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Apple LED-backlit Laptops?

popelife said:
Sony's TX3 ultra-portable notebook has an LED-backlit 11" widescreen display.

The screen is pretty nice to look at, and it's probably only 4mm thick.

The TX3 never fails to get a "wow, what's that?!" from punters. Even me, and I'm not wowed easily.
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At lunch today I was in ChumpUSA (gawd I hate that store)
They had a sony TX on display. The display was very nice (other than being too small), nice even backlighting. The lid was VERY thin too.
 
recordprod said:
Could LED's be a mistake, rather LEP's? Light emitting polymers?
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LED's would make a lot more sense, since we have already seen LED displays on the market (from Sony), and they are clearly something that it makes sense that more companies will soon be adopting.
 
I dont know why. but the pure technicality of your post actually make me a little nausious. Sounds weird huh... it did though. 🙂
A
jettredmont said:
No, you'd want a "flicker" of more like 120-200MHz, perhaps even more, to avoid eye strain. While the typical eye/cortex can only "process" a visible change 30 times a second, the lower-order reflexes respond significantly faster. Strobing of a large portion of the central visible area (ie, a 17" laptop sitting in your lap) would absolutely kill your eye muscles and likely induce major migranes in those of us prone to such.

Remember back when we used tubes and the refresh rates had to be that high? Yeah, same idea, sort of. The problem there was that a small area of the screen would oscillate between full brightness, fade to near-black, then quickly ramp back up to full brightness in that timeframe, wreaking havoc on the reptile-brain bits behind the eye as they tried to react. This would be significantly worse, in that the ramping times would be near-zero (full on, full off, very little phosphor fade, most likely) and the full area of the screen would be blinking in unison.

Of course, then there are other possibilities such as:

* sufficient light spreading to allow that only a fraction of the lights in the display need to be on at a time to offer even lighting.
* "blinking" of different nearby LEDs at different offsets (ie, preventing the whole screen going black for an instant)
* phosphor fade effects to "even out" the blinking of each individual LED to something more like a constant but dimmer light.
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Asus announces a sub 2 pound laptop with LED backlighting at CES:

LED Backlighting

Clearly this technology is ready. And it wont add any bulk or complication if it can be done in such a thin and light laptop.
 
Chef Medeski said:
Asus announces a sub 2 pound laptop with LED backlighting at CES:

LED Backlighting

Clearly this technology is ready. And it wont add any bulk or complication if it can be done in such a thin and light laptop.
Click to expand...

Of course. As mentioned above, Sony is using the EXACT SAME LED lighting in their Vaio TX and premium SZ laptops......... I'm still not sure why some people seem to think this is some mythical technology that hasn't already been out on the market for quite a while.

And yes, you are right, it specifically doesn't add bulk (Sony uses it in the TX because it allows for such a thin lid, as with the premium SZ models).
 
Zadillo said:
Of course. As mentioned above, Sony is using the EXACT SAME LED lighting in their Vaio TX and premium SZ laptops......... I'm still not sure why some people seem to think this is some mythical technology that hasn't already been out on the market for quite a while.

And yes, you are right, it specifically doesn't add bulk (Sony uses it in the TX because it allows for such a thin lid, as with the premium SZ models).
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I think its very likely we will see updated MBPs soon. The case has been around for more than half a decade. Probably alongside Santa Rosa. I think most defintely LED backlighting will be in there. I think it would be shocking to see it 2morrow, but not completely implausible. There have been rumblings of a 12" MBP and it would make the most sense to announce that alongside a total case redesign for all of them. Unless of course its a tablet in which case it wont be a uniform case design, giving no reason for the same update date.
 
What if someone goofed and they meant SED display?

But I think that might not be thin like, notebook think.
 
Any chance of LED-lit MBPs in 4 hours time? 😱 My edu discount runs out in February, and quite frankly that's the only thing keeping Apple laptops in the running for my pending laptop purchase. Once that runs out, I'm up for another $3-400 which is a deal killer when I can go for Asus or equivalent.
 
sluthy said:
Any chance of LED-lit MBPs in 4 hours time? 😱 My edu discount runs out in February, and quite frankly that's the only thing keeping Apple laptops in the running for my pending laptop purchase. Once that runs out, I'm up for another $3-400 which is a deal killer when I can go for Asus or equivalent.
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Small chance, but hard to say really...
 
sluthy said:
Any chance of LED-lit MBPs in 4 hours time? 😱 My edu discount runs out in February, and quite frankly that's the only thing keeping Apple laptops in the running for my pending laptop purchase. Once that runs out, I'm up for another $3-400 which is a deal killer when I can go for Asus or equivalent.
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You might as well get an Asus then (although Asus only has one announced model with LED backlighting, and not much is known about it's quality). I have a hard time believing that there will be anything new available from Apple before the end of February. The quality of other Asus laptops can vary quite a bit (read the Asus section of notebookreview.com or notebookforums.com to get an idea).
 
Zadillo said:
You might as well get an Asus then (although Asus only has one announced model with LED backlighting, and not much is known about it's quality). I have a hard time believing that there will be anything new available from Apple before the end of February. The quality of other Asus laptops can vary quite a bit (read the Asus section of notebookreview.com or notebookforums.com to get an idea).
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Asus is the manufacturer for the Macbooks, and IMO the Macbooks feel a lot better than the Macbook Pros (just try opening and closing the lid on both, the MB feels so buttery smooth). I think Asus makes good gear.
 
iW00t said:
Asus is the manufacturer for the Macbooks, and IMO the Macbooks feel a lot better than the Macbook Pros (just try opening and closing the lid on both, the MB feels so buttery smooth). I think Asus makes good gear.
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Asus is definitely capable of making good gear, but they also have a number of laptops with a variety of problems (again, you can see huge long threads complaining about specific Asus models on the Asus forums at notebookreview.com and notebookforums.com). Just pointing out that no-one is perfect.

Also, the buttery smooth feel of the MacBook has to do with Apple's specific design with the magnetic latch, which most people expect the MBP to eventually get when there is a major case redesign; it would be the same regardless of who manufactured the MacBook (just as the MacBook Pro would feel the same if they had Asus manufacture it).
 
Zadillo said:
Asus is definitely capable of making good gear, but they also have a number of laptops with a variety of problems (again, you can see huge long threads complaining about specific Asus models on the Asus forums at notebookreview.com and notebookforums.com). Just pointing out that no-one is perfect.

Also, the buttery smooth feel of the MacBook has to do with Apple's specific design with the magnetic latch, which most people expect the MBP to eventually get when there is a major case redesign; it would be the same regardless of who manufactured the MacBook (just as the MacBook Pro would feel the same if they had Asus manufacture it).
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Ahh I see. I really have to say the Macbook really feels good for such a cheap computer. Surprised Asus didn't do better for themselves.
 
iW00t said:
Ahh I see. I really have to say the Macbook really feels good for such a cheap computer. Surprised Asus didn't do better for themselves.
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Don't get me wrong, Asus does make some nice laptops themselves; their problems are usually isolated to particular issues on particular models (i.e. really bad battery life, screen problems, keyboard problems, heat issues, optical drive issues, etc.). It's just some Asus models are more problematic than others.

And I agree, the MacBook is a really solid machine (it's something I've always liked about the iBook/MacBook line).
 
Brightness in an LED backlit laptop would rely on reducing the number of LED's lighting some sort of light transmission media, I think they're called Light Tubes, I'd get a wiki article but wikipedia is being a bastard at the moment. Basically, you'd end up with an array of Led's surrounding this transmission media, the LED's would shine into the transmission media, with reflective material to ensure that no light was wasted, and the transmission media would make sure that the light was distributed evenly. If wiki comes back up I'll link an article that gives a wonderful explanation of the material.
 
Zadillo said:
The quality of other Asus laptops can vary quite a bit ...
Click to expand...
iW00t said:
Asus is the manufacturer for the Macbooks ... I think Asus makes good gear.
Click to expand...
Zadillo said:
Don't get me wrong, Asus does make some nice laptops themselves; their problems are usually isolated to particular issues on particular models ...
Click to expand...
Asus makes top-notch motherboards. When I build PCs, or assist others in building their PCs, I always tell them to buy ASUS boards. They're not always the fastest, but they seem to have the least number of compatibility issues. (No, they're not the only good brand - they're just the one I like best.)

But I'm not surprised that this doesn't extend to all of the other components that they would have to design/purchase/integrate in order to make a laptop. That requires a different skill set, and is partly dependent on the quality of products from other vendors (like batteries and LCD panels.)

In the case of the MacBook, Asus doesn't design/build everything. They assemble the systems and may design several parts, but they also buy a lot of parts from third parties, according to Apple's specs (e.g. chipsets from Intel, batteries from Sony, LCD panels from Samsung/LG/whatever, etc.) Part of its quality comes from Asus, and part comes from Apple's specifications.
 
Chef Medeski said:
Asus announces a sub 2 pound laptop with LED backlighting at CES:

LED Backlighting

Clearly this technology is ready. And it wont add any bulk or complication if it can be done in such a thin and light laptop.
Click to expand...

Ready? but how well implemented--are there through reviews stating that LED backlighting as used in these laptops is or equal or better performance, or have there been compromises made for cost considerations? Samsung's professionally targeted color accurate, wide gamut, LED backlit 20in monitor @2k, is simply well beyond what the average person would spend on a 20in LCD.

If inexpensive backlit LED laptop screens cannot at present provide a significant performance upgrade, then they may not be cost analysis worthy. 64GB SSD's are great for a laptop HD replacement, unfortunately, the current excessive price points make them impractical for most laptop uses, given they are only marginally better performing compared to a 7.2k laptop drive of much higher capacity and much lower price.


Zadillo said:
Of course. As mentioned above, Sony is using the EXACT SAME LED lighting in their Vaio TX and premium SZ laptops......... I'm still not sure why some people seem to think this is some mythical technology that hasn't already been out on the market for quite a while.

And yes, you are right, it specifically doesn't add bulk (Sony uses it in the TX because it allows for such a thin lid, as with the premium SZ models).
Click to expand...

OLED (Toshiba has already produced such a laptop with a 15in screen) across the entire laptop line, or less developed SED; would be much better as far as power saving, with the added bonus of being thinner than either method of backlighting LCD's.

Emissive tech. v. transmissive, since emissive has no extra layer to contend with that LCD's do, they can be nearly 1/2 the thickness. If Apple really wants to be a leader, rather than a 'has been' Intel follower, they should be investing in newer tech than LED backlighting. OLED or SED have much greater promise (unrealized at present 🙁 ) than LED backlighting, but the future seems brighter for those 2 techs, if and when the cost/manufacturing issues get resolved. IIRC, it can be accomplished, that a giant LCD manufacturing plant can be converted to making OLED's, rather than the necessity of building an all new OLED plant at significantly higher initial investment costs.
 
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