First Mirasol display e-reader launches in Korea
Last week, we told you about the potential of Qualcomm's "new" Mirasol displays, and now Qualcomm and Kyobo Book Centre have joined forces to release an e-reader with the new displays, claiming "weeks" of battery life. We have "new" in quotes because Qualcomm has been talking about these displays for almost 2 years, and they were first shown at CES 2010. We were actually wondering if they would ever really hit the market.
The Kyobo e-reader is the first truly new footage we've seen of Mirasol displays in action in quite a while, and we have to say... it looks like first generation hardware. We certainly love the tech behind the screen, and the fact that you can get full color video in direct sunlight, but even the promo videos below show that there are trade-offs. One would expect that promo videos show off new devices in the best way possible, but the colors on the Kyobo screen look washed out, and the screen seems a bit laggy as well. Of course, this is the first gen of the displays, and Qualcomm is already working on the second generation, which should smooth out some of those issues.
We may not be too upset if this device doesn't make it west, but we're glad to see Mirasol hitting the market, and we'll be keeping an eye on future developments.
source: Qualcomm via Android and Me
Still, the e-reader promises "weeks" of battery life with video use, so that's a huge improvement over traditional screens. The Kyobo reader is a custom UI built on top Android 2.3, so we're keeping an eye out for when this thing gets rooted and loaded up with more games and such to really show off what the screen can do. The Kyobo is running on a 1 GHz Snapdragon S2, and has a 5.7" display at 1024x768. At a bit over $300, you're paying for the screen, and Qualcomm's new $1 billion Mirasol manufacturing plant.
source: Qualcomm via Android and Me
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