Philips debuts PowerSensor-equipped Brilliance monitor

Energy-saving monitors are hardly anything new, but Philips has taken things a bit farther than most with its new 22-inch Brilliance LCD, which packs a built-in infrared "PowerSensor" that can detect when someone's sitting in front of it. If it finds that it's been left by its lonesome, it'll dial down the brightness and cut power consumption by 50% -- all of which operates independently from the PC, so there's no compatibility issues to worry about. As a monitor, however, things are a bit less exciting, with it boasting a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a 5ms response time, and the usual VGA and DVI inputs. No word on a release 'round here just yet, but it looks like folks in the UK will be able to pick this one up next month for £170, or about $280.

[Via Pocket-lint]

[SuperDre @ Jun 26th 2009 3:20PM]

Great, philips and it's great functions....... they never work as they are intended... So they will act just like those wireless headphones, if it thinks there is no sound then it just shuts off, even if it's quite for a few seconds, instead of just having a switch which let's you control if it should be 'smart' or just keep transmitting/receiving..

[HyperHacker @ Jun 26th 2009 7:25PM]

That'll be great when I'm sitting on the couch a few feet in front of it and it can't tell I'm there.

[Gazoobee @ Jun 26th 2009 3:37PM]

What is this an advertisement? I'm constantly amazed at "reviews" or articles about new monitors that fail to mention the single most important aspect, which is what kind of part is inside the thing.

Only yokels and idiots buy monitors based on the screen resolution or EPA ratings, especially people in the market for a high end monitor such as this. Is it a SIPs, a HIPs, or what? two monitors of the same resolution can vary in quality and price by factors of ten or more.

[John @ Jun 26th 2009 4:53PM]

It's TFT, if it was an IPS panel then the news would be "IPS panel for semi-reasonable cost with new junk thrown in too". It's also Philips, who don't really make high quality monitors (pretty good TVs though, IMO).

[Pingles @ Jun 26th 2009 3:43PM]

Concerning coverage: For a business this is a great idea. There are at least 250 monitors in my work area. All on. I don't the company cares much how "good" the monitor is at displaying Word and Excel.

For the monitor: Gonna be fun when that sensor starts acting up!

[Shinigami @ Jun 26th 2009 3:44PM]

Very simple yet effective. Now I'd love to see that implemented in all new monitors and TVs. And PCs.

[Mack211 @ Jun 26th 2009 3:45PM]

promote your blog much?

[Sam @ Jun 26th 2009 9:20PM]

We had the Philips rep come to our store and demo the monitor. It works just as intended and can provide a significant energy savings when used in large offices. The feature is currently only offered in the business line of monitors where mass deployment is likely but will make it to home monitors soon. You might only see a few dollars per year cost savings if you use one at home, but if you deploy a thousand of them throughout the enterprise, cost savings will add up.

I worked for a college and we determined that the electricity savings were somewhere in the vicinity of $50,000 per year when switching 900 monitors from CRT to LCD.

But what about "Power saving mode"? This setting is usually configured to come on after 10-20 minutes. How many secretaries and other office workers get up and leave their computer regularly throughout the day? Lots. This activates the power saving mode within about 5 seconds of moving away from the monitor and the screen brightens up within 2 seconds after sitting back down in front.

[DarCowAlways @ Jun 26th 2009 3:58PM]

Eww, bad monitor. Bad contrast ratio and response time. Only good thing about this is the sensor.

[CraigJ @ Jun 26th 2009 4:04PM]

Or, you know, you could just tell your system to kill the signal to the monitor after 10 minutes of no input.

This actually seems like a pretty useless idea to me. Better to have the PC AND the monitor go to sleep after a specified time with no usage. Can this thing low-power the PC and then wake up the PC If I sit down? what if I'm at my desk working on something non-PC related. The PC spins down but the monitor stays at 100%? The whole "independent of the PC" thing just seems really stupid to me.

A gimmick for the overtly green crowd...

[CtrlBurn @ Jun 26th 2009 4:21PM]

This'll be extra great for watching movies on your computer.

extra great

[Chas Underwood III @ Jun 26th 2009 4:31PM]

So cool. I love that it powers up when I sit in front of it. Think Al Gore will install one in his Gulfsteam jet?

[jonsyrose @ Jun 26th 2009 5:19PM]

I like the wind farm in the monitor very appropriate. www.jonathanrosecompany.com for more information on green energy

[bluesky_v2.01 @ Jul 1st 2009 9:52PM]

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