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Comment by SyneRyder | Hacker News Reader

I think you'd have to really, really prefer eInk to want this.

If you just want an affordable tablet with writing ability, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A With S Pen is $299 on Amazon, and it has twice the storage (16GB plus a microSD slot) and 4x the RAM (2GB vs 512MB). S Note has improved a lot with better cut/paste/resizing features, and can synchronize your notes & sketches to Evernote.

That's a beautifully designed product page though, and bonus points for including scenes from Malmö in their video.

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They are not really meant for the same applications. It's not running Android. E-ink displays are grayscale, they refresh very slowly compared to LCD/LED, completly lack glare, work well in sunlight. It's a different category of device, and yes it's meant for people who really, definitely do want this instead of a garden variety Android tablet.

> E-ink displays are grayscale

Most, but not all. There are commercially available E-Ink color displays (using color filters) such as E-Ink Triton , http://www.eink.com/display_products_triton.html .

A year ago, E-Ink demonstrated pure color (pigment based) which gives you broad gamut color (more than color filter based displays) but I haven't seen them used in commercial products yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2V9iuTW3sA

The displays can update quickly, even do 10Hz-20Hz type animation. But that would defeat the purpose of using it for low-power by not updating it all.

I dont think you buy this tablet for it's feature count. They make it pretty clear it's made to replace paper.

I never worry about my papers ram, and I don't care for games and watching movies, and I certainly wouldn't want to strain my eyes outside trying to figure out what's on the screen.

I'm not saying this tablet is a compromise, instead I'm saying that for what it is.. It's an all round superior product.

I'd buy a galaxy to replace my mobile phone and laptop on the go... At that the galaxy is an all round superior device.

I tried to read ebooks on my tablet, the experience was so bad for my eyes, that I eventually bought a Kindle to read with an eInk screen instead.

The only thing tablets still do better than most eInk devices, for whatever reason, is rendering PDFs.

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