E Ink Kaleido 4 was officially unveiled alongside Hanvon's M10C 2nd Gen on October 15.

We've been following Kaleido 4 developments at Read with Pro, an independent e-paper research site based in Taiwan.

After reviewing the E Ink and Hanvon launch presentations, here are some of the most interesting findings.

What's confirmed:

• Color gamut: More than 2× that of Kaleido 3
• White reflectance: 15% improvement
• Contrast ratio: 50% improvement
• Graininess: Reduced through changes to the display structure
• Display technology: Updated color filter, frontlight, and Oxide TFT backplane

These improvements are particularly interesting because Kaleido's biggest limitations have traditionally been its darker background and reduced contrast compared with monochrome E Ink.

What remains unknown:

E Ink has not yet confirmed the color PPI or total number of displayable colors for Kaleido 4.

So it's too early to conclude that Kaleido 4 offers higher color resolution than Kaleido 3.

An interesting detail from Taiwan:

Netronix, a major e-reader manufacturer and longtime Kobo supplier, had already mentioned Kaleido 4 in its September investor presentation.

This suggests the technology is being discussed beyond Hanvon, although no future Kobo product using Kaleido 4 has been confirmed.

First devices:

Hanvon announced three new products:

• M10C 2nd Gen — Kaleido 4 color e-reader
• M10 Max — 13.3-inch monochrome device
• M6 Pro — 6-inch writing device

The M10C 2nd Gen is expected to become available in early December.

My biggest takeaway:

Kaleido 4 appears to focus on improving the actual reading experience rather than simply increasing the number of colors.

Better reflectance and contrast could make a meaningful difference, especially when reading without the frontlight.

Of course, we'll need independent hands-on comparisons before drawing conclusions.

We compiled the technical details, launch information, and remaining questions here:

Full Kaleido 4 analysis — Read with Pro

What improvement matters most to you: better contrast, brighter backgrounds, higher color resolution, or faster refresh rates?

Read books and comics on the Kobo Clara, then journal/reflect on the Supernote

Admins, please delete if not allowed!

I accidentally got two of these, and they're so low-cost I decided to give one away through my site here. Posting here because I know people have questions about it and want to try it.

An important note: This is done through an email newsletter giveaway. I want to be clear about that because I love this community and engaging with it, and I don't ever want to post or share something that smells fishy, email is just how I communicate with my community. Please don't feel pressured to do so, I just thought this is one place people might be interested in getting a Sticky :-)

Now that it's been announced, I'm wondering how long it will take for Kaleido 4 to reach devices available in western markets and if that's impacting anyone's buying decisions right now?

Hi all, I’m choosing between a Supernote Manta and a reMarkable Paper Pro. My previous e-ink tablet (Boox Note Air 6c) felt clunky, so I returned it. If you own a remarkable or supernote (or both):

1. Do you often have to redo actions because they don’t register properly? For example, tapping a tool, or starting to write while a menu is still open.
2. Do you use it for fast note-taking during lectures? How does it hold up when you’re writing quickly?

Hi all! I have severe light sensitivity and get a lot of pain when using any normal device, so I’ve been looking into e ink tablets that have android on them so I can just do normal stuff like google, go on some apps, read books etc. I don’t care about any note taking abilities so that isn’t a deal breaker for me. I also don’t mind if it’s colour or black and white.

The ones I’ve been considering are

Boox go 6

Boox go 7

I’m honestly just looking for something to get me started with e ink devices, just to see if they’re something that would be helpful!

Thanks so much :)

Hey everyone,

I'm a high school student looking for an e-ink tablet to practice math and physics problems and take study notes.

I know most STEM students use an iPad, but I really want to reduce my eye strain during long study sessions and avoid getting distracted by apps.

Here is what I'm looking for:
- Full support for Traditional Chinese PDFs (reading and making notes)
- Good for quick math calculations, rough scratchwork, and drawing simple diagrams
- Simple UI so I don't have to spend hours tweaking settings

I originally wanted a reMarkable, but found out its Traditional Chinese support and multi-window features are pretty limited. Now I'm split between the BOOX Go 10.3 (for the sharp screen and split-screen feature) and the Supernote (for its simplicity and pen feel).

For those who use e-ink for math or science practice, which one would you recommend? Is split-screen really a game-changer for solving math problems?

Thanks!

Disclaimer: used voice to text into AI and got it to tidy up my messy jumbled up thoughts. Also edited on it.

Hi! I’m looking to buy my first E Ink writing tablet and would love some advice from this awesome community!!

I’ve been a Kindle user for years, and one thing I’ve realized is that a front light is basically non-negotiable for me. (I’m very used to adjusting the brightness on my Kindle and actually prefer having the screen illuminated even when there’s enough ambient light. I’ve tried using my Kindle with the front light completely off to see whether I could get used to an unlit E Ink screen, and I really don’t enjoy it.)

So unfortunately that seems to rule out quite a few otherwise-great writing tablets.

My main use case would be:
- Handwritten journaling and general note-taking
Something relatively small and portable that I can easily carry in a sling bag or backpack
- Close to A6 (I know this is very small but as close is good)
- fairly normal notebook shape. I looked at the reMarkable Paper Pro Move and really dislike the weird size.
- Reading is nice to have, but writing/journaling is the main purpose (I’m not sure if I would read on I after having it because I still love my kindle for that!)

It feels like iflytek ainote air is the closest fit for me.

Is there anything else I should be considering that fits these requirements?

And for anyone who owns an AINOTE Air 2, are there any downsides or annoyances that aren’t obvious from reviews/spec sheets? (Especially trade offs with other models as I would have to make this choice)

I’m particularly interested in the actual handwriting experience, software limitations, exporting/backup, longevity/software support, offline functionality, subscriptions, and anything you only discovered after owning it for a while.

My plan is to buy it and try it with 30 day satisfaction guarantee and perhaps also buy the remarkable (since everyone raves about its writing feel). It seems like both their policies are pretty good. Theres also super note and boox and manta but dont wanna have so many to test at once.

I’m also completely open to lesser-known brands/models if there’s something I’ve missed.

Thanks!

Hi everyone! We're Kinesus Technologies, a small hardware start-up from Amsterdam. Our project BenchPad is a public bench with colour E-Ink screens: anyone can send a photo or a short message from their phone and watch it appear on a real 13.3" Spectra 6 display in our 24/7 YouTube live stream. The display side of our working prototype runs on the Seeed Studio XIAO ePaper DIY Kit EE02.

How a photo travels to the screen

1. A visitor publishes a photo or message in our web app. The cloud backend moderates it, prepares a 1600 x 1200 JPEG and puts it in a queue.

2. The main controller (ESP32-S3 with Wi-Fi and LTE) polls the cloud and downloads the next job.

3. The main controller runs its own Wi-Fi access point; the XIAO EE02 joins it and talks to it over a simple TCP protocol (magic header + packet type: test / image / acknowledgement).

4. The EE02 decodes the JPEG into RGB565 in PSRAM and maps every pixel to the nearest of the six Spectra 6 pigment colours. A small brightness boost before colour matching compensates for the naturally muted pigments.

5. The EE02 pushes the frame to the panel and triggers the refresh (about 30 s for a full colour refresh). After that the image stays on screen without using any power.

6. Only when the panel really reports that the refresh is finished does the EE02 send an acknowledgement back, and the next post in the queue can follow.

Inside the panel driver

The 13.3" panel (1600 x 1200) is driven by two controllers (upper and lower half), each with its own chip-select line, plus a power-enable pin for the panel. We wrote a lightweight direct SPI driver for the EE02 that initialises both halves, streams the 6-colour frame to each and powers the panel only when needed.

Reliability was the key lesson: E-Ink gives no visual feedback to the code, so the driver watches the BUSY line and only counts a refresh as successful when BUSY really goes low and then high again. If the panel doesn't respond (e.g. a loose ribbon cable), the EE02 reports an error instead of a false "done", and the cloud automatically re-sends the job.

Why the XIAO EE02

- Compact and ready to wire straight to a large colour E-Ink panel

- Enough PSRAM to hold and decode a full 1600 x 1200 image

- Wi-Fi on board, so it sits next to the display and gets images wirelessly from the main controller

- Over-the-air firmware updates - important, because our prototype is currently on show abroad and streaming live from there

See it live

- Live stream (send your own photo and watch it appear): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22EOUyBI_8w

- Send a photo: https://benchpad.pages.dev

- Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1394689056/benchpad

Happy to answer questions about the driver, the colour mapping or the TCP protocol!

Thanks to Seeed Studio for the XIAO EE02!
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seeedstudiosz/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SeeedStudioSZ
- X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/seeedstudio