Skip to content
Sign in
Technology · Global

E Ink unveils Kaleido 4, says it doubles color gamut and raises reflectance and contrast

E Ink introduced the Kaleido 4 color e-reader display, which the company says doubles the color gamut volume of Kaleido 3. E Ink also says Kaleido 4 increases white reflectance by 15 percent, boosts contrast by 50 percent and still produces 4,096 colors while using lower-resolution color than for black-and-white text.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 3 outlets' reporting · Full text read from 1 of 3 outletsHow it's made

View timeline · 4 entries
3 outletsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: Too few ratedL 0 · C 2 · R 0 · 1 unrated
Updat3 graphic: E Ink
Updat3 graphic

What happened

Key facts

  • E Ink announced the Kaleido 4 display as an upgrade to Kaleido 3 (per The Verge, hackster.io, Yahoo).
  • E Ink says Kaleido 4 doubles the "color gamut volume" compared with Kaleido 3 (per The Verge, hackster.io, Yahoo).
  • E Ink says Kaleido 4 raises white reflectance by 15 percent (per The Verge).
  • E Ink says Kaleido 4 boosts contrast by 50 percent (per The Verge).
  • Hanvon Technology will be the first company to adopt Kaleido 4 in its upcoming M10C II tablet, according to The Verge (per The Verge).

The brief

E Ink has announced Kaleido 4, its next-generation color e-paper display, positioning the panel as an iterative improvement over the Kaleido 3 screens used in most color e-readers.

The company says the new panel doubles the “color gamut volume” of Kaleido 3 while maintaining the same palette of 4,096 colors, a combination E Ink presents as a way to make color images look richer without moving to millions of colors found on LCD or OLED panels.

The Verge reported these technical claims and noted the panel continues to render color at lower resolution than black-and-white text, as with prior Kaleido generations. Alongside the doubled color gamut, E Ink says Kaleido 4 increases white reflectance by 15 percent and boosts contrast by 50 percent compared with Kaleido 3.

The Verge framed those gains as specifically relevant to plain text, saying higher reflectance and contrast should make black-and-white text appear less muddy than it often does on Kaleido 3 displays. The company’s claims about reflectance, contrast and color gamut are presented by The Verge as manufacturer statements rather than independently verified measurements.

The Verge also contrasted Kaleido 4 with E Ink’s Gallery 3 approach, noting Gallery 3 offers different performance characteristics but has seen limited adoption because its displays have a slow refresh rate that can feel frustrating to use.

That comparison is used to explain why E Ink appears to be iterating on the Kaleido line rather than pushing Gallery 3 more broadly into the current market. Device makers have not widely announced plans to ship Kaleido 4, but The Verge reported that Hanvon Technology will be the first to adopt the new panel in its forthcoming M10C II tablet.

The Verge said companies including Amazon and Kobo had not announced devices with Kaleido 4 at the time of its report.

Technical limits remain part of The Verge’s account: despite the doubled color gamut and the stated gains in reflectance and contrast, Kaleido 4 still produces a palette of 4,096 colors, far fewer than the millions of colors modern backlit or emissive displays can render.

The Verge therefore presents Kaleido 4 as a manufacturer-led refinement of color e-paper that improves certain optical characteristics while retaining the resolution trade-offs that have defined earlier Kaleido panels.

The announcement frames Kaleido 4 as a step to improve how color images and plain text appear on e-paper devices, with initial incorporation planned by Hanvon Technology. The Verge’s coverage attributes all performance claims to E Ink and identifies the Gallery 3 refresh-rate issue as a factor limiting broader adoption of that alternative technology.

Why it matters

  • E-reader owners who read color images bear the concrete cost of current Kaleido limits because Kaleido 4 still renders only 4,096 colors, a palette far smaller than LCD and OLED screens and documented in The Verge report.
  • Readers of black-and-white text on Kaleido-equipped devices stand to see a measurable change because E Ink says white reflectance rises by 15 percent and contrast increases by 50 percent, which The Verge says should reduce muddiness in plain text.
  • Device makers deciding which display to adopt have a documented interest: The Verge reports that Gallery 3 has seen limited uptake because its slow refresh rate deters users, which helps explain why manufacturers may prefer an improved Kaleido panel.
  • Hanvon Technology is the first documented adopter, so Hanvon’s customers specifically stand to receive the announced improvements when the M10C II tablet ships, per The Verge.

What to watch next

  • Whether Hanvon Technology ships the M10C II tablet with Kaleido 4 as The Verge reports.
  • Whether Amazon or Kobo announce new devices using Kaleido 4, a possibility The Verge noted had not occurred at the time of its report.
  • Whether independent measurements confirm E Ink’s claims that Kaleido 4 raises white reflectance by 15 percent and boosts contrast by 50 percent, figures The Verge attributes to E Ink.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
3 source articles · 3 unique outlets
Coverage mix: Too few rated· 2 Center
Where the outlets are based: US/Canada 67% · Unknown 33%
Coverage mix
Too few rated
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
2 outlets
0 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 1 unrated outlet is not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
3 unique outletsDominant coverage: US/Canada
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments reported in this story's sources, and dated background from our historical context. Each row says which.
  1. E Ink Corporation itself was founded in 1997 to develop electrophoretic displays and has built a patent portfolio around microcapsule-based reflective displays since the late 1990s.
    Background · from our historical context
  2. Those color efforts rest on E Ink’s electrophoretic display technology, first commercialized in consumer devices after the launch of the Amazon Kindle using E Ink grayscale panels in 2007.
    Background · from our historical context
  3. The Kaleido family traces to E Ink’s first color e-paper prototype released as “Kaleido” in 2019.
    Background · from our historical context
  4. E Ink’s new panel follows the company’s prior Kaleido 3 color e-paper platform, which E Ink introduced in 2022 as the successor to its earlier Kaleido-generation color filters.
    Background · from our historical context

How we got here

E Ink’s new panel follows the company’s prior Kaleido 3 color e-paper platform, which E Ink introduced in 2022 as the successor to its earlier Kaleido-generation color filters. The Kaleido family traces to E Ink’s first color e-paper prototype released as “Kaleido” in 2019.

Those color efforts rest on E Ink’s electrophoretic display technology, first commercialized in consumer devices after the launch of the Amazon Kindle using E Ink grayscale panels in 2007. E Ink Corporation itself was founded in 1997 to develop electrophoretic displays and has built a patent portfolio around microcapsule-based reflective displays since the late 1990s.

Original sources

2 of 3 articles · US/Canada · Show all

Every story links to the reporting it was built from. How we choose sources

Spotted a factual error, a broken link or a misleading summary? Tell us.