So a funny thing happens when you launch a product that’s generated a lot of buzz among a small group of geeky tech enthusiasts… turns out they’re actually willing to spend money to buy that product. Yesterday Pixel Qi announced that the first DIY touchscreen kits with the company’s low power, outdoor readable displays were ready for purchase. Today they’re out of stock.

Maker Shed says that more should be available soon and the store is taking pre-orders. But this is pretty spectacular considering the Pixel Qi display runs $275, or roughly the same price as the 10 inch netbook you’re probably going to put the thing in.

The Pixel Qi display can function as a full color LCD display. But if you turn off the backlight, the screen uses 80% less power in high-contrast (nearly black and white mode). In high contrast mode, the screen is also easy to read in direct sunlight, and it maintains a high screen refresh rate, which means that you can watch video and perform other activities with a Pixel Qi display that would be difficult with an E Ink screen.

The initial batch of screens are 10.1 inches, and are designed to fit in select netbooks including the Samsung N130 and Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2.

via Engadget

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9 replies on “Initial crop of Pixel Qi DIY display kits are sold out”

  1. When in shock, people stop doing elementary things. Like asking themselves aloud:
    1. What the phreaking hue is this? Many previous Pixel Qi demos have brownish-sepia, this one is bluish — in the clip. What was in reality?
    2. What were the critical viewing angles, from all 4 sides? A small original batch of PixelQi screens had lousy (100-120 degrees?) viewing angles, plus lower contrast ratio, to add insult to injury.
    3. Theoretically, a monochrome rendering of (True-, Open-, Free- )type fonts requires a bit different ClearType adjustment for contrasts of hinting elements of a glyph. Now one thing is comparison with e-Ink (naturally, on the texts with the same font face and size), the other thing is to discover a better text readability when in the “eInk” mode.
    4. At least subjectively, how “deep” does text within the PixelQi display look when compared to Kindle?
    5. The deal resulting in a useless spare original display kinda sucks. Those Maker-Shedders should have offer also a displayless 10″ Tegra 2 DIY tablet in a combo deal

    1. Not really. Pixel Qi says the Samsung N130 is supported, and he’s using a Samsung N135, which is basically the same system. But it’s still pretty cool to see this in the wild.

  3. My guess is that it was just a publicity stunt to try and try and prove that the product isn’t vaporware. The fact that they sold out so quickly (indicating there were very few to be had) just does more to show that it is vaporware after all. I’m waiting to hear whether anyone actually gets product shipped to them…..

  4. The netbooks required aren’t as specific as you think they are. So far what I know is anything with the LG Philips LP101WSA-TLA1 should handle Pixel Qi just fine. This would include various netbooks from acer, asus, hp, dell, and lenovo. Then you have the Samsung N130, not sure what screen it uses, but other netbooks using the same screen should be able to work with it without a hitch. On top of those exact models, you also have the compatible screens, so if you have a netbook that doesn’t come with those exact models, but are compatible with them, then there’s a pretty good chance the 3qi will be compatible as well. I think the 3qi should be able to cover a wide range of netbooks and not just those two specific netbooks mentioned.

  5. How many were there? I really find it hard to believe there were that many willing modders around with the specific netbooks required and $275+ to spare, unless there were only half a dozen screens to start with. Still vapourware as far as commercial production levels are concerned, I posit.

    1. smells of vaporware if not worse: DIY 10″ Pixel Qi kits were promised back in February, presumably containing just Pixel Qi layers. What is offered now is the whole Pixel Qi display. That is, an LCD panel is included, so it only makes sense to those DIYers who have their original tablet/netbook’s screens broken.
      These guys (Notion Ink, PixelQi/OLPC — I call them “No Child’s Behind Was Left”) are so short on cash they will gladly sell you their grandma’s ashes.
      Anyone heard of Liquavista DIY kits? The video on Maker stops suspiciously short of demonstrating whether the whole thing even works. Then again, it seems like all the first kit buyers (all 20 of them, heh) shot themselves through their heads: where are your freaking reviews, dudes?

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