InkCase Plus Adds A Second, Standalone E-ink Screen To Your Android Phone
With more of our attention being gobbled up by smartphone screens it's no wonder phone displays have gotten bigger. But there's a natural limit on how big a phone's screen can get before you're basically holding a tablet.
Context & Ripple Effects
InkCase Plus lands in the middle of the phablet era: Gigaom's January 2014 analysis argued that phones keep growing because they've absorbed post-PC tasks — which is exactly why a second, low-power screen appeals, since reading and notifications no longer need the main display at all.
It also has a long lineage. E Ink demoed a bluetooth-enabled e-ink concept back in 2007, and Imerj showed a dual-screened 2-in-1 Android smartpad prototype in 2011; InkCase Plus is the accessory-market version of the same idea — bolt a reflective display onto a phone rather than rebuild the phone. The breadth of same-day pickups (Engadget, BGR, Digital Trends, Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint and others) suggests real curiosity about whether the category can stick.
First-order effects
- Android owners get a way to read and triage notifications on an e-ink panel that sips power instead of waking the main screen — the accessory competes with the phone's own display for attention, not just for case space.
Second-order effects
- Handset makers pushing ever-larger LCDs now have an accessory answer to the eye-strain and battery complaints that come with big bright panels; if the accessory sells, OEMs face pressure to build a low-power second surface into the device itself.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, phones split their displays by task — a reflective, always-on layer for glanceable information layered over or beside the media screen — turning 'second screen' from Kickstarter accessory into a design consideration for mainstream hardware.
The trend: Smartphone design is edging toward hybrid display stacks, where a low-power e-ink surface handles reading and notifications while the primary screen is reserved for media.