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- cross-posted to:
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But it has a slow screen refresh rate, which makes it less than ideal for watching videos, playing games, or other actions.
I love how this is one of the first criticisms, as if that wasn’t the entire point of this device.
MediaTek
Ah yes, I forgot THAT’S why I didn’t go for this thing.
I just watched the video in the article, and the slow refresh rate also makes the touch controls frustratingly unresponsive. I love the concept, and might be interested in the next generation of this device, but the poor responsiveness is a deal breaker.
And you have to hold down the shift or Fn while hitting the desired key. Like a freaking desktop keyboard. No sticky. Wtf is up with that?
Yep, for numbers, too. Like, I need two thumbs and bifocals to dial a phone number.
Yup. Definitely an awful design choice.
Pretty sure you can enable sticky keys on any keyboard in the settings. It’s Android 14 and sticky keys is in the settings.
Yeah but it’s a hardware keyboard, not a screen-keyboard. I am not saying that means it won’t work - I definitely don’t know - but it’s conspicuous they focused on it briefly. SHRUG lol I’m sure there will be a hack for it if it doesn’t already behave how people want.
The setting works on Bluetooth or plug in keyboards where you use a dongle.
Edit yeah I think the dude that made the video doesn’t know that setting exists
Is that just the best an e-ink device can do? I didn’t even know you could get e-ink touchscreens at all!
Pretty much all kindles have touch screens these days.
And the current generation of Supernote, Remarkable, etc e-ink tablets have reasonable response times.
That’s cool, are any of them full Android devices that you can tinker with?
Boox has a few. I like mine.
The Supernote is running a version of Android that let’s you sideload stuff, but I haven’t messed with it too much. There are also boox devices that are Android based and the inkpalm from Xiaomi.
For the most part though, I think the android versions they use are generally very old.
There is mobiscribe wave in both bw and color. The company is shutting down, so they’re selling off their inventory for cheap. I bought a pen support bw notebook for $100 and a color pen supported notebook for $170.
Apparently not for Europe
You weren’t kidding. The bw one went from 129 usd to 270 euro even before shipping costs were added.
Simply switching countries from USA to Netherlands.
I would really love something like that, or like the phones made by hisense. I love e-inks and they fit very well my phone usage pattern. Too bad I was born in the poor side of the world and will never have the cool stuff
Somos dois, amigo.
Huh, actually a properly different way of doing a phone. I guess the key question is what we can expect in terms of support and openness, i.e. how do we know the company won’t go bust in six months and leave us with something we can’t put a custom ROM on?
I always like these concepts, but they are always so expensive. Why is it so hard to just do a $50 eink phone. It doesn’t even need the latest and greatest hardware just decently usable.
Niche means expensive.
It’s unfortunate but I think the niche aspect of the phone makes it more expensive. I’d wager a guess that at 50$ a phone they won’t recoup development and manufacturing fees without big sales.
Don’t forget order sizes. If you produce 500 a batch, your costs are going to be way higher than if you produce 10k a batch
TCL is releasing a new phone later this year with a toggle-able e-ink mode. So you can use it with in full color when you want, and switch to e-ink when you want. It’s in a more conventional aspect ratio so apps will look more “normal”. I can say from experience with my Boox e-reader that a lot of apps do not work well in 4:3.
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/6/24335983/tcl-60-xe-nxtpaper-e-ink-specs-ces
Might be my next phone if the CPU and software is not awful (big if).
E ink like mode. It’s not actually e ink it just makes the screen black and white. In the video they talk about how it’s just more of a low power/distraction free mode.
I despise the marketing of these eink-like screens. None of the biggest benefits of eink with all of the biggest drawbacks? The fuck?
In the CNET video below it looks like a different home screen and everything you launch into, it doesn’t just switch to monochrome and both articles claim massive battery life gains when in eink mode meaning it’s not just LED but curious to know more and keep an eye out
If you are considering this device I suggest if your current phone has a grayscale mode, turn that on for a week to see if you can get used to it.
I don’t think it’s a fair comparison. The greatest aspect of e-ink screens is not giving strain to the eyes. Looking at a greyscale phone will just have the downsides of both worlds.
Your point is valid. My advice isn’t for an emulation for e-ink, but it’s to see if someone can get over not seeing color on their phone. Color adds so much to the user experience.
Oh, I get it now, it makes sense too
