|
The main drawback of this technology, when compared with electrophoretic displays such as E-Ink or Sipix, seems to be that the magnetic field needs to be applied to display the image, not only to switch from one image to the next. So, like LCD, this technology uses power all the time, making it not very useful for ebook readers.
What I would really like to see is an electrophoretic display with a refresh time of, say, less than 0.1s instead of the current 0.5s or more. This would make most of the activities that you usually perform with a laptop possible (e.g., checking or sending emails, reading and writing documents, file management, web browsing, ...) at a much lower power level than is possible with LCD-based PCs. I would gladly accept a black-and-white display and not being able to see video in exchange for a few days of battery life. In fact, if the system automatically puts the processor in low-consumption mode every time that the display does not need refresh (e.g., while you're reading), I expect that a very long operating time could be provided by standard laptop batteries. With the added bonus that a similar PC would be perfect for use outdoors and with strong ambient light.
|