14 DAY TRIAL // LG has made the announcement of a product that may very well change the face of the e-book and e-reader industry into one that customers have been wanting to see for a long time.
What the company did was formally introduce the first plastic electronic paper display, or EPD for short, that can bend at an angle of up to 40 degrees.
Granted, lots of gadgets and panels can bend if you really do your best to force them (and use wrenches and other contraptions, not that we'd ever advise it), but this new one does it and can return to its original shape without getting damaged.
It is a first step, of sorts, towards an age of consumer electronics that fold and roll like small notepads and paper scrolls.
"With the world's first plastic EPD, LG Display has once again proven its reputation for leadership and innovation with a product we believe will help greatly popularize the E-Book market," said Mr. Sang Duck Yeo, head of operations for LG Display's Mobile/OLED division.
"Based on our success in mass-producing plastic EPD, we are excited as we look toward applying concepts from this experience to future developments like plastic OLED and flexible displays."
LG's 6-inch display has a native resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels, which is more than decent for its size.
The thickness is of 0.7 millimeters, about a third thinner than glass panels with the same specs, while the weight of 14 grams is negligible (half compared to glass screens).
Furthermore, multiple drop tests have proved that nothing bad will happen to LG's latest invention even if it is dropped from 1.5 meters, although they didn't account for the extra weight involved when actually part of a gadget or other.
LG will start shipping the plastic EPD to ODMs (original design manufacturer) in China and then expand to Europe by next month (April 2012).