Las e ink screens They were born in 2004 with the aim of finding a type of screen that would allow text or static images to be displayed without the high energy cost, since it does not need backlighting like other screens.
This technology is based on transparent microcapsules that act as pixels inside which are other black and white microparticles with positive and negative charges.
Under each of the microcapsules there are two electrodes and, depending on the type of charge that each capsule receives, this is how the black or white particles will react, drawing the texts or revealing white “paper” as a background .
The result are screens that look very close to paper in the sense of offering a perfect sharpness of what is represented on it, without the need to backlight the entire screen.
For this reason, one of the first uses that it has been given has been in electronic books such as the Pocketbook Era that I have been testing in recent months and with which I have fallen in love with the comfort of its screen and has replaced the iPad Mini as a reading stand.
From being a second screen to the great guest star
I guess if you’re here reading this, you’re up to date on technology and you know full well that e-Ink screen eBooks aren’t a two-day-old invention. Amazon has been selling its Amazon Kindles equipped with this type of screen for more than a decade.
However, it has not been until a few years ago when this technology has developed enough to achieve an acceptable resolution for larger screens.
This development has taken these e-ink displays down a rather curious path, from being almost second-rate technology, because e-books have always seemed like the Cinderella of tablets to me.
However, the trend indicates that In the coming years we will see these screens more and more regularly as the main screen in top devices or as a secondary screen complementing conventional OLED or LCD LED screens.
The technology e-Ink stands out for offering very good definition in texts and graphics with a low battery consumption since it does not need to illuminate the screen to display the content, nor does it have to be refreshing the content of the screen 90 or 120 times per second, as it happens in current LED or OLED screens. It only refreshes if the content changes.
By using this technology, a device with an 8.3-inch screen like the 6th-generation iPad Mini could pass from 9 hours of screen to more than a month of use.
We will see these screens even in the soup
The battery saving of mounting e-Ink screens for a specific use makes them a very attractive option for manufacturers who see them as a very attractive tool for, for example, office automation jobs that, with the digitization of companies, have seen reports and work documents on paper they have been transformed into text files and spreadsheets.
In addition, the evolution of these tablets has led him to develop tactile functions and to be able to use a digital pencil on them with which to obtain sensations much closer to those obtained with a real pencil and paperas my colleague Alejandro told in his experience with the Amazon Kindle Scribe.
In fact, Huawei was already ahead of the rest by presenting its Huawei MatePad Paper at MWC 2022, creating the first hybrid of tablet with electronic ink screen and digital pen that offered a writing experience as organic as on paper. Lenovo has followed in his footsteps by launching the Lenovo Smart Paper at CES 2023.
These types of devices not only allow you to read documents for weeks without going through the charger, but also gain positions as substitutes for a notebook where you can take notes directly on a digital medium.
An area where iPads, Microsoft Surface and other tablets stood out for their lightness and versatility, but where you are e-ink display tablets They differ by adding very good autonomy. It seems that Cinderella has been put in her glass slipper and it has come crashing down.
The future is a hybrid of two screens
one of many good things about e-Ink screen technology is that, like OLED panels, it is flexible and can be integrated as a second screen in other devices.
At the last CES in Las Vegas, Lenovo presented the latest evolution of the ThinkBook Plus Twist Gen 2, its most experimental professional laptop integrating a second electronic ink screen on the lid you can use the internal screen to watch videos or as a conventional laptop, and the external 12” e-Ink screen to read or edit documents or take notes, extending its autonomy.
This is not a new concept. back in 2026 Motorola presented a mobile with an e-Ink screen and in 2014 the Russian company Yota Devices put the YotaPhone 2 on sale, a conventional smartphone that incorporated a second electronic ink screen on the back where the time, notifications, etc. were displayed.
You don’t have to be a visionary or have a crystal ball to intuitr that electronic ink screens are going to gain ground in more devices in the near future and who knows if even Apple could consider them for its folding phones. Try them, you will like them.
