Imagine merging Amazon’s Kindle with Samsung‘s Galaxy Fold for a new kind of foldable e-book, just as portable and with a bigger screen. Well now stop imagining, take a look at this prototype that shows what the natural evolution of eReaders will be like.
The folding e-book
The Amazon Kindle is the most popular e-book reader on the market. A proposal that with different models adapts perfectly to the needs of the majority of users, both without being inveterate readers and occasional ones.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold for its part is right now the most active proposal when it comes to folding phones. Although other brands such as Huawei with its Mate X or Microsoft with its Surface Duo are also pushing towards that future where we can have more screen without sacrificing a compact size when carrying it.
Well, GoodEReader has shown a new version -the second- of the folding electronic book proposal . It is true that it is still a prototype, so in terms of design it can be improved, but it shows what we could expect in a matter of not long in this entire sector of electronic books with folding electronic titan screens.
As you can see in the video, aesthetically it is not a very striking product once opened. Because the product frames and the hinge system itself are not polished enough yet. The edges are too wide and the hinge a little rough . But the important thing here is in the evolution of the electronic ink panel that manages to be flexible in its central part.
Thus, in practically the same size as a current electronic book, such as some of the Kindle models and available alternatives, you would have a greater capacity to display more text when opening it. Which is always interesting despite the fact that currently the “pages” that show the current ones are not bad at all.
Another challenge is to achieve homogeneity in the tones of the screen for the hinge area and an LED backlight system instead of those two strips that are very reminiscent of lamps for eReaders. Lighting systems that came directly from proposals for paper books.
However, the advantage with this type of future proposals is that there will also be the option of enjoying Wacom technology with which to make annotations on the screen, such as allows reMarkable or Sony‘s proposal. Both allow you to have a “notebook” with an electronic ink screen on which you can write and draw as if it were paper.
Readers, the future promises
If you like reading and are an unconditional fan of the Kindle or similar, obviously this type of proposal will attract a lot of attention and it is no wonder. If folding mobiles are attractive to many users due to the advantages they would offer, this proposal will do the same with the usual reader.
Anyway there is still work ahead. It is necessary to improve the integration and the designs of the devices that integrate these folding eInk screens. And then technical aspects like lighting. But who would not like to have a device much smaller in size that will later allow you to read more comfortably, with up to 10 inches of screen.