Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology (a joint venture formed between Toshiba and Matsushita)
announced today that the company has developed and started mass production of a new monochrome LCD panel for use in electronic dictionaries and e-book readers. Specs:
- Display size: 5.01-inch
- Resolution: 640 x 480
- Display mode: Monochrome reflective display / Internal reflective display (someone care to explain?)
- Contrast ratio: 12:1 (no backlight)
- Response time: 20 ms
- Levels of gray: 16
- Power consumption: 4mW (2-level grayscale), 20 mW (16-level grayscale)
Compared to the usual E Ink display, the new panel has a higher contrast ratio (12:1 vs. 8:1) and also relatively low power consumption (20 mW vs. 1mW (E Ink standby) and 750 mW (E Ink active update)). Screen refresh is a lot faster (20 ms vs. 0.5-1s).
Before you get too excited keep in mind this is only a 640x480 screen, so hardly as high-resolution as TMD likes us to believe. [Edit: Thanks to RWood for clarifying that 640x480 on 5" is indeed high-resolution]