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Originally Posted by Baumi
That's true - it's just that all the "Kindle killer" articles out there paint the picture that this will be superior to eInk in every way because it can play video and has colours. They don't mention at all that this will also bring all the usual drawbacks in terms of readability and battery life. The usual argument basically goes: eInk is a flawed, oudated technology, the media tablets will get it right. One German newspaper commentary even showed the writers' hopeless ignorance by claiming that "poor battery life" was actually a problem of eInk-based devices.
What it comes down to, I guess, is just that I'm afraid that a good technology like eInk might actually suffer because media pundits are putting it down before most people had a chance to experience it for themselves. (At least over here in Germany, ebook readers are still very rare, because of the publishers' insistence on ridiculous pricing.)
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Once you can get better technology with satisfactory battery life, e-ink will go the way of the dodo. Transmissive displays are problematic because the emitter needs to compete with other light sources in situations like bright daylight, making them much less efficient in those cases if they're to be viewable in the first place. I won't bother with Chinese ebooks on e-ink because the readability so mediocre compared with my desktop LCD. Of course, my desktop PC is useless when I'm on the train, and my netbook doesn't handle sunlight well. That'll make Pixel Qi pretty attractive for general use...the extra viewability and contrast of a good transmissive display with the daylight viewability of a reflective screen when necessary.