New smart home display features e-ink screen, battery and WiFi

M5Stack is offering the M5Paper Color ESP32S3 dev kit, a new display that can effectively also be described as a dev board with an integrated display. Specifically, it uses a 4-inch e-ink display, making it smaller than most e-readers. The E Ink Spectra display has a resolution of 400 x 600 pixels and supports colors.

The usual advantages and disadvantages of displays based on electronic ink apply. They require little power and remain easy to read in bright ambient light without strong backlighting, but they are not particularly responsive. As a result, these displays are especially well suited for showing information when the content does not change within milliseconds. The system is based on an ESP32-S3R8 processor with two Xtensa LX7 cores and a clock speed of up to 240 MHz. It has 16 MB of flash storage and 8 MB of PSRAM. A microSD card can be used and is more or less required if photos are to be displayed, for example.

The WiFi connection is supported only in the 2.4 GHz band, but this wireless data transfer option enables use as a smart home display, for instance. However, users will largely have to handle development themselves. Thanks to a battery with a capacity of 1,250 mAh, the display can also be used without a permanent power supply. The M5Paper Color ESP32S3 Dev Kit is available directly from the manufacturer for $75.