While the touchscreen display on Sony's e-book reader might have been the one to drive sales to the point where it exceeded company expectations, Qualcomm is hoping another type of display technology will help them in the same way. Doing away with e-ink, Qualcomm has opted to use what it calls mirasol displays, which not only offer better readability but also better battery life.
Where mirasol shows its strength is in battery performance. A standard ebook reader – such as the Kindle – could last for roughly 20-percent longer if its monochrome e-ink display was switched for a mirasol panel, assuming the same sort of use. As the mirasol team explained, however, once you start pushing traditional e-ink panel refresh rates, up to the point you can display smooth video, and introduce color, power draw can actual go beyond that of a regular LCD display. A color e-ink video-capable Kindle would last roughly a day using the same battery; meanwhile the same unit with a mirasol panel would last around a week.
That alone makes it sound pretty interesting, and its form factor isn't a lot different from the now familar Kindle e-book reader which Amazon offers. Qualcomm is very confident in this new display technology of theirs and promises to deliver by the latter part of 2010, continuously working with OEMs to make it possible.
Via Slashgear
A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.
Qualcomm readying color mirasol screen-equipped video playback enabled e-book readers for 2010
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