Here’s a video of the Kyobo color Mirasol ereader. The color is underwhelming and I wonder if a marketplace which is accustomed to vivid LCD screens will accept it. I suspect not.

5 COMMENTS

  1. The color definitely appears more “faded” than the LCDs we stare at all day, AND it looks unusually thick. That is going to be a hard product to sell when B&W e-Ink readers have gotten smaller and lighter, which is another way they distinguish themselves from tablets.

  2. I think they erred in focusing on a full-fledged tablet experience. If someone wants a tablet, they’ll get one with a bright backlit LCD. I’d rather see this used in a dedicated ereader. Sure, if they threw in a functional browser I wouldn’t complain, but I’d rather have the slim, lightweight form factor of current gen ereaders for comfortable reading.

  3. Considering the backlighting in the video, I think the color looks pretty good. They need to remind people of the the extended battery life of this display (if that is so…if not, forget it). They also should do what Amazon did for the Fire and hide the Androidness of the operating system. People expect smooth animation and zippy performance from an Android tablet, and this is supposed to be an ereader. They should avoid fancy animated transitions and focus on reading. After seeing this, I’m thinking black and white ereaders will be around for a long time (like calculators), cheap and handy.

  4. Will the market be as large as that for tablets? Maybe not. As large as it is for eReaders? There’s a much better chance of that.

    Yes, the colors are muted, but they aren’t horrible. In exchange for this you get much longer battery life and the ability to read/view in a broader range of lighting scenarios (outdoors or anywhere there’s plenty of sunlight are the obvious scenarios). In addition there’s less eye strain (possibly an overblown benefit, as reading on an LCD doesn’t bother everyone, but there are some for whom this is a very real benefit).

    That particular device doesn’t impress me for many reasons, but I desperately want a Mirasol eReader and a Mirasol display for my smart phone. Desperately. I could care less that the colors are “underwhelming”.

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