E-ink Tablets
E-ink tablets are much more versatile than just readers. The tablets allow you to make notes, to annotate documents and so much more! Whether you are looking for a tablet that increases your productivity, or just something that lets your creative juices flow, there is an e-ink tablet that is perfect for you.
But what differentiates one e-ink tablet from the next one? There are, of course, tons of criteria. In this post I try to distill the essence of the most important characteristics – and to give you insight into what to look out for. I\’ve said it before and I\’ll say it again – a device is a balance of compromises – we will reveal the yin and the yang, the darkness and the light, the good and the bad, of these characteristics.
There are two broad categories – hardware and software. Whilst software may be glanced over at first, it is as important as hardware. You can have the most gorgeous device that ticks every box technically – but software determines your productivity. And don\’t make the mistake to think that more features is equal to higher productivity. That is not necessarily the case, especially if you are easily distracted.
Hardware
Size
This is a very easy criteria to understand. Most popular e-ink tablets are in the 10-inch range. This seems to be a sweet spot for having a surface that is large enough to write on, without the device being too heavy.
However, the somewhat smaller 7-inch devices are also extremely popular with those who prefer a smaller notebook. These devices are light, sits easier in one hand (even with a cover) and are of course very portable. There are even smaller devices, but these seem to be more on the reader side – it is obviously more difficult to write on smaller devices.
Of course, the power hungry, or those in search of a big canvas, might go for a 13.3 inch device. These definitely have a place, but they are not as popular and as a result the choices are much more limited. Anything bigger than this, you are probably looking at an e-ink monitor, and not really a tablet anymore.
Colour
Over the past couple of years, color devices have increased in popularity. This is probably because the technology is finally getting there!
Still, there is a good chance that you may not want a color device. To help you decide, see
Compromise: Monochrome vs. Colour
For colour devices, there are two products in the e-ink stable that can be used for tablets. The products are called Kaleido and Gallery, and the differences are are evaluated in Compromise: Kaleido vs. Gallery
In the e-ink stable, there are also two main types of technology that can be used There are two main types of color e-ink:
- normal black and white with a color filter array on top that produces the color (within the eink stable, this product is called Kaleido) layer on top that changes colours. This technology produces less vibrant colours, but is cheaper than Gallery eink.
- actual color particles that combine to form other colors (the product is called Gallery within the e-ink brand). This results in vibrant colours, but there is a lot of flashing going on when rendering the colours.
So why would someone choose a black and white device if you can have color? What exactly are the compromises? In the case of something like Kaleido, there is an additional layer on the device that houses the colour filter array. This results in some disadvantages:
- the panel is darker as a result of the extra layer
- due to the darkness, these devices typically have a backlight that is on, more often than not. This shortens the time till you have to charge the device again
- the extra layer also causes the text to be a little further from the top, which detracts from the writing experience as there is a small distance between the tip of the pen and the e-ink
Front light
We have already touched on the front light aspect in the color section. Eink uses ambient light to illuminate the screen. When there is not sufficient ambient light (at night, for instance) – a built-in front light is really useful as you don’t have to switch on another external light source. With modern LED technologies, the impact of lighting on battery life is much reduced, but all but negligible.
The dark side of having a light (is that ironic?) is that the text will once again be further from the top, and the screen will appear slightly darker. Choices, choices, choices. Why must it be so hard to choose?
Pen latency or lag
This refers to the trail that follows the pen when you write on the tablet. Preferably, you want zero lag, but that is not practical at this stage.
The lower the lag, the more real will your writing experience be. Most reviewers agree that anything below 40ms (milli-seconds) is acceptable, but 20ms is where the wow-factor is at.
Resolution
The resolution is expressed in ppi (pixels per inch) and refers to the size of the actual e-ink particles.
Personally, I am a pixel snob – in other words, I don’t want to see them. I hate it when I can discern individual pixels – but others seem oblivious of the fact that there is even a little bit of pixellation and will go through life quite happily without ever realising what they are missing.
There are two primary pixel-densities: 227ppi and 300ppi. The higher the ppi or pixel density, the smoother writing appears on the screen.
It would seem that, even on this topic, there is also a dark side. The higher the ppi, the more pixels need to be manipulated and this will result in a marginally slower response of the screen, that can also affect the pen lag negatively.
Again, my personal view is that the performance elements are negligible and that you should aim for the highest possible pixel density – but the fact that a company like Remarkable differs from this view, just shows you how personal these choices are. Remarkable would presumably have done really good customer research.
All right then, now that we know what the most important considerations are, let’s see if there is an obvious choice for you, by using the boss-eliminator!
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