Is e-ink the answer? An experiment.

15 May, 2026

There is currently a trend to reduce screentime in general, and in particular to replace screens with e-ink equivalents as a tool to do it. The Xteink X4 is a very trendy device right now (if you're in nerdy circles anyway). You can buy e-ink computer monitors, tablets you can write on, with color screens to read comic books on.

Is e-ink a screen?

Literally yes, obviously. But e-ink is static and less stimulating, less colorful, and sometimes looks like actual paper. It's also just too slow to use to scroll, play many games or consume video content. It doesn't even have to glow. So it's not technically reducing screentime but it could definitely reduce people's bad habits.

My e-ink devices

I've purchased an ereader around every five years or so, but tended to keep the old ones which keep working, which makes me wonder if I've got some overconsumption going honestly (each new purchase did have a feature the previous one lacked though, like a touchscreen or a warm backlight). The Kindles sync though so they're nice to keep in different locations or bags or whatnot. I was just recently gifted a Mudita Kompakt too, so I have a small stable of devices I can try and put towards this experiment.

Personally I am actually fairly skeptical this will make a difference in my mood, focus, or anything really. I have a computer job so there's a lot of unavoidable screen in my life right there. I have also found words on paper to be fairly engrossing, I was a kid who walked around with a book in my hand, so I definitely think I can still waste a lot of time staring at e-ink.

It might reduce eyestrain a bit, though, which I'm definitely interested in since I've recently had eye surgery.

What I'm gonna do

I will endeavor to send news articles to my Kindles instead of reading them on my phone. I'll try to remember to take one of these devices out with me so I'll reach for it instead of a conventional screen. To that effort, I will use the Kompakt instead of my iPhone whenever possible¹. I will keep the brightness on these devices off whenever possible so these look and feel more like books.

There are a few things I "need" to be able to do, like play chess without using my phone, so I'll have to try and figure out how to do what with only these devices available to me.

After two weeks...? or so of this effort, I will report back with my results.

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This post was last edited 32 minutes ago.

#lowtech