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For the past few decades, E Ink has dominated the market for the paper-like displays found in eBook readers and other devices. The screens are high-contrast, easy to view indoors or outdoors, don't require a backlight, don't reflect glare, and consume very little power.
But E Ink displays also have slow screen refresh rates, limited support for color (on models that support any color at all), and generally aren't very useful for high-motion graphics like videos or games. So while there are a handful of companies producing E Ink smartphones and tablets, they tend to be niche devices. And now we're seeing a growing number of companies offering products with reflective LCD displays or similar technology that offer some of the paper-like qualities of E Ink, but which are more suitable for animation and video.
Hannspree HannsNote 2 with ecoVISION Paper Display Reflective LCD displays don't have a backlight and instead reflect ambient light, allowing you to use them without any additional illumination as long as you're in a brightly lit environment. If you want to make a tablet or another device with a reflective LCD that can be used in dimmer environments, you'll want to add some front-lights that shine onto the screen… much the way most modern eReaders with E Ink displays have front lighting.
But while reflective LCD technology has been around for decades, the screens don't tend to look as bright or vibrant as the transmissive LCDs (with backlights) or OLED screens that have become more common in recent years.
Recently several companies have decided to try to make better reflective screens though, in an effort to offer an alternative to E Ink that can be used as a paper-like screen for reading and writing, but which also supports full-motion graphics for video, smooth scrolling, and other applications.
One effort that's gotten a lot of attention this year is the Daylight Computer DC-1, which has a "Live Paper" display that's a black and white IGZO LCD display with a 60 Hz refresh rate and an amber-colored backlight (that can be turned entirely off when you don't need it).
Daylight is a startup that's pushing the DC-1 as a tablet that can do more than a typical eReader, while still offering a comfortable viewing experience indoors or outdoors. It has a 10.5 inch display with support for touch and Wacom EMR pen input and the tablet runs a custom version of Android. It's also expensive, with a $729 price tag.
If that price tag seems too steep, there's always TCL's NXTPAPER display technology. The company has been using its full-color, glare-free matte displays on a handful of smartphones and tablets over the past few years. I've seen mixed reports on whether this is technically a reflective LCD or not, but while TCL tends to use these displays on relatively affordable devices with budget or mid-range specs, the screens tend to get positive reviews from folks who are comparing them to E Ink.
TCL NXTPAPER 10 5G A TCL NXTPAPER 5G Android tablet with a 10.4 inch display currently sells for $240 at Verizon, making it pricier than an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, but comparable to the list price for an Amazon Fire Max 11.
One of the more recent entries into this space is HannSpree's ecoVISION Paper Display technology, which also offers "fast, full-colour performance," energy efficiency, and "true 8-bit, non-FRC, flicker-free, and low blue light features" that are said to "help reduce eye strain."
One of the first devices featuring this display has the Hannspree HannsNote 2. It's a device that the company is positioning as an eReader, but it's basically an Android tablet with a 10 inch, 1600 x 1200 pixel (200 ppi), 60 Hz display and USI 2.0 stylus support.
Hannspree HannsNote 2 with ecoVISION Paper Display It also has a Rockchip RK3566 quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and an Android 13-based operating system. The Google Play store comes pre-loaded.
Interestingly one thing the HannsNote 2 lacks? A front-light. It's meant to be used only with ambient lighting, which should make it easy to use outdoors or in brightly lit rooms. But if you want to read in the dark you'll probably need a clip-on booklight.
The tablet doesn't seem to be available for purchase in the US, but it's sold in Europe for about 315€.
HannSpree has also announced plans to launch a series of "next-generation e-readers" soon, with ecoVISION displays, Android 14 software, and 10 inch or 7.8 inch displays, as well as other products including a 23.8 inch monitor digital signage featuring up to a 28-inch ecoVISION display.
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