Another portable Color E Ink monitor joins a growing roster of eye-friendly mobile screens

We rely too much on our computers these days, both the ones that sit on our desks as well as the ones we put in our pockets. While they have different shapes, sizes, and hardware, one of the things that bind these devices together is their use of screens. For hours a day, our eyes are glued to these bright and colorful displays that convey information and entertain. Unfortunately, that also means our eyes get fatigued more easily because of the strain these light-emitting devices blast at them.

E Ink technology or E-Paper Displays (EPDs) in general have long been hailed as eye-friendly compromises between regular paper and screens, but their practical benefits are only applicable to Ebook Readers, including the more recent breed of Android-powered tablets. If you work at a computer most of the day, you won’t really get to enjoy those advertised experiences, especially if you find yourself using your laptop on the go often. Ereader manufacturer Bigme is trying to change that situation with an E Ink display that’s not only large and portable but also colorful in a limited way.

Designer: Bigme

Unlike typical display technologies like LCDs and OLEDs, E Ink doesn’t emit any light or shine it into your eyes. The effect is almost like that of reading on paper, which relies on ambient light for visibility. That said, E Ink displays have terribly slow refresh rates and couldn’t even display colors until recently, making them unusable for anything but reading books, particularly text-heavy novels and papers.

Although not exactly the first portable E Ink monitor in the market, the new Bigme B13 is at least claiming the crown of the first 13.3-inch Color ePaper Monitor. The novelty here is the addition of color capabilities on such a large display, though typical Color E Ink screens can only support a dozen or so hues. So forget about using this for work that needs color accuracy and precision, let alone fast-moving and frequently changing objects.

The Bigme B13 does boast a 30Hz refresh rate, which is actually fast for an E Ink screen even if that’s the bare minimum for computer monitors from decades ago. That said, faster refresh rates also mean more ghosting or artifacts as the microscopic beads try to move quickly and catch up with the content. As such, this eye-friendly monitor is still best used only for text-heavy content that doesn’t change so often, and there will admittedly be many use cases where such a portable monitor can be useful.

The $499 price tag, however, might be a bit of a deal-breaker, especially once the pre-sale discount ends and the retail price goes back to an eye-watering $679. It isn’t clear if that price includes the adjustable backplate that lets you easily clamp one or even two Bigme B13 monitors to the sides of a laptop. Bigme is just the latest to jump into the fray of this still small but growing niche, and we can definitely expect more eye-friendly E Ink monitors to pop up as the technology improves.