Philips has launched a unique monitor that aims to include the best of both worlds, a traditional LCD monitor as well as an E Ink screen. The two-in-one monitor named Philips 24B1D5600 actually consists of two parts with one part being a 23.8-inch LCD and the other being a 13.3-inch E Ink panel.

The IPS LCD panel has a resolution of 2560 × 1440 pixels and a 75 Hz refresh rate. It boasts of a 99.8 percent sRGB color coverage, max brightness of 250 cd/m2, and a response time of 4 ms. All of these make for an excellent monitor that can be a worthy addition to any workplace environment. It is fast and offers an excellent quality picture that makes it fit for all regular office tasks. However, those can still be damaging for your eyes especially if you need to stare at the display for long hours.

It is here that the E Ink panel makes sense. Placed along the right, the 13.3-inch E INK Carta HD  display has a resolution of 1200 × 1600 pixels with 150 PPI. The front-lit display comes with a color temperature system that makes it perfectly readable in any ambient lighting condition. The e-paper display needs to be charged separately, for which there is a USB-C port with support for 15W fast charging. The primary LCD display comes with 90W fast charging support via a USB-C port. A central power module distributing power to the two panels would have been nice but that would have made things more complex, besides perhaps adding to the cost as well.

It is not known at the moment if the E Ink display is removable though that would have been an added incentive. In that case, it would have served as sort of an e-reader as well and introduced new levels of portability and functionality. Interestingly, renders of the Philips two-in-one monitor on IF Design as shown in 2021 included a design that allowed the E Ink portion to be tilted. The final product allows the E Ink part to be tilted 45 degrees, which makes sense considering the comparatively larger expanse of the LCD that would have required you to crane your neck out to the e-paper display. Tiltable functionality will draw it closer to you and hence aid in readability.

As for the benefits of having an E Ink display onboard, well those are well known. E Ink displays are known to be extremely eye-friendly and can be best for reading or editing documents. Anyone who needs to go through a lot of documents, like those in the legal profession or researchers stands to benefit a lot from the new Philips 24B1D5600 two-in-one monitor.

Coming to its availability, the Philips 24B1D5600 two-in-one monitor can be ordered via the Good e-Reader store for $1,499 and ships worldwide. Otherwise, the monitor is currently only on sale in China where it is priced at 5,999 yuan, which comes to around $840. Full 25-inch E Ink monitors such as the Dasung 253 Dark Knight or the Onyx Boox Mira Pro can cost several times more – $2600 and $1800 respectively. A standalone 13.3-inch E Ink monitor like the one recently launched by Hanvon costs around 3999 Yuan, which translates to about $550.

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