M5Stack's New PaperColor Pairs an E Ink Spectra 6 ePaper Display with an Espressif ESP32-S3

Embedded and hobbyist electronics specialist M5Stack has launched a new ePaper development kit, combining an Espressif ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller with a color E Ink Spectra 6 display: the M5 PaperColor.

"PaperColor is a development board featuring a 4-inch E Ink Spectra 6 full-color ePaper display with a resolution of 400x600, offering both low power consumption and high visibility," M5Stack writes of its latest hardware. "Suitable for IoT and embedded applications such as electronic signage, voice interaction terminals, environmental monitoring instruments, and art display installations."

The front of the phone-shaped gadget is dominated, of course, by the E Ink Spectra 6 display — an electrophoretic ePaper panel that requires power only when changing states and which lacks a backlight or frontlight, designed instead to provide a paper-like reading experience even in direct sunlight. Unlike early monochrome panels, the Spectra 6 is full color with black, yellow, red, blue, and green "inks" on top of off-white — with the trade-off being a considerably slower refresh rate, measured in double-digit seconds.

Driving the display is an Espressif ESP32-S3R8 module, a 32-bit dual-core Tensilica Xtensa LX7 microcontroller running at up to 240MHz and with 8MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM) and 16MB of flash storage. There's 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connectivity on-board, plus Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy (BLE) — though this latter feature may not be exposed in the firmware, as it's not mentioned in M5Stack's specs. A USB Type-C port provides data and power connectivity, while also charging a 1,250mAh internal battery.

Elsewhere in the housing are three user-definable buttons plus a power button that doubles as a reset and boot-select button, a microSD slot for expandable storage, an audio chip connected to an amplified internal speaker, MEMS microphone, real-time clock (RTC), and a temperature/humidity sensor for environmental monitoring. There are also two RGB LEDs on board, and an infrared emitter for remote control applications — though no matching receiver, so the control is in one direction only.

The M5 PaperColor is now available to order on the M5Stack store at $75; additional information, including how to write software for it using the Arduino IDE, is available in the company's documentation pages.