Kaleido 4 Colour E-ink Coming?

[Yapyap]

Can’t find anything official / press release-y yet, but according to this thread on Reddit, Kaleido 4 has been announced in China (“Rednote & Hanvon’s livestream”, says the poster).

https://www.reddit.com/r/ereader/com...nced_in_china/

The thread above has photos/screencaps taken from the livestream.

Obviously this isn’t a great source for making deductions re: quality so it’ll be interesting to see if / what improvements there may be in reality. Looks like colour may be “better” but I’m more interested in brightness without frontlight...

[rantanplan]

It looks promising but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[thmsl91]

Still waiting on Carta 1400. A colour upgrade will be 2029 at a minimum imo.

[rantanplan]

I think Pocketbooks are usually the fastest to adapt new technology (and then fumbling the implementation). I wouldn't expect a new Kobo with (a currently non-existing) Carta 1400 before 2029.

[Yapyap]

I’m also personally far more interested in black and white, but colour e-ink certainly has its uses - comics, technical textbooks / PDFs with colour graphs, even e.g. things like art history textbooks with illustrations that aren’t meant to be colour-accurate but just there for reference, and since it sometimes feels like new e-ink adopters are more keen on colour, having advancements made in that sphere isn’t a bad thing.

Found this (AI-translated) longer and more technical overview of the announcement / presentation, which has more detail, in case anyone is interested: https://www.readwithpro.com/blog/ein...-max-m6-pro-en

Sounds like this was developed with Hanvon in mind as the first adopter, so I guess it’ll take some time until the tech reaches other brands.

It’s interesting that Amazon opted to release their new Kindle Colorsoft now, still with “old” Kaleido 3 tech (even if Amazon says they’ve made their own improvements), instead of waiting, say, six months. But I guess they have their own internal release schedules and calculations made.

[Quoth]

Any of the Cartas after HD are marginal improvements. The overall implementation has the most impact.
See Voyage, PW3, PW4. The PW4 was worst.

[nana77]

May I just say, nice buttons!
Might it be that this is one of those companies (or even the sole) that manufactures its own "e-ink", in fact it's mentioned as "e-paper"?
https://www.hanvon.com/index.php?m=c...&catid=14&id=8
https://www.hanvon.com/index.php?m=c...&catid=14&id=9
https://www.hanvon.com/index.php?m=c...w&catid=5&id=1

[JoeC]

Just in case - https://www.eink.com/news/detail/EIn...-Ink-Kaleido-4

[Maxbet]

The official announcement sounds promising, especially the improvements in brightness and contrast.
What I'd really like to see is a side-by-side comparison with Kaleido 3 under normal room lighting, with the frontlights turned off.
A page of regular text alongside one containing color illustrations or maps would be a great test. After all, better colors are nice, but maintaining that comfortable, paper-like reading experience is just as important.
Hopefully we'll see some independent comparisons soon!

[John F]

Originally Posted by Maxbet

...
What I'd really like to see is a side-by-side comparison with Kaleido 3 under normal room lighting, with the frontlights turned off.
A page of regular text alongside one containing color illustrations or maps would be a great test. ...

In addition, I would hope for a demonstration with all different conditions: outdoor in sun/shade, front light on at different intensities, ...

[cellaris]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I’m also personally far more interested in black and white, but colour e-ink certainly has its uses - comics, technical textbooks / PDFs with colour graphs, even e.g. things like art history textbooks with illustrations that aren’t meant to be colour-accurate but just there for reference, and since it sometimes feels like new e-ink adopters are more keen on colour, having advancements made in that sphere isn’t a bad thing.

Although it is clear that its most common use relates to images, I am more interested in the application of colour to novels. Fortunately, this task does not require any major technological advances. Anything that improves the contrast of the black text will be welcome, but I think it’s already good enough. The most interesting aspect, from this specific point of view, would be to reduce the darkness of the e-reader’s screen when its lighting is switched off, so that it can be used anywhere without any significant difference compared to monochrome e-readers. At present, there is a significant difference outdoors and in brightly lit environments (with the e-reader’s light on, indoors, and particularly at night, the differences are harder to notice). However, I find it hard to see how the Kaleido 4 would bring about a significant improvement in this regard.

[nana77]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Although it is clear that its most common use relates to images, I am more interested in the application of colour to novels. Fortunately, this task does not require any major technological advances. Anything that improves the contrast of the black text will be welcome, but I think it’s already good enough. The most interesting aspect, from this specific point of view, would be to reduce the darkness of the e-reader’s screen when its lighting is switched off, so that it can be used anywhere without any significant difference compared to monochrome e-readers. At present, there is a significant difference outdoors and in brightly lit environments (with the e-reader’s light on, indoors, and particularly at night, the differences are harder to notice). However, I find it hard to see how the Kaleido 4 would bring about a significant improvement in this regard.

At the very least, the price of the Pocketbook Color Note (10,3", mobius screen) and others, can lower a bit then.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by JoeC

Just in case - https://www.eink.com/news/detail/EIn...-Ink-Kaleido-4

They say that:

E Ink Kaleido 4 incorporates a new oxide TFT backplane that supports higher driving voltages and faster screen refresh.

Which is what Amazon has claimed about their Colorsoft line. I'll bet Amazon had an exclusivity for a couple of years and now E Ink can use it with other customers.

It uses an oxide backplane with custom waveforms for fast performance and a higher contrast on both color and black-and-white content.

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/dev...perwhite-entry

I wonder if Amazon's engineers developed it and the company get a cut or cross licensing something. Two years sounds like a long time if it was an E Ink innovation.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

I wonder if Amazon’s engineers developed it and the company get a cut or cross licensing something. Two years sounds like a long time if it was an E Ink innovation.

E Ink’s press release does say quite clearly though that “Hanvon Technology’s M10C II is the first device to feature the platform’s upgrades”, which seems to indicate the Hanvon device is the first one to feature Kaleido 4? I’d imagine Amazon would have wanted to be the first to market, if they’d developed it (as opposed to working on slightly optimising/improving Kaleido 3).

I am curious about the new Colorsoft though - they’re not actually available yet, are they? Just wondering if they’ll have any really noticeable improvement compared to the current generation.