this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/14277930

Kobo announces its first color e-readers

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I really REALLY love my Kobo Libre 2, it's a fantastic reader. I would like to move the Color version, but they didn't actually show anything like a graphic novel, guess I'll be waiting for reviews, not sure why they wouldn't show the most common use for one of these unless maybe it's not great at it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I have a Onyx Boox Nova C that has pretty much the same technology (Kaleido Plus) and would say that the color display is mostly just a neat gimmick that comes with some tradeoffs. Compared to a pure monochrome E-Ink display the contrast is much worse and colors don't really pop either. You basically always need at least a bit off background lighting to be able to read.

I'd recommend these types of display only if being able to read without background lighting isn't a must and even then only for stuff that's better with color, like notes, technical books or the occasional colored page in a book/manga. If you want to read something reliant on stunning colorful artwork like graphic novels I'd stay away.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

This was my fear, thanks. When I saw what they were doing with it I was like come on, who needs to take notes in color.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I've had a Libra 2 for almost 2 years now and just yesterday I was thinking "it still looks great!". I don't feel the need to upgrade and colour isn't a must for me, so I'll just wait for a couple of generations until the colour technology is more mature and they add some kind of feature my Libra 2 doesn't have besides that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Yeah, sadly a good color e-ink screens seems like one of those techs that is always a couple years away. It seems like maybe the demand just isn't there for R&D with everyone having large form factor phones these days.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I thought e ink was just in patent hell with only one company developing it and charging high fees on everything they can related to it and they aren't that good at r&d but they are good at milking something for all its worth

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Sorry, I haven't made the jump into an e reader of my own yet, so I may be missing something, but could the same not be said for phones and B&W e readers? Phones can basically do everything an e reader can on its face, but there's still a niche to be filled by e readers, so I'm not sure lack of demand would exactly be the problem?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I thought color DES was decent?