I've been using the XIAO 7.5-inch ePaper Panel for quite a long time now, and it's sat on my desk in more or less the same form since I purchased it in the middle of last year. It's a great way for me to get my bearings on the day, with it showing the time of my next work-related call, my tasks for the day, and both the current weather conditions and the next few hours. Since receiving the Spectra 6-color E-Ink display, alongside the EE04 driver board, both from Seeed Studio, I've been able to make it some pretty nice improvements.

Are there many differences? No, but that's kind of the point. I've been able to add some color to my dashboard, and also make use of the buttons on the back to control the display and have separate pages. Now, I have a dedicated weather page, alongside a dedicated work page, so that I can focus on one at a time. For example, when it's the weekend, I can switch it over to the weather page without thinking about work, and I can switch to have a better view of my workday on a typical day.

Right now, the weather pages and work pages are a little barebones, mostly serving as expanded versions of the combined overview with the addition of a calendar block of the next few hours. However, with a Slack integration, I could highlight when I get a message on the screen, or even use the IMAP integration to flag when a triaged email comes in so I can look at it.

As for the brains behind the operation, the EE04 board does most of the heavy lifting. It handles connectivity to the large SPI-based e-paper panel and is small enough to hide inside of my 3D printed casing. Once it's wired up, the rest is just done through ESPHome. The 3D printed case that I'm using is this one from Printables. It's for the 7.5-inch TRMNL DIY kit, but it fits perfectly, as the glass panel itself is the same size.

Color helps things stand out more

Glanceability is worth it

The biggest change between this and the monochrome XIAO ePaper Panel is one of the simplest you can get: color. It's not bright or backlit, and it's still print-like in its presentation. Both types of panels are good, but you get the best of both worlds between ePaper and a regular LCD panel here. It still has long battery life, but you get more than just black and white.

On the combined overview page, I can establish a visual hierarchy without adding clutter, though my current implementation of that is rather basic. The heading is red in order to help it stand out, the dashboard page and status at the top is blue, and the next call (if one is scheduled) is in red. This means that important work-related information stands out without me having to read every line on the screen, and while it sounds minor, it's a big deal for a display that's meant to be glanced at rather than interacted with.

It's also unlocked additional dimensions to think about when it comes to layout. Think about it: on a monochrome panel, everything competes for the same visual weight unless you're very aggressive with font sizes and spacing. With the Spectra display here, I can keep things compact while still making them legible at a distance. The red stands out massively, and I use green to essentially signal "nothing urgent," like my "No calls" status indicator. All of it adds up to make something that's easier to parse in a second or two than a regular monochrome display.

The other improvement I didn't fully appreciate until I started using it was the addition of the physical buttons thanks to the EE04. For an e-paper device like this, they're perfect. There's no ambiguity about what will happen when you press a button as it's binary; it's either pressed or it's not.

Being able to flip between pages changes how I use the display, and can even help when it comes to work-life balance. During the week, the work page gets most of my focus, though the general overview page with both columns is good if I need to go out at some point during the day. At the weekend, the weather page stays up almost permanently. It's a small interaction, but it makes the device feel less like a static noticeboard and more like something that adapts to how I'm using my desk that day. My next addition will to to make this automatic: for weekends and days off, I'll make it switch to the weather page by itself, rather than me needing to do it manually.

The only downside of this display is the same as the reTerminal E1002, which is the long refresh time when updating content on the screen. To display a target color on this display, the controller has to send carefully timed voltage waveforms that push some pigments forward and pull others back, and moving too quickly can result in pixels being put in the wrong place. You can't partially refresh the screen either, so each screen change can take up to 15 seconds to complete. For content that's staying more or less static throughout the day, though, that's completely fine.

These displays aren't too smart, and they look great

E-paper isn't distracting

Projects like these are some of my favorites; they're simple, easy to use, and fit in basically anywhere. E-paper displays aren't bright and backlit, so they don't stand out, but they can be just as useful as any other display when it comes to static content. It's just as practical as the XIAO ePaper Panel, but with added color, and that's all it needs to be great.

This isn't a smart display in the traditional sense, and that's exactly why I love it. It's a quiet productivity buddy that's a part of my home office, rather than yet another screen for working off of. The EE04 is the perfect controller for it, and it's essentially the same driver board as you get with the TRMNL DIY kit.

If you've ever considered designing a dashboard that works for you, without distractions of a backlit screen while also lasting for up to weeks at a time on a single charge, then a larger ePaper display might be for you. I've been using one for a long time now, and this is a nice little upgrade over it that makes the experience even better.