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A comment on Ask HN: Why are e-ink note-taking devices so expensive compared to iPads?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Why are e-ink note-taking devices so expensive co... by xxr on Monday February 15, 2021 @12:36PM (#26144926)
>the current consumption was astronomical, sometimes triggering the protection of the power supply on certain images

That's surprising, since I was always under the impression that E-Ink displays were pretty low-power. Is it the drawing of the new image that requires so much energy in a small instant?

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Re:Ask HN: Why are e-ink note-taking devices so expensive co... by nine_k on Monday February 15, 2021 @01:11PM (#26145335)
E-ink is zero power when displaying the picture. But moving all these tiny ink particles around takes a lot of energy.

I suspect that low refresh rates are partly due to the problems of power delivery to the pixels via transparent conductors.

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Re:Ask HN: Why are e-ink note-taking devices so expensive co... by retrac on Monday February 15, 2021 @02:42PM (#26146371)
E-ink has no draw when static, but changing from white to black or back involves a physical state change that takes quite a lot of energy. Many eink readers rate their battery life in number of full screen refreshes.
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