• JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    This article has completely missed a selling point of e-readers for people like myself: no constant refreshing.

    My eye strain, when reading for a long time, doesn’t come from the light (or lack thereof), which is evident as a positive of backlit Kindles and other e-readers, though the constant flicker of screens. E-ink solves this issue perfectly, and with every device in that article mentioning “60Hz” on their alternatives I feel as though they’ve missed a big point of having an e-reader and what exactly constitutes as “paper like” (it’s a lot more than just “low/no backlight”).

    • Asetru@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      Another point (which is a result of not refreshing the screen) which the article misses is power consumption. I can use my reader for several weeks without recharging.

    • phx@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, there’s a reason people prefer Kindle e-ink type e-readers to just using a tablet like a Kindle Fire, even if the latter can do more stuff

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Are you talking about pwm? Most screens don’t refresh if nothing is changing

      • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 months ago

        This isn’t technically correct. CRT, LCD, and OLED displays are generally constantly refreshing the image. There are some niche exceptions like memory-in-pixel displays but they are few and far between. eInk displays are very different in this aspect because the display itself acts as a physical memory of the image because its mechanism of creating an image involves physical changes (pigmented particles moving closer or further away from the visible plane).

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      backlit Kindles

      As I understand it, Kindles aren’t backlit but rather frontlit (or sidelit) with a layer designed to diffuse the light across the page evenly. The claim is that the lack of direct lighting helps in the fight against eye strain as well.