Recent patent filings indicate that Amazon may be eyeing the creation of a dual-screen tablet.
Essentially, the device would boast two separate screens: a color display on one side and a low-power E Ink display on the other.
The LCD display would likely feature typically high refresh rates for playing games, watching videos and browsing the web in full color. Meanwhile, the low power sipping E Ink screen would be used to read books, simple text documents and emails.
As Liliputing’s Brad Linder points out, such a device would potentially allow Amazon to neatly bridge the gap between its current Kindle and Kindle Fire devices – allowing users to buy one device and use it as an eReader some of the time and a full-fledged Android tablet the rest of the time.
”While tablets like the Apple iPad can run for 10 hours on a charge, eReaders like the Amazon Kindle can run for up to 30 hours thanks to their lower power E Ink displays,” explained Linder.
“It doesn’t take any power at all to sustain text or pictures on an E Ink screen. The display only draws power when it’s refreshing the image, which pretty much only happens when you ‘turn’ a page in a book.”
In related news, E Ink recently showcased a rather interesting smartphone design that features a full-color LCD screen on one side and an E Ink display on the other.
As with Amazon’s above-mentioned tablet concept, you can use the full-color and glossy LCD for watching videos or browsing the web and the E Ink screen for books and emails.
Being able to keep that power sucking LCD turned off when using the low power sipping E Ink display would definitely be a popular option among many smartphone and tablet users. Fortunately, there are reports that at least one unnamed smartphone manufacturer is working on a device that will boast both E Ink and LCD screens.
