Mobile Technology

Latest E Ink color ePaper goes into production, first tablet launched

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The Bigme Galy tablet is the first to launch with E Ink's new Gallery 3 ePaper technology
Bigme Group
The Bigme Galy tablet is the first to launch with E Ink's new Gallery 3 ePaper technology
Bigme Group
The Bigme Galy color E Ink tablet offers four screen speeds, topping out at a HD mode
Bigme Group
The Bigme Galy tablet has an 8-inch, 1,920 x 1,440-resolution color E Ink display that can be used with a smart pen (stylus)
Bigme Group
The Bigme Galy color E Ink tablet has 36 levels of eye-friendly backlighting
Bigme Group
The Bigme Galy color E Ink tablet features dual cameras, and its HD display mode promises photo-quality visuals
Bigme Group
The Bigme Galy color E Ink tablet is raising production funds on Kickstarter
Bigme Group
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Back in April, E Ink announced the development of new color ePaper technology with improved update times, high resolution and stylus support. Now the company has announced that Gallery 3 is going into mass production and will make its way to devices from early next year – and the first to launch is the Bigme Galy tablet.

E Ink Gallery 3 is reported to achieve the full color gamut at each pixel thanks to a four-particle ink system comprising cyan, magenta, yellow and white. Screen update times shape us as 500 ms for fast color mode, between 750 and 1,000 ms for standard color and 1,500 ms at the best color option. Black-and-white update times get boosted to 350 ms.

For pen stylus users, update times of 30 ms can be had for black-and-white scribbling as well as for some colors, resolution has been bumped to 300 pixels-per-inch, and the new ComfortGaze front light is designed to reduce blue light for a more eye-friendly read.

PocketBook, Boox, AOC, iFlyTek, Readmoo and iReader have all confirmed Gallery 3 devices for 2023, but the first to launch is the Bigme Group with a Kickstarter for an 8-inch tablet named Galy.

The Bigme Galy color E Ink tablet offers four screen speeds, topping out at a HD mode
Bigme Group

The 181.45 x 159.29 x 6.95-mm (7.14 x 6.27 x 0.27-in), 320-g (11.2-oz) device offers a screen resolution of 1,920 x 1,440 pixels, runs Android 11, features 2.3-GHz octa-core processing brains supported by 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, plus TF card expansion, and ships with a magnetic smart pen.

Like Bigme's previous color E Ink tablet – the 10.3-inch inkNote Color – the Galy sports a dual camera setup - the 5-MP front camera can be used to snap selfies while users can hover the device above a document to grab an image of a document with the 8-MP rear camera, which the system will then convert into text.

The Bigme Galy tablet has an 8-inch, 1,920 x 1,440-resolution color E Ink display that can be used with a smart pen (stylus)
Bigme Group

Other notable features include a quad noise-canceling microphone array for voice-to-text transcription, the ability to convert hand-written notes to text, fingerprint unlock, a 3,000-mAh LiPo battery, dual-band Wi-Fi for downloading content (the Galy supports multiple ebook formats), Bluetooth for wireless connection to peripherals, and dual speakers for listening to audiobooks.

Kickstarter pledges for the Bigme Galy currently start at HKD 4,224 (about US$570). The usual crowdfunding cautions apply, but if everything goes to plan, shipping is estimated to start from February 2023.

Sources: Bigme, E Ink

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4 comments
MartyKinn
Reminds me of the days when LCDs were just starting out. They were just as slow at first but gradually increased in speed. In another 5 years...maybe sooner...eInk might be a viable alternative to todays TV, phone, tablet, computer displays if it actually does manage to get faster.
christopher
Says 1500ms (1.5 seconds) for a color screen update, but has an animation annoted with the text "... speed..." that looks like 24hz or faster (40ms) - i.e. 35 times faster... so which is wrong? Is the animation a fake, or the refresh timing incorrect?
sidmehta
The whole value of E-Ink as I understand, is too look natural and comfortable like paper and *reflect* light. So why do they have a backlight? If I have to use a backlight then the iPad is way better in so many ways (unless you need to read books for hours - and even then iPad can be charged after a few hours of reading). So why would one ever buy this? Am I missing something?
JTwin
I think this is amazing. There are so many applications for this if it can be used as paper, and can transition through screens as if sheets so that you can keep track of where you are at. It would be especially for students: take notes in notebook form, in text books, and immediately transfer in electronic form to a google doc or google slides.