Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
What was being referred to with the eInk Mobius display is not the front of the screen but rather the substrate the eInk display is built on. This would reduce the number of broken substrates which is one of the major causes of early death for ereaders and allow for a lighter ereader for the same display size.
To quote from the eInk blurb for the Mobius displays:
For applications such as cell phones or hand-held devices, the use of a plastic TFT can be augmented by a layer of unbreakable glass on the front of the display to give stiffness to a device which requires significant touch interaction, but still provides an increased ruggedness. In these types of devices the TFT itself is often the component that fails when dropped, rather than the top plane glass. A plastic TFT can significantly reduce display failure due to those drops.
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I'm good if the substrate goes to plastic, but I don't suppose it's a huge enough weight savings to fit *much* more battery in. My impression, and feel free to correct it if I'm wrong, is that the glass substrate is pretty thin and delicate. Hence all the worries about twisting, torquing and dropping these devices. Not that I've ever broken one, but clearly, less fragile would indeed be good!
I think with all devices, there is always some kind of compromise. Less battery life is the trade-off for a larger screen that's light enough to hold comfortably for hours.
Fragile glass substrates is something we've more or less accepted by adopting e-ink readers in the first place. I have no regrets, and likewise none that my current reader must be charged more often. The pleasure of reading on it outweighs the displeasure of charging every 3-4 days.
The crazy thing about all this is, my very first e-ink reader had similar or worse battery life (Nook Wifi) and I HATED that and moved to a Sony which did much better, though I certainly didn't get weeks plural. What I wasn't willing to put up with in a 6" clunky and heavy Nook device, I'm fine with in a slim, lightweight, frontlit, large screen reader. Times do change....
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