thanks for your advice regarding turning up the brightness, its a lot better. I agree that frontlit e-book readers are not comfortable. I am using Nova as my support device so I am not going to stare at it as much. I tried laptops that allegedly had no PWM according to external sources, but it didn't work out for me.
I hope Onyx will offer both non-lit and frontlit devices to satisfy everyone's needs. I know that one can fully turn off the light, but I really like the slight softness on the Max 2 Pro's screen, it feels closer to writing on paper than on these laminated glassy surfaces. I tried putting a matt screen protector on my Likebook mars (light turned off) and used my external light source. But its not as nice as Onyx Boox Max 2 Pro. So I am a bit reluctant to try it on my brand new Nova reader.
Yesterday, I contacted Onyx regarding their thoughts on whether there will be devices like Onyx Boox Max 2 Pro in the future (lets say about 3-4 years down the line when I would consider upgrading). I got a reply back saying they have noted my concerns, but what they are sort of saying I think that the future is
FRONTLIT. This is bad news for people like me who have severe light sensitivity due to health issues.
There are research articles which suggest that e-ink readers are best used without any in-built lighting and to use external light sources (ambient reading light). Of course, more research is needed to really work out what is good for the eyes and for our overall long term health. Having a choice would be great, maybe they could offer individual configurations in the future. For now all I can do is letting Onyx Int. know that I want to see options and developments with unlit devices.
I have considered buying another Max 2 Pro, in case they (most manufacturers) stop making these lovely unlit devices (which don't have a glass surface.). Of course, its not a realistic plan as the android version would be way too old, the only option would be to use it in monitor mode.
I hope we can see e-ink readers that will have higher resolution with no built-in lights. Thanks for your insight on the brightness settings!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by plusz
I have not seen yet an e-ink comfortable to read with the front light turned on. The front light is OKeyish but as a matter of fact I find an OLED screen less tiring than e-ink with front light.
Nonetheless I'd like to give you a hint to try the front light once again but set to the maximum. Most laptop / tablet screens exhibit the same problem this days - backlight PWM. The backlit does not dim but is throttled with a high frequency. Instead of being ON all the time, the light goes ON and OFF within a short time. The higher the pulse frequency the better. For example in 10 ms time, one screen may emit light for 3 ms then stay off for 7 ms, whereas other screen may emit light for 1 ms, stay off for 2 ms, emit light for 1 ms, off 2 ms, on 1 ms, off 2 ms. In the end both emit the same average amount of light but the second could be perceived better for the eyes. Back in the days, in the CRT TVs a tiny very bright dot ( 10th times more bright than the average screen brightness) was traversing the screen line by line to make the picture. The speed of the dot was hight enough so you couldn't tell with a naked eye that there's one dot travelling through the screen but still when the speed of the dot doubled going from 60Hz to 120Hz in CRT computer screens most people immediately noticed better eye comfort. These days most laptops do severe backlit PWM when the brightness is less than 70%.
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