I love reading on my eInk reader. I think if a had phone where the book I was reading was always on the outer screen, I would read even more. But, is this too niche of a form factor?
No.
Been a fold user for going on 3 years now, and the outside display is pretty indespensible. Being able to use the phone as a normal phone, then being able to open the device and use it as a tablet, is the whole schtick. One doesn’t really work without the other.
e-ink is a weird niche tech IMO. The room required and case/screen protection would be the same as a typical OLED display. So why would an e-ink be better than a full functional display?
The only time I think e-ink’s are really useful outside of book readers is for situations where data refresh rate is seldom or battery life is critical and long microcontroller sleep times can be leveraged with the display still showing information without power for a very long duration.
I have an e-ink tablet that runs Android. Copes with most apps and can deliver stuttery video.
E-Ink can’t be far off replacing glass screens (at least as an option) because the benefits for battery life are substantial. But I’d think it would replace them rather than be in addition to. A phone with screens on both sides would be so fragile.
If you haven’t already seen it, and you don’t object to watching YT, check out the video on e-ink on the Applied Science channel. You’ll get a much better idea of the technology and limitations. There is not much of a difference in the underlying display for AMOLED versus e-ink. They are both ultra thin and loosely similar in power requirements. Most of the “display” seen on AMOLED devices is the glass needed for durability, and the capacitive touch sensor. The actual display is buried deep under the glass and is about as thick as a business card.
The way e-ink refreshes information is very different though. It probably won’t get much faster for refresh and there are some big disadvantages when displays are partially refreshed. It is far more efficient to just change the LED’s you need to change in a specific region when there are constant changes happening. The real issue is running software that allows for an off-state-black for AMOLED instead of a dark color. Refreshing an e-ink display requires powering a much larger area. Reliable refresh usually requires powering the entire screen with reverse polarized pulses several dozen times. E-ink used as a display that is constantly changing would take far more power than an equivalent AMOLED.
It doesn’t really matter if the power difference is less than exponential in scope when devices are made to be stalkerware constantly monitoring and sending telemetry data over a wireless connection. The radio transmitter often uses far more power than the screen.
I don’t think I am going to want a folding phone for a very long time. An e-ink display on the back of a phone for reading, or displaying static content, would be cool though. It would be nice to have recipes on an always on display, same with shopping lists, and some other reference materials.
It looks like at least one company made a prototype of such a thing back in 2013: https://techcrunch.com/2013/01/10/the-yotaphone-has-an-e-ink-display-on-the-back-and-thats-simply-awesome/
I don’t know why e-ink never seems to take off outside of e-readers, maybe it’s just still too expensive?
The Yotaphone was released and had a successor, they were just rare because they needed to be imported from Russia. Such a cool concept, I wish they’d bring them back.
There’s some Chinese companies making eink smartphones now, the tech has advanced a lot in the past decade; the resolution and refresh rate are pretty impressive.
Too expensive and doesn’t really work well by itself.
I think this would be too niche and also too expensive (I believe e-ink is expensive?) but I would also love this!
As soon as I put my ereader down for a quick look at my phone I’m on another device so I kinda forget to pick up my Ereader again. So yeah I’d love to see that.
I think fold phones in general are a cool idea that really nobody was asking for or needs
That’s an interesting idea but I think the market will be quite small.
I think the issue there is that eink screens are super low refresh rate. The new razr plus has a very usable and low demand outer screen that could get you close to that.
No because i think i’d use the unfolded state less than the normal folded. I at least want to have the option tò use only the folded state Like normal smartphone.
I own a Fold and love both displays. Was a bit annoyed at the outer one for not being wide enough but it grew on me.
