In a nutshell: Color e-ink displays are becoming increasingly more common in e-readers and tablets. They're still nowhere as vibrant as the mature panels used in smartphones, but their ability to display thousands of different colors is a solid starting point for the emerging technology. And as Zack Nelson from JerryRigEverything discovered, they also happen to look very neat under a microscope.
Nelson recently got his hands on a Note Air 3 from Boox, which uses the same E-Ink Kaleido 3 display technology that was found in Kobo's new Clara Colour and Libra Colour e-readers. Before subjecting it the usual battery of durability tests, he inspected the display using a 230x digital video microscope from Dino-Lite.
The micro capsules look totally different compared to traditional pixels under magnification, and it's here that we can verify it is an RGB display meaning it uses a mix of primary colors red, green, and blue to make up an array of other colors – 4,000, to be exact. That's far fewer than the millions of colors modern displays can produce, but is suitable for graphic novels or colored comics.
E-ink displays are also incredibly energy efficient, but that's a discussion for another time.
Also of note is the difference in resolution between color and black and white. The slate is limited to 1,240 x 930 (150 PPI) in color but can double that to 2,480 x 1,860 (300 PPI) in black and white, and this can be see under magnification.
The tablet utilizes textured – albeit durable – plastic in place of cover glass that scratches at a level four on the Mohs Hardness Scale with deeper grooves at level five… or at least, that's how it appears at first glance. Upon closer inspection, we can see that Boox has simply applied a plastic sheet over traditional cover glass. Peeling back the plastic provides a clearer look at the e-ink micro capsules.
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Viewing a color E-ink display under a 230x digital microscope
