Kobo screen == Sony PRS-505 ?

[Joember]

Is the Kobo's screen the same as the Sony PRS-505? Or is it better quality?

Joember

[TallMomof2]

All current eInk screens come from the same manufacturer so yes, it's the same screen.

[Joember]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

All current eInk screens come from the same manufacturer so yes, it's the same screen.

The PRS-600's screen is lower quality than PRS-505 despite being the same (presumably because of the touch layer).

Do you know how the Kobo's screen compares to the PRS-505's in real world terms?

Joember

[TallMomof2]

Since there's no touchscreen on the Kobo my assumption is that it's the same. I have or had 8 different devices with eInk screens and they all perform the same. There are some very slight variations in contrast, due to different manufacturing batches or possibly age, but the screens are virtually the same. I even have 2 devices with a touchscreen and they have a little bit more glare but I can easily compensate for that.

Some variation in screen performance is due to different controllers but it doesn't affect the screen contrast. Some controllers support differing levels of grayscale but for me that's only noticeable in highly detailed illustrations not day to day reading.

[Joember]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Since there's no touchscreen on the Kobo my assumption is that it's the same. I have or had 8 different devices with eInk screens and they all perform the same. There are some very slight variations in contrast, due to different manufacturing batches or possibly age, but the screens are virtually the same. I even have 2 devices with a touchscreen and they have a little bit more glare but I can easily compensate for that.

Some variation in screen performance is due to different controllers but it doesn't affect the screen contrast. Some controllers support differing levels of grayscale but for me that's only noticeable in highly detailed illustrations not day to day reading.

I thought I read that current screens could theoretically achieve better contrast, but only at the expense of slower rendering. That suggests to me that firmware could indeed make a difference in the contrast. Though perhaps a difference to minor to readily see, given sane page-turn times?

How do you know the contrast differences between the devices you own are due to batch-variation, and not something inherent to the firmware or the manufacturing process? Do you have multiples of the same device/model? Or have you compared your devices against others of the same model at stores?

Joember

[TallMomof2]

I own five 6" screen devices (Kindle 1, Kindle 2, Cybook Gen 3, eSlick, and the Kobo) one 8" screen (Irex Iliad) and two 9" screen (Kindle DX and Entourage Edge).

All the screens come out of the same manufacturing plant. The screens show show some variation where the "white" background is slightly whiter on some screens but the "blacks" are also slightly less black. All of the screens have the same contrast ratio and that is not affected by the display controller. All the controller can do is give a fixed number of shades of gray. IIRC, the Kindle one has 4 shades, the later Kindles and Sonys have 8 shades. That doesn't affect the contrast just the number of gray tones that can be rendered.

Firmware also plays a huge part in how well the screen renders text. On my Kindle 2 I added the font hack as soon as it became available because I thought that the text was too hard to read, the letters too thin. On my DX the presumably same original font is perfectly readable. Is that a difference in firmware or the screen itself? I don't know but when I compare my three Kindles the Kindle 2 screen is not quite as good as the other two. But I've seen other Kindle 2s with screens that I thought were better than mine.

The screens with better contrast are not in production and I have no idea when that will start.

I'm not exactly an ereading device hoarder. I've gifted family members with a good part of my collection. I'm still looking for the perfect device.

[andrys]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

I own five 6" screen devices (Kindle 1, Kindle 2, Cybook Gen 3, eSlick, and the Kobo) one 8" screen (Irex Iliad) and two 9" screen (Kindle DX and Entourage Edge).

All the screens come out of the same manufacturing plant. The screens show show some variation where the "white" background is slightly whiter on some screens but the "blacks" are also slightly less black. All of the screens have the same contrast ratio and that is not affected by the display controller. All the controller can do is give a fixed number of shades of gray. IIRC, the Kindle one has 4 shades, the later Kindles and Sonys have 8 shades. That doesn't affect the contrast just the number of gray tones that can be rendered.
...

I'm not exactly an ereading device hoarder. I've gifted family members with a good part of my collection. I'm still looking for the perfect device.

:-)

Just came across this and wanted to correct one thing -- the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX's actually have 16 levels of gray.

You can see what the differences in output are
- http://bit.ly/4vs16grays

- Andrys