this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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It has to be. Epaper is done by physically moving the "ink" particles (which are designed to not move at all when you aren't deliberately moving them) around. It takes too much time for fast refresh rates.
The benefit is that it actually reads like paper. You can't replicate that on LED or OLED.
And another benefit is reduced energy consumption.
Not sure how much it takes to redraw the screen, but when it's not changing, it doesn't use any power.
LCDs also physically move their pixels to block or emit light.
I don't know why we haven't been able to get a similar effect from an LCD.
E-ink doesn't block/emit light. It reflects it. This is why it reads like paper. Instead of having a light blasting at your face, you have light from the front bouncing off of the display into your eyes. This means that your display can use ambient light instead of needing to overpower it.
Reflective LCD displays actually do exist. You basically have little mirrors behind the pixels because LCDs are transparent and designed to use a backlight. If you're curious, search RLCD or if you want to see a tablet, the Hisense Q5.