If you’re looking to buy an e-reader, you should wait a little longer.
However, many unanswered questions remain regarding its availability, technical specifications, and cost.
Gallery 4100’s name will likely change in the future when it reaches consumers.
Image Credit: NikolaJankovic via Shutterstock.com
Currently, Gallery 4100 is only available as a development kit.
Otherwise, there’s no information on when ACeP v2 technology will reach ereaders.
Interestingly, O’Malley mentioned that E Ink sells Gallery 4100 development kits.
While E Ink declined to state any upcoming product release date, they did confirm specific features.
The video mentioned in the quote refers to a now-removed clip demonstrating ACeP v2’s color and black-and-white capabilities.
The missing video showed that ACeP v2 can turn black-and-white pages similar in speed to Carta panels.
In 2022, Tim O’Malley further elaborated on ACeP’s fast refresh capabilities.
While Gallery 4100 uses four pigments to generate color images, it only uses two colors to generate blacks.
In other words, Gallery 4100 can rapidly increase refresh speeds by computationally simplifying the image it’s drawing.
A black-and-white image has less complexity relative to color, so Gallery 4100 can render it more quickly.
A black-and-white panel only needs to arrange two pigments on the screen.
The reduced complexity means faster page turns, although color refreshes take considerably longer to refresh.
The added complexity may mean that ACeP v2 requires beefier hardware and more expensive manufacturing processes.
As a result, early ACeP panels could cost a significant amount more than black-and-white E Ink.
ACeP development kits, which are already available in digital signage products, cost hundreds of dollars.
If that’s an indication of what a consumer e-reader would cost, then it may remain unaffordable.
These characteristics make ACeP perfect for reading textbooks and comic books.
Gallery 4100’s Battery Life
Gallery 4100 consumes slightly more power than E Ink Carta.
However, according to O’Malley, Gallery 4100’s power consumption is infinitesimally smaller than the Wi-Fi power drain.
In other words, most users won’t notice any difference in battery life.
The exact price difference, unfortunately, remains unknown.
E Ink Kaleido Plus
E Ink Kaleido uses color-filter array (CFA) technology to generate color.
The multiple layers create a full-color display, although with diminished resolution compared to a standard E Ink panel.
Unfortunately, CFA’s colors also aren’t visually appealing and have the appearance of Jet-Puffed Fruity Marshmallows.
Today’s best CFA panels have a color depth of somewhere around 4,096 colors, orHigh Color.
However, besides having a limited color palette, Kaleido Plus panels have low color saturation.
In other words, colors look washed out.
Unfortunately, it lacks the vibrancy you’d expect of a Kindle.
Because DES technology uses fewer elements in its display stack, it also has higher color saturation.
Furthermore, because it’s simpler compared to E Ink, it’s also less expensive.
We reviewed an early color DES panel on theReinkstone R1 color e-readerin 2021.
As such, we don’t know what the final product will look like.
Other devices are slated to receive a DES panel, such as theTopjoy Butterfly.
Unfortunately, TCL’s RCLD technology was delayed numerous times.
Thanks to the pandemic’s impact on global supply chains, it seems to have been cast into Limbo.
TCL declined to comment on the future availability of the Nxtpaper Mid tablet.
Although video of the technology indicates good color saturation, even with the backlight turned off.
While TCL announced the TCL Nxtpaper 10s at CES 2022, the 10s isn’t an RLCD unit.
It instead uses a standard LCD screen with reduced blue-light emissions.
It’s unknown whether TCL will ever release their Nxtpaper Mid tablet.
ClearInk
ClearInk’s reflective technology is based on electrophoretic technology, just like E Ink’s panels.
Also, like E Ink’s Kaleido, it uses a CFA layer to generate color.
However, unlike E Ink, it uses a single black pigment instead of a two-pigment system.
Unfortunately, ClearInk seems to have fallen silent online despite its manufacturing partners.
Even so, ClearInk has several advantages over its competitors.
The Triton panel cost a fortune and suffered from a weak contrast ratio and slow refresh rates.
In other words, it didn’t look good and couldn’t play video.
ClearInk, on the other hand, displays color at around 4,096 colors (High Color).
This means it’s less vibrant compared to LCD and OLED panels.
However, its video refresh rate of 33Hz (equivalent to broadcast television or YouTube) allows full-motion video.
Both ClearInk and E Ink create images usingelectrophoresis.
However, there’s a big difference between the two.
E Ink uses two pigments.
The additional overhead of dealing with two pigments causes slower refresh speeds and choppy video.
ClearInk uses a single, smaller-sized pigment to create black and whites.
The ink used in ClearInk, co-developed with Merck, is sharper and clearer than E Ink panels.
To generate white, E Ink uses a white particle to reflect light.
Whereas, CLEARink only uses one particle—black—to generate [a] black state.
To generate white, CLEARink uses a TIR (Total Internal Reflection) film on the front surface."
In addition, it can display motion video with a refresh rate of around 33 Hz.
A little choppy, but good enough.
Problems With Ghosting, Color Accuracy, and Waveforms
ClearInk isn’t a perfect technology.
It suffers from issues with image retention, or ghosting, where portions of the display do not refresh.
you could see a small amount of ghosting in the picture above.
In 2019, ClearInk’s engineering team explained that issues with early prototypes caused the display imperfections.
Additionally, ClearInk panels have the same color accuracy as Kaleido Plus.
It’s good enough for textbooks and comics but not enough for enterprise-class purposes.
ClearInk screens cannot just be dropped into a computer without writing special software.
However, Peruvemba mentioned that they are working on drop-in panel solutions for LCD screens.
The panel is aimed at the educational market.
As such, it comes in a 10.5-inch form factor, designed to read color textbooks.
Unlike E Ink, reflective LCDs can display full color and video.
But the trade-off is a limited color range and weak contrast ratio.
For example, Electrical Bag has a 12:1 contrast ratio and a PPI of 191.
It can also only do 11% of the NTSC color range, about half of its competitors.
However, the price is low, and they can be dropped into almost any rig with little effort.
An engineer at Tianma quoted a price similar to an emissive LCD for a 10.5-inch panel.
The educational market, which caters to children, is an ideal product for reducing eyestrain.
Tianma claimed that, if any manufacturer were interested, the Electrical Bag would be available in 2020.
Unfortunately, as of 2022, it seems to have never made its way into any products.
A Color Kindle in 2023?
Amazon has already tried to expand its reach to children with itsKindle Fire for Kids.
A backlight-free Kindle aimed at children may soon become a reality.
But until then, we’ll have to wait and see what new color e-reader tech hits the market.
