from Hacker News

New Philips Monitor Features an E-Paper Side Panel

by james_pm on 5/10/23, 11:12 AM with 113 comments

• by jacknews on 5/11/23, 11:02 AM

  There's something quite unsettling about this, in that the epaper panel is potentially a very useful second monitor designed in the same style as the main monitor, and it could be detachable, freely re-orientable, etc.

  But in fact it's totally integrated, following the current anti-modular, if not anti-user philosophy in most consumer hardware, and ends up being a bit of a frankenstein.

  Surely the market for each separate monitor. especially the epaper sidekick, would be greater than this weird integrated combo?

• by mhitza on 5/11/23, 10:28 AM

  Small rant. Are display manufacturers (especially eINK/ePaper ones) alergic to a size that matches a standard A4?

• by dougmwne on 5/11/23, 10:12 AM

  This is an interesting idea, but honestly it should be detachable and wireless. The refresh rate is so slow that there’s no reason to be wired and having an e-reader integrated into your display that you could pop off and keep reading would be amazing for comfort.

• by trabant00 on 5/11/23, 10:45 AM

  We've been asking for e-ink monitors for how long? Here's a first step from am major manufacturer that will be widely available. People will be able to test it, Philips will see how much demand actually exists, what the feedback is and we'll all go from there.

  No product is perfect, that is a trusim. If you look for flaws you can always find them. Does HN ever have something nice to say about any product or service?

  I'm not sure I would like this either, looking from LCD to E-Paper and back, but I know I should actually try it before having an opinion.

• by jnsie on 5/11/23, 5:38 PM

  Mandatory "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

• by gtirloni on 5/11/23, 10:12 AM

  The lack of glare from e-ink will help avoid eye strain... while there's a giant LED panel on next to it?

• by neilv on 5/11/23, 4:40 PM

  > Philips says the monitor is for workers who commonly read a lot of content from their screens. It suggests that the E-Paper display with its lack of harsh backlighting, anti-glare, no flickering, and no blue light will help avoid eye strain. Commonly, users might "view vivid colors on the big screen and read long documents on the E-Paper screen," reckons Philips. In summary, Philips says the dual display will be a boon to productivity, ergonomics, and, thanks to the low power usage of E-Paper, sustainability.

  Twisting their head to the side, and at suboptimal viewing distance and angle, for long durations to "read a lot of content"?

  How's that going to work for ergonomics and eye strain?

  An alternative would be to use it for lower-priority monitoring content (e.g., emails, chats, ops monitoring), which you can bring to the main display when you need to look closely or interact. The e-ink and placement de-emphasizes these distractions, but keeps them in your "peripheral vision" so you can occasionally check them with minimal effort. (Well, that would be the theory or pitch, but you'd have to study the reality and nuances of that.)

• by KingOfCoders on 5/11/23, 11:21 AM

  I hope this drives down ePaper prices.

  Philips Monitor 24" + ePaper: $600

  Mira/Waveshare ePaper only: $600

  I've been looking for a RaspberryPI4/Linux and prices are crazy (Currently use a small $100 IPS display).

• by danwee on 5/11/23, 11:13 AM

  What's the best e-reader (A4 size) out there? The feature I care the most is: reading PDFs as if I were reading them on paper. The second feature I care the most is: easy way to upload PDFs (e.g., plug and play via usb?). I don't mind features like taking notes or calendars or apps. I just want paper-like reading experience for PDFs in A4 size.

  Remarkable 2 is too small. Quaderno 13.3 2nd gen, seems cool.

• by coremoff on 5/11/23, 11:51 AM

  Why isn't this a snap-on extra monitor for common sized monitors? Make it vesa compatible or something - sounds like it needs twin connections for everything anyway.

  I'd consider getting one if I could attach it to my existing monitor; I'm not replacing a good and perfectly functional monitor with a new one to get a "let's see what the market thinks of this" gimick.

• by _ph_ on 5/11/23, 5:14 PM

  As the eInk panel is technically an independent second screen, why oh why don't they offer it as a separate product? I would immediately buy it if I could use it along with the screens I already have (or my laptop without a large extra screen). But I am not going to buy an otherwise mediocre screen just to enjoy the eInk screen.

• by WillAdams on 5/11/23, 4:42 PM

  It's an interesting idea, but it doesn't seem likely to get enough marketshare to really matter, and may be too late given that Amazon is now shipping the Kindle Scribe, including the promised integration w/ MS Word, so one can:

  - work on a document on your laptop/desktop

  - send it to your Scribe

  - mark it up

  - send it back w/ markups

  There are also a couple of 3rd part e-ink monitors which seem to work well, and a couple of e-ink ebook readers/tablets where it is possible to connect to a computer and use as a second display/graphics tablet (that latter is a killer feature, which I'd give a lot for Amazon to make possible, even if it was only by allowing apps, and putting that in place as an app --- see the "Superdisplay" app for Samsung tablets for an example of how well it could work).

• by mustacheemperor on 5/11/23, 4:07 PM

  Does anyone know of any projects to hack together an external E-ink display for reading documents? I will honestly print PDFs out to read them sometimes, and I would love to be able to drag big legal documents onto an e-ink screen to read.

  But I don't need a whole new monitor, and this Philips display seems way expensive relative to the cost of the individual e-ink panel.

  Edit: Thank you, everyone, for the recommendations - for the fun of the project I might give this a try, but I guess I can also see why this hasn't become popular yet. For the money I can print out a lot of PDFs...and take a color highlighter to them.

• by ChuckNorris89 on 5/11/23, 10:20 AM

  Very cool but it's the wrong brand and has a crap name. Who wants to buy a Philips 24B1D5600? Is that an electric shaver or something?

  Make it white, slap an Apple logo on it, call it the iPaper Display Pro Duo and it will sell for $1999. Easily. Dibs on the name Apple, call me to discuss royalties and naming rights.

  JK, the panel is garbage though. 250 nits?! Unless you work in dark basement you can GTFO with that shit. It's a shame to see such good ideas being half-assed in execution. If you make a niche product you better make it flawless if you want it to sell as niche users are very picky.

• by anigbrowl on 5/11/23, 5:19 PM

  This is impressively ugly. Their monitors seem good, e-paper is good, but nothing about this combination sparks desire. I can see it being a 'what not to do' example in future design books.

• by _a_a_a_ on 5/11/23, 5:31 PM

  When I was at school Philips was infamous for just not getting it. Looks like decades later nothing's changed.

  I think there's an american word for this, or close: jagoff.

• by Sporktacular on 5/11/23, 5:54 PM

  Soowih! If the bezel sizes could be consistent it might be possible to overlook the ugliness long enough to gain from the practical benefit.

  Imagine a matched line monitors/readers which looked good together and could be placed either side of each other. Maybe a daisy chained computer interface, or not. Would have looked better and sold better too.

• by lofaszvanitt on 5/11/23, 7:07 PM

  Pressing a switch that transfers the whole screen into an eink like display would be a feat.

  What I want from a monitor is to detach it from the base and use it as a wireless display in the bed for example. Or maybe bring the 32 inch into the toilet or into the bathtub. That would help me a lot with my back pain.

• by swamp40 on 5/11/23, 4:42 PM

  Please tell me it is easily detachable. How did they get 95% there and not do that?

  Slide it in, slide it out. Auto recognize when it is in range so you can shove stuff into it. Use BLE built into the monitor to communicate. Charge when necessary.

• by captn3m0 on 5/11/23, 11:57 AM

  DP Daisy chaining would have been a nice feature to drive both displays with a single connection (optionally).