Is there any e-ink technology that can display colors?

Question

I had opportunity to buy a Kindle Paperwhite and I was looking for an equivalent which support colors. Amazon have the Kindle Fire but it is a tablet technology which is not comparable to the e-ink.

The reader with e-Ink are (for my usage) superior for the battery life (several weeks without charging) and for the readability under bright place (sunny).

My question is: do you know any device with color e-ink, and if it does not, do you have proof that it can be real one day?

I hope my question is not too opinion centric, I am looking for facts not opinions.

Answer 1

E-ink have had their Triton technology for a few years, which has been available in several commercial products: Hanvon color eReader, JetBook Color and PocketBook Color Lux.

I cannot find the reference, but IIRC there are multiple layers through which the light needs to reflect. Therefore the lighting conditions need to be better than for monochrome eInk displays.

Answer 2

A few years ago at the Tools of Change conference in New York, I got to see a demo of a color eInk display. It was really pretty uninspiring--without any backlight, the colors were all really washed out, more like pastels than anything vibrant--and that's being generous. Even Qualcomm's Mirasol display, which is similar to eInk, didn't have really bright, distinct. Materials technology always advances, of course, so things may be getting better, but I haven't heard any rumors of anything new.

Answer 3

There's also Pixel Qi, which makes LCD screens rather than e-ink, but they claim the screens are sunlight readable and low power. The website has a list of devices that use their screens. I haven't seen any of them in person.