Kyobo Book Centre, Korea’s largest seller of books, has announced the retail availability of the world’s first e-reader to include mirasol® display technology.
The touch enabled Kyobo e-Reader features a 5.7″ XGA format (1024 x 768 pixels) mirasol display (screen resolution of 223 ppi) and Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz Snapdragon™ S2 class processor and runs a custom interface on top of Android 2.3 .
mirasol uses the ambient light in the environment to generate color as compared to the films, polarizers and many layers of materials used in standard display technologies on the market today. A mirasol display uses near-zero battery power to maintain a static image and needs no backlighting resulting in much longer battery life with low power consumption. Using reflective mirrored surfaces, they’re easier to see in bright/outdoor conditions because they reflect light out and are useable in direct sunlight without glare or washout like “traditional” colour LCD screens.
Currently only available in bookshops in South Korea for KRW349,000 (approx US$310).
Anyone know of a good South Korean forward-shipping service ?? 🙂
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I’m not sure if it’s just the picture or not, but the colors on that thing look kinda washed out.
@Steve,
Have a look at the videos on the mirasol site. Yes the colours don’t look anywhere near as vivid as say an LCD screen but I’d say that that’s the nature of the technology in this iteration. Colour, low power consumption, day light readability , it’s definitely a step in the right direction 🙂
At $310, I don’t think anything needs to move over.
Biomimicry. Using less than 10 miliwatts of power. Uses reflective light and mirrors. VERY COOL!!! VERY DIFFERENT than any display tech on the market!
Ian, do you know how many hours the battery will last on a charge?
@Bob
It’s a bit vague but from the press release….
“The device allow for weeks of reading under typical usage.*
*Battery life varies depending on usage and ambient light. Battery life based upon 30 minutes of daily reading time with Wi-Fi off and front light set to 25 percent utilization.”
@Ian thanks! I love stuff like this…
Pixel Qi Corporation has a screen that operates in transflective mode reducing power used.