e ink lcd display free sample
This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.
When the city of Brisbane, California, decided to upgrade their billboards for parks and other community spaces they sought out E Ink for its unique advantages: Download this free case study to learn how E Ink"s customer Digital View enabled this unique request!
This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.
This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.
Ready to stamp an image onto an everlasting display? What worthy design will you work with? In this tutorial we"ll walk step-by-step programming an image onto an E-Ink display module using an Arduino Uno
The E in E-Ink or E-Paper stands for electronic (how about everlasting?) and imitates the look of normal ink on paper. It"s a useful display in Arduino projects for its high visibility and contrast, wide viewing angle, and low power requirements. Once you program it, it will remain until reprogrammed, even if there"s no power supply.
This is a 1.54 inch e-paper display with 200x200 resolution, SSD1681, SPI interface, and the e-ink screen display supports partial refresh and 4 grayscale.
This is a 1.54 inch e-paper display with 200x200 resolution, SPI interface, andthe e-ink screen display is capable to display images with black and white content. Your image holds indefinitely without power – put up your image, then shut down the power.Once these e-paper display modules are updated they don"t require any power and can actually be disconnected entirely and the content will remain on the display indefinitely.This e-ink screen GDEH0154D67 is perfect for low power devices powered by solar or batteries.
You can refer to the following link for the procedures and instructions of automatic e-paper display bitmap conversion:ImageToEpd. Also you could use our free e-paper software to prepare your bitmap image for this display, or make the picture on our bitmap conversion website:Image to Array
{"specs":[],"skus":[{"id":6341,"useViewType":false,"productId":208,"templateId":1,"code":"","name":"1.54 inch e-paper display module partial refresh E-ink screen, GDEH0154D67","price":0.00,"retailPrice":0.00,"weight":0.00,"status":"1","isDefault":"1","createDate":"2022-12-05 15:07:34","updateDate":"2022-12-05 15:07:34","productSkuSpecs":[],"skuId":0}],"specConfs":[]}
If you"re someone who loves to write notes by hand, an E Ink tablet could be a good fit. Not only do they provide an excellent reading and writing experience, they also boast a long battery life, while letting you save paper in the process. An E Ink tablet combines the distraction-free and easy-reading environment of a Kindle-style
The ReMarkable 2 is the best E Ink tablet for students who love to take lots of handwritten notes. It is only 0.19 inch thick and 0.88 pound, which makes it light and easy to carry in your backpack.This 10.3-inch tablet uses a monochrome digital display with a resolution of 226 DPI. The writing and text looks clear and sharp, and you can choose from over 40 different page templates for notes, including seven options just for musical notation. The software is easy to use, with clear buttons at the top for you to add notebooks and folders. It has 8GB of internal storage and now includes handwriting conversion and Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive integration. Those services used to be part of ReMarkable"s Connect subscription, but are now included for free with every device. The Connect subscription itself still exists, but now costs $3 a month instead of $8. It offers a ReMarkable 2 protection plan, along with unlimited cloud storage and the ability to add notes in your notebooks when you"re on mobile and desktop devices.
The included stylus doesn"t require pairing or charging but supports tilt detection and a standard 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Practically speaking, it offers the most realistic writing experience of any tablet I"ve ever used. The screen has a paper-like feel, which gives the pen a level of friction that feels incredibly true to life.
The ReMarkable 2 also shines with PDFs. Highlights automatically straighten themselves and turn a legible shade of gray without any needed adjustment. You can add pages to PDFs for extra notes or write in the margins with ease. The ReMarkable"s thinness, two-week battery life, pen input and PDF management capabilities made this E Ink tablet my favorites.
That being said, the ReMarkable 2 isn"t without faults. The biggest issue is that it lacks any kind of backlight, which could be a deal breaker. Much like an actual book or notebook, this device requires an external light source to use in the dark. Even the cheapest Kindle now has front light illumination for night time use. It also doesn"t function particularly well as an e-reader, as the only formats it supports are PDF and unprotected epub. That means that you won"t be able to access your Kindle content or any other epub books with digital rights management software, which includes almost all legally purchasable ebooks on the market.
Ultimately, I found this tablet to be incredibly useful. This is the cheapest E Ink tablet on our list, but it"s still essentially just a PDF and note-taking device.
The Boox Note Air 2 is the most tablet-like E Ink device I tested. This 10.3-inch tablet features a resolution of 227 DPI, runs on a customized version of the Android 11 operating system and even has its own app store, where you can download third-party apps that have been optimized for the device. And yes, while it doesn"t come pre-baked into the system, there is a way to access the full Google Play store – though I wouldn"t recommend it for anything other than downloading an e-reading app, as the Boox still has an E Ink display and isn"t made for games or video. A step-by-step on how to get the Google Play store installed is in this hands-on review of a previous model.
Also, the Boox comes with only 64GB of nonexpandable storage, so you don"t want apps filling up your system. The company does offer 5GB of cloud storage from its own service for free to help transfer documents to the device, though you can also use Dropbox, Evernote and OneNote.
The biggest benefit of the apps store is that you"ll have access to your entire collection of books from your Kindle, Nook and Kobo library. You can also download the Libby app for library books, and Marvel Unlimited users can download the app and read comics, though not in color. The Note Air 2 includes speakers and a microphone, allowing you to listen to audiobooks from Audible or other audiobook apps.
This is a great selling point of the device, but I found the in-app experience to be less than ideal. Many of the features that make the Note Air 2 unique are disabled in third-party apps. For example, you won"t be able to use the pen to take notes or highlights in books on the Kindle app. Instead, you"ll have to type in notes you want to take, like using the app on any other tablet. To write directly onto books, you"ll need to have them in DRM-free ebook format. Luckily, the Boox supports a wide range of formats including PDF, epub, DOC and Mobi.
Note-taking and PDF management are strong on the Note Air 2 but not as seamless as on the ReMarkable 2. Highlights aren"t automatically straightened, and users have to choose the color and width of the marker. The Note Air 2 provides 16 options of grayscale color, but they all look the same on the device, leaving highlights looking dark and messy. The included stylus also features 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity but lags ever so slightly when writing across the page. On the plus side, you can include audio recordings for more accurate retention. The Note Air 2 also lets you open a PDF and notebook at the same time in a split-screen view, giving you the ability to read and take notes all at once.
Like the Kindle Paperwhite and Oasis, the Boox Note Air 2 comes with a warm and cold front light to help make the screen easier on the eyes and give it a more paper-like look. You can easily adjust both lights with a swipe-down menu. Plus, it also measures its battery life in weeks, not days.
You might see that the company has recently announced a Note Air 2 Plus. I haven"t tried that one, but it"s almost identical to the original Air 2 -- just with a bigger battery, which also makes it very slightly heavier.
Kobo might be a smaller company than Amazon, but it"s been making e-readers for just about as long. While Amazon once made a 9.7-inch Kindle, the product never offered natural input with a touchscreen or stylus and was discontinued in 2014. More recently, Kobo was first with a waterproof e-reader, and it"s the first of the major e-reading players to make a 10.3-inch device with a stylus.
Like most Kobos, the Elipsa is an excellent e-reader and offers battery life measured in weeks, depending on use. Unlike Kindles, Kobos have a seemingly limitless ability to customize the reading experience. You can play continuously with margins, line spacing, fonts and font size to get a page that looks exactly how you want to, no matter the size of the screen. The included stylus can be used on any PDF or Kobo ePub, so it works just as well on library books as it does on books from the Kobo store.
Speaking of the library, Kobo is known for its deep integration with the ebook library service OverDrive. You can easily access, browse and download library books directly from your device, so long as your local library uses OverDrive. Borrowing an ebook from the New York Public Library was a seamless experience and one that makes all Kobos a must-have for library lovers.
Unfortunately, the Elipsa"s note-taking capabilities are lacking. There is a noticeable lag when writing with the stylus for any length of time, and the notebook features are fairly basic. Only four templates are available in the basic notebooks and only a single lined template in the advanced notebooks. Advanced notebooks do let you insert drawings, diagrams, math equations and a free-form section, while also offering the ability to convert your handwriting to text. There are only a few pen types to choose from and only five pen brush sizes.
The Kobo Elipsa has 32GB of storage, a resolution of 227 DPI and a blue front light, but it lacks the warm light of the Boox. While this E Ink tablet misses the mark on long-from writing, it excels as a large-screen, library-friendly e-reader with the ability to scribble in the margins.
The Kindle Scribe comes with a fantastic 300 ppi, 10.2-inch display that is evenly lit and perfect for large-format reading. The writing experience is also very pleasant and natural, but the Scribe"s software limitations keep this device from soaring.
The Scribe looks and feels like an extra large Kindle Paperwhite or Oasis, though it lacks the physical page-turning buttons of Amazon"s premium e-reader. Words look crisp and clear, while the device itself is fast and responsive.
The Scribe"s notebooks are easy to use, but lacking in features compared to other E Ink Tablets. You can export your notebooks via email, but there"s no Dropbox or any other third-party support. There are 18 notebook templates available, including six lined options, graphing paper, musical notation and to-do lists. All of that is great, but these notebooks lack any smart features. For example, there"s no way to insert equations or convert your handwriting to text.
Similarly, writing in books and documents is too limited to be useful to serious highlighters and doodlers. That"s because Amazon doesn"t actually let you write directly on the page in anything other than a PDF. Instead, you"ll need to write on "sticky notes" if you want to handwrite a note in a book or even a Word Doc. Not only does this prevent you from scribbling in the margins of books, it also means you"ll need to take a separate action to start writing at all.
The sticky notes are then collected automatically in your Notes and Highlights section, where they are presented without any of the context in which you wrote them. It does allow you to jump to the page on which a note was written by tapping on your markings. This is great in theory, but is confusing if you have more than one note on each page, as it doesn"t pinpoint the exact location where the note was created. The Scribe also doesn"t let you write any kind of notes at all on manga, comics, graphic novels, magazines or newspapers.
Currently, you are allowed to write directly on the page in PDFs, but the experience isn"t great. The pen itself works well, but dealing with documents is more difficult than it should be. When you"re in a PDF, you aren"t able to adjust the font size or layout, so instead you have to pinch to zoom in order to enlarge or reposition the document. That part works well, and it"s not too hard to find a level that works best for you. However, once you"re positioned in your PDF, you can"t stay there. The Scribe makes it impossible to maintain your current zoom levels from one page to the next. Instead, you have to zoom all the way out again in order to swipe to the next page, just to reposition it all over again. This is a huge pain and makes reading long PDFs cumbersome and frustrating.
Ultimately, the Scribe is great if you want a large-screen e-reader or are eager to handwrite sticky notes in Amazon books. But it just isn"t quite good enough at either PDFs or in-line note-taking to recommend it as anything other than a gigantic, but excellent, Kindle.
Every E Ink tablet undergoes extensive hands-on testing. In this case, each tablet was used for one week of rehearsal in a professional theatrical production. This involved evaluating the set-up process, loading PDFs and books onto the devices, and using both the device and included stylus as a script during full six-hour days of rehearsal. Tasks included highlighting, taking notes in the margins, and creating and taking detailed notes in notebooks. We also downloaded ebooks onto the device and used it as a recreational e-reader.
Anecdotally, we considered the hardware design and features, stylus capabilities, overall ease of use, effective UI layouts, notebook settings, E Ink settings, PDF markup capabilities, e-reading settings and format compatibility, app support and performance, and the overall speed and reliability of the system.
Both e-readers and E Ink tablets use E Ink technology to render words and images on the page. They both offer a distraction-free experience that"s easier on the eyes than a traditional LCD color screen.
E-readers tend to be smaller than size and focus only on the experience of reading a book or PDF. E Ink tablets offer e-reading features but also include the ability to use a stylus to write notes in a digital notebook and/or in the margins of PDFs and ebooks. Since handwriting is integral to the E Ink tablet experience, the devices themselves tend to be bigger in order to more closely approximate the size of a sheet of paper.
E Ink tablets are best suited for people who enjoy writing notes or sketching by hand and who need to read and markup lots of PDF or DRM-free ebooks. They could be a particularly good fit for students, lawyers or any other professional in need of a digital, distraction-free note-taking device.
The purpose of this page is to educate anyone interested in learning more about E Ink technology and the ways it can be applied to innovative products.
Electronic paper is also known as e-paper, e-ink or electronic ink. However, it is most commonly referred to as E Ink, after the company who brought the product to market. The content displayed on an E Ink screen is as clear and readable as if you had written it with a pen onto a piece of paper. Sometimes electronic paper displays are also known as EPD or electrophorectic displays. EPDs are one of the e-paper technologies mainly used by E Ink.Thanks to its remarkable adaptability, e-paper is used in a variety of innovative ways. The range of usages is extensive, some examples include but are not limited to accessories, phone displays, digital signs and other devices. Unlike traditional paper, it cannot be folded into origami shapes but it is still flexible in that its capabilities are still being explored.’’E-paper’s amazing characteristics such as excellent visibility, paper-like readability and extremely low energy consumption make it perfect for all sorts of incredible products.’’
These ink capsules are filled with a transparent fluid. The fluid within each capsule contains minuscule particles, approximately as wide as human hair. E Ink displays consist of millions of these capsules in a thin film, with differing electrical charges and colors.
Above and below the capsules film electrodes are placed. When a positive or negative electric field is applied to an individual electrode, the color particles with the corresponding charge will move either to the top or bottom of the capsule.
The particles inside an e-ink capsule in the simplest version of an e-paper display will be white or black. The ink particles which carry a positive charge are white and the ink particles which carry a negative charge are black.
Bistable displays are a kind of E Ink screen that has the potential to hold on to an image, even without a power source. Using E Ink technology means that the display doesn’t consume power unless the display changes. It is still visible, without requiring a battery, or power source of any kind. In order to change the content displayed on the E Ink screen, the device will need to be charged.
This is just one of the reasons people choose this kind of display for devices such as eReaders, as power is only required when you want to turn to the next page but by reading the page, no power is consumed. Longer battery life also means these types of displays are more environmentally friendly.
The use of a frontlight means that it’s readable in both sunlight and at night, without glare. This also means that when it comes to your health, an E Ink screen is going to cause less eye strain.
After an hour and a half of technology usage in the evening, the sleep hormone melatonin is suppressed. This is due to the blue ‘backlit’ light emitted from the LCD screens built into phones, computers, televisions and other screen based devices. We have not yet adapted biologically to technology and our bodies still associate bright light with daylight.
E Ink displays are a type of reflective display and LCD displays are a type of emissive display. LCD displays work so that anything being displayed can be seen using a backlight, the content is visible because the light is projected through the display. LCDs become virtually unreadable in bright sunlight because the backlight, designed to make the image in the liquid crystal visible, can’t compete with the brightness of the sun.
Chronic exposure to blue light in the evening can lower the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep.E Ink displays work differently than LCD ones. There is no backlight.
The outdoor performance on an E Ink screen is that the display remains perfectly usable in the day or the night. Light from the environment, or ambient light, is reflected from the surface of the display so that the content is visible. The dark areas absorb the sunlight and the light areas reflect it, thereby creating a visible image.’’As with any reflective surface, the more ambient light, the brighter the display looks. This attribute mimics traditional ink and paper, and users of E Ink displays have said that they do not have the same eye fatigue as with LCDs when reading for long periods of time.’’
In Mudita products, the frontlight panel illuminates the display, so that the light is uniform. It can be used both day and night, without glare. We"ve selected diods that are warmer than in standard LED used for screen illumination.
A prototype of Mudita Pure.Why is E Ink better for your wellbeing?We decided on an E Ink screen as we felt that this option was the most considerate to human health.
This kind of display is significantly better for your eyes, it consumes less energy (thanks to its bistability, when energy is only needed to change the display content), there’s more of an analog feel to it, a higher pixel density and it’s easier to read from in the daylight than a regular LCD screen. Studies have shown that using a device that emits blue light, especially at night, can interrupt sleep cycles and contribute to a host of ailments such as heart palpitations, muscle pain and weakness, and daytime irritability.
Blue light emitting devices are usually backlit such as smartphone or computer LCD screens which use LEDs. A recent study from the Lighting Research Center indicates you need to log off and shut down your devices 2 hours before you go to sleep.
We decided on an E Ink screen as we felt that this option was the most considerate to human health.A study, entitled ‘The potential influence of LED lighting on mental illness’ shows that there may be a correlation between negative mental health effects and the restriction of melatonin. by too much light exposure from our devices, sleep will be disturbed. Researchers are also investigating the connection between skin damage and screen-emitted visible light.All of the aforementioned reasons have in some way aided us in the decision making process with regards to our products.
If you’re interested in sharing your experiences with us, send us an email via hello@mudita.com or join the discussion on our Forum! Please feel free to get in touch. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - let’s connect! To learn more about Mudita, take a look at our website and the Mudita Blog.
Our products are supposed to be both neutral and simple, not attention grabbing, not needlessly interfering with life.Sign up for the Mudita Newsletter and receive 10% off your first order.
If you"d like to receive the best stories from our blog, keep up to date with our progress, and get notified about our product releases and special discounts.Your nameYour emailSubscribe
By providing your name and e-mail, you agree to receive marketing content and commercial offers from Mudita Sp. z o.o. with its registered office in Warsaw. Your personal data will be processed according to provisions of Privacy Policy.
We guarantee your satisfaction on every product we sell with a full refund — and you won’t even need a receipt.* We want you to be satisfied with your Micro Center purchase. However, if you need help or need to return an item, we’re here for you!
If an item you have purchased from us is not working as expected, please visit one of our in-store Knowledge Experts for free help, where they can solve your problem or even exchange the item for a product that better suits your needs.
*If you are a Micro Center Insider or if you have provided us with validated contact information (name, address, email address), you won’t even need your receipt.
Desktop / notebook computers, tablets, processors, motherboards, digital cameras, camcorders and projectors, 3D printers, 3D scanners, and CD/DVD duplicators
Got a netbook? Specifically, got a Samsung N130 or a Lenovo S10-2? Even more specifically, do you use it in and outdoors, but find it hard to read in the sun? We have good news! The Maker Shed will sell you one of Pixel Qi"s dual-mode displays as a straight swap-in for your existing LCD-panel.
The 10.1-inch screen runs in one of two modes. When indoors, or watching video, you use the regular LCD display, which will look pretty much the same as the one you already have. When you"re in to mood for some reading, or you are outside in bright sunlight, or you"re just running low on battery power, you can switch to the e-ink mode.
This disables the backlight and shows you hi-res, grayscale pixels, much like you"d see on the screen of the Amazon Kindle. Because it only uses power when updating the screen, it sips power.
There is also a hybrid mode, which lets the sun reflect off the back of the display assembly and back out through the color LCD. This both saves battery power and lets you view a normal color display outdoors.
The panel will cost you $275, which puts it out of the "merely curious" bracket but is still cheap enough for people who do a lot of outdoor computing. The Maker Shed store page also says that the panel will likely work in any netbook: the Lenovo and the Samsung are just the only ones so far tested and guaranteed.
And according to the Pixel Qi blog, which first described the plan to sell these panels separately from the company"s own notebooks, the swap-operation (swaperation?) is easy:It’s only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb: it’s basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting [sic] the old screen and plugging this one in. That’s it. It’s a 5 minute operation.
-Select-AfghanistanAlbaniaAlgeriaAmerican SamoaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijan RepublicBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBoliviaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBrazilBritish Virgin IslandsBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape Verde IslandsCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaColombiaComorosCook IslandsCosta RicaCyprusCzech RepublicCôte d"Ivoire (Ivory Coast)Democratic Republic of the CongoDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)FijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaGabon RepublicGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuamGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIraqIrelandIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKuwaitKyrgyzstanLaosLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacauMacedoniaMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMicronesiaMoldovaMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNetherlands AntillesNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPolandPortugalPuerto RicoQatarRepublic of CroatiaRepublic of the CongoReunionRomaniaRwandaSaint HelenaSaint Kitts-NevisSaint LuciaSaint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSan MarinoSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth KoreaSpainSri LankaSurinameSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTogoTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVatican City StateVenezuelaVietnamVirgin Islands (U.S.)Wallis and FutunaWestern SaharaWestern SamoaYemenZambiaZimbabwe
If you"re someone who suffers from eyestrain, migraine, or any other physical condition exacerbated by backlight technology, the Onyx Boox Mira is a worthy purchase. It offers a number of features that its only real competitor, the Dasung Paperlike, cannot match, including warm and cold LED frontlights, variable refresh modes, and USB Type-C input as well as HDMI input, as well as DP Alt Mode. At a cost that"s only slightly higher than the Paperlike, the Mira is a better buy.
The Onyx Boox Mira is a rare 13.3-inch, 4:3 aspect ratio E-Ink display that can handle spreadsheets, web browsing, and more, without producing light. Although it struggles to display video, and it"s limited to grayscale, the monitor can function as a drop-in replacement for an LCD monitor. If you"re like me, and intense backlights cause headaches and insomnia, a no-glare display can improve productivity. For everyone else, the $800 price tag puts it out of reach of anyone without deep pockets or a medical need for a migraine-friendly display.
I used the Mira as a secondary display for several weeks and its low-eyestrain front light, screen clarity, and lightweight aluminum body left an extremely positive impression on me. The LED front lighting is adjustable, so you can customize its intensity and color hue to get the perfect amount of light. And like most front-lit devices, the Mira only needs illumination when there isn"t an ambient light source. The frontlight isn"t the only customizable feature. The Mira"s variable refresh mode allows for the display of anything from crystal-clear images and text to jerky, low-resolution video. And the two USB Type-C ports make it easy to connect to any computer.
The Mira is a 13.3-inch backlight-free E-Ink external monitor with a resolution of 2,200 x 1,650 "pixels" (207 PPI). But that"s not what makes it so special. Rather than using an LCD panel, the Mira comes with a monochrome E-Ink Mobius screen. Mobius panels are designed to be lightweight and are both more resistant to drops and lighter than glass substrate panels, with no weighty glass to shatter. It"s also worth mentioning that it offers warm and cold LED front lighting, variable refresh modes, and Mini HDMI video input, as well as USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode (DP Alt Mode).
The Mira features 75x75mm VESA mounting holes for connecting to a stationary monitor arm. It even includes a detachable, foldable cover that doubles as a stand. As such, it"s suitable for both desktops and laptops. Unfortunately, because of its black-and-white E-Ink Mobius panel, it"s not suitable for color-sensitive work or video, but it"s usable for word processing and spreadsheets.
It"s also small and portable enough that I can take it with me wherever I go. Enhancing its portability is a pair of USB-C ports. This means you can receive power using any USB-C device, such as from a laptop or from a portable backup battery or USB-C power supply. The only requirement is that it needs at least six watts, otherwise it may not fully function. Most power sources can output the requisite amount.
If you suffer from migraine headaches, cybersickness, eyestrain, or have problems viewing motion videos or bright lights, the Mira can possibly help. The being that E-Ink doesn"t need a backlight. That means it can be viewed with ambient light. If there"s not enough ambient light, you can optionally turn on a "frontlight" that produces far less light than a television or computer display.
For those who just prefer reading off pulped wood, E-Ink is slightly closer to paper than LCD screens. But E-Ink"s visual clarity isn"t equal to paper. It"s a softer, gentler experience scanning a spreadsheet on E-Ink compared to a computer monitor. While there is some evidence that artificial light suppresses your body"s ability to produce melatonin, which initiates drowsiness, there"s not much evidence that E-Ink can help with sleep. But even so, those who struggle with insomnia might want to at least try out an E-Ink display to see if it helps them sleep better.
But don"t misunderstand me here: the Mira is not a drop-in medical solution. If you suffer from any medical condition which causes discomfort, the first step is to speak with a doctor, not buy an expensive monitor.
The Onyx Boox Mira can connect to your desktop or laptop through one of two ways: Mini HDMI cable or HDMI Alt Mode, which requires a USB-C connection.
If your computer, smartphone, or tablet supports HDMI Alt Mode, you can connect it to any computer (which supports Alt Mode) with USB-C. This will send power as well as video and audio signals over a single cable, untangling any rat"s nest of cabling you might have. For comparison, other monitors require a separate power source as well as a cable for carrying video and audio cables. That usually means a power brick and a bulky display cable.
If your computer doesn"t support HDMI Alt Mode, you can still connect the Mira over a Mini HDMI cable. Unfortunately, this configuration will only transfer video and audio signals, so you still need to power the display with a USB-C cable. In fact, you can connect the Mira via USB-A or USB-C ports on your laptop or attach a separate power source, including a smartphone charger. That"s because the display requires a paltry six watts at peak consumption. For context, that"s about equal to a small LED light bulb.
However, some chargers with Power Delivery may not supply power to the Mira if the "handshake" between both devices isn"t established. As such, it"s more reliable to power a Mira over a USB-A port or wall wart. Part of the reason the Mira requires so little power is that it lacks integrated speakers. As such, I don"t advise using the Mira as your only display unless you"re using an external speaker or headphones.
Furthermore, there are no wireless output options, so you"ll have to use a wired connection if you want to use the Mira with a laptop or desktop computer. Although to be fair, few LCD monitors offer functional wireless display options either—the Edge 2.5D external wireless display is an exception.
The Mira can function in a mixed mount. To mount the Mira using its 75x75mm VESA mount, you screw the VESA-mounting plate to the four screws in the back. Unfortunately, the required M4 VESA-mounting screws aren"t included.
VESA screws use the metric threading system and are anywhere from 6mm to 10mm in length, so they"re easy to find at any hardware store, though. It mounts securely and without any issues.
The Mira 4:3 aspect ratio and grayscale colors make it useless for streaming video or photo editing. But outside of multimedia, the Mira can perform most of the same computing tasks that an LCD monitor can. However, there are some caveats: all operating systems use color and video to make buttons and icons visually distinct. That means you may have to turn on your operating system"s high-contrast display options in its accessibility settings. It goes without saying that some webpages or programs may become difficult to use, particularly if you haven"t enabled high-contrast mode. But if you can get over its foibles, there"s a lot you can do with the Onyx Boox Mira.
First and foremost, its light weight of 590 grams gives it the heft of a bottle of beer. So not only does it weigh less than any LCD, it also consumes less power than any equivalently-sized monitor. Low weight and power draw make it perfect for use as a secondary mobile display. And because its folio case doubles as both protection for its screen and as a stand, you can take it anywhere and not need to worry about scratching its plastic-coated surface in transit. The soft-touch vinyl folio case is magnetic, so it"s easy to attach and remove on the go. Just fold and go, or unfold and plug into a computer.
Secondly, the Mira"s softer, on-demand brightness makes it perfect for taking breaks from an LCD screen. I kept a browser open on it and turned to a webpage with news articles (such as RSS). When used in brief, five-minute breaks, as called for by the Pomodoro Technique, it helps spare my eyes.
You could use the Mira as a fixed, external monitor thanks to its 75x75mm VESA-mounting screw holes. But while it"s great as an external monitor, particularly when paired with an LCD screen, it"s at its best when used with a mobile device. Ideally, you"d be able to use it on an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. Unfortunately, I could not test the Mira with a compatible mobile device. That"s mainly because DP Alt Mode isn"t common on low-end consumer devices. In fact, only a few Android devices support DP Alt Mode and all of these are high-end handsets that cost thousands of dollars each.
However, DP Alt Mode on Apple devices is far more common. As of 2022, DP Alt Mode compatibility will require using a Lightning to USB-C adapter. The reason? Only Apple devices made in 2024 and beyond will support USB-C. You can thank a new European Union law that requires iPhones to use USB-C instead of Lightning (what is Lighting?). Unfortunately, the Mira doesn"t have a mobile app, so I don"t know whether the Mira supports iPhones or Android.
I found that using the Mira wasn"t that difficult, although there was a learning curve. For example, the biggest difference from an LCD screen is the Mira"s variable refresh mode. Unlike an LCD, the Boox Mira cannot display both moving video and high-resolution, static images at the same time. To display high-resolution images, the Mira must slow its refresh speed. Conversely, in order to display video (at less than 30 Hz), the Mira must reduce the resolution. To toggle between modes, Onyx installed a rotating wheel. Rotating the wheel to the left or right changes the mode. Each mode more or less trades image fidelity for fluidity, at varying rates.
For example, if you want to display video, you turn the wheel until you reach video mode. In video mode, the image quality becomes extremely poor, but it can refresh the screen somewhere around 20 Hz, which is like watching gray soup congeal on a plate. On the other hand, you can boost the image resolution to its maximum, but then full-screen refreshes become jarring, stuttering affairs.
Keep in mind that no matter what mode you"re in, the screen will remain black and white. That means some websites or applications won"t display properly. Some applications, like Photoshop, may be almost impossible to use, regardless of what mode you"re in. Onyx partially compensates for these compatibility issues, though, by allowing the user to customize display modes through use of the Mira application.
The Mira app, which is available on all major desktop operating systems, can create multiple presets which have customizable resolutions, refresh rates, contrasts, and frontlight settings. While I used the display as a secondary monitor set to read news and articles, as well as perform word processing, it"s possible to use the Mira for almost anything other than for streaming media, video editing, and photo editing. Technically, you can use it for all three types of computing, but the experience won"t be pleasant.
The color-temperature frontlights scale between amber and a bluish-white color. The amber lights are a warmer color temperature, somewhere in the range of 1,500 to 2,000 Kelvin, which is suitable for reading at night. However, the brightness doesn"t scale as low as on many of Onyx"s eReaders or Amazon"s Paperwhite. In other words, while the Mira"s brightness scales below that of an LCD panel, it still feels overly bright in complete darkness.
If you need additional lighting, you can turn both amber and cold lights on at the same time. Since the LEDs are either white or amber, turning both on doubles the brightness while possessing a soft color, similar to an incandescent light bulb.
For mobile use, you will need a laptop with DisplayPort 1.4 or newer in order to output video over USB-C. Connecting the Mira to a laptop requires little effort. For DisplayPort 1.4 or newer, you can connect over USB-C which provides power as well.
For those with migraine headaches, the latest scientific research suggests that the only hue that might help is green light. This means that the amber light inside the Mira only alleviates eyestrain at best. Furthermore, another study found that amber lights, as well as other spectrums of light, except for green, exacerbated migraine headaches.
Additionally, the melatonin suppression hypothesis, which claims blue light reduces melatonin production, thus causing insomnia, isn"t fully supported by the evidence. A review of the scientific literature found that blue-blocking lenses had no impact on sleep quality. In all likelihood, it"s the intensity of light, and not the color, that causes wakefulness and insomnia. In other words, color-temperature systems might not offer the benefit that we think they offer. However, eReader frontlights can still lower their brightness far below that of OLED and LCD screens, which will help with sleep.
As with all Onyx devices, Michigan-based iCare Repair handles warranty repairs. iCare Repair is an authorized service center in the US for Onyx. Unfortunately, a one-year warranty for a display isn"t particularly good as most displays have much longer guarantees. The warranty also doesn"t include ship-in costs, which can be expensive if you need to send your device back to the manufacturer.
However, the Mira"s lightweight makes it cheaper to ship than most displays. That means if it does break, you won"t have to wait forever to get it back and it won"t cost that much to ship to the repair center. On the downside, you"ll still have to pay ship-in costs.
While I love the Onyx Boox Mira for its backlight-free display, I have some complaints about it. To start with, its 207-PPI pixel density is lower than that of E-Ink Carta"s 300 PPI. This means that it"s not as sharp as other E-Ink devices on the market. However, as far as 13.3-inch E-Ink panels go, there are no alternatives available that have a 300-pixel density.
E-Ink also released a new fast refresh E-Ink panel technology. Among its fast refresh panels, there"s the Gallery 3, which offers color, in addition to 350-millisecond refresh rates for black-and-white. Its color refresh speed is around 500 milliseconds, making it two or three times as fast as the older E-Ink panels. That"s enough to display video. My takeaway is that if you"re going to pay $800, you should consider waiting to see what Dasung or Onyx releases in 2023. However, if you need a panel now, the Mira is the most affordable 13.3-inch external monitor with E-Ink technology available.
Finally, the one-year warranty comes up short relative to the high price tag and the fact that most monitors come with two-year or longer warranties in the US. In European Union member states, however, the Mira"s warranty lasts two years, as required by EU law.
If you"re someone who suffers from eyestrain, migraine, or any other physical condition exacerbated by backlight technology, the Onyx Boox Mira is a worthy purchase. It offers a number of features that its only real competitor, the Dasung Paperlike, cannot match, including warm and cold LED frontlights, variable refresh modes, and USB Type-C input as well as HDMI input, as well as DP Alt Mode. At a cost that"s only slightly higher than the Paperlike, the Mira is a better buy.