E-reader fans want to bring back the book look, ignoring what made Kindles great 

There’s a wave of e-reader innovation on the rise, but one specific direction baffles me: dual-screened e-readers that fold like a paperback. While the prospect of having an e-reader that emulates the original two-fold book design seems fun, I absolutely loathe the idea of having two halves by choice, necessitating that I either use two hands or flex my fingers across the hinged gutter.

Recently, a few indie engineers and hobbyists have started building foldable e-readers like the Diptyx, a DIY dual-screen project that literally hinges in the middle so you can see two “pages” at once. It’s a flex of creativity, sure, but it’s also the kind of innovation that begs the question: to what end? My go-to reading position is under the blankets, lying on one side. The worst part of reading a physical book is having to adjust depending on which page I’m on. When I imagine reading on a build like the Diptyx, I just know that I’d end up slapped in the face with half an e-reader.

The appeal is obvious, though: nostalgia. Dual-screen and book-fold designs attempt to recapture the feel of a real book, with two pages visible at once and a crack down the middle. The problem is that the good old days required that format. We built e-readers to escape bulk, glue, spines, and the delicate art of holding a book open with one knee while eating chips.

Early experiments like the e-paper/LDC split enTourage eDGe (launched back in 2010) already proved the point: dual-screen devices look charming in renders but clunky in real hands. They add weight, fragility, and a hinge that will likely eventually give out. They also split your attention between two panels when digital reading has always been about streamlining the reading experience. When e-readers first took off, they succeeded precisely because they escaped books’ physical constraints. The Kindle worked because it didn’t need to look like a book. It was light, portable, and only required one hand out of the blanket.

The Diptyx project, along with other small-batch DIY prototypes, shows how passionate the open-hardware community still is about tinkering, and that is commendable. A book-shaped e-reader is a fun engineering challenge. But beyond the novelty, there’s little reason for everyday readers to want one. For most, a single panel does everything better. Dual screens double the power draw, require more complex firmware, and create more points of failure. Even if executed perfectly, you end up with something bulkier and more expensive, all to simulate a behavior (two facing pages) that serves no real purpose. After all, we have one set of eyes, and they’re either going to look at this page or that page, not both simultaneously.

Fortunately, the big players seem to be steering clear of this throwback trend. Companies like Amazon, Kobo, and Boox are putting their energy into logical innovation and areas that genuinely improve the reading experience (rather than imitate old habits). The Kindle Scribe line added stylus support, and, most recently, a color E-Ink display, all while keeping Amazon’s trademark simplicity. Kobo’s Libra Colour does the same, offering a splash of life for comics and magazines without sacrificing portability. Boox’s Note Air5 C and Palma 2 Pro continue to push display tech and software flexibility forward while playing with different sizes and portability goals.

In other words, major brands are embracing progress where it counts: display quality, note-taking, cross-platform reading, and color fidelity. The indie space experimenting with dual-screen designs is proof that there’s room for creativity in a niche market. However, e-readers gained traction because they solved real problems. Problems like carrying thousands of books in your bag.

Maybe I’m just not nostalgic enough, but I don’t think that’s the problem. I’d love a personified monster to gift me an extravagant library just as much as Belle. I get the romance of shelves and spines and paper that smells faintly like water damage. But that’s the magic of books. E-readers have their own. E-readers should be the optimal format for digital reading, not a cosplay for print. Books should be books, and e-readers should proudly be something different.