LED Screens in All MacBooks by 2009?

[MacRumors]

Economic Daily News reports (via Engadget) that Apple will start using LED backlit screens in all of their MacBooks in 2009.

Steve Jobs had previously announced the intended transition to the environmentally friendly LED screens, but left no exact time-table for the switch. LED displays were first introduced into the Mac line with the 15" MacBook Pro in June 2007. Advantages of the first Macbook Pro LED screens included:

- extended battery life
- instantly at full brightness, no warm up necessary
- same brightness and color range as previous screens.

The LED screen has since made its way into the 17" MacBook Pro as a $100 upgrade and the MacBook Air as a standard part. In fact, the MacBook Air's LED display has been noted to be particularly bright compared to the rest of Apple's laptops. Meanwhile, even though the next MacBook revision is expected in the 3rd quarter of this year, MacBook customers may have to wait until 2009 for LED screens.


Article Link

[VideoShooter]

Wow, this is going to be great. I love the LED on my 17 incher.

Go Mac Book!


btw... 1st! I am awesome!

So AWESOME!

[Eidorian]

I at least hope that the MacBook sees a better screen in general even if it's not LED yet.

[johnnyjibbs]

It's a no-brainer from a consumer point of view but presumably the switch happens when the price is right.

[krye]

Bummer. I was hoping for an LED display in the supposed upcoming revision.

[IEatApples]

I'm still waiting for Apple to update their Cinema Displays!

… would be nice with a 24" LED though!

[slicecom]

Where's the iPhone content!? You mean there are NON-iPhone rumors too!?

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I say bring it on. I really like these screens. Them seem to work very well. I believe that the LEDs are less likely to burn out as well.

[naid]

LED screens, possibly a redesign... nice. Makes you want to wait till next year to purchase one

[~Shard~]

Hopefully this will pave the way for PLED technology shortly thereafter.

[juanm]

Weird... IIRC, the financial chief said in a conference last year that all computers would get LEDs in 2008...

[KindredMAC]

HA! I glanced quickly at the headline and thought it said "LCD Screens in All MacBooks by 2009" and was like "THEY ALREADY ARE!!!!"......

Been a long morning I guess.....

But anyways, I agree that they should make it into the Cinema Displays ASAP.

Another thing is a new iSight.

If Apple isn't going to bring out the displays with the photocells in between the LCDs soon, they really need to bring an iSight 2.0 out. I've noticed that my built in iSight in my MacBook makes my original iSight on my PowerMac G5 look like I am looking through a fuzzy, dirty glass window at dusk.

With how small the MacBook(s) iSight camera is now, there is no reason that they can't make a small clip on housing with a USB cable that could go on top of all displays. Everyone else is doing it! And besides, I have not found a USB camera out there that is any better than my worst iSight, so go figure!

[fastbite]

My antique PowerBook 17 is so dim you need a flashlight to see the thing. I would love an LED screen -- maybe soon

[SciTeach]

Great! That will about the time I will want to buy a new one to replace my current MB 2.0GHz.

Now if they can only change the graphics card.....

[Jackolicious]

It's my understanding (and I was told by Apple) that the MBA has an LED screen.

[kjs862]

What about OLED displays?

[~Shard~]

Originally Posted by kjs862

What about OLED displays?

As I said a few posts above, hopefully this will pave the way for OLED/PLED technology as well.

[bananas]

Originally Posted by Juan Moro

Weird... IIRC, the financial chief said in a conference last year that all computers would get LEDs in 2008...

Led screens in 2008 == Led screens by 2009

[djcj]

WHoopdy doo. How about a real upgrade. LED backlit screens should have been in the last revision.

[psychofreak]

Originally Posted by djcj

WHoopdy doo. How about a real upgrade. LED backlit screens should have been in the last revision.

Its still quite a big upgrade, the original Macbooks already look dim with full brightness, while the MBA is astoundingly bright to my eyes.

[zorinlynx]

Originally Posted by djcj

WHoopdy doo. How about a real upgrade. LED backlit screens should have been in the last revision.

I'd really rather them work on the technology and get it 100% reliable and right before they start using it across the entire product line.

Perhaps there are technical issues/reasons why it was easier to implement it in the 15" MBP and Air but it hasn't made it to the other lines yet.

Patience. It will come soon.

[Anaxarxes]

Apple should not only ditch CCFL because it contains mercury, but LED brightness is much more higher than CCFL.

[Jimmery]

So when does the 3rd quarter run? July/August/September is the 3rd quarter for the calendar year, but are they talking fiscal year? If so, what dates does the quarter span?

[abrooks]

Originally Posted by Jackolicious

It's my understanding (and I was told by Apple) that the MBA has an LED screen.

You are correct, as stated in the original article

[motulist]

Originally Posted by Anaxarxes

LED brightness is much more higher than CCFL.

LED is as bright as CCFL when it's new, not brighter, iirc (though I could be wrong). Regardless, when my Powerbook's CCFL screen was new it was initially way too bright to look at. So if LEDs are capable of going brighter than that, then it's a useless difference in this application.


p.s. I'm no grammar stickler, but uh, "much more higher?"

(edited to accurately quote the o.p.)