Fujitsu FLEPia released!

[Bushcat]

I played around with a pre-production sample of one of these when they popped up in a restaurant for a few days. The contrast ratio was terrible, maybe 7:1 or 10:1 and the 3-scan refresh time was 15 seconds. The production version apparently has much better contrast and refresh time. The guy hanging around outside the restaurant with a couple more units in his bag was from Softbank Mobile.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Bushcat

I played around with a pre-production sample of one of these when they popped up in a restaurant for a few days. The contrast ratio was terrible, maybe 7:1 or 10:1 and the 3-scan refresh time was 15 seconds. The production version apparently has much better contrast and refresh time. The guy hanging around outside the restaurant with a couple more units in his bag was from Softbank Mobile.

a contrast ratio of 7:1 or 10:1 is between 1.0x to 1.45x BETTER than current Vizplex which is 7:1 as can be found on PVI (eink's) own site. So, if it was 10:1 that is about a 45% improvement over eink.

http://eink.com/products/matrix/High_Res.html

Eink has only a 40% White State Reflectivity => gray. I would be curious what the white reflectivity on these new devices actually is. Do you think the contrast felt lower was because the colors did not seem as vibrant as one might expect so everything felt out of balance?

[dragonbone]

Originally Posted by blunty

As soon as something new comes out why does everyone post on what it doesn't do? Colour readers are definitely wanted and coming, just because the first one is slow or doesn't have mobi is not a reason to complain.
Let us celebrate the small beginning.

Thank you SO much Blunty dear for being the voice of reason . I think this is the first color e-ink reader in the world, (that we know of) so worth checking out!

[dragonbone]

OK, I'm clueless, can anyone tell me what questions to ask and what to look for?

[Bushcat]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

a contrast ratio of 7:1 or 10:1 is between 1.0x to 1.45x BETTER than current Vizplex which is 7:1

Argh, I have to re-think all my contrast numbers then. A while back I used a simple contrast meter on some random stuff, and it showed a Vizplex screen at around 12:1. Either it lied, or I mis-used it.

Anyway, the contrast on the pre-production device seemed very low: it was very hard to read the text. The colours appeared very, very washed out. Hence my guesstimated contrast ratio.

The 3-scan refresh time was very annoying: although one can start reading after the first scan, the scan line moving across the screen is distracting.

But I'm still going to check out the production version: if the WinCE is accessible enough to install third-party products, I might get one. The supported formats out of the box are a bit restrictive.

[asktheeightball]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

Thank you SO much Blunty dear for being the voice of reason . I think this is the first color e-ink reader in the world, (that we know of) so worth checking out!

Couldn't have said this better myself. It's the beginning of a new era (hopefully) of e-ink readers.

Let's hope that this one does well enough to warrant more companies researching and developing colour e-ink technology!

[dragonbone]

Originally Posted by asktheeightball

Couldn't have said this better myself. It's the beginning of a new era (hopefully) of e-ink readers.

Let's hope that this one does well enough to warrant more companies researching and developing colour e-ink technology!

Yes, yes yes!! SO exciting! I love my little PRS-700, but color and bigger !

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Bushcat

Argh, I have to re-think all my contrast numbers then. A while back I used a simple contrast meter on some random stuff, and it showed a Vizplex screen at around 12:1. Either it lied, or I mis-used it.

Anyway, the contrast on the pre-production device seemed very low: it was very hard to read the text. The colours appeared very, very washed out. Hence my guesstimated contrast ratio.

The 3-scan refresh time was very annoying: although one can start reading after the first scan, the scan line moving across the screen is distracting.

But I'm still going to check out the production version: if the WinCE is accessible enough to install third-party products, I might get one. The supported formats out of the box are a bit restrictive.

I hear you. Maybe in reality the apparent contrast ratio for these displays really depends on ambient light? I say that as they are reflective so the light being reflected should influence the display's apparent contrast a lot. I know when I was able to take the Sony 505 outside at out Borders it was a LOT better to read. Same for a friends K1. But under the lighting I have on normally in my home I found reading on the K1 somewhat difficult to adapt to.

About good old Flippi here, if the demo video and other shots are any indication, yes the color is not to vibrant, yet. I agree with the person who said we should be happy to see these out so soon. The sooner there is color the sooner people will be able to adapt a device to their individual tastes rather and settling on whatever the technlogy give us.

We won't even get into the refresh times. Those are beyond unacceptable to me. But it is a prototype or beta whatever. Hopefully by the time they go to production this will be solved.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

OK, I'm clueless, can anyone tell me what questions to ask and what to look for?

I would be very interested in a useability for reading the books.

If you could tell us:

- how an ordinary book (black text) looks on it
- what is the readability of ordinary text
- what is the speed of pageturn
- how long it takes to load a book from memory card
- what formats are supported, how well they display

- how an illustrated book looks
- speed of pageturn
- how graphics look
- how is the text readable if you read full color book (part of page illustration part text)

- how a photo of human face looks on the screen (human face is one of most difficult things to display correctly in color)

- what is ergonomy of control elements.
- how easy it is to turn page holdiing the reader in right / left hand

- what is the overall "feeling" of device. Does it look like cheap plastic or is it more like the most expensive iPod?

- can user change the battery?

- can a non-japanese speaking person operate the device?
- what character sets (languages it supports)? Can it display for example Russian
- can user load his own fonts?

- What happens If I load a memory card with many thousand text files?


It might be a good idea to prepare a memory card with some simple texts, with some manga, Black and white pdf, color pdf, some web page, some photos so you could see what yOUR material looks like on the device.

[dragonbone]

@kacir, OK will do!
I didn't go today, and it's already past their closing time - 6PM, and they are closed on public holidays and weekends. I will try my best to go next week, although I may have to wait for the expo, as DH has already arranged tickets. But that's only next month, so....


http://www.displayexpo.jp/display/english/

Thanks for the cool questions and tips! I will do as you suggest.

As far as your last question is concerned, see below. This is a quote from the Fujitsu press release.

Featuring significant storage capabilities, when used with a 4GB SD card, the color e-paper terminal can store the equivalent of 5,000 conventional paper-based books when each book is 300 pages long at 600KB per book, thus being environmentally friendly.

http://www.frontech.fujitsu.com/en/r.../20090318.html

[kacir]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

As far as your last question is concerned, see below. This is a quote from the Fujitsu press release.

Well ...
Sony Reader PRS-500 boasts several GB storage space for books (via SD card or Sony Memory card), yet when you load a 2GB SD card with several thousand books the device would choke on it. Even 300 books on a card can cause your Sony Reader to slow down significantly when entering menu from the book.


And ...
another question ...
Does it support hierarchical file browser?
In other words can you organize your content to directories / folders?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

I think this is the first color e-ink reader in the world, (that we know of) so worth checking out!

This is not an e-ink reader. It's based on reflective LCD technology, which has some of the same benefits as eInk, but it is not eInk.

[CTH]

Why does it update the screen from one side to the other? That just has to be a controller issue. I mean why would the pixels on the right be faster than the pixels to the left

It seems to me that the screen itself could be much faster than shown in the vidoes. I would like to put my hands on a development kit for this one

If anyone could come up with a good explenation why the refresh has to go from one side to the other, I would be very intressted in hearing it!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

No, it's not eInk. Based on previous threads about this device, it's a variation of LCD technology.

E Ink is actually the name of a company. It is actually not a generic term even though many use it that way. The generic term is e-paper or epaper and this display meets that criteria as a bistable screen that does not require refresh.

Dale

[dragonbone]

Well in that case, they definitely say it IS e-paper.

http://www.displayexpo.jp/display/english/exhibitor08/