From their press release:
E Ink® Corporation, the leading developer and marketer of electronic paper display technology, today announced the Q2 release of its next generation display technology, Pearl. With Pearl, E Ink expands the capabilities of reflective displays, bringing electronic paper performance to the next level. With the whitest reflective displays in the industry, and a contrast ratio now approximately 50 percent greater than today’s products, text on Pearl “pops” from the page, enabling a reading experience most similar to reading text on printed paper. …
Images and text become crisp on the screen as the contrast between the background and item of interest is increased. E Ink Pearl raises the bar for displays used in digital reading. This allows for eReaders to go from a contrast ratio typical of newspapers, to a higher contrast ratio typical of paperback books. The crisp text and detailed graphics also continue to remain pleasant to view when E Ink products are enjoyed outside. In addition, with 16 gray level depth, E Ink Pearl offers the sharpest rendering of images and allows product developers to display images with smooth tones and rich detail.
Note that, just like the press release, the new Kindle DX is touting “50% better screen contrast”.
LOL, Crunchgear was reporting 50X better contrast for a moment there. We all wish, right?
Can’t wait to get my hands on this and test out the new screen. I seriously love the current screen technology already, so I cannot imagine how much more satisfied I will be when the contrast becomes 50 tim….err, 50% better 🙂
Am guessing that Kindle 3, whenever it arrives, will use some form of this screen as well. Makes sense, but I hope they offer it at a better price than $379. That’s still a bit high considering the cost of iPad.
Thanks again for bringing the news. You can see my comments on this news on my new post: http://ebookreader-ben.com/amazons-latest-kindle-dx-has-50-better-contrast-than-nook/
Cheers,
Ben
I bought a refurbished Kindle DX last week for $390. The original was $489. I had to buy an AC plug separately because the item didn’t have one.
And couple of days later they sell the newest one for $379!
This is cheating! Amazon just dumped the old crap for $390 and this week they’re selling the new items. They should have released the new Kindle first and then sell the old crap.
Amazon is not even responding to my calls.
Amazon sucks!
@Jeff, Amazon has a 30 day return policy even on refurbs so just return it (or get them to do a price adjustment since the DX refurb is now $250). I’d call Kindle Support as opposed to regular customer service.
The Kindle Customer Support number is 866-321-8851 in the U.S.
If outside the U.S., best to go to Amazon’s Kindle Support page, press the gold button on the right that says, “Contact us,” click on the TAB that says ‘Phone’ and then fill in your country and phone number. They tend to call back within minutes.
I think the longest I’ve had to wait for Kindle support (the phone number at the top) is one minute.
You get better support during Pacific Coast daytime hours though.
Their policy on Kindles is 100% to pay a full refund of the difference between old price and new as long as you bought it within 30 days. If the phone-rep is not clear on the situation, ask to speak with the supervisor. Or call back and get another rep. But the price-difference refund upon request is policy.
Here’s hoping you get or got a better experience than the first try.
– Andrys