it did last time when E-Ink became popular with the first Kindle generations. Don't underestimate people's desire to move away from backlit screens to something more traditional - without completely giving up digital flexibility.

Let's look at the "cons" that you mentioned: - Slow, black & white screens - I don't need beautiful and fast screen to read ebooks. If I want one, I'll just grab iPad - Fat bezels - it's definitely a pro, not a con. You need them to hold your ebook reader properly. - Cheap plastics - don't mind that if the price is right - 16GB storage - almost nobody needs more that this because it translates to about 7000 ebooks on my device.

Just got my first Kindle Paperwhite after years of resisting one and I absolutely love it. The only thing that bugs me is the slow/flickering transitions but it’s not the end of the world 🤷🏼‍♀️…

In my opinion e-readers don't need too many functionalities. Having too many features might be distracting. I don't need a keyboard, but I wish they had better refresh rates.

I worked at Borders while they had a relationship with Kobo in the late 2000s. We kind of thought E-ink and readers based on other paper-like reflective screen technologies were going to become a bigger thing than they ended up being, now over ten years later. It never got to the point where I felt I was wasting money by continuing to buy old-school physical books made of cloth and paper. Time will tell whether "synthetic paper" will catch on, or make a significant dent in the market for books made with real paper.

I like the big bezels, it's easier to hold without touching the display, for a book I think it's better to keep it simple, instead of turn them in a tablet.

When you have a colorful, high refresh rate, quick/snappy chip e-reader it will just be a distracting smartphone kind of play-thingy. I love the simple ones that let you focus just on the written word, no images, no distractions. This is such a beautiful contrast to literally any other tec nowadays!

My friend still has the coolest e-ink device I've seen - Can't recall the name of this long discontinued product, but it was a dual screen clamshell android device with kindle sized E-INK on one side and regular LCD tablet screen on the other -- best of both worlds. The specs were competitive with contemporary devices when it came out over a decade ago. Android controlled and shared storage with both screens-- but automatically displayed all plain text ebooks on the e-ink side and PDFs on the regular screen. Would love to find a modern equivalent to that thing, with the latest chipsets.

E-ink technology has potential as a brainstorming tool. I'm a writer who has given up on brainstorming apps because they just don't seem to work for me. When brainstorming ideas, I always default to pen and paper. If you could also make them compatible with book composition apps (such as Scrivener and Ulysses), I -- along with many writers -- would happily make the switch.

My e-reader can last a month on a single charge. I only need it to read books, nothing more. For all other stuff I have my phone and laptop

E-ink pen is definetely a feature I'm searching hopelessly for decades... Unfortunately existing ones are not either sharp enough, or not flexible enough to make them a real alternative to paper... Erasing is a problem, handwriting recognition is a problem, and seamless integration of vector graphics and plotting with natural writing is a problem

I still have my good old Kindle 3G keyboard. I love it. Only thing missing is light for night reading, but that is easy to work around. Keyboard aspect is so good. I used my kindle for grad school. Ability to highlight lines in the book, then automatically create notes with quoted lines and ability to type in my own notes was great for scripting material for exams and for doing research work for master thesis. Also, buttons for next and previous page on both sides is great. Books are really small in size, so those 3gb available are more than enough. Plus, with audio jack, you can play audio books or even music. Honestly, as is and for what it's meant to do, it's great product.

It's funny you mention e-ink 'finally' hitting the pricetag space, because i know electronic pricetags definitely hit France in the late 90s during the Franc/Euro changeover... Most of them were 7-segment LCDs, but I was sure I saw some eink tags in a couple of shops in the early 00s in France too.

My daily used Kindle Voyage is still going strong after almost 8 years and the difference to todays Paperwhite in menu speed is really not that big to sanction an upgrade.

Personally I've been hoping for a decently priced e-ink computer monitor. Spreadsheets, writing, reading code, etc would have their advantages.

Ah so THAT's what those digital price signs are...they all just appeared at my local hardware store and it hadn't even occurred to me that they were e-ink based.

I've noticed the same trend in the last few years. I've been really interested in having a really big (10~13 inch display) e-reader that could also be used with a wacom style pen and found that it's only really become a thing in the last few years (with exorbitant prices to match). Color eink in a very usable way didn't even exist until like a couple years ago. A perfect reader for me would then be a color reader with a very big display (mainly to read pdf text books comfortably as well) that also supported responsibe note taking with a pressure sensitive pen, and obviously all of with with very good visibility with ambient light without taking much or any power. Eink tech could be a solution one day to my criteria, but I'm also holding out for lcd tech that could match it. While not as popular, there exists lcd technology that is both reflective and can even hold an image when power is removed. If a technology like that manages both to both scale and achieve color with high enough refreshrate, then it could easily be a perfect alternative and possibly even cheaper to manufacture. Sharp makes memoryLCD and there's also rLCD tech though as far as I know, none of them to color yet and rLCD doesn't hold an image when off. In a way, it's even surprising to me that the tech that managed to thrive and rule was the most overcomplicated one by far (eink over reflective lcds)

Kindle didn't change much because it didn't need to. Not every product category needs constant innovation and updates. If the product does the thing that it's supposed to do well, then that's good enough.

i wonder if anyone is researching on a hybrid display? Basically put a B/W E-Ink as background, and a transparent OLED in front of it. Use the E-Ink to match/improve the Contrast, and the OLED to create Color and eaction time. With the EInk set entirely to black it works like a regular OLED display (best for Indoor/darker environments), and with the OLED off and just using the EInk it is perfect for direct sunlight viewing.

Yeah, I really loved my Pebble watch. I had both the first, the second and I ordered the third (Pebble Time) that was never delivered. I think they made a very good compromise to achieve good battery life, decent display size that can show you useful information, excellent in bright sunlight, for example when you are out running or to see who is calling. I don't need super nice screen with high refresh rate as I always have my phone or computer nearby. I can't stand to charge my clock every night and one of the main features for me is sleep tracking so I can't charge is while sleeping. Now I'm just using a simple fitness tracker with 7-10 days of battery life and a small screen. I would love a modern version of the Pebble!

This is my friend's second Kindle. ukposts.infoUgkxOnUR4NaproSbBbD2sdI4XcDZ58Jz8GOx The first one which is about 5 or 6 years old quit charging because the bottom connector went bad. When I saw they upgraded to a USB C connector I knew it was time. I think the old USB Micro connectors are a PIA. Her new one is great. It synced right out of the box and connected to WiFi immediately. The thing is perfect! Sooo mine will arrive tomorrow. (Been reading off an old Fire) What bugs me are the reviewers that give this product one star because it didn't work out of the box or they were too dumb to figure it out. If it doesn't work send it back and get another one. It couldn't be easier with Amazon. Giving it one star because it didn't work says nothing about a good one that does work. I bet a bad one is one in a thousand or more. Give it a break...just get another one.

I bought an eReader early this year and I absolutely love it. It is THE way to read ebooks for me. I do feel the lack of color though, especially when books include illustrations, but not enough to rush out to look for a color eInk device. The device I ended up buying was the Onyx Boox Poke 3. It runs a customized Android with a relatively simple process to activate the Play Store, which was important to me because I've cultivated a varied ebook ecosystem that avoids Kindle as much as possible. That said, the Kindle Oasis has such a nice form-factor that I seriously considered trying to get one set up with a custom ROM. In the end I could not justify the price for that. I think if Onyx copied the Oasis' form-factor, in a device around the 200€ mark, they would have a lot of success.

For the price and the size, I really think that the basic Amazon Kindle is a fantastic deal. You complained about 16GBs of storage not being enough in 2022. My Kindle has 8GBs of storage, and that's enough space to store more books than I own physically (300+) with maybe a library's worth of free storage space left over. The ads also never activate unless you turn on WiFi, and you can easily side load books with the included usb cable. Kindle has viable competitors like Kobo, and while it does definitely have a massive share of the market, this has hardly stopped them from creating more advanced devices. When it comes to high resolution, coloured e-readers for comics or whatever, I'd agree that your options are limited, but at that point I think you'd have a much better experience on a cheap tablet either way.

I like ur review! and the comments of the viewers too, making it more integral picture. To me, I’m an ipad/iphone user I read a lot, but I’m so tempted switch to ereaders. I see them as focus mode, for reading colors and mps don’t matter, it is focused and good enough and minimalistic, and man the battery is another story!!! Regular tablets are for creativity and for those who draw, and battery ran out easily. Just like the artists, and unlike the readers:)

Thank you for your review and raising this importan issue! It would be really cool to fave a list of manifactures that don't digress trying to monopolize the market.

I still feel like the missing link is 60fps. Once you can make a 60fps ePaper it can be used in monitors, in normal tablets, in phones, etc. I think people will find that passive lighting is just so much nicer on the eyes that some compromise will be accepted, but it needs to play good looking video or it just ain't going to hit the mainstream in the big way.

7:55 I think one important factor why the remarkable was more successful than sony's device was the price. I remember the latter being of A4 size and costing nearly 1000€. The remarkable on the other hand has a smaller (more or less A5) form factor and costs less than half as much. I'm quite exited about how the industry will develop and hope the next generation of products will have a color display build in.

I always wondered how those displays worked. Great video!

I drug out an old Nook Simple Touch to mod into a fridge display to put the weather and our calendar on. While I was playing with it, I actually found I preferred looking at it even for goofing around on the internet. I wouldn't mind a tablet that lasted weeks on a charge or days of active use and was easier on the eyes than an LCD at all, even with the shortcomings of an e-reader from over a decade ago. I honestly think I'd prefer having a phone with crazy battery life and an eink display at this point.

If someone manages to get just one thing perform exceptional with e-ink, it will be a game changer. Imagine if someone makes great colours, it doesn't matter how bad is refresh rate, you can use that for photo frames alone and it will be available in every store that sells random stuff.

I've looked into this a couple of times over the last few years and what put me off getting one was drm and different library's only supporting one or another format (never all) and some are now mandating android/ios apps. The whole point of using a ebook reader is that its as quick as a book and with eink is less strain on your eyes with a battery that lasts for ages. + thick bezels make it easier to hold. I use my tablet vertically and thin bezels and a camera now the side in portrait mode means you are always pressing something you don't mean to, or the camera triggers auto lock or brightness adjustment

I hope these color ones become more affordable at some point, the standard ones seem like they'd be fine for reading manga but I'd like to read digital comics on these too.

I looked at the ReMarkable a while back, thought it looked good but then saw the price over £400 in the UK and then you need to pay a subscription if you want to use the handwriting conversion (one of the biggest selling points). They claim it is because the power of the tablet isn't enough to do the work, but most people that are likely to buy these things often have a PC at home that, in theory, could handle the work fairly easily.

Books are largely black and white and the new kindle is great for reading in restricted areas. The latest Kindle is a great experience, wide bezels are useful, utilitarian

Black and White Android is the next step for me. There are some apps that I use to read (RSS for blogs, apps for books other than Kindle but still in a proprietary format, pdfs, etc.). Being locked to Kindle or pdfs is what I don't like about my Kindle. More flexibility is what I want

I think Google, Amazon, and Apple are all very well positioned to introduce products with much wider appeal. Color eInk display, e-mail client, web browser, book reader. That's all it needs. Something akin to the original product mission of the iPad - a magazine reader. Web browser helps it double as a digital newspaper as well.

I won't say I was an early adopter of e-ink (2019) but I'm a complete shill for the market. I was originally on Mobiscribe but that was too small for me, so I upgraded to reMarkable like six months later. I was a happy user for a while until they introduced the subscription model. I switched over to Supernote in June of this year (after having preordered the A5X in March due to the Shanghai lockdowns) and I'm happier than ever. I'm so glad I don't have to use paper anymore with as much as I tended to go through the stuff. I also carried a ton of it everywhere. Literally over 5lbs of it went with me everywhere. Now I just carry a single-shoulder bag with my SN in it.

I find it odd that you've ignored the fact that in your and my country, Germany, tolino is the leading ebook reader brand, which is interesting because it isn't a product from "Big Tech" but sold by the German book retailers. So it isn't really marketed towards tech but reading enthusiasts which makes a lot of sense

This is quite anecdotal and probably doesn't account for much of the market share, but the DIY smart home crowd are really embracing e-ink as well! With the price of these displays going down and the energy consumption of the ESP32s needed to display on them, they're a really energy efficient way to quickly display information that can run off batteries on a relatively small form factor!

I've only owned one product with eink, my Samsung Alias 2 phone. The numeric pad was made of eink, and you could flip the screen up like a regular flip phone and get a regular number key layout, or flip it to the side to get a horizontal screen and an eink keyboard to type texts on. It was pretty neat back then. As an artist and a tech fan, I'm quite interested in what an eink display holds for sketching and inking. I ditched my traditional paper sketchbook years ago when the first feasible Windows tablets with pens were available. For eink, I can only hope the refresh rates can be increased and the grayscale gradation be given more fine tuning. My only other consideration would be the resolution you could draw at and export. Color would be nice, but I doubt it could meet the standards of what professionals would need.

Thank you for sharing! I live in Taiwan and that picture of the factory is located at the city I'm working at, didn't know they are a big E-Ink company!

Yes i am one of those 9 people who loves my amazfit bip watch with same transreflective display as it can easily do 10-15 days with all health tracking enabled and Always on display which I believe to be the most essential feature of a watch. I don't understand why everyone else settled with having these black blank dials on their wrists and charging watches every goddamn day. I wish they made a more premium version of my watch as it looks like a toy watch compared to what market has these days.

I am looking at a ReMarkable or Kindle Scribe simply for note taking. I think that should be the main focus for companies going forward - there are a lot of people looking to ditch paper notes and eInk tablets make the best case for that. The problem is they're still a little pricey, but I hope as more competitors come onto the market the prices will fall.

All I want is a large 40” eink calendar for my wall. I guess it could double as a set display but a calendar would be so great.

I'm a student at a technical university in Norway, and last 1-2 years there's been at least a few of reMarkables in every lecture I've been in (one of them mine) for note taking. It's absolutely great at that. So much better organised than in by paper days, and the writing experience is much better than on my 2-in-one PC. The battery lasts weeks even with regular use. I've even used it to present slides, where I was drawing on them during the presentation to great effect.

I would definitely buy to one of these e-paper tablets if: 1. Become compatible with Google's AI character recognition, so I can see my notes either in sketch mode or typed mode. Recognition is crucial if you want to quick search your notes 2. Is fully compatible with Notion I hate ipad screens, as my eyes are very sensitive, and this would be a great alternative for productivity.

I personally don't mind what the Kindle currently is. I bought a newer USBC one this year and still love it. The ease of pulling books from Amazon directly in seconds and as a device, it works and looks beautiful IMO. I appreciate the simplicity of what it is, in an age of everything needing to be overly engineered and complex and "smart". But... It is long overdue to have colour eink Kindle screens for reading comics or graphic novels and the UI on Kindle could be better. But honestly, that's my only gripe. My last Kindle, before my new one this year, lasted around 4-5 years. I only replaced it for the battery and USBC charging.

I started on the nook color, and was very happy with it because it was more then a reader. It was a tablet that let me also read books. But cheaper. I bought the next few color readers from B&N till the storage became an issue. Latterly, picked up one version and the software for B&N and Samsung that had to be on the reader took up all the space allowed. I had to get a SD card just to download the books I already owned. Now I buy android tablets and just install the B&N and Audible apps instead of wasting money on eReaders.

I am so fascinated with e-ink devices. I just bought a Kindle PW less than a month ago, and I am still fascinated with how it looks. I can't explain it, but it just looks so nice. It's a screen that looks like a paper, I can't stop marvelling at it. Though yeah, I don't like how Kindle is basically locked into Amazon environment. I really hope this e-ink technology develops faster from other brands as well. It would be nice to how far it can go.

still clinging to my Pebbles! Love it, and sadly my Kindle! But my wife has gone into Pocketbook E-reader and its impressive as well!

I was excited about ePaper tech becoming competitive in the drawing tablet scene two years ago 😔 the remarkable 2 looks fantastic but the price is still not worth it for me

Was going to get up in arms and defend the recent improvements, but then I watched the rest of the video. EInk has really come a long way. I think the main issue is that Kindle (the only real interaction most people have with the technology) has not. I got an Onyx BOOX device this year (the Nova Air C I see you also have}, and while it's not on the same level as an iPad, it blew me away! You could actually scroll through UIs instead of a big flashing mess or the full refresh that Kindles do. And the frustrating part is that the different display/refresh modes are baked into the display. There's no reason other than complacency/laziness why Amazon can't take advantage of this to make their Kindle devices a better experience.

Onyx actually made note taking readers since Sony released their 1st one around 2012 or so. Remarkable came later 😉

I am personally very interested in e-ink Smartphones. The downsides of low refreshrates are clear, but an eInk display on an an otherwise normal Anroid would in my opinion provide most of the convenience of a modern smartphone while removing a lot of the distraction of a brightly coloured, flickering screen. There some option on the chinese market like the Hisense A5 etc. but unfortunately there will be now google support for these, soon.

I agree that the innovation of e-ink readers has been slow, but that's one of the things that I love about them. 16GB of storage is more than enough for me, as it can hold thousands of books, which is perfect for my needs. Plus, I prefer the simplicity of e-readers as it minimizes distractions, allowing me to focus solely on reading. If I wanted more features, I'd just buy an iPad. But for reading purposes, an e-reader is all I need. Keep it simple and stick to what's important, reading.

Great video! I love my reMarkable tablets! Gave the first one to my brother when I got the second one. Only thing I need is a few colors! Hopefully the rM3, the Kindle Scribe 2 or next Supernote will have that. I wonder though what's the ideal size for these devices? 8, 10 or 12"?

These are the things that would make these devices better: Nice color (not dark and washed out) with a screen that is not dark and still has good contrast. Less ghosting from earlier images when changing pages. More precision for drawing with some additional options for pen types (with good color, e-ink might be the best medium for artwork on a screen since it behaves like paper for reflection handling). Restoring the good slightly slanted bezel with the buttons with good travel distance (like the Kobo Forma) on the more recent devices with the lighter weight. Since the purpose of the device is reading (and writing now) there isn't much else that is needed. It is a shame that bright color is such a substantial obstacle for this technology.

No competition? We had several Eink readers and none of them were by Amazon. There’s a ton of alternatives, many being better and cheaper. Like the PocketBook.

Biggest issue with kindle is it blocks third party books or doesn't make them accessable. I don't know if it is all models but my Mom returned hers because it didn't work with the library nor did it work with the big free book databases.

I got myself a Kobo Clare 2E a few months ago. I use it for reading and I don't care about extra features. 16 GByte is a lot for e-books. My Kobo came with some extra features, but they are easily ignored and do not interfere with my reading. What I care about: - Good display - Adjustable font type and size - Adjustable margins - Long battery life - A nice, even front lighting of the display with warmer colors in the evening and night An E-ink display is perfect for this.

Very interesting video. A while back I looked into Kindle alternative e-readers. I was surprised at how many there were and how far more advanced they were than the Kindle. Not to mention color. Of course, with all those extra features comes extra cost. A LOT of extra cost.