While there is little information available about the evolution of e-ink, speculation is running high about the future Carta 1400 generation, which has been pushed back and will most likely arrive in 2027.
TLDR; E Ink’s next black and white screen generation, Carta 1400, has reportedly been delayed and is now expected in 2027. Nothing is official yet, but industry sources suggest E Ink’s main goal is a much faster refresh rate, which would open the door to e-ink smartphones and tablets. If it delivers, e-readers would get faster and stylus devices like the reMarkable and the Kindle Scribe would benefit too. A lower manufacturing cost is also possible, which could bring cheaper devices to the market.
Carta technology is dominant in the world of black and white e-ink, and past years have brought significant improvements:
- Better contrast
- A better refresh rate (and therefore a faster display)
- Better definition (therefore a more precise display)
- Lower power consumption
The latest available generation is Carta 1300, which already offers an excellent level of text rendering. It is the e-ink screen found in black and white, high definition e-readers such as the Kobo Clara BW or the Boox GO 6 Gen 2.
One possible improvement concerns the manufacturing cost. With rising component prices making e-readers more expensive to build, Carta 1400 could come to market with cheaper screens as well, allowing more affordable devices to be sold.
However, according to sources close to the industry, E Ink, the company behind this technology, mainly wants to improve one specific point in order to offer new uses for these screens and to use them in smartphones (this already exists, with limitations, as on the Bigme HiBreak Pro) or tablets.
To do this, the refresh rate has to be improved further, and Carta 1400 technology seems perfectly suited to deliver that.
This is therefore the direction this new technology is heading in: faster screens that display text, images and, why not, videos more quickly.
If Carta 1400 lives up to its promises, the e-readers we know will be faster, and digital notepads such as the reMarkable and the Kindle Scribe will also be able to take advantage of this improvement for stylus use.
Unfortunately, all of this is still speculation for now, and no official announcement has been made, either from E Ink or from an e-reader manufacturer.
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