For kindle users, ink screen is nothing new. Everyone basically knows its advantages and disadvantages. However, with an announcement a few months ago, it is a foregone conclusion that Kindle and corresponding services will withdraw from the Chinese market. The corresponding user groups urgently need to find new alternatives. At the same time, new users of ink screen products will also be forced to eliminate the Kindle option when entering the trap.
In fact, a large number of domestic brands have entered the ink screen field and have successively launched a series of products. Moreover, these product forms are not limited to readers, but also include handwriting tablets, tablets and even monitors, covering a wider range of scenarios than Kindle. However, for many people, this is still a relatively unfamiliar field, and they still need to have the most basic understanding when choosing ink screen products. At the same time, those who are temporarily hot-headed and planting grass and ink screens need to be poured some cold water on them.
Ink screen brand inventory
The first thing to note is that due to space limitations, Xiao Lei only mentioned some more representative brands here. In addition, for more specific product information, it is recommended to go to the official website and other channels to obtain more detailed information.
Domestic top player Aragonite
Aragonite is one of the earliest manufacturers of ink screen equipment in China and is quite famous. After more than ten years of layout, Aragonite's ink screen product line has become extremely rich, among which the reader category is divided into MAX, NOTE, NOVA, POKE and other series. As can be seen from the product names, MAX and NOTE focus on ultra-large screens, while POKE is a small-screen product. Aragonite readers cover a wide range of prices, ranging from entry-level models of less than a thousand yuan to handwriting electronic paper priced around 4,000 yuan.
In addition to reader products, Aragonite currently also has two ink screen monitors, namely the 13.3-inch Mira and the 25.3-inch MiraPro. The former is positioned as a portable expansion screen, while the latter is closer in size to a traditional monitor. However, their prices are quite expensive, with the former costing more than 4,000 yuan and the latter costing more than 8,000 yuan.
(Image source: Aragonite official website)
and , which is deeply bundled with content, Palm Reading
Older Android users are probably not unfamiliar with the Palm Reading App. It has become a well-known reading app with a large number of users in the early days of Android. App, its existence can be seen in many lists of must-install apps at that time. Like many reading apps, Zhangyue has gradually completed its content layout and transformation. A large number of published books and original online articles have become its content advantages. The launch of the Ink Screen Reader is a natural move for Palm Reader. It can bring a better reading experience to its users and complete deeper bundling.
Currently, the ink screen readers officially sold by Zhangyue are divided into four sizes: 6 inches, 7 inches, 8 inches and 10.3 inches. The large-screen version basically belongs to the iReader Smart series, focusing on PDF reading and handwriting, and supports reflowing and other special functions. The 6-inch version is closer to a traditional ink-screen reader and meets more basic reading needs. It has a significant price advantage, with a minimum price of only 500 to 600 yuan. However, compared with the Kindle at the same price, it has better configurations.
(Picture source Palm Reading official website)
Xiaomi's
Many years ago, a large number of fans called on Xiaomi to make an ink screen reader. The most direct reason is that Xiaomi's Duokan Reading has a large number of fans. Before the acquisition by Xiaomi, Duokan was famous for launching a third-party customized system for Kindle. Unfortunately, in the fierce content competition, Duokan failed to break out of the tight encirclement and gradually fell behind its competitors such as , WeChat Reading, , and Zhangyue.
At the end of 2019, Xiaomi Ecological Chain Company Mojian launched the first multi-read electronic paper book. The product positioning is basically aimed at the youth version of Kindle. At present, Xiaomi's latest reader should be the Xiaomi Duokan e-Book Pro II released at the beginning of the year. The 7.8-inch Retina screen, quad-core CPU, and Android 11 system are all promotional selling points.
(Source Xiaomi official website )
At present, Xiaomi is still very cautious in exploring the field of ink screens. It launches basically mature products that have been verified by the market and will not take risks in the direction of products. When there is no hope for the rise of reading more, Xiaomi’s ink screen products will inevitably appear Buddhist-like.
Hisense Hisense
Mobile phones have long been a red sea market, but you can still see many niche brands. Home appliance brand Hisense has been obsessed with mobile phone products, and has taken reading mobile phones as its main direction. Hisense A5, A6, A9 series and other products all use ink screens as their selling points. The eye protection and paper-like effect of the ink screen can provide an excellent experience for mobile phones in reading scenarios, but it is a disaster in applications such as videos, pictures, and games.
In other words, Hisense ink screen mobile phone is more suitable as an ink screen reader with a communication module, and other functions are the icing on the cake. It is not suitable as a main computer, but it is still qualified as a portable reader.
(Source: Hisense official website) Who is the
ink screen suitable for? The technical characteristics of
ink screen make its application scenarios very limited. It has obvious advantages in reading scenarios, but its low refresh rate and single color are fatal disadvantages in general smart devices. In addition, the technological progress of ink screens is very slow. The screens of ink screen products all over the world basically come from Yuantai Technology , and the market competition is not sufficient. Take the Kindle product as an example. Compared with the readers of more than ten years ago, the latest device has less obvious progress in screen display technology.
Therefore, until today, buying ink screen products still only satisfies a single reading scenario. For domestic manufacturers, it is not difficult to make a Kindle product. Most domestic ink screen readers basically use a relatively ready-made solution, that is, an ARM architecture processor, an Android system, and the ink screen provided by Yuantai, and you are almost done.
Of course, among the domestic ink screen readers, there are a large number of device products that surpass the Kindle. For example, large-screen readers from brands such as Aragonite and Zhangyue have a better experience reading PDF and Office files, and they also support handwritten annotations. They are much better than Kindle in this regard. In terms of accurately understanding user needs, domestic brands often do better. In terms of
content, considering the booming domestic reading market, it will not be a big problem. However, readers launched by some content platforms may impose some restrictions on application installation to guide users to contribute profits to their own platforms. And if it is just a pure hardware manufacturer, it usually does not restrict which content platform users can use.
(Picture source WeChat reading)
Generally speaking, the current technical level of the ink screen determines that the reader device has little meaning outside of reading scenarios. Correspondingly, the optimization of reading ink screen products, such as rearrangement and handwriting functions, is more valuable.
Ink screen is still a fairly niche category, and ink screen products other than readers are even more niche among niches. Like the ink screen monitor we mentioned earlier, both the scene it is adapted to and the corresponding target group are very narrow. A large computer screen is not a good reading device. But for some typists, a black and white screen with a huge display area that is easy on the eyes seems to bring a better typing experience. However, Xiao Lei, who does daily typing, feels that he does not have such a need. It is not a big problem for the ink screen to display pure text, but it is easy to give up in front of pictures. Considering the refresh rate, price and other issues, it is easy to persuade him to give up. .
Is there a future for ink screens?
Regarding the prospects of ink screens, Xiaolei sees many positive thoughts. Several points mentioned in this view are that color ink screen technology is developing, more manufacturers are developing ink screen technology, etc. But in Xiao Lei’s personal opinion, the so-called progress of ink screen technology is too slow. The color ink screen that was promoted a few years ago is still very weak in usability to this day. Even if there are several products that test the water, the price and experience are still very discouraging. In terms of the industrial chain, suppliers other than Yuantai are weak and not technologically advanced, so the possibility of changing the market structure is not high.
Under various factors, the most mainstream product for Ink Screen is still the reader. The most shipped ink screen reader is the Kindle. At least until now, the Kindle is still the best in terms of the combination of content and hardware. However, and Amazon , which failed to capture too much profit, still chose to withdraw from the domestic market. Looking for an alternative to Kindle is a helpless move for many people. Therefore, when choosing a domestic ink screen, I personally think that it should be based on your actual needs, such as what kind of reading scenarios, which reading platforms are used daily, etc., and then consider the specific configuration, price and other factors of the specific product.
As for readers, as mentioned before, products such as ink screen monitors and ink screen mobile phones are only suitable for a very niche group of people. However, things like billboards and product labels are in the commercial field and have little relevance to ordinary consumers.
(Cover picture source Aragonite official website)
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