E Ink, a popular brand of e-readers has teased a new design concept with its Gallery 3 Color. The new tech, which is shown off in a video on the brand’s YouTube channel actually lets you flip the pages of whatever you’re reading. The design looks similar to the other e-readers that E Ink offers, but there’s one big difference. This new one is a foldable e-reader.
The start of a new era of foldable e-readers
E-readers and e-note devices have been around for a number of years now. In fact, the first Amazon Kindle model came out back in 2007. During that time we’ve seen a number of improvements to these devices, including the introduction of colorized e-readers like the PocketBook Color. With its new Gallery 3, though, E Ink looks like it is trying to take things further by making a foldable e-reader.
The idea here seems to be that a foldable e-reader, especially one that supports colorized pages, could open the door for new electronic formats. By making the device foldable, companies could allow you to read magazines and newspapers more easily on the devices.
These are both areas where e-readers like the Amazon Kindle currently struggle. As such, giving readers a larger, but still easily portable e-reader experience could be a welcome change.
It seems like a logical move forward, especially given how much success Samsung has seen with its foldable devices. But, in a world where the simplicity of Amazon’s Kindle devices is praised, will a foldable e-reader really make much of a difference?
Promising progress
I love reading off my e-reader, and the idea of having a fully colorized version sounds great. However, if the future of foldable e-readers is what E Ink is already showing off, it could do away with a lot of the beloved simplicity of modern-day e-readers.
For one, the video that E Ink shows off showcases as they fold the device in half to turn the page. The refresh rates are still really slow, too, especially compared to non-colored e-readers. That’s, unfortunately, just part of the price of progress for these kinds of things.
One of the best parts about the e-reader experience is being able to read a book easily with one hand.
If these foldable e-readers trend away from that by utilizing the function instead, it could create an interesting dynamic in the market. Of course, they could just offer the standard scrolling and tapping page flips as well. That would let you fold to flip if you wanted.
Either way you fold it, the push by E Ink to create a foldable e-reader is exciting. Although it seems a little unnecessary right now. As companies continue to tweak and perfect the tech, we could see some really cool devices coming out of it.
