The Minimal Phone is now shipping (E Ink phone with a QWERTY keyboard) - Liliputing
https://liliputing.com/the-minimal-phone-is-now-shipping-e-ink-phone-with-a-qwerty-keyboard/Open linkView original on lemm.ee205
Comments47https://liliputing.com/the-minimal-phone-is-now-shipping-e-ink-phone-with-a-qwerty-keyboard/Open linkView original on lemm.ee
I love how this is one of the first criticisms, as if that wasn't the entire point of this device.
Ah yes, I forgot THAT'S why I didn't go for this thing.
I just watched the video in the article, and the slow refresh rate also makes the touch controls frustratingly unresponsive. I love the concept, and might be interested in the next generation of this device, but the poor responsiveness is a deal breaker.
And you have to hold down the shift or Fn while hitting the desired key. Like a freaking desktop keyboard. No sticky. Wtf is up with that?
Yep, for numbers, too. Like, I need two thumbs and bifocals to dial a phone number.
Yup. Definitely an awful design choice.
Pretty sure you can enable sticky keys on any keyboard in the settings. It's Android 14 and sticky keys is in the settings.
Yeah but it's a hardware keyboard, not a screen-keyboard. I am not saying that means it won't work - I definitely don't know - but it's conspicuous they focused on it briefly. SHRUG lol I'm sure there will be a hack for it if it doesn't already behave how people want.
The setting works on Bluetooth or plug in keyboards where you use a dongle.
Edit yeah I think the dude that made the video doesn't know that setting exists
Is that just the best an e-ink device can do? I didn't even know you could get e-ink touchscreens at all!
Pretty much all kindles have touch screens these days.
And the current generation of Supernote, Remarkable, etc e-ink tablets have reasonable response times.
That's cool, are any of them full Android devices that you can tinker with?
There is mobiscribe wave in both bw and color. The company is shutting down, so they're selling off their inventory for cheap. I bought a pen support bw notebook for $100 and a color pen supported notebook for $170.
Apparently not for Europe
You weren’t kidding. The bw one went from 129 usd to 270 euro even before shipping costs were added.
Simply switching countries from USA to Netherlands.
The Supernote is running a version of Android that let's you sideload stuff, but I haven't messed with it too much. There are also boox devices that are Android based and the inkpalm from Xiaomi.
For the most part though, I think the android versions they use are generally very old.
Ah that's a shame, if there's no guarantee of any kind of ongoing support then it's just ewaste-in-waiting
Meh, Supernote could shutdown tomorrow or upgrade to Android 16 and neither would change anything about how I use it. They also made the internals of this generation replaceable.
Boox has a few. I like mine.
Some Kindles. I know mine can be flashed to full Android instead of the stripped-down version it runs now, but I wouldn't want to do that because it would run so much slower and have terrible battery life.
Current eink devices are much more responsive than older ones, so there were definitely some improvements over the years, we need some more decades for this technology to become a viable alternative in the devices like this.
If there was more demand for it, I doubt it would take decades.
I wish they could be like overclocked to make the most of one if you're stuck with a mediatek chip device. I got a new Galaxy Tab A7 Lite several months back and yeah it was very cheap but its SOOO sluggish! Lag lag lag for almost every single thing! I'm considering selling it off unless I can manage to find a GSI build because all of the few ROMs that were posted for it are not online anymore. If I can manage to find anything it could be made to perform quite well, but as it is with Samsung's awful One-UI it can literally sometimes not handle entering the settings app!
If you are considering this device I suggest if your current phone has a grayscale mode, turn that on for a week to see if you can get used to it.
I always wind up turning it off.
Yeah. I have it set to turn on automatically when it's bedtime or when I manually set "Do Not Disturb". Makes me not to want to use my phone.
I don't think it's a fair comparison. The greatest aspect of e-ink screens is not giving strain to the eyes. Looking at a greyscale phone will just have the downsides of both worlds.
Your point is valid. My advice isn't for an emulation for e-ink, but it's to see if someone can get over not seeing color on their phone. Color adds so much to the user experience.
Oh, I get it now, it makes sense too
TCL is releasing a new phone later this year with a toggle-able e-ink mode. So you can use it with in full color when you want, and switch to e-ink when you want. It's in a more conventional aspect ratio so apps will look more "normal". I can say from experience with my Boox e-reader that a lot of apps do not work well in 4:3.
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/6/24335983/tcl-60-xe-nxtpaper-e-ink-specs-ces
Might be my next phone if the CPU and software is not awful (big if).
E ink like mode. It’s not actually e ink it just makes the screen black and white. In the video they talk about how it’s just more of a low power/distraction free mode.
I despise the marketing of these eink-like screens. None of the biggest benefits of eink with all of the biggest drawbacks? The fuck?
Oh huh. I didn't know there even was a video. Perhaps my ad/tracker blockers cut it.
Just found a hands-on CNET video: https://www.cnet.com/videos/at-ces-2025-tcl-debuts-new-tcl-60-phone-with-e-ink-display/
Never used TCL's "Nxtpaper" so not totally sure how it compares.
In the CNET video below it looks like a different home screen and everything you launch into, it doesn't just switch to monochrome and both articles claim massive battery life gains when in eink mode meaning it's not just LED but curious to know more and keep an eye out
Afaik it's an LCD that can use more reflected (environment) light and not just it's own. So yes, high energy savings compared to having the LED background on at full.
Over the decades a few such LCDs were developed by various companies, nifty tech & experience, but the growth of battery capacities allowed for punchier colors of classic background LED LCDs and now OLEDs to dominate.
I always like these concepts, but they are always so expensive. Why is it so hard to just do a $50 eink phone. It doesn't even need the latest and greatest hardware just decently usable.
It's unfortunate but I think the niche aspect of the phone makes it more expensive. I'd wager a guess that at 50$ a phone they won't recoup development and manufacturing fees without big sales.
Don't forget order sizes. If you produce 500 a batch, your costs are going to be way higher than if you produce 10k a batch
Niche means expensive.
Huh, actually a properly different way of doing a phone. I guess the key question is what we can expect in terms of support and openness, i.e. how do we know the company won't go bust in six months and leave us with something we can't put a custom ROM on?
Is the Maps app just... a map lol
The x marks the spot
Phone is good and interesting. The price point though isn't.
Would love to see the phone drop down in price.
Oh wow, super interesting
I would really love something like that, or like the phones made by hisense. I love e-inks and they fit very well my phone usage pattern. Too bad I was born in the poor side of the world and will never have the cool stuff
Somos dois, amigo.