14 DAY TRIAL // Qualcomm has been one of the most active companies present at the 2011 Mobile World Congress, which takes place right now in Barcelona, Spain, and besides the various SoC and chipset announcements made during the show, the outfit also showcased a tablet/eReader device that featured a Mirasol display.
Touted as a major innovation in the field of display technologies, Qualcomm's Mirasol has been slow to gather up Steam on the mobile front (as well as in all the other markets for this matter of fact) as, until now, only a limited number of devices have enclosed such panels.
The IMOD technology was developed by Mark W. Miles, a researcher who co-founded the Iridigm Display Corporation that was acquired by Qualcomm in 2004.
Compared to the regular LCD panels, used in most mobile devices, this technology is more energy efficient and is particularly well suited for devices such as cell phones and eBook readers, as it offers prolonged battery life.
In addition, it also provides better than LCD legibility when exposed to direct sunlight since it reflects the ambient light that hits the screen. This effectively increases the brightness of the display in well-lit environments.
Until now, the technology has only been used in a limited number of devices, including some stereo Bluetooth headsets, mp3 players and a few cell phones designed for the Asian market.
Most of these devices feature black and gray Mirasol panels, but in November of last year, PocketBook has announced that it plans to introduce an eReader that will make use of a full-color Mirasol display.
During the 2011 Mobile World Congress, we got to witness such a display and we were impressed by the color reproduction and with the resolution of the screen (when compared to previous Mirasol prototypes, that is).
