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Korean electronics giant LG is set to begin mass production of the world’s first flexible plastic e-paper display.
LG’s Display business unit says that the 6-inch 1024 x 768 EPD (electronic paper display) module is "expected to revolutionise the E-Book market".
LG Display chief Sang Duck Yeo said that the EPD module was "a product we believe will help greatly popularise the E-Book market", largely due to the lighter, thinner and more robust EPD over glass-based e-ink displays of the type used in the Amazon Kindle.
LG said that compared to glass displays of the same type, LG’s plastic EPD is a third slimmer than glass displays and less than half of the weight at just 14 grams.
That sounds like a reasonable advance but we’re not sure these sort of incremental advances will make e-books more popular than they already are and arguably doesn’t address shortcomings of the display including update speed, resolution and of course, the monochrome nature of EPDs.
The paper also flexes 40 degrees from the centre of the screen but any further and it could be damaged so it’s tricky to imagine how the flexibility would actually manifest in a shipping device. We rather suspect that it’ll appear in rigid back e-readers anyway.
That said, LG said that the firm also has plans to apply the plastic treatment to other display types such as OLED.
