Mobile phones

Chinese smartphone producer Infinix demonstrated a new phone concept, that is powered by the company's own e-Color Shift 2.0 technology. The main idea is that the color E Ink display on the back shows colorful patterns, based on the current weather, controlled by an AI software. There are also preset patterns available for the users to choose.

It seems as this is only a concept so far, it'll be interesting to see if Infinix commercializes the technology. The company is also showing a concept phone case that includes an embedded perovskite solar panel to harvest indoor and outdoor light energy.

Smartphone maker Infinix showcased the E-Color Shift, a smartphone rear panel that is covered with E Ink Prism 3 panels that enables users to change (the maintain) the colors of the cover.

Infinix did not yet disclose whether it aims to commercialize such technology in the future.

In 2019 Hisense announced two interesting E Ink smartphones - the A5, with its 5.8" HD+ display and the A6 which sports two displays - a 6.1" 2160×1080 AMOLED display on the front and a 5.6" touch E Ink Carta HD screen on the back.

Both smartphones are now shipping from China (AliExpress) - The A5 starts at $235 and the A6 starts at $415.

Hisense demonstrated a smartphone prototype with a color E Ink display, developed in cooperation with E Ink Corporation. The display supports 4,096 colors and Hisense says it optimized the display for applications such as web browsing, wechat, and more.

Hisense says it will ship this phone in the middle of 2020.

This nice video from our friend Charbax shows a couple of interesting Hisense smartphones. The first is a A5, with its 5.8" HD+ display and low $100 price tag, and the second is the A6 which sports two displays - a 6.1" 2160×1080 AMOLED display on the front and a 5.6" touch E Ink Carta HD screen on the back.

According to reports Russia-based YotaPhone is bankrupt. YotaPhone developed dual-screen smartphones. Its latest device was the YotaPhone 2 -which sported a 5" OLED front display and a 4.7" E Ink touch screen on the back

The Yotaphone were innovative, but sadly it seems as there was low consumer demand for such devices.

A team of researchers from Microsoft Research recently demonstrates how adding an integrated display cover can enhance smartphone productivity and reliability.

The researchers used a Microsoft Lumia 640 smartphone - and have added an E Ink cover to provide a large always-on display.

E Ink iPhone case developer PopSlate announced that the company has entered into the legal process for dissolution of the company, and current customers that ordered its PopSlate 2 case will not get their products or be issued a refund

In early 2016 PopSlate raised $1.1 million in a crowd funding campaign to develop the PopSlate 2 - which was supposed to offer a 4.7" 800x450 E Ink display for the back of your phone.

Samsung filed a patent in Korea for a mobile phone cover that includes an E Ink display to show notifications. Some covers include a transparent part (or just a hole) through which you can see the display - and if it's an OLED, it makes sense because this uses very little power (only lit pixels draw power in an OLED display).

This is just a patent application for now, but it will be interesting if Samsung actually produced such an accessory for one of its future or present smartphones.

A report by the Taiwanese the Economic Daily News suggests that Apple requested display samples from E Ink Holdings, as the iPhone maker is considering adding a secondary E Ink panel to future devices.

Siswood dual-screen phone

Even if this report is true, this is still a very early stage and can even indicate a testing request and nothing more. E Ink did not confirm the reports, of course, saying that "We are aggressively exploring business opportunities to use our e-paper displays as secondary screens on mobile phones". Stocks in E Ink Holdings soared to an almost four-year high following this report, though.