What are the advantages of IGZO over the current display panels used in the iPad 3 and 4?
About 50% less LEDs needed and the LCD panel itself uses less energy in general.
This has several advantages:
- 50% less LED lights (probably the most inefficient component in a tablet/phone), device can become thinner
- Slightly more energy efficient as a LCD panel
- As a result a smaller battery is needed (and the device becomes lighter)
- As a result of this the entire device can be thinner (and thus even lighter, because less aluminium is needed (in case of an aluminium back)).
It's like a domino-effect: take out the highly inefficient display and replace it with a more efficient display, thus less LEDs are needed, thus the energy usage comes down, thus a smaller (and a less weighing) battery is needed, thus the device can be slimmed down and thus you get a thinner, lighter device that offers you just as much as before.
And since less components are needed (50% less LED lights, lower-capacity batteries) they might even save some money. IGZO displays are only slightly more expensive than the regular displays.
Edit: Oh, and IGZO panels don't improve image qualilty or something like that. They just allow Apple (and others) to build smaller, thinner and lighter devices.
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Quite sure they'd cut down on the battery for thinner, lighter and faster charging. Those are bigger issues than the battery life right now (as many people are regularly getting 15-20 hours or more).
No one wants to go down on battery life, though.