Microprocessing
A New Kindle-Like Monitor Promises to Soothe Your Tired Eyes
In the remote work era, is it the (pricey) upgrade you need?
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In Microprocessing, columnist Angela Lashbrook aims to improve your relationship with technology every week. Microprocessing goes deep on the little things that define your online life today to give you a better tomorrow.
In all likelihood, your familiarity with E Ink technology begins and ends with the Kindle. The grayscale screen has other uses, though: Digital signs, like those in grocery stores or bus stops, are the most common application besides e-books.
Recently, the computer hardware company Waveshare announced its own E Ink product: a $540 10.3-inch grayscale computer monitor. That’s not cheap for a computer monitor without touchscreen functionality or its own operating system, but the appeal is obvious. If you work at a computer for eight-plus hours a day and are blessed with multiple monitors, springing for a monitor that’s easier to look at for long periods of time and causes less eye strain — as Waveshare promises — seems like a reasonable course of action.
The science on how much better E Ink paper displays are for your eyes, however, isn’t clear-cut, meaning the question of whether you should spend more than $500 on a black-and-white computer monitor depends on how comfortable you are spending that much money on something with uncertain benefits. And while I don’t think it’s the absolute worst purchase in the world, there are several E Ink products that are more worth the heaps of dough required to obtain them.
Let’s get one thing out of the way, though: E Ink isn’t just the name of the technology—it’s the name of the brand. Developed by undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E Ink was a sensation when it debuted on the cover of Nature magazine in 1998. In 2009, the generically named Prime View Int’l Co. Ltd purchased E Ink for $450 million. While the purchase made it possible for E Ink to massively increase production, its ironclad hold on the patented technology makes it difficult for other brands to innovate the product.
“E Ink has a significant patent moat, which is why they are the only company making…
