TCL is known mostly for its TVs. The Chinese manufacturer provides excellent value devices for lower prices and recently they started making phones as well. However, besides focusing only on affordable devices. TCL has started research into new innovative technologies lately.
TCL had some very interesting folding phone designs last year. While we did not get to see any of the phones in the market it looks like the Chinese manufacturer has something bigger planned.
TCL is going to announce what they call NXTPAPER soon. It is a new type of display panel that is geared towards better safety and the health of the user. It will offer better eye protection by reducing flicker, blue light, and light output. The display aims to look more like a paper and less like a screen.
It will reduce eye strain over longer usage for users who want to read things using the panel. TCL says that they have gotten this panel tested from the German Rhine laboratory. The company also owns 11 different patents for eye protection.
While the technology sounds and looks really exciting it will not be debuting in phones. TCL plans to use this display technology in tablets and reading devices. this makes sense given the reader-oriented screen and lesser strain effects. The new screen technology features up to Full HD resolution and good refresh rates while maintaining a paper-like experience.
Compared to a similar device in the market called E ink. TCL says that their version has a 25 percent higher contrast. To reduce backlight strain this display technology uses a highly reflective screen that allows it to harvest more of the natural light from the environment. TCL also said that their NXTPAPER technology will be 36 percent thinner than a typical LCD panel while still retaining higher a contrast ratio. In addition, this screen is 65 percent more power-efficient than mainstream panels because of lesser backlight usage.
The New Reading Screen:
Because of their light nature and specific characteristics. Typical E Ink devices have to use very low refresh rates. This means that whenever you try to play a video or animation having higher frames than the refresh rate the display will get choppy and stutter. This effect really hurts the media consumption experience on these devices. Tcl reports than they have upgraded the existing technology to allow for higher frame rates.
Also Read: Samsung Phones to Get Sliding Displays
While that still remains to be tested when the actual product comes out. However, if TCL’s NXTPAPER does support smooth video playback at an acceptable refresh rate, it would certainly mean a lot of sales for the company. TCL only provided a render of the new technology therefore not every aspect of it is clear yet. there will be a demo release sometime in the future and we expect it to clear out these things.
In addition, there are no release dates out yet and no news about the availability as well. A good estimate of when products equipped with this tech hit stores would be sometime next year. TCL said that they plan to launch it sometime “in the near future”. This is a very vague statement it could be a couple of months or it could also mean a whole year until the release. Hopefully this time TCL will not just put it aside like the rest of their ideas and will finally show the world their display capabilities.