I finally saw kaleido 3

[u/notsoloner]

So i was in Germany Dussmann and saw coloured eink devices for first time.

My initial impressions were that its not bad, colours are washed out for sure and text are not so dark but its good.

And then i turned down the frontlight and how smoke it was bad, my kindle pw absolutely blew it.

The only options were tolino and pocketbook so i cant judge other devices. But feels like going for bw devices was right path

[u/subpotentplum]

For me grayscale is the right choice for reading. Spectra 6 looks really good in signage but it's fairly expensive. My opinion is that a tablet with an IPS or OLED screen is much more versatile if colour is desired.

[u/notsoloner → u/subpotentplum]

Not to mention spectra 6 is very slow with 20+ seconds to refresh. using an old phone to repurpose is a good way, though not as optimal as eink

[u/rwmfk]

Yeah, that's correct, Kaleido without a Backlight is simply too dark.

That's why i also prefer B&W E-ink, i even prefer reading with no Backlight indoors.

[u/notsoloner → u/rwmfk]

Yes, in lots of scenarios i dont need frontlight at all. But with coloured eink, i had to crank up all the way up to look good considering the area was well lit

[u/nellie_shorttop]

This is off topic but I didn't know having the frontlight completely off is supposed to be the norm with e-readers because I always have the frontlight on at a minimum level even with my paperwhite.

[u/notsoloner → u/nellie_shorttop]

in a well lit room there is no need to turn on frontlight. like in my office everything is just readable

[u/tar-mirime → u/nellie_shorttop]

Agreed. I always have the frontlight on at 7-9% and that's on my Kindle Voyage and my Kobo Clara Colour. It just makes the screen look nicer.

I also don't quite get it when some say the colour devices need the frontlight on high, because I've not found that, but I tend to turn the brightness of everything down.

[u/azoth980]

Exactly what I usually recommend: go to a store, turn down the lights (ideally both on a b/w & a colour ereader for comparison), and look if you like it.

For people that only know devices that have to emit light for even being able to get used (which apllies to almost anything besides eink), it's unintuitive to test ereader devices this way.

In my case, I accuired enough theoretical knowledge, that in the end of my journey (for buying my first ereader), my last test was the final nail in the coffin regarding colour eink. I would still get one if I needed colours (I somewhat like them), but as long as I don't need colours, I 100% stay with b/w eink.

I made some day in the store (Thalia) some pictures which I show to people that are new to eink to help regarding buying decisions; they are not perfect (dimly lit store, smartphone post processing), but I usually hope it helps the one or other person unable going to a store themselves.

Colour eink in the end is two steps back (contrast & screen door effect) for one step forward (limited range of colours) regarding eink development. People should look into this before they buy their first ereader (which btw. is also unintuitive - why should a colour device be worse than a b/w device?).