E-ink display: Your new flexible friend

 

Rhodri Marsden
Thursday 29 March 2012 22:57 BST
Comments
LG has announced a new plastic, flexible, e-ink display
LG has announced a new plastic, flexible, e-ink display

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Despite the huge strides forward made by e-reading technology, one obvious failure to emulate newsprint is the inability to playfully thwack someone around the head with an e-reader. It would hurt more than you intended; it would also shatter and stop working. Which serves you right for being so violent.

But this week LG has announced a new plastic, flexible, e-ink display: one third of the thinness of a normal display, half the weight, and more resistant to the bangs and scrapes of everyday life. Bendy screens have been predicted as imminent since 2005, but it's only now that big technology companies are unveiling their research. Samsung has been touting a flexible AMOLED display, while blue-sky thinkers at Nokia are talking of a "kinetic device" that lets you scroll pages by twisting, or zooming in and out by bending.

The next breathless wait will be for foldable displays; the LG screen only bends up to an angle of 40 per cent. But having tested it by smacking it with a small urethane hammer, the company is confident that it'll herald a reduction in the number of broken screens. Personally, I keep my own small urethane hammer well away from my smartphone. I hope you do too.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in