Quote:
Originally Posted by AnotherCat
Personally I think the days of lit E Ink readers in the market is very limited. The only one I have had much of a play with has been the Kobo Glo and my reaction was that it really was a poor excuse for a lit handheld device. I read ebooks for a decade on colour screen PDA's and I would rather use one of those than a lit E Ink reader (even though their screens were smaller) and have the benefit of colour and the versatility for the many other applications that could be run.
Which leads to we already have the far more versatile 8 inch Samsung Tabs with as good a screen resolution as the Glo and competitive price wise (and which would be my choice over any lit E Ink device, if a lit device for reading was wanted), and Sony have just put out their Sony Xperia Z Ultra Phone/Tablet with 6.44 inch high definition screen. While the Sony is expensive it would not seem too long away before there is the likelihood that all the phone, camera, etc stuff will be ripped out to make a much cheaper basic Tab with wireless, audio, etc. together with the versatility for use with other applications that a lit e Ink device can not match. The only disadvantage at the moment is the more frequent charging but that if just used for reading will be in terms of in excess of 100 hours.
So my suspicion is that unlit E Ink readers will survive for quite some time in the market but lit ones will be quickly overtaken by the small Tablets.
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I disagree, I think the front-lit ereaders are here to stay and will keep improving. If you read outdoors at all, all the fancy tablets and PDAs and phones are 100% useless in the sun. If I didn't have ringtones assigned to all my contacts, I'd never be able to tell who was calling before I answer when outdoors even at max brightness settings. It doesn't even have to be in bright sunlight. Even if I try to find shade under trees, I still can barely read the screen.
And I don't see any use at all for a color display when reading novels. If you only read magazines, then I could see a reason to stick to color displays, and you wouldn't want e-ink in that case. But I don't read magazines at all and I can't remember ever picking up a book to read that was in color. I just want clear text on a paper-like background, just like when reading a paper book.
But that there's just no way to read from a back-lit device outdoors in bright light means that front-lit ereaders will be around for a long long time for those who like to read everywhere.