Commercial Mirasol display from Kyobo, South Korea [ Edited ]

[roustabout]

Kyobo has apparently started selling a Mirasol color e-reader which may have much better battery life than NCs and other current tablet devices.  (ie, not a Kobo reader, as I'd initially misread.)  Mirasol is a color technology that doesn't show sun fade - rather, colors deepen in stronger light, as it's primariy a reflective technology.  

Kyobo is S. Korea's largest bricks and mortar bookseller.  The device apparently runs Android 2.3, uses the Mirasol display and costs just over 300 bucks in local currency.  The CPU is a 1 ghz Qualcomm chip, not sure if it's single or dual core.  Also, no word on sd card slot  If I'm reading this right, though, this is actually getting to consumers, if not now, by Christmas.  

For those who have not seen MIrasol, there's a video of someone using the device here:

http://slatedroid.info/2011/11/kyobo-ereader-shows-off-mirasol-color-e-paper-on-video/

and a bit more news is here

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/21/2579583/kyobo-mirasol-color-ereader-south-korea-available

If anyone here can think of a way to hunt down some info on this, in particular,

- what battery life is being marketed as and 

- what users report it actually is, as well as

- what user impressions are, that'd be very interesting to hear.   

[Ya_Ya]

Very flipping cool.

Everything I've read suggests that battery life on Mirasol should be about as good as battery life with eink, if we're talking pure page turns...

Now, we need a liquavista tablet.  That's even supposedly better battery life than eink.

[jimmy1]

www.engadget.com/2011/11/22/kyobo-qualcomm-make-mirasol-color-displays-a-reality-with-the/

[roustabout]

From the EG article, the current figure is "weeks" at 30 minutes per day and low brightness.  So it sounds like Mirasol is good, but like eink is still lower energy or the CPU in this guy could still use a little tuning.

Me, I'd lke to hear what the folks who actually have a device say about it.  I'm just skeptical that way. 

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

Weeks at 30 minutes per day sounds like similar battery life to the first e-ink NOOK.

[UrSunshine]

Wow, this looks amazing~

A question though.

You know how reading on an e-ink display is much more pleasant than LCD (?) screen as on NC.

How about this Mirasol display though?

Would it be closer to e-ink? or LCD for reading purposes?

[roustabout]

Buy me a ticket to Seoul, I'll let you know in a week

At this point, mirasol's a technology that I don't think anyone's seen in a US production device.  I'd love it if someone who reads Korean and/or has excellent google translator-fu could let us get some insight into how well or poorly the device is going over with the folks who have access to it.   

[Ya_Ya]

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UrSunshine wrote:

How about this Mirasol display though?

Would it be closer to e-ink? or LCD for reading purposes?

---

More like color eink.  Mirasol would be a great tablet screen for those of us who aren't fans of LCD screens for reading, but would like to watch some video, as well.  

I hope this sells well in Korea so someone sells it one in the US.

[UrSunshine]

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roustabout wrote:

Buy me a ticket to Seoul, I'll let you know in a week

At this point, mirasol's a technology that I don't think anyone's seen in a US production device.  I'd love it if someone who reads Korean and/or has excellent google translator-fu could let us get some insight into how well or poorly the device is going over with the folks who have access to it.   

---

  I don't think my VISA would let me (especially not after Thanksgiving~) lol

Anyway, there's this one Korean blog (sorry, but everything's written in Korean) where ebook lovers share thoughts, experiences, etc. Amazingly, I also found out that a lot of people in Korea purchase Nooks (NC, Simple Touch) and many root them. The people who write on this blog are using various Korean ebook readers, Galaxy Tab, Kindle, iPad, Sony prs (?), Nook, etc.

I'm still in the middle of reading the reviews about this Kyobo eReader, but the overall impression is that a lot of people had high expectations and were disappointed. As far as I can tell though, they were disappointed with Kyobo's marketing, design and price.

So far, people are saying...............

- Front light useful when reading in dark

- Comfortable to the eyes just as e-ink

- Resolution good (detailed PDFs or comics would show up better) - compared to Kindle 3, Nook Simple Touch and others

- Contrast not as good as black & white e-ink.

- Loading a book takes long, but once it is loaded, turning pages is very quick. (maybe it's a software problem?)

- Price is too high

- Compared to e-ink display, response is much quicker. Compared to rooted Nook Touch, screen scrolling is much smoother, but still slower than LCDs.

- Color: not vivid / more like faded magazine pages?

Below are some photos that people put up in the blog: (http://cafe.naver.com/ebook)

<Photo 1> - in sunlight

<Photo 2> - Phone still ON

<Photo 3> - Phone still ON

<Photo 4> - inside / front light OFF

 

<Photo 5>

<Photo 6>

<Photo 7>

<Photo 8>

<Photo 9>

<Photo 10>

[roustabout]

Thank you so much for finding that blog!  I figured there kinda had to be one - but good luck to me in ever finding it!  

URS, if you write Korean - can you ask if someone from that site who knows a little English might posts some of their firsthand experiences here?   

[UrSunshine]

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roustabout wrote:

Thank you so much for finding that blog!  I figured there kinda had to be one - but good luck to me in ever finding it!  

URS, if you write Korean - can you ask if someone from that site who knows a little English might posts some of their firsthand experiences here?   

---

Sure, I will.

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

roustabout write:

> From the EG article, the current figure is "weeks" at 30 minutes per day and low brightness. <

What's so great about that?  If "weeks" means 2, I can do just as well with my NC, if I:

a) only read half-an-hour each day, and

b) shut it off (rather than sleep it), in between 

Sleeping it, of course, would drain the battery all by itself in 2 weeks, even with 0 minutes per day spent reading.

Based on a more reasonable 2 hrs/day schedule, the Mirasol-based reader would need to be charged every 4 days.  While my NC, conveniently also 'slept' in between, would need a charge every 3 days.

Big whoop?

- Mark

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

Are the 10 photos showing up for everyone else?  Because I'm seeing none of them.

- Mark

[Keystoneco]

Mark,

On my unit the photo boxes show up with the red X'd out square.  If you click on the link provided, the photos do show up after they load.

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

UrSunshine wrote that some bloggers have commented:

> Color: not vivid / more like faded magazine pages? <

This is the thing that has immediately struck me about every Mirasol-based device that's been trotted out.

I understand that people like e-ink displays, because of the high contrast, and reflective rather than transmissive display technology.  I do too.  And Mirasol has promised to be "color e-ink".  And presumably they use less power, thus providing longer life per charge... IF you are using them mostly in brightly-lit environments (which I rarely do).

But unless you're using them in bright, direct sunlight, the colors are muted and washed out.  Not saturated at all.  And using the internal front-lighting drains the battery faster.  And the contrast isn't as good.  Turning that light off leads to a low-contrast, almost monochrome display.  And I'm not all that sure that fast motion (e.g. video) is rendered all that well.  I.e., without motion blur.

Folks have been begging and pleading for Mirasol displays for a long time now (Engadget seemed to have an army of whiners every time a new tablet came out w/o Mirasol).  But from my POV, they have strengths and weaknesses, like any other technology.  And for the environments I find myself in, 95% of the time they're simply not as good as LED backlit LCDs.

What am I missing? 

- Mark

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

> On my unit the photo boxes show up with the red X'd out square. If you click on the link provided, the photos do show up after they load. <

Thanks, Keystoneco.

I'm just trying to visit the Clubs here from my PC.  Maybe I need to use a different browser than Opera?

- Mark

[roustabout]

Mark observes "If "weeks" means 2, I can do just as well with my NC"

Yes, but if "weeks" means 4, maybe it sounds better than "one" of anything, including months, to some marketer and beats what my NC can do.  

Until we get some feeling for what real device users are experiencing, we just don't know, which is why I think it's great that URSunshine may be able to recruit some folks to chat with us.  

I think the much faster refresh rate, if coupled with a real push in battery life, of Mirasol would make it better than the current e-ink readers for some folks.  

Last summer when I took my NC camping and shut off wireless before I left, I was very impressed with the run time on battery.

Then again, I actually like the NST quite a bit, and many folks don't like it at all - but they would really like something with some battery longevity and much less page ghosting.

The photos URS just posted of the text?  They look really good to me.  That's a very readable text against background.   

You're right, 8 hours isn't the battery longevity people are hoping for, but if this thing can go 20 hours that's good, and we won't know until we can actually find folks with hands-on experience.  

[UrSunshine]

Hope they all show up this time!

*** All from cafe.naver.com/ebook (a Korean blog).

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

UrSunshine wrote:

> Hope they all show up this time! <

Yes, they are.  Thanks very much.

- Mark

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

roustabout,

> Yes, but if "weeks" means 4, maybe it sounds better than "one" of anything, including months, to some marketer  <

True.  But that's a big IF.  And if it is actually 4, then that marketer is doing the device a big disservice by not saying '4 weeks', because absent that affirmation everyone will (rightfully so) assume 2.

But I agree with you it would be even better to have confirmed results from the field, which trump any marketing claims. 

- Mark