This prototype e-ink Microsoft Surface cover looks incredible

If there’s one feature that we love about the Surface series of tablets from Microsoft, it would be its keyboard covers.

The Microsoft DisplayCover can display different graphics depending on what you’re doing with the keyboard and tablet.

Microsoft used an e-ink touchscreen for this device simply because this way, it can achieve better battery life.

Dubbed the “DisplayCover”, the accessory includes a full keyboard and an ultra-thin e-ink display, which has 1280×305 pixels (for contrast, a Kindle has a resolution of 800×600 on a 6-inch display).

Where the DisplayCover differs, aside from the loss of OLED keys in favor of standard laser-etched plastic, is that the display is based on an e-ink electrophoretic display.

DisplayCover supports dynamic UI manipulation, concurrent access to multiple applications, stylus annotation, gestures and trackpad interactions on the horizontal plane. It also accepts handwriting input from a stylus, meaning users can write on a flat surface rather than at an awkward angle on the screen itself. But for the right price, it could be an interesting option for getting more use out of devices with small displays. This same thumbnail list works with other applications – for example it allowed a user to select a photo to attach to an email.

Sadly for Surface owners who like the idea of a secondary, low-power, touch-sensitive display surface capable of displaying everything from general operating system shortcuts and Live Tiles through to application-specific functions, the company has not announced plans to bring the DisplayCover, now in prototype form, to market. The video demonstrates someone sending an email from the screen whilst leaving their Skype session running full-screen on the LCD display, meaning they don’t have to interrupt or resize their video call to send a message.