You might have recently heard about e-ink tablets, or you might even have one yourself. If you want to learn more in depth about what an E-Ink tablet is, How the work, and which one is best for you?
A well known example of an electronic ink device is a Kindle. These are really simple devices (in some respect) used for reading books. It has an application (sometimes built in, and sometimes set up on an external device like a lap top) to install books. It can then process them and bring them up on the screen using very little energy, and no light!
There are much more advanced versions of e-ink tablets like the reMarkable 2, or the QuirkLogic Papyr. In this article I will be discussing the following:
- How does the electronic ink display work?
- Strengths and Pro’s with e-ink tablets
- Weaknesses and Con’s with e-ink tablets
- Which e-ink tablet is best for me?
To start off, How does the electronic ink display work? E-ink screens have millions of tiny pods in them (Like pixels on normal LCD screens), each with with a dozen little capsules half black and half white. White is positively charged and Black is negatively charged. When the application makes shapes on the screen, it either sends a positive charge, or a negative charge to each of the pods telling them to turn Black or White. When the short energy pulse is sent out, the capsules inside the pod then rest, requiring no energy to remain in their positions. This is why most kindles last a few weeks when being normally used.
Next - Strengths with e-ink tablets. These tablets are fantastic as they consume very little energy, they can not only be used for reading - but most are equipped with touch sensitivity, allowing the user to draw and interact with the screen. If you are an artist and want lots of different pen strokes and artistic tools, then I recommend the reMarkable 2, however if you want to take notes and don’t care so much about the different pen strokes, I recommend the Supernote. I will talk more about devices later but now it is on to…
Weaknesses of e-ink displays and tablets. There are 2 main weaknesses with e-ink tablets. The first is the Black and White display. It has an inability to process colours as the tiny pods only have black and white and only run off positive and negative charges. The second most notable feature is the screen refresh rate. This means that the tablets can not process animations of videos like any other LCD devices.
Well, you have all of the information about the electronic ink tablet. But which one is best for you? These following categories contain all the information you need to know about your profession.
Artists
If you are artistic and you want lots of different pen strokes and artistic tools that can assist you in sketching and drawing, I recommend the reMarkable 2. It is packed full of artistic features. But it does not have very good reading platform and it can’t process many common e-book formats. So don’t purchase this device if you want to read, taking notes is fairly good however I recommend another device (I will explain further on down). Find it at their website.
Productive Jobs
If you want productivity then I recommend the Supernote A5X. The Supernote is absolutely packed full of productive features. It links to email, has a calendar, hand-writing to text (the reMarkable does as well but for productivities sake I wrote it down here), a bult in Kindle App, and Not only that, it is ~$300 (AUD) cheaper. Find it at their website.
Education and Extremely Productive
If you need this for education purposes or you want to be Extremely productive then I recommend the QuirkLogic Papyr. This has a reasonably hefty price tag so time to open the savings account. However the price is definitely worth it. With endless features including everything from the above products as well as many more. You can browse the long list of features on their website. This device is also much bigger than the other two so I definitely recommend it if you are going to use it as a main device, rather than an occasionally used product. Find it at their website.
Reading
If you are going to use the e-ink tablet only for reading, then I recommend the kindle. This is a reading only device so make sure you only want it to read. This tablet is super cheap so if you are on a tight budget I highly recommend. Find it at their website.
In this article I have explained how e-ink displays work, their pros and cons, and which one you should buy. Thankyou for taking your time to read this article and please make sure to follow me.
