Pixel Qi's 3Qi hybrid e-paper not in May, maybe in next two months

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by leandroide

Images of the pixelqi screen in their blog!!!
http://pixelqi.com/blog1/2009/05/28/...qi-3qi-screen/

Hard to tell how good it is from those shots, but nice to see that it now really exists.

I've been reading up on the technology - fascinating. If they're using the same pixel resolution as the OLPC display, then in reflective mode it should be displaying at 200dpi. That's around 1700x1000 on a 10.1" display.

The method she came up with for eliminating the pixel filters is brilliant - instead of filtering the light, they use a diffraction grating to separate the light from the white led backlight into RGB diagonal stripes.

[Barcey]

I'm anxious to see a side by side comparison with e-ink. The picture doesn't look like it "rivals EPD" but it looks good enough for most people.

[taosaur]

I'll need to see some exhaustive reviews to get a sense of both contrast in epaper mode and image quality for video, as well as power management, but these pictures do look promising. My Wind's screen is already pretty solid outdoors (I couldn't imagine any traditional LCD doing better), but if this is a significant upgrade and power-saver, and if they make install kits available, I might make the mod this fall

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by taosaur

I'll need to see some exhaustive reviews to get a sense of both contrast in epaper mode and image quality for video, as well as power management, but these pictures do look promising. My Wind's screen is already pretty solid outdoors (I couldn't imagine any traditional LCD doing better), but if this is a significant upgrade and power-saver, and if they make install kits available, I might make the mod this fall

I'm anxious to hear what the screen refresh is like as well because you can't tell that from a picture. Having the metal exposed around the display reflects the sun back so I don't think the picture is doing it justice. It's great to see these new technologies coming out though. It's going to be an interesting year.

[Sonist]

The blasted out screen at the bottom seems to have reasonable contrast, the one at the top, not so good (but it may be the viewing angle.)

I am curious if someone who has actually seen this in real life, can compare it to a current generation e-ink?

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by Sonist

The blasted out screen at the bottom seems to have reasonable contrast, the one at the top, not so good (but it may be the viewing angle.)

I am curious if someone who has actually seen this in real life, can compare it to a current generation e-ink?

At present, it seems you could count the number of people who have "seen this in real life" without resorting to toes.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by taosaur

At present, it seems you could count the number of people who have "seen this in real life" without resorting to toes.

O.K. then, I'll even take a middle finger's opinion....

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Sonist

O.K. then, I'll even take a middle finger's opinion....

Now that is not very knife of you...

BTW, not sure everyone noted that the photo's were taken with her IpHoNe, which is not the best camera in the world. So discounting the tiny image sensor, the shots do show that we might be very pleased with real studio shots. In fact from my understanding of what I will call the "passive" display mode (not true transreflective yet apparently not a true passive or active display mode either...referring to the sunlight readable mode) but, this is a case where the better the studio lighting the more accurate a representation we will see.

[Andybaby]

It looks great, and I think the tech would work based on my internal vaporware meter,

I think this is gonna be made. and its gonna work... anyone care to take a bet.

avail by q4? nope. I say q2 2010 at the earliest. but of course I may be wrong.

[soilwork]

Josh Quittner at Time had a chance to play with 3Qi display and he wrote an interesting article with some new information.

1. It has better DPI than Kindle.

Actually, it was better than E Ink: My Kindle only handles 167 DPI (the measure of dot pitch, or crispness of the font); the Pixel Qi, Mary Lou said, does 205 DPI.

2. The screen quality is as good as that of a Kindle.

In black and white, reflective mode, I couldn't see any difference when we held up the Kindle alongside the PQ-modded Netbook. Both were easy to read without any flicker or speckling.

3. It will be cheap to produce and the optimized device will run about 40 hours per charge.

The screens are cheap to produce, too—well under $200, she said. Such a device ought to enjoy 40 hours or so of use as an e-reader, between charges.

Overall, it sounds pretty good and hope to see some ebook reading device with this display soon. It will be a good competitor to Kindle DX or plastic logic reader.

[Source]
http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009...ing/#more-1633

[jgray]

That latest information sounds very nice, except for the manufacturing cost. I don't know how much an eInk display costs to produce, but considering how much the readers sell for, I would think that the Pixel Qi production cost needs to come down much more. Afterall, they are touting cheap manufacture as one of the benefits. Perhaps the quoted cost is for the initial, limited production run.

[sirbruce]

Yeah, $200 is not cheap to produce. What's the price of the entire unit, $400, $500?

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Yeah, $200 is not cheap to produce. What's the price of the entire unit, $400, $500?

cost to produce an ereader around a 200 buck screen should be around there I think, but remember a few points.

this has color, it's the same size as the kindle DX (a lil larger) and if made into a device should be the same price.

also there is talk about putting it in netbooks. which if anything, would make the price go down.

[jgray]

Originally Posted by Andybaby

cost to produce an ereader around a 200 buck screen should be around there I think, but remember a few points.

this has color, it's the same size as the kindle DX (a lil larger) and if made into a device should be the same price.

also there is talk about putting it in netbooks. which if anything, would make the price go down.

Considering that you can buy a netbook with a 10 inch screen for under $400, that $200 for just a screen seems high. I'm sure that the rest of the netbook hardware comprises more than 50% of the cost. And we're talking street price, not manufacturing cost, which is lower. We'll just have to see how things shake out when the Pixel Qi screen is actually in production.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Andybaby

It looks great, and I think the tech would work based on my internal vaporware meter,

I think this is gonna be made. and its gonna work... anyone care to take a bet.

avail by q4? nope. I say q2 2010 at the earliest. but of course I may be wrong.

Seems like a solid estimate on the timeline. My crap detector as not even blipped since I began following these displays last year. The display was a very logical evolution of the screens in the XO OLPC's...In reality they seem not all that different from the PDA transreflective displays. So, the basic understanding of the problem and solution needed to serve that problem had a huge headstart.

Originally Posted by jgray

Considering that you can buy a netbook with a 10 inch screen for under $400, that $200 for just a screen seems high. I'm sure that the rest of the netbook hardware comprises more than 50% of the cost. And we're talking street price, not manufacturing cost, which is lower. We'll just have to see how things shake out when the Pixel Qi screen is actually in production.

Don't put stock in WAG guesses about pricing just yet. We have no idea is the price is for a full touch enabled display. If so, they it is head and shoulders cheaper than the display for the KDX...$200 for a multi-mode full color sunlight readable display is nothing. And remember the economy of scale comes into play NOW not in 5-yrs. Buy buiding more multifunctional devices there will be a wider market to supply. Also laptop makers, tablet makers, slate PC makers are likely going to be ready to wade in right away as well. By the end of next year, assuming the displays are as good as they should be, but they will be produced at a rate over eink displays measured in multiple orders of magnitude.

And about such things as refresh rates...has everyone forgotten these displays are based on existing LCD displays? They will use the same drivers and probably the same controllers as are in current use. The only mode which might be different may be the outdoor mode.

And yeah, I am very hopful for this tech, it is a great move and perfect product for here and now...it actually will also put the eink folks feet to the fire for the first time...it becomes compete or begone...deliver or die, I don't care, we have other options now.

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A more general comment is how negative the owners/proponents of eink as a panecea are toward the "poor" contrast based on some very poor images taken on a very poor camera and at extreme angles bouncing light directly back at the lens. Even then the contrast is BETTER or at least no worse than the K1 I own and never use unless I want to read something outside and the better half has not secreted the thing in some hide-i-hole.

I can give a basis, I can read reasonably well on my Clie nx73v in transreflective mode outside in direct sunlight. And even in the poor images posted here, the new displays are better.

People are going to be very surprised by these displays. Unfortunately this site has become so very polarized that unless it is eink it is crap and we will suffer no other discussions. Though there are more people around today who openly express their disappointment with eink and the lack of improvement in the displays themselves.

But, I also sense we will be seeing some interesting changes on the eink front as well. More than just lower prices.

Whatever happens, it will only be great for us consumers...until Amazon starts suing everyone in sight because they have all the money and can sue others into poverty even if they lose the cases.