
Kindle vs. iPad Displays: Up close and personal - pistoriusp
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=2722
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mikecane
I'm surprised the eInk particles look like rocks at the bottom of an aquarium.
All this time I was led to believe they were uniform, like tiny spheres.

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gte910h
Having used both Kindles and iPads to read things, I don't understand how
people can think it's such a clear choice (see comments, etc of article)

It honestly feels like the "kindle is awesome" side of the clearly made up
their mind people have some amounts of vision trouble which has gone
uncorrected. I don't understand at a slightest, the feeling they're talking
about, nor do several of the iPad owners of various ages I've talked to.

It honestly feels like the "iPad is a clearly superior reading device" group
don't ever walk into the sun though. Honestly, even with the contrast
controls, that shiny screen gets you in troubles in sunlight heavy situations.
And really many don't get that the kindle _is meant to be used the same places
books are_? So many people seem to not understand you need just as much light
to use it then complain about the lack of light.

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jpdbaugh
I think the "kindle is awesome" crowd are people who use a reader to read
novels. The Kindle is simply almost identical to the experience reading a
printed book. However good the iPad is as a reader, it is not even close to
the same as a printed book mainly because of the backlight.

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andrewljohnson
In a study by useit (Nielsen's group), they found reading the Kindle is slower
than reading the iPad is slower than reading a book.

So, to say that using a Kindle is more like reading a book than an iPad
strikes me as bogus. I don't understand how a backlight or not decides an
item's bookishness. Certainly, neither has pages.

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krschultz
The only possible way it can strike you as bogus is if you have never taken
both of them outside and tried to read them. If the focus group was conducted
in an office, then the results are basically meaningless.

I use my kindle on my boat. 99.9% of the time I'm sitting in the sun reading
it. I can do that with a book, and I can do that with a kindle. The iPad or
anyother backlit screen is just not an option. I can barely see my cell phone
or camera screen on the water, but I read the kindle becuase it is a
fundamentally different technology.

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smackfu
I got bad reflections on my iPad just sitting on my bed. It's like holding a
mirror up in front of your face, and you have to adjust it to not catch
distracting things.

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StavrosK
Erm, this guy lost the opportunity to make a few hundred bucks with that post,
because I want that microscope!

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ZeroGravitas
The image links to Amazon with what looks like a referral id in the URL if you
want to kick him back a finders fee.

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StavrosK
I'll do that, thanks!

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wazoox
And everybody should see why and how eInk devices (Kindle, Sony PRS, etc) are
hundred times better tools to read books and papers.

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rauljara
Be careful with the word 'everybody'. Surely someone would prefer higher
contrast, the ability to change foreground/background color, and faster page
turning (without that annoying black flash) over crisper text.

Me? I still prefer print. Though I imagine that much like my preference for
CDs over mp3s, my preference for print is doomed to die out over the next few
years as the technology improves and I slowly get over my nostalgia.

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Groxx
I dunno, it's pretty definitive that emissive displays cause more eye strain
than a book (and E-ink is _really_ close to a book). For any serious reader,
eye strain seems likely to be at the top of their to-be-avoided list.

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moxiemk1
Eye strain is definitely antithetical to reading. That said, I'm not too
worried about it with an iPad type device: I am looking at screens all day
every day, and eye strain just isn't a problem.

Perhaps when I get older/my eyes get broken in more. But for now, I'd be fine
with reading on something with an LCD - it really doesn't bother me.

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sliverstorm
I can surf the web for hours on end, but when I try to read dense text I find
my eyes rebel.

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c1sc0
I wonder what the production cost of an iPad with TWO displays would be? The
iPhone now has glass on both sides, what if the front could be LCD and the
back E-Ink? Since E-ink is permanent, it could also be a great way to
"personalize" your iPad with e.g. a custom design on the 'back'. Steve, are
you reading this?

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judofyr
That reminds me of Pixel Qi, a display that's a mixture a normal LCD and
E-Ink: <http://www.pixelqi.com/home>

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ubercore
It's not actually the same as E-Ink, it's still an LCD screen when in low
power reflective mode.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi>

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Tycho
The answer here seems straight forward enough: just get an iPad _and_ an eInk
reader. Seriously, the eInk devices are great for replacing books (reading
outside, avoiding glare, not caring about battery life), the iPad is great for
internet/apps and augmenting the reading experience (eg. the way you can zoom
and scroll so effortlessly makes reading those awkwardly formatted PDFs much
easier. in fact you get a sort of entirely novel tactile experience)

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ghshephard
Yes. You nailed it - I carry both of them with me 100% of the time. When I'm
on the road, I _tear_ through books on my iPad in Hotel Rooms (Dark Light.)
During the day, or while on the beach - the Kindle comes out and I also
disappear in reading (Nobody in their right mind even attempts to read on an
iPad in the sun - even with the Matte screen.)

And, best part of all - I have a MiFi (I spent many, many hours trying to
decide whether to go with the 3G Ipad) - and I am astonishingly happy over the
fact that I can now support the K3 (WiFi Support - Yay!), my iPad, my Laptop,
and my iPhone with my 5 Gigabyte Capacity Sprint MiFi.

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ck2
What's with the wayward "pixels" on the eink display, is that dirt or what?

I'll have to try a kindle someday. I had to wait for high resolution LCD
because I am nearsighted and can literally see the pixel grid "screendoor" at
HDTV resolutions on the desktop (even at 23" size) and it was driving me crazy
- used a CRT until this year!

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yellowbkpk
Those aren't really the pixels, they're the "phosphor" of the display. The
pixels are behind the little blobs goo and are little electrical contacts that
induce a magnetic field. When the field is one way, the pixels are dark, and
vice versa. The field affects the nearby blobs of goo.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Electronic_paper_(Side_vie...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Electronic_paper_\(Side_view_of_Electrophoretic_display\).PNG)

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PidGin128
Wait, E-Ink is literally a magnadoodle?!

I must bring a magnet to barnes&noble...

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kadavy
Additionally, the Kindle doesn't shoot beams of light at your eyes.

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mortenjorck
It bounces them, though. Sometimes from the _sun!_

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kjrose
I can't wait to get my next kindle. The iPad is nice from the perspective of
video and the like, but it is still very much a computer screen. The Kindle
simply feels exactly like mutating paper.

It'll be really cool if Amazon ever figures out colour on the kindle.

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mmorris
_It'll be really cool if Amazon ever figures out colour on the kindle._

Actually, the display is made by eInk, not by Amazon.

There are color versions in development, last I heard they should be going in
to mass production around the end of this year. I'd guess that Amazon will
have a color version of the Kindle soon after the displays are available.

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lsc
is anyone selling e-ink or even just transflective displays for
laptops/computers/etc/ that I could use in my day to day work? most current
e-ink stuff would be too slow for most things... but eh, for a second or third
monitor I could use when reading things that don't change, it could work.

a transflective screen could also do the job... I had one of the little green
OLPC jobbes for a while, and I really liked the transflective mode, though the
device as a whole, imo, was fairly useless other than as a bulky e-reader.
Still I'd pay money for transflective panels for my desktop, and I'd pay quite
a bit of money for a transflective screen on my laptop.

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kxs
Pixel Qi maybe, but 10" only atm, iirc.

<http://pixelqi.com/blog1/2010/03/07/diy-pixel-qi-kits/>

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lsc
nice... that's almost enough for me to put up with a netbook keyboard, or at
least enough to /look at/ netbook keyboards again. too bad it doesn't fit a
thinkpad X series.

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kxs
I bought a Samsung N210 for my mother which has a surprisingly good keyboard.

As a side note: IIRC there is a 10" thinkpad X netbook in Australia (for
schools) and for a short time earlier this year, they displayed a 10" model on
the lenovo website, so there may be hope...

A 11.6" or 12" version of the pixel qi diy kit would certainly be great.

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lsc
Thanks, I'll look at the N210, but generally the acceptability of a keyboard
is rather dependent on hand size.

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rdez6173
I don't know how much it matters what the screen looks like under
magnification.

I think it's a matter of preference and which best suits your lifestyle; there
are pros and cons of both.

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Kilimanjaro
Now compare the iPad display with one of a PSP, then a TV, a CRT, an LCD, an
XRAY film, a Chess board, a canvas, etc.

That's what I use the iPad for.

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zootm
Well, yes, obviously the comparison is only informative for the "reading"
application of the iPad. This is also the reason that comparing the prices and
some other aspects of the devices is pretty worthless. But if you're
interested in the differences in screen technology this is a very neat
comparison.

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nnash
The simulated fibers on the Kindle's eInk screen are pretty incredible.

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AlexMuir
Can someone fire one up on the iPhone 4 display?

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senki
Apple Retina Display: Under the microscope comparisons with 1G and 3G:

[http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/2010/06/apple-
retina...](http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/2010/06/apple-retina-
display/)

Discussion:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1461213>

