Concept image, not actual product
Amazon’s Kindle e-reader was refreshed sometime back in 2011 which saw the announcement of the Kindle Fire Android tablet launch beside it. Well for those who are wondering what Amazon could be bringing to the table as far as its Kindle e-reader is concerned in 2012, you guys could be in for a pleasant surprise. According to David Coldewey of TechCrunch, he had managed to catch a glimpse of a new Amazon Kindle e-reader that features a front-lit screen, finally allowing Kindle owners to read in the dark without the aid of an external light source. According to Coldewey:
“The device I saw was crudely camouflaged in a sort of cardboard enclosure, but the screen was clearly visible. With a tap, a slider popped up on the screen, and as it was dragged to the right, the screen lit up evenly with a rather cool light. In the dark, it was plainly noticeable as a glow, and in uneven light — say, shade or a shuttered room — the slight illumination made the screen much more readable. At full blast it was definitely projecting some light (technically speaking it was reflecting it), but it was still a soft glow and not the harsh flashlight of a backlit LCD.
I commented on the temperature of the light — it was that blue-white glow found in uncorrected white LEDs, not the warm light on off-white that most people associate with books by lamplight. But, of course, the e-ink screen is in fact grey and dark grey, not black on off-white, as paper is, so a cooler light may actually work better. At any rate, they are apparently sensitive to these issues and looking into it. I thought that the text looked better as well, but it’s possible that this was the result of improved font rendering and aliasing reduction, or perhaps something to do with the light.”
While he did manage to catch a glimpse of the new screen, the overall shape and design of the body was hidden although it is safe to assume Amazon won’t deviate too far from the original design. No word on when we could be seeing this new front-lit Kindle e-reader from Amazon, but assuming Amazon works out the kinks in time, we could be seeing it in this year’s refresh.
[Image credit – FLEx Lighting]