E Ink Is Not a Screen With the Brightness Turned Down
The reason to own a dedicated reader rather than read on a tablet or a phone comes down to a difference in how the screens work, and it is worth understanding because it is the whole product. A conventional display emits light: a backlight shines outward through the panel into your eyes, which is why a phone is uncomfortable in a dark room and washes out in sunlight. An E Ink display emits nothing. Pigment particles are moved by an electric field to form the page, and you read it by reflected light, just as you read paper, so bright sunlight makes it better rather than worse. The Paperwhite's front light works the other way to a backlight, lighting the surface of the page rather than shining through it, and it adjusts from white to amber. That matters for evening reading: the warm setting makes it easier to fall asleep after reading in bed, and the light can be gentle enough not to disturb a sleeping partner.
