E Ink Debuts Kaleido 4 With Faster Refresh and Sharper Contrast

The current generation of color e-readers—ranging from Kobo and PocketBook models to the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft—relies on Kaleido 3. While effective for basic tasks, the tech uses a color filter over a black-and-white panel, often resulting in desaturated hues and darkened text. Kaleido 4 tackles these limitations by doubling the color gamut volume and increasing white reflectance by 15 percent, offering a significantly crisper reading experience.

Performance gains come via a new oxide TFT backplane, pushing refresh rates high enough to support video playback. While these screens remain limited to 4,096 colors compared to the millions found on LCD or OLED panels, the hardware gap between e-paper and traditional screens is narrowing. Hanvon Technology will lead the rollout with its upcoming M10C II tablet, which pairs the new display with a micro-etched tempered-glass surface to mimic the tactile feel of paper during stylus input.