Tag Archives: e-ink display

The Foldable E Ink Book Is Finally Taking Shape

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The e-reader has been one of the most static product categories of the past two decades. Since the first Kindle appeared in 2007, the form factor has barely evolved: a single screen, a flat back, and dimensions roughly matching a paperback. These devices have gotten lighter, sharper, and more waterproof, but the fundamental design assumption has stayed the same. They’re books without the book part.

A growing number of designers have been working on a different premise: what if an e-reader actually opened like a book? One with two E Ink panels and a real hinge, held the way you’d hold a paperback, where left and right pages exist as physical space. That shared ambition has driven a small but serious cluster of projects building quietly over the past five years.

The proof that e-paper could bend

The idea of folding an E Ink display isn’t new. Back in 2020, E Ink Corporation demonstrated a hinged prototype showing that a bending e-paper panel could survive the mechanical stress of being folded. It never reached retail shelves, but it answered the one question that mattered most at the time: whether the material itself could handle the geometry of a real book.

Designer: E Ink

That prototype didn’t solve everything. It was a controlled demonstration with no commercial roadmap, no software, no battery life to speak of, and no clear form factor beyond the fold itself. What it gave the industry was proof that flexible e-paper was a viable building block rather than a permanent research curiosity. Every foldable E Ink project that came after built on that understanding.

The book illusion finally made real

Readmoo’s Mooink V was the first design to make the flexible E Ink concept feel emotionally legible to a general audience. It’s built around an 8-inch Gallery 3 color e-paper display developed in collaboration with E Ink, one that folds down the middle to make the device small enough to pocket when closed and wide enough to feel like a slim paperback when open.

Designer: Readmoo

The color display matters more than it might seem. Gallery 3 renders close to 50,000 colors at 300 PPI, expanding the format beyond plain text to illustrated books, comics, and magazines. The fold reportedly passed 200,000 bending tests during development, and when fully open, the crease isn’t dramatic enough to register as a flaw so much as an honest design trade-off.

Mooink V hasn’t had the smoothest road to market, though. Despite genuine buzz at trade shows including Touch Taiwan and SID Display Week, no confirmed retail availability or street price had materialized as of mid-2026. The design made the foldable E Ink book look and feel tangible in a way earlier prototypes hadn’t. Whether it gets there commercially is a different and still open question.

Two screens, no crease

Not everyone building a book-shaped e-reader was willing to bet on a single flexible panel. A parallel design school took a more pragmatic approach: pair two conventional E Ink screens with a well-engineered hinge and let the gutter do the work. The result avoids crease anxiety entirely since neither panel has to bend, though it trades the seamless page illusion for a visible seam you’d have to accept.

Designer: LCFC (Hefei) (a Lenovo Subsidiary)

LCFC’s Gemini took the productivity angle furthest, giving both E Ink panels enough real estate to function almost like a laptop, with reading material open on one side and an active workspace on the other. The InkReader Duo concept took a more compact approach, fitting two E Ink screens into a phone-sized form, which made it feel less like a desk tool and more like a pocket notebook.

Diptyx went in a different direction altogether. Rather than chasing consumer polish, the project leaned into open-source principles, building a two-panel hinged e-reader without the lock-in that defines most commercial platforms. It isn’t the most refined interpretation of the book-shaped reader, but it made a clear point: the hardware problem was increasingly solvable, and the real challenge was getting the software and ecosystem right.

Designer: Martijn den Hoed

When a second screen isn’t enough

Not every dual-screen device fits cleanly into this story. The Bluegen OKPad pairs an E Ink panel with a regular LCD screen, which makes for a versatile tablet but undermines the unified reading experience that makes an E Ink book feel coherent. Switching between two fundamentally different display types introduces a visual disconnect that software bridging alone can’t fully smooth over.

Designer: Bluegen

Bigme’s HiBreak Dual 2 runs into a different kind of problem. It’s a smartphone with a secondary E Ink display on the back, which is a genuinely clever idea for managing notifications and extending battery endurance, but it’s shaped and used like a phone rather than a book. A second screen doesn’t automatically recreate the spatial logic of reading a bound object.

Designer: Bigme

Inkleaf and the case for two pages

Inkleaf is the most pragmatic entry in the foldable E Ink space so far. Instead of chasing a seamless fold, it pairs two 10.3-inch Carta E Ink panels in a notebook-style hinge, with one side for reading and the other for writing. The seam between them works as a gutter rather than a flaw, and the design doesn’t try to hide it.

That workflow proposition is what makes Inkleaf interesting beyond its form factor. Having reference material on one panel while taking notes on the other removes a friction point that every single-screen reader quietly ignores. You don’t need to switch apps, scroll back, or memorize what you just read before writing something down. It’s aimed at a different kind of reader than a Kindle typically serves.

Designer: Kameron Yu

Inkleaf is currently collecting early-access signups ahead of an August 2026 launch, with a broader public release targeted for 2027. That’s a staggered timeline worth noting: the hardware still has to prove itself beyond initial demos, and the software will matter as much as the panels themselves. Carta E Ink is a sensible fit for a writing-focused device, but actual daily use remains the real test.

What Kindle still has to answer for

None of this means the Kindle is suddenly irrelevant. Amazon’s device still wins on price, ecosystem depth, and a friction-free reading experience built up through years of software refinement. If all you want to do is buy a book and read it on a train, nothing in this group of foldable experiments beats a Paperwhite for simplicity. The incumbents aren’t losing sleep yet.

What these devices do expose is a design gap Amazon hasn’t seriously tried to close. A Kindle displays text efficiently, but it doesn’t recreate the spatial logic of reading a bound book: two visible pages, a sense of position, a natural place for margin thoughts. Those aren’t features that get patched in through a software update, which is why the form-factor conversation is overdue.

That’s what this group of foldable and dual-screen E Ink devices has been quietly building toward for the past five years. Not a product category defined by any single winner, but a shared argument about what a digital reading device could look like if it started from the book rather than the screen. Whether any of them fully delivers on that is a question 2027 will help answer.

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5 E Ink Phones in 2026 Ranked by What They Still Ask You to Give Up

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E Ink phones have spent years selling one idea: a calmer screen, a longer battery, and a slower relationship with your phone. That promise has almost always come with a catch. You’d get the paper-like display but lose the processing power. You’d get the focus-friendly software but sacrifice half the apps you actually need. The category thrived on convincing buyers that every compromise was worth making.

Bigme’s HiBreak Dual 2 doesn’t improve on the E Ink formula. It changes the question entirely. Pairing a 6.13-inch color E Ink front panel with a 5-inch LCD on the back and running Android 16 on a Dimensity 8300 chip, it removes the old forced choice between paper-like calm and normal smartphone capability. That shift forces every rival to explain what they’re still asking you to give up.

Bigme HiBreak Dual 2

It’s a refreshingly practical premise. When E Ink handles the task, reading, taking notes with the optional stylus, or checking messages, the front panel does the work quietly. When it can’t, the 5-inch LCD on the back handles video calls, maps, or anything that moves too fast for a paper display. You’re not forced to pick a lane. The phone picks it based on what you’re actually doing.

Designer: Bigme

The familiar trade-offs don’t apply anymore. With 12GB of RAM, a 50MP camera, dual SIM 5G, NFC, and Google Play on Android 16, the Dual 2 closes every gap this category used to own. What it still costs is simplicity. A two-screen phone with an optional stylus isn’t a minimalist object, but that’s the honest bargain. The sacrifice shifted from capability to preference, and at $574, that’s an easier trade.

Minimal Phone

Before the HiBreak Dual 2, the Minimal Phone offered what felt like a reasonable compromise: a full Android 14 experience on a 4.3-inch E Ink touchscreen grounded by a physical QWERTY keyboard. Google Play works out of the box, NFC and wireless charging are onboard, and battery life is strong enough that charging feels less urgent. It starts at $499 for 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Designer: Minimal

The keyboard is the whole identity, and that’s either the appeal or the limitation, depending on who you are. If you prefer typing with actual resistance, this phone still makes a strong case. But after Bigme, the keyboard has to work harder as a justification. It’s no longer the pragmatic path through the category. It’s a deliberate preference, which means it now belongs to a more specific kind of buyer.

Mudita Kompakt

The Mudita Kompakt doesn’t compete on specs and isn’t trying to. It runs a custom OS stripped down to calls, texts, offline maps, music, and not much else. There’s no app store, no browser built for scrolling, just a 4.3-inch E Ink display, a 3,300 mAh battery with up to six days of life, and a phone that genuinely expects to be set down often. It’s available for $399.

Designer: Mudita

What Mudita charges you is breadth. The Offline+ Mode disables every signal at once, including GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, camera, and microphone, which sounds drastic until you realize that’s exactly the point. The trade-off goes beyond app access. It’s the assumption that a phone should keep expanding. For anyone exhausted by that expectation, the Kompakt feels less like a device with missing features and more like one that refused them deliberately.

Light Phone III

The Light Phone III is the most philosophically clear product here, and the only one without E Ink. It runs a 3.2-inch OLED in grayscale, no app store, no browser, and a proprietary OS with a short, curated list of tools. What it does carry is 5G, NFC, and the kind of calm that comes from removing things rather than restraining them. At $799, it’s priced like a considered commitment.

Designer: Light

That clarity is also its challenge. After Bigme, the Light Phone III’s restrictions no longer read as a necessary cost of the category. They read as a position statement. You’re not settling for less because less is all that exists. You’re paying more for less because you’ve decided that’s the better way to live. That’s a meaningful shift, and it makes the Light Phone III a conviction purchase, nothing more.

BOOX Palma 2 Pro

The BOOX Palma 2 Pro sits in its own corner of this category. It’s a 6.13-inch Kaleido 3 color E Ink device running Android 15 with full Google Play access and 8GB of RAM. A hybrid SIM provides 5G data, so you can run messaging apps, make VoIP calls, and browse freely. Native cellular calls and SMS aren’t officially supported, though some users have found workarounds that get reasonably close.

Designer: BOOX

Phone legitimacy is the sacrifice here, which is a harder ask than anything else on this list. But the Palma 2 Pro delivers the best E Ink reading experience in a pocketable form right now. If your communication needs fit through apps like WhatsApp or Google Voice, and you’ve always wanted a reading device that travels independently, it’s a compelling choice at $399 that doesn’t fit any category neatly.

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Bigme Finally Made an E Ink Phone Without the Usual Trade-Off

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E Ink phones have built a devoted following among people who’ve grown tired of the toll a conventional smartphone screen takes on their eyes. The technology’s reflective nature means less eye strain over long sessions, better outdoor readability, and dramatically lower battery drain. The problem has always been what happens when you need your phone for something that an E Ink display simply can’t handle well.

Watching a video, navigating an unfamiliar city, or glancing at a notification with any urgency are all tasks that remind E Ink phone owners of what they gave up. The Bigme HiBreak Dual 2 takes a different approach to this trade-off by not asking you to make it at all. It carries both a 6.13-inch color E Ink display and a 5-inch LCD in the same device.

Designer: Bigme

The E Ink side refreshes at up to 80 frames per second, considerably faster than earlier E Ink phones, and addresses the ghosting and sluggishness that made scrolling a timeline or navigating menus feel like wading through mud. The display supports both color and black-and-white content, and stays readable under direct sunlight without the glare that makes most LCD and OLED screens unusable outdoors.

The 5-inch LCD handles the tasks that E Ink screens aren’t built for. A video call, a color-accurate map, a quick stream of something while you’re waiting; these situations don’t work well on E Ink, and the Dual 2 doesn’t pretend otherwise. Flip the phone, and the LCD takes over without sacrificing the primary display that makes reading and messaging so much easier on the eyes.

What makes the Dual 2 a real step forward from its predecessor is the size of that LCD. The original HiBreak Dual had a token sub-screen, small enough to overlook and hard to take seriously as a second display. At 5 inches, the Dual 2’s LCD is actually large enough to be useful, bringing both displays into rough parity rather than a clear main-and-minor arrangement.

The stylus support adds another layer that typical smartphones don’t offer. A dedicated note-taking app with pressure sensitivity and variable pen thickness lets you annotate directly on the E Ink screen with familiar paper-like resistance. For anyone who prefers handwritten notes over typed ones, or who marks up documents throughout the day, this combination of a large E Ink screen and stylus input is the entire value.

The hardware isn’t a compromise, either. A MediaTek Dimensity 8300 processor, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a 50MP rear camera, and Android 16 with Google Play already installed make it a fully capable phone rather than a reading device that also makes calls. Dual 5G SIM support and NFC round out a spec sheet that doesn’t ask the buyer to excuse anything on the technical side.

The Bigme HiBreak Dual 2 has a super early bird pricing starting at $574 for the black-and-white E Ink configuration and around $699 for the color version. That’s the going rate for a phone that takes eye comfort seriously enough to build an entirely separate display around it, and supplies enough everyday capability alongside to not feel like a specialist tool with a serious drawback.

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Get Ready for the Color E Ink Monitor That Finally Runs at 60fps

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E Ink displays have earned a devoted following among people who spend long hours reading or writing. The technology produces virtually no flicker, doesn’t use the same harsh backlight as a typical LCD or OLED, and is considerably easier on the eyes over extended sessions. The catch has always been speed; these screens refresh slowly, making them suitable for e-readers but impractical for real-time interaction.

Color E Ink made things more complicated. Adding a color layer came at the cost of even slower refresh rates, keeping these monitors firmly in the reading-only category for most users. Bigme’s B251 Pro takes direct aim at that limitation, pushing a 25.3-inch color E Ink screen to reach up to 60 frames per second, a meaningful first for this panel type.

Designer: Bigme

The screen uses Kaleido 3 technology at a 3200×1800 resolution, and at 145 DPI, it’s modest by LCD standards but respectable for E Ink, where the color filter layer tends to soften detail. The panel supports 4,096 colors and 16 levels of grayscale, while an adjustable front light with warm and cool modes lets you set the tone for your workspace.

What 60 frames per second changes practically is the range of tasks the monitor can handle without resistance. Scrolling through a long document doesn’t leave a trail of ghost images. A video clip doesn’t dissolve into motion blur on every cut. It’s not yet the fluidity of an LCD, but it’s the first time a color E Ink monitor has felt fast enough for an ordinary workday.

The B251 Pro accepts input through HDMI and DisplayPort. The USB-C port is reserved for firmware updates only, not video signal, which is worth knowing before assuming you can use it with a laptop’s Thunderbolt port. A wireless mirroring option covers that gap for cable-free setups, and the monitor ships with a remote control for switching display modes from your desk.

Spend enough hours at a standard monitor and eye strain becomes a familiar background discomfort: dull headaches, dry eyes, and that particular kind of fatigue that sets in before the day is even over. The B251 Pro is built for people in that position, specifically those whose work keeps them at a screen for most of the day and who’ve started looking for a less punishing alternative.

Bigme lists the B251 Pro at $1,599, currently reduced to $1,279 at launch. That’s a significant sum for a monitor that tops out at 4,096 colors and 145 DPI, and it won’t appeal to anyone who needs accurate color for professional photo or video work. For people who simply need a large, easy-to-live-with display and have started counting the hours their eyes spend under artificial light, the math looks different.

The B251 Pro doesn’t ask you to trade speed for eye comfort, and that compromise has defined this category since its beginning. Writers, coders, and anyone whose work is mostly text and reference material will find the 60FPS upgrade more compelling than any spec sheet can convey. The original B251 already built a devoted following at lower speeds; this version gives that crowd considerably less to apologize for.

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This 60Hz E Ink Game Boy emulator refreshes retro gaming with an ESP32-powered handheld

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Retro gaming has inspired countless handheld recreations over the years, but most focus on replicating the original hardware with faster processors or modern conveniences. Wenting Zhang’s latest experiment takes a completely different route by pairing a classic Game Boy emulator with an E Ink display, an unlikely combination that overcomes one of the technology’s biggest limitations. Instead of accepting the sluggish refresh rates typically associated with E Ink, Zhang engineered a solution capable of delivering gameplay at a remarkably smooth 60Hz, creating a handheld that feels far more responsive than its paper-like screen would suggest.

The DIY project dubbed PaperBoy S3 is built around the discontinued M5Stack PaperS3 development kit. The compact board combines an ESP32-S3 dual-core microcontroller with a 4.7-inch 960 x 540 E Ink touchscreen, hardware originally intended for smart home controls, electronic labels, and educational projects rather than gaming. By transforming this inexpensive development platform into a functional Game Boy emulator, Zhang demonstrates just how much untapped potential still exists in low-power embedded hardware.

Designer: Wenting Zhang

Achieving playable performance required much more than simply running emulator software. Traditional E Ink displays rely on slow waveform updates that prioritize image quality over speed, making them unsuitable for fast-moving graphics. Zhang bypassed this limitation by taking advantage of PaperS3’s raw row-and-column display interface, allowing him to implement a custom driver that performs rapid partial screen refreshes. Instead of refreshing the entire display every frame, only the active gameplay area is updated, dramatically reducing latency while maintaining recognizable grayscale visuals.

The original Game Boy’s modest 160 x 144-pixel resolution also works in the project’s favor. Rather than driving the display at its full native resolution, the emulator scales the Game Boy image while processing only a small portion of the screen. Multiple frame buffers fit directly into the ESP32-S3’s SRAM, enabling much faster rendering than would otherwise be possible. Zhang also applies intelligent dithering techniques to recreate the Game Boy’s four shades of gray, preserving the familiar look of Nintendo’s iconic handheld on an E Ink panel.

The ESP32-S3’s dual-core architecture plays an important role in maintaining performance. One processor core is dedicated to Game Boy emulation while the other handles video rendering and audio tasks, pushing the inexpensive microcontroller close to its limits. Despite the constrained hardware, classic titles such as Pokémon Blue, Super Mario Land, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remain highly playable, proving that smooth retro gaming does not necessarily require powerful silicon.

PaperBoy S3 also includes several thoughtful quality-of-life features. Bluetooth controller support offers an alternative to touchscreen controls, while quick-save and quick-load functions make it easier to jump in and out of games. Audio remains the biggest compromise because the development board lacks dedicated sound hardware, forcing Zhang to rely on the built-in piezo buzzer to approximate the Game Boy’s music and sound effects. The results are far from perfect, but they remain recognizable enough to complement the nostalgic experience.

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Dasung Made a Phone Screen for People Who Hate Screens

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Screens keep getting sharper and brighter, though the one complaint that never goes away is eye fatigue. LCDs and OLEDs are impressive, but both still rely on backlit panels aimed directly at your eyes, hour after hour. The e-reader crowd has long known that E-Ink is easier to live with, though swapping your daily phone for a dedicated E-Ink device is a trade-off most people aren’t willing to make.

The Dasung Link 2 offers a different answer to that familiar problem. Rather than replacing your smartphone with an E-Ink device, it works alongside whatever phone you already have, mirroring its display onto a 6.7-inch monochrome E-Ink screen. The idea is straightforward: keep your apps, your contacts, and your habits, but read, scroll, and type on a surface that feels far closer to paper than any OLED ever will.

Designer: Dasung

What makes the Link 2 practical as a daily companion rather than just a reading gadget is DASUNG’s 60Hz refresh technology. Most E-Ink screens run at a fraction of that speed, producing noticeable lag when scrolling or typing. At 60Hz, the Link 2 handles those tasks with minimal ghosting, making it comfortable for messaging, browsing, and even light video, things that would have been genuinely frustrating on earlier E-Ink displays.

The screen measures 6.7 inches at 300 PPI, putting it in the same resolution range as premium e-readers. Text is sharp, and the display reflects ambient light the way paper does, staying legible in bright outdoor conditions where most LCD phones need to max out their brightness just to stay visible. For low-light reading, an adjustable dual-tone front light handles the darker hours without harshness.

The Link 2 also supports reverse touch, which lets you interact with your phone directly through the E-Ink screen’s surface without picking your phone up separately. Physical keys on the body handle quick contrast and image adjustments, so you aren’t hunting through menus when the light around you changes. It makes a secondary screen feel less like a burden and more like a natural tool.

The hardware is built from metal and kept thin and light enough to slip into a pocket alongside your phone. It connects wirelessly for screen mirroring and works with magnetic power banks, which helps on longer outdoor outings where a wall outlet isn’t nearby. Compatibility spans Android 12 and later, modern iOS, and HarmonyOS, so it isn’t tied to any single phone brand or operating system.

One thing worth noting is that the Link 2 doesn’t operate independently. It relies on your phone’s processing power, RAM, and installed apps to function, so it’s less a standalone gadget and more a screen you borrow for your phone. The battery-free model starts at $329, with the battery-equipped version available at $349, both offered in Space Gray and Glacier Blue.

It’s admittedly a niche proposition, and the limitations are real. Monochrome E-Ink isn’t ideal for color photos, and carrying a second screen is an extra thing to manage throughout the day. But for anyone who spends long stretches reading articles, messages, or documents on their phone, shifting that habit onto a paper-like surface rather than a glowing backlit display is a genuinely compelling idea.

The post Dasung Made a Phone Screen for People Who Hate Screens first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Solar Smartwatch Ran 9 Months on Battery, Then the Panel Kicked In

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The smartwatch category has a battery problem it can’t seem to shake. Despite years of incremental improvements, most wearables still need to be charged every day or two, which is exactly the opposite of what a watch is supposed to be. A watch is supposed to be on your wrist and working, not sitting on a charging pad because you forgot to plug it in before bed.

The LightInk is an attempt to solve that problem by going back to a design philosophy that worked decades ago: solar. The concept mimics the 90s solar digital watches that ran more or less indefinitely, but brings it into the present with an E-Ink display, an ESP32 microcontroller, WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRa radio, and a custom power management system built from scratch over several years.

Designer: Daniel Ansorregui

The project started in 2019 with a simple goal: build a solar-powered watch that could send LoRa packets to a receiver at home. After experimenting with early hardware and contributing display optimizations to the open-source Watchy project, the creator hit the limits of what off-the-shelf hardware could manage and built a custom PCB around a TPS63900 buck-boost converter, running the watch at 2.7V.

The biggest technical hurdle turned out to be the microcontroller itself. The ESP32 takes 28ms to boot, consuming around 1mA of current in the process, and that cycle was responsible for about 60% of the watch’s total power draw without contributing anything to the actual display update. The solution was to skip normal boot entirely and run code directly from the ESP32’s RTC memory via a wake stub.

That required reimplementing SPI communication from scratch within the RTC memory constraints, since no code outside that space can run during the stub phase. The payoff was significant: the entire boot, data send, and display update sequence now completes in under 1ms. Once the display is refreshed, the ESP32 immediately returns to deep sleep, saving an additional 1mA that would otherwise be consumed during light sleep.

The result is a watch that runs for six to 10 months on a 100mAh battery, which is already an unusual number for a device this capable. Add the solar panel, similar in type to the kind found on pocket calculators, and the power equation starts to tilt toward indefinite. One hardware revision ran for nine months on battery alone before being retired for a newer build.

The 1.54-inch E-Ink display helps keep those numbers achievable. Electrophoretic displays only draw power when changing states and hold their image indefinitely without any power at all, which makes them an obvious fit for a watch face that updates once per minute rather than 60 times per second. Touch controls via the ESP32’s built-in capacitive touch capability handle navigation, making physical buttons unnecessary and allowing for a more compact case.

The watch supports WiFi, Bluetooth, and LoRa via a Wio-SX1262 radio module, and GPS can be added as an optional component, though the creator notes it wasn’t a particularly good idea given the space and power it consumes. The case is 3D printed in two pieces and accepts any standard 22mm wristband. Everything, including the firmware, PCB schematics, and case files, is open source and available on GitHub.

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reMarkable Just Made a $399 Writing Tablet That Won’t Distract You

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There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes with trying to take notes on a device that also wants to tell you about emails, calendar reminders, and a dozen app updates. A general-purpose tablet is extraordinary for many things, but for someone who simply wants to write, it’s often too much. That gap is exactly where reMarkable has built its reputation, and the Paper Pure is its clearest statement yet.

The Paper Pure launched as the direct successor to the reMarkable 2, priced at $399 with a Marker stylus and six replacement tips included. A $449 bundle adds the Marker Plus, which features a built-in eraser, along with a Sleeve Folio for protection. It’s a focused proposition for a focused device: write, read, annotate, and essentially nothing more.

Designer: reMarkable

The display is the centerpiece of what’s improved, which reMarkable calls a third-generation Canvas screen, built on E Ink’s Carta 1300 panel and delivering 20% more contrast than the reMarkable 2’s display. Ink promises to appear darker and crisper on a background that reads as noticeably whiter and more paper-like. An adjustable reading light is new to this form factor in the lineup, finally making the device usable in dim rooms.

Writing responsiveness matters as much as display quality on a device like this, and the Paper Pure advertises 21ms of latency. That’s fast enough to feel genuinely natural, especially combined with the textured surface that gives the Marker tip just enough drag to mimic paper. The Marker now recharges magnetically when attached to the side of the tablet, so there’s no separate cable to manage.

A three-week battery rating changes how you think about the device entirely. You stop treating it like a phone that needs a nightly top-up and start treating it more like a paper notebook you just pick up and toss in a bag. The internal storage also grew from 8GB to 32GB, and RAM doubled from 1GB to 2GB, both contributing to a noticeably snappier experience.

Notebooks sync to your phone or desktop through the reMarkable apps, and a Connect subscription unlocks cloud storage and handwriting-to-text conversion. The operating system stays deliberately out of the way, offering no browser, no email, and no app store. Whatever you write on the Paper Pure stays on the Paper Pure unless you choose to share it, which turns out to be a surprisingly refreshing constraint.

The back panel is now fully plastic, which sounds like a downgrade but actually makes the device more durable in everyday use. It’s also 44g lighter than the reMarkable 2, landing at around 360g total. What’s intentionally gone is support for keyboard accessories and the pogo pins that enabled them; those features belong to the Pro lineup, and the Paper Pure isn’t trying to compete.

It comes in Ocean Blue, Mist Green, and Desert Pink, three colors with more personality than the reMarkable line has typically offered. Orders opened on May 6, with first shipments expected in early June. At $399, it’s the most accessible entry into reMarkable’s current lineup, and for anyone whose main reason for wanting a tablet was always just to write, it makes a compelling argument for simplicity.

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This Color E Ink Monitor Runs at 60Hz: Real Work, No Eye Strain

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Spending hours in front of a glowing screen is unavoidable for most people, and the toll it takes on the eyes is a problem the monitor industry hasn’t truly solved. E Ink displays offer a gentler, paper-like alternative that’s far easier to stare at for long stretches, but most of them are painfully slow, limited in resolution, and not really up to the demands of daily computing.

The Modos Flow is Modos Tech’s answer to that problem. Built by a Boston-based hardware startup, it’s a 13.3-inch E Ink portable monitor designed not just for casual reading but for all-day, focused work. It targets the kind of person who needs a real secondary screen but wants to spend less time squinting and more time actually getting things done.

Designer: Modos Tech

Most E Ink monitors struggle as daily drivers because of their refresh rate. Traditional panels tend to crawl, making anything beyond static document reading a frustrating experience. The Modos Flow uses a custom board with open-source firmware to push its display to 60 Hz, enough to scroll through pages, type without noticeable lag, and use the screen as a functional everyday monitor rather than a glorified e-reader.

Resolution is also where the Modos Flow separates itself. In black-and-white mode, it renders at 3,200 x 2,400 pixels with a pixel density of 300 PPI, making text crisp enough to satisfy anyone used to retina-grade displays. Color mode brings the resolution down to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels at 150 PPI, which is a fair trade given how rarely E Ink panels offer color at all.

Touch and stylus support round out what’s becoming a surprisingly versatile display. Modos brought the latency down to under 100ms, so annotating a document, sketching ideas, or jotting notes with a stylus actually responds the way you’d want it to. It won’t replace a dedicated drawing tablet, but for someone who routinely works between a laptop and a secondary screen, having that input option without swapping devices is genuinely useful.

Its physical design is straightforward and practical. A built-in cover doubles as a stand and folds flat for travel, while VESA mounting holes on the back make it easy to attach to a monitor arm or desk mount. Three side buttons let you adjust brightness, contrast, and display mode without touching your computer. Connectivity runs through USB-C with DisplayPort Alt-Mode support, which keeps the setup clean with a single cable.

One of the quieter advantages of E Ink over LCD or OLED is power consumption, and that matters here. When connected to a laptop via USB-C, the Modos Flow draws significantly less power than a conventional secondary monitor, meaning your battery isn’t taking nearly the hit it normally would. It works with Windows, macOS, and Linux out of the box, so there’s no particular setup hurdle to clear. Pricing hasn’t been confirmed yet, but Modos has indicated it should be comparable to other portable monitors.

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The Smallest E-Reader You Can Buy Now Snaps Right Onto Your iPhone

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MagSafe was supposed to unlock a universe of snap-on accessories that would turn your iPhone into a modular Swiss Army knife of functionality. Instead, we got wallet cases, battery packs, and a parade of stands. The ecosystem felt like a promise unfulfilled, a magnetic ring waiting for someone to actually think beyond charging. Chinese startup Xteink apparently got the memo everyone else missed, because they just shipped an e-reader designed to live magnetically attached to the back of your phone. The device weighs 58 grams, costs $79, and slots into the exact use case MagSafe seemed built for: turning dead space on the back of your iPhone into a second screen you actually want.

The Xteink X3 comes in two display sizes, 3.7 inches or 4.3 inches, both built around E Ink panels with physical page-turn buttons and zero touchscreen functionality. Navigation runs through a grid of tile-based icons controlled entirely by hardware controls, giving the device a throwback MP3 player vibe that somehow works at this scale. Battery life sits at 10 to 14 days per charge assuming one to three hours of daily reading, and the whole package ships with a 16GB microSD card pre-installed, magnetic stick-on rings for non-MagSafe phones, and a proprietary Pogo Pin charging cable. For iPhone users, it snaps directly to the MagSafe ring and stays there, a permanent passenger in your pocket that weighs less than a deck of cards.

Designer: Xteink

The industrial design leans into minimalism in ways that feel deliberate rather than cost-cut. Product shots show a frosted white variant and a black option, both with rounded corners and a clean bezel that frames the E Ink display without visual clutter. The startup/sleep screen displays typographic word art, phrases like “MINIMALISM,” “PURE,” and “LET EVERY WORD LINGER” arranged across the panel in varying weights and sizes, which gives the device an identity beyond generic tech. Button placement spans three edges: power on top, page-turn controls on the left and right sides, and a row of navigation keys along the bottom for Back, OK/Confirm, and redundant page controls. That redundancy matters, it means one-handed use works regardless of which hand you’re holding the device with, a small detail that signals someone actually thought through real-world ergonomics.

You give up a lot at this price and size. There’s no front light, though Xteink sells a magnetic clip-on reading light separately for $9.99. There’s no touchscreen, which means navigating menus involves button-mashing through tile grids rather than tapping what you want. The smaller 3.7-inch display pushes compactness to a point where readability likely suffers for anyone used to a standard Kindle’s 6-inch panel. Resolution sits below the 300ppi standard most e-readers target, and early user reports suggest MagSafe alignment with certain iPhone models can be finicky depending on orientation. These are real compromises, the kind you accept when portability is the primary design goal and everything else is secondary.

The X3 works best as a concept piece for what the MagSafe ecosystem could become if more companies treated that magnetic ring as an opportunity rather than an accessory mount. At $79, it costs less than most MagSafe battery packs and delivers more utility for anyone who reads regularly. Whether it survives real-world use comes down to whether the form factor trade-offs are worth the pocketability gain, but at least someone is finally asking the right question: what else can we snap to the back of this phone?

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