We've seen
Liquavista displays plenty of times at various trade shows, but so far they've always been locked up indoors. Now they've gone outside to enjoy the weather, and
ARMdevices.net was there to capture the results. The low-power color and monochrome screens are shown looking at least as good in the wild as they do in captivity, and when placed next to a traditional LCD (in the laptop on the right) the difference is clear. Granted, the colors are a bit washed out, but the refresh rate is certainly far higher than anything we've seen from
E Ink. While there's still no firm word on how much this technology will cost manufacturers, converting from standard LCD production to Liquavista production is said to be relatively painless. How painless? We'll rather disappointingly have to wait for at least another year before we find out, as these aren't slated to go into production until the second half of 2011.
posted June 24th 2010 9:08AM
Don't compare it to the crappy glossy Mac displays. Compare it to a matte LCD screen.
@daftrok True, I can read from my matte ThinkPad screen in full sun. I noticed, that the more sun I get, the easier it is to read, as long as I do not get direct reflection of the sun, because there is still some glare. I presume, that the light must reflect from the backplane.
I noticed however, that the screen heats as hell in full sunlight.
@daftrok It's a very good comparison actually. Most screens are glossy these days and now people can see what de biggest disadvantage of a glossy screen is.
@daftrok Macbooks, you know, have also matte option ... and every single glossy display turns into mirror in direct sunlight
@Formul The MacBook has an extra glossy screen though.
The T400 and T500 have transflective (or so) screens, which are somewhere between Pixel Qi/Liquavista LCDs and regular matte screens.
@MaTdg But the Liquavista display is matte. So yes it is a bad comparison even if most screens sold are gloss. That just makes me think that most consumers don't think about reading outside when purchasing a laptop.
Who would have ever thought that us geeks would one day be trying to get back out into the sunlight?
@ZombiePete
Agreed,
@ZombiePete
Pixel Qi has its competition cut out for it! Full colour and high-reflectance is a win. Pixel Qi only supports one or the other at any given time.
I'd like to see SAMOLED performance in direct sunlight with a matte screen. Just curious is all.
@MagnetMan
Heh. Do your research first. Pixel Qi is black and white when not in full sunlight. The more ambient light the more it's saturated. It will show if you watch a good demo of the screen. Plus Pixel Qi is more battery efficient. What really makes it competition is that I think Liquavista might be cheaper.
Their displays do look good in sunlight, not bursting with colour but definitely better than other screen I've seen.
It looks like their MBP dimmed it's screen after being left alone for a while... Does anyone actually see ANYTHING on their laptop screen? Apart from when he took it inside...
the gameboy advance already had this technology....
@mocax
And what about the really old first Gameboy ?
@mocax, curio
Those two devices used reflective LCD displays.
Electro-wetting, the tech behind Liquavista's displays, falls into the e-ink category.
Compared to traditional display technologies, electro-wetting displays have lower power requirements, wider viewing angles, can be used in direct sunlight, AND, its most important feature, the ability to display video.
I like the idea of FPS regulating displays. But it needs some feedback from applications , doesn't it.
@michbeck I don't think so: that feedback would more likely come from the drivers. All applications eventually send display signals through the drivers anyway, and only when something on the display needs to change.
Dates keep getting further and further out. In June of 2011, they'll be saying early 2012.
Promises promises. Second half of 2011? How long have we been waiting for Mirasol and Pixel Qi without any end in sight. Low power, efficient LCDs are a great idea and needed, but it doesn't seem like they'll ever really go to market. These posts seem belong in the same category as 1TB "DVDs", Unicorns, and super efficient battery X. Call me when Dell, HP or someone similar gets on board.
They should have at least displayed a PDF or something with a white background on the MacBook to be fair. What was the movie running on the Mac... Pitch Black?
Improve the resolution and get these in mobile phones. They will sell like hotcakes.
they will be announcing in a month or two a manufacturing partner. a facility will be converted from regular lcd to liquavista starting at the end of this year and 1st quarter next. by 2nd quarter production run up will start and full quantity production by summer. all of this was talked abotu at SID
It'd be nice to have a smartphone with a high-resolution screen that you can read outside. I'm glad this company is developing/'aiming for' this type of technology.