Does anyone here have a BOOX e-paper tablet? I’m a big fan of e-paper devices—I love my Pebble smartwatch, Kindle Paperwhite, and Light Phone II. I’ve been eyeing the Tab Ultra C for quite a while, and I am considering the pros and cons. Mostly, I intend to use it for browsing the web and maybe some light note taking and document writing.
You can’t backlight e-paper. You could get a book light, though!
What? You absolutely can. Look at… Every recent model of kindle.
E-ink displays are opaque. The Kindles with illumination use side-lighting with a layer of plastic that guides the light across the surface of the device. They are effectively front-lit using LEDs situated around the perimeter of the screen.
The use of the term backlight is common, but even Amazon refers to it as a “front light” (it’s edge-lit, of course, as you say). Bit like using a floppy disc as the “save” icon, or walling wireless networks “wi-fi” despite having nothing to to with “fidelity”. We all know what it means.
Except for me, apparently. I’ll have to update my vocabulary: backlight can mean front light.