How-to: install Pixel Qi's 3Qi display on your netbook (and why it's worth it)

It's hard to believe that it's been almost two and a half years since Pixel Qi spun off from OLPC and promised to bring its dual-mode, power efficient display to laptops, tablets, and e-readers. For those who haven't followed our small obsession with the 3Qi screen technology (shame on you!) it promises the best of both worlds: full-color graphics in a normal LCD mode, but also the ability to turn off the backlight to morph into a grayscale, e-paper like display. And while we've seen it demoed at tradeshows (and more tradeshows!), we haven't been able to get our own grubby hands on the much-lauded display. Until now, of course.

No, the 3Qi display still isn't shipping in any commercially available products, but Pixel Qi is at long last offering a $275 10.1-inch screen replacement kit for netbooks through MakerShed. Needless to say, we jumped -- nay, leaped -- at the chance to finally get the display into our laboratories, roll up our sleeves and get to crankin'. That's right, we got out the screwdriver, wrangled up an old Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 netbook and swapped in the 3Qi display for Lenovo's glossy panel. You're surely sitting on a metric ton of questions. Was it hard to swap out? Has the screen been everything we've ever fantasized about and more? Is it really 80 percent more power efficient than standard LCDs? We've got plenty of answers as well as a step-by-step how-to after the break.

How-to replace your netbook screen with Pixel Qi's 3Qi

Since the Pixel Qi netbook replacement screen is very much a DIY project, we felt it was only right to detail exactly how to, you know, do it yourself. Pixel Qi claims that it shouldn't take more than five minutes to replace your netbook's screen -- that may be the case for experienced laptop screen swappers, but we have no problem admitting that we happen to be a bit slow-moving when it comes to these things. In the end, it took us about thirty minutes from start to finish.

Before diving in there's a few things to remember. First, Pixel Qi has only confirmed the screen to work with Samsung N130 and Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 netbooks. We used the latter, though a handy chap from MakerShed had no issue getting it to work with his Acer Aspire One 532. Second, no matter how you slice it, removing your netbook's original LCD will void the warranty. So, don't blame us, Pixel Qi, MakerShed, or your mother, when you can't return your laptop. Got that all? Okay -- let's go.

1. Completely power down. Turn off the netbook, unplug it from the wall, and remove the battery. Seriously, do this all if you don't want to risk burning yourself or some part of the netbook.

2. Remove the bezel and original LCD. Find and pull off those rubber screw covers on the bezel. Grab a Philips screwdriver, unscrew the screws (put them in a safe place), and remove the plastic bezel. It helps to carefully slide the screwdriver or a fingernail along the bezel to open it up. We also had to get a bit rough with the S10-2's circular hinge to get the bottom of the bezel to loosen. After removing the bezel, the LCD will be in a metal frame -- carefully tilt it forward a bit.

3. Detach the video connector cable. This next step was the hardest part for us since Lenovo had taped the video connector cable down to the LCD. Carefully cut the plastic tape holding down the connector, and gently tug on the connector cable to unplug it from the back of the LCD. It should just pop out – there was no lock on the S10-2's connector. When the connector is removed, set it down, and start removing the additional screws around the frame holding the LCD in place. After those four (or so) screws have been removed, the original LCD should be free. Slip it out, set it to the side, and get out the Pixel Qi display.

PRO TIP: Famed modder JKKMobile, who talked us through this swap, suggests keeping the protective covering on the new display until the last second. He says you never know when you may drop the screwdriver and damage the screen by accident!

4. Connect and attach the Pixel Qi screen. Place the Pixel Qi screen within the metal frame. Screw the new display in to the frame. Once in, tilt it forward a bit and plug the connector into the back of the Pixel Qi display. The connector should click into place – you have to sort of jiggle it in there.

5. Power up. Once it's in there, you can test the screen to make sure it works. Just attach the power brick and quickly hit 'Power' to see if the boot sequence appears on the display. If you don't see anything, the cable may not be connected correctly. If you do see some glorious pixels, then... SUCCESS! You can now shut down and get the bezel and screws back on. And drink a cold beverage. Maybe even make some nachos!

Pixel Qi 3Qi how-to

Living with Qi: the results

Not as hard as it looks, eh? Truth is, it's pretty easy to do, and when we were done the 3Qi screen actually looked and worked like it had come factory installed. Adjusting the brightness worked without a hitch, and because the netbook has a function to deactivate the backlight (Fn + F2), we could instantly toggle between the regular, transmissive color setting and the high-contrast reflective mode. (Note: not all netbooks have this hotkey). We've spent the last few days testing the screen in a number of different ways; the following are our impressions and results.

Pixel Qi Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 indoors and outdoors

General LCD quality, viewing angles

Before we get into the promised benefits of the display, it's worth talking about how it looks in normal usage. When peering at the 1,024 x 600-resolution screen head-on and with brightness at 100 percent, we found it to be sufficiently bright. Colors were quite crisp when watching a standard definition video clip and looking at some preloaded pictures. Frankly, it looks like any other matte display -- there's no reflection while looking at it and all areas of the display appear gloss-free.

However, like we mentioned when we saw the screen at CES, the viewing angles are, well... poor. Though Pixel Qi has made a much-improved "wide-view" version of the screen, which we saw at Computex, the one being sold through MakerShed right now does not have the new viewing angle enhancements. (Pixel Qi CEO Mary Lou Jepsen tells us the wide-view screens will be available for purchase in Q4, though she says some do prefer the standard viewing screens for privacy, etc.) Standing to the left of the display caused all sorts of color saturation and color changes – for example, the bright royal blue on the desktop appeared light blue or white in some areas. Similarly, tilting the screen backwards resulted in color distortion. However, with the backlight turned down or off the viewing angles were better both indoors and out.

Outdoor use

If there's one area that the Pixel Qi display lives up to its hype and then some, it's in outdoor readability. Frankly, it's just awesome, and the video below probably gives you the best look at how crisp the display is in the sunlight. We wrote the second half of this article while sitting outside on a bright sunny day in New York City. There was no glare at all, and everything was just incredibly crisp. We preferred to write and check our e-mail with the brightness set at 20 percent or in the "transflective mode" so we could still make out a bit of the colors on the screen -- even at that setting the entire display looked sharp and clear. When we turned the backlight off entirely, the grayscale setting was perfect for reading a book in the sun. Okay, it's never ideal to read a book on a netbook, but we installed Kindle for PC, downloaded Eee Rotate and did our best to turn it into a decent e-reader. We can't stress enough how awesome this display is for transforming a device into an e-reader of sorts -- it's beautiful to not have to talk of screen delays or "refresh rates." We did snap a couple of side by side shots with an eInk display -- you'll notice the Pixel Qi screen is a bit darker in sunlight, but it's not distracting in any way.

Power draw

According to Pixel Qi, the 3Qi display uses 80 percent less power than a standard LCD screen, making it greener than any others out there. We're not EPEAT by any standard, but we can say that the 3Qi display sipped less of our home energy than did the original LCD that shipped with the Lenovo S10-2. The IdeaPad S10-2, with its original LCD at full brightness, pulled 11 watts. However, the netbook with the Pixel Qi display at full brightness pulled only 9 watts. When we turned off the backlight, our Kill-A-Watt power meter shot down to 7 watts. It's not going to make much of a difference on your monthly electric bill, but hey, Mother Earth will take whatever she can get these days!

	100% brightness	Backlight off
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 (regular LCD)	11 watts	9 watts (50% brightness)
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 (Pixel Qi 3Qi display)	9 watts	7 watts

Battery life

Obviously, that reduced power is promised to result in improved battery life, and to say we spent a lot of time battery testing the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 with and without the Pixel Qi display would an understatement. Though our video rundown test isn't exactly indicative of real world use, we decided to use it as the main benchmark since it provides a decent standard for comparing the different screens and settings.

With the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2's original glossy, 10.1-inch LCD set at 70 percent brightness, the six-cell 47Wh battery lasted for 4 hours and 21 minutes. Yeah, that's bad for a netbook with a six-cell battery, but keep in mind that the S10-2 was never known for its endurance, and it uses Intel's last generation N280 processor. With Pixel Qi's screen at 70 percent brightness, the system ran for 4:31 minutes – just ten minutes more. That's not really an improvement by any standard, but when we shut the backlight off, the S10-2 ran for 5:45 minutes, which is just about an hour and 15 minutes longer. That's about 25 percent more battery life, and exactly what PixelQi says the power savings should be on current netbooks with the screen.

	70% brightness	Backlight off
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 (regular LCD)	4:21	4:45 (10% brightness)
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 (Pixel Qi 3Qi display)	4:31	5:45

To be honest, we expected a bit more runtime out of the backlight off mode, but regardless, you can see that the reflective mode clearly sips less power than a standard LCD. In fact, when we just had it sit with an e-book on the screen with the backlight off it ran for about eight hours. We're certainly not anywhere near the 40 hour laptop that Pixel Qi has been dreaming of, but even the best displays cannot fix a netbook with already substandard endurance or, you know, the current state of computing hardware.

Wrap-up

What a difference a screen can make! It's something we seem to be saying a lot lately, and after spending a few days with the Pixel Qi-equipped netbook there's no doubt that our praise for this screen over the past years has been well-deserved. Sure, the viewing angles on the $275 display are less than stellar and some may just want to wait for the wide-view version, but there's no doubt that it does pull less power and work amazingly outdoors.

So, is it worth the $275? It does seem like quite a bit to add to such a cheap netbook, but if you're looking to use your machine outdoors and to add a bit more juice to it by being able to turn the backlight off, there's nothing quite like it out there. And now with our detailed instructions you should have no problem doing it on your own! But, beyond netbooks, we really believe the real appeal of this screen is truly in its ability to create mobile and multimodal tablets – ones that work in any lighting and that can transform from a fully functional slate with a color display to an e-reader with the flick of a switch. Now let's just hope that sea change doesn't require as much DIY effort on our end.

A major, major thanks to MakerShed for sending us the PixelQi display free of charge and to JKKMobile (@jkkmobile on twitter) for walking us through the screen replacement process.

[Jamesky Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:40PM]

Ok, I want this.

[bob1000 Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:57PM]

@Jamesky Is it me, or does Engadget always film/take pictures of electronics on cliffs, or edges of buildings.

[jonshipman Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:59PM]

@Jamesky I want this on a smartphone. Damn sun getting in the way of me seeing the screen!

-sincerely, a Nexus One user.

[sacguy Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:06PM]

You daredevil Joanna, you were perilously close to edge there. I've dropped many precious gadgets, you were making me nervous.

[Elchupacabra Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:11PM]

@jonshipman Great point. Call me crazy but I'm less than impressed with the economics given the mild usefulness in this application on a netbook. However it's a solid proof of concept for mobile phones which are used outside all the time.

[bolezhinkov Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:22PM]

@bob1000

its not just you. similar to 'beatlemania', engadget editors are swarmed on the streets, hence the rooftop reviews. oh and the good outdoor lighting and limited traffic noise might have something to do with it.

[S4Rs Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:55PM]

@Elchupacabra I doesn't serve people well when you are taking a 100 dollar plus display out of your netbook, (which is toxic and should be disposed of properly), but I would surely pay for this option on any notebook/netbook/mobile device.

Why must every notebook suck in sunlight? I bet with a proper driver too you could use even less power.

[fortunzfavor Posted Jul 19th 2010 4:14PM]

@jonshipman Absolutely.

[Concept Artist Posted Jul 19th 2010 4:45PM]

@jonshipman

NO LIE, Thats the first thing that came to mind when I seen this video then looked at my Nexus One

[weinerschnitzelboy Posted Jul 19th 2010 6:13PM]

@jonshipman On the iPhone and iPod touch, I find this kind of weird, the display kind of trans-reflective. In super bright sunlight, the display seems looks really glittery and seems to reflect back the sun's light making the display easily visible in sunlight. With the auto-brightness off, and brightness set to 50%

[EggoEspada Posted Jul 19th 2010 8:51PM]

@jonshipman I think HTC is working on that for the end of the year...

[NuShrike Posted Jul 19th 2010 10:48PM]

@Jamesky How about for smartphones? OLED outside sunlight, reflective magic in sunlight.

[Mmmm Donuts Posted Jul 20th 2010 3:33AM]

Does anyone know if this could go into an Alienware m11x kinda-netbook-thingy they make? I would DIE for that. A powerful, fairly durable mini laptop that does anything, anywhere, anytime.

[Ducman69 Posted Jul 20th 2010 4:53AM]

@Jamesky

Why? It costs as much as the netbook, and at least on my netbook it already comes with an excellent color accuracy thin LED display.

I just can't see myself needing to work on my netbook in broad daylight much anyway (hop into a starbucks or something), and you can buy an e-reader for that price.

[Pickaxe Posted Aug 2nd 2010 2:20PM]

@bob1000 I think it's a cry for help. Hang in there Joanna! It's not worth it!

[Humlegumpen Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:40PM]

It sucks, it's plastic!

[dotCARBON Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:42PM]

@Humlegumpen You're not paying $350 for a unibody aluminum case here.

[Humlegumpen Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:46PM]

@dotCARBON Then I ain't gonna buy it suckers!

[dotCARBON Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:52PM]

@Humlegumpen I guess if that aluminum is really worth the extra $300+ to you.

[Humlegumpen Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:56PM]

@dotCARBON Would you settle for any lower then the best aluminum ever created? Have you seen how they manufacture the unibody? The ultimate aluminum.
Plastic-fantastic is a peace of shit. It is created from dirty oil leaking all over the pacific-ocean. Aluminum comes from green Apple in Cupertino on my Mac. I am in love:)

[dotCARBON Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:04PM]

@Humlegumpen Probably because I dont have that kind of money to blow on a feature for a computer that's already outdated.

[dotCARBON Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:06PM]

@dotCARBON Not that netbooks arent usually outdated or at least underpowered. But netbooks are aimed at people who dont need or cant afford a full-sized laptop. Tacking on $200 or $300 for aluminum doesnt make sense for the people they're aimed at.

[Humlegumpen Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:09PM]

@dotCARBON Then get a better job and you too can a taste of the feelgood emotion I get from my Appleadventure:) It's heaven, I can be stupid, and still get my work done:)

[dotCARBON Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:11PM]

@Humlegumpen Yeah, you know, even if I did get a better paying job, I still wouldnt be willing to shell out that kind of cash for aluminum when I'm just going to upgrade my computer in a couple. years anyway.

[Humlegumpen Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:15PM]

@dotCARBON I guess someone don't want to get touched by the feelgood mood you get from Apple:) Someone like to be a bum.

[dotCARBON Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:16PM]

@Humlegumpen You're right. I'd rather get touched with feelgood mood from having money in my pocket.

[tobsmonster2 Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:20PM]

@Humlegumpen
Lets all drink the apple cool-aids!

[Humlegumpen Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:25PM]

@tobsmonster2 Where can I buy that? Wallmart?

[Born2Jew Posted Jul 19th 2010 4:11PM]

@Humlegumpen yeah here is where you are wrong. the idea of a unibody enclosure was not an original from Apple, The process of creating the enclosure is called "Milling" and dates back to way before Apple was a sparkle in Steve Jobs eye. and one more thing, Aluminum is shit compared to Carbon Fiber. Which is lighter, stronger, and can be used on notebooks.

[PaulMdx Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:41PM]

No Eee PC love though yet. :-(

[dotCARBON Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:41PM]

That's fairly amazing. I'd totally want one if I used a netbook.

[Ben64 Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:44PM]

is it worth it for 2 watt of power saving.

I am happy if it comes with Pixel Qi preinstalled, but to go through all that for 2 watt of saving seems overkill.

[Wolfticket Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:58PM]

@Ben64
For a 2 watt power saving, no. For the sunlight readability and clarity of an e-ink display with the usability of a normal lcd, maybe.

[DrTrent Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:08PM]

@Ben64 It's not just about better battery life. That's just a side effect of the awesome direct-sunlight readability

[davepermen Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:46PM]

@Ben64 going trough that to have a screen easily readable outside might be worth it for a lot of people, though.. oh, and 2W help quite a bit in a good netbook.

[LeJay Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:59PM]

@Ben64
On a netbook already using 11-9 watts, is it worth spending 275 to go to 9-7 watts? No, I guess not.

On a ARM tablet already using 2.5 watts on the other hand...

[tekdemon Posted Jul 19th 2010 4:52PM]

@Ben64 But in bright sunlight you'd have to blast it at 11 watts to get a barely readable screen (I know because I attempted to use my netbook outdoors yesterday), whereas here you can get an easily readable screen for 7 watts, which is a pretty big difference in battery life.
You can't compare the 10% screen brightness to the Pixel Qi screen with the backlight off because the 10% screen is completely unusable outdoors.
Basically you're paying $275 so you can sit outside on the beach or at the park and do your work, which is actually pretty tempting.

[blland Posted Jul 19th 2010 4:53PM]

@Wolfticket not a troll or anything, just a genuine question wondering if you stay outside "under direct sunlight" long enough every day to justify this 'sun screen' instead of sunscreen for yourself?

[Wolfticket Posted Jul 19th 2010 5:21PM]

@blland
No, I personally don't.
But if you do use a computer outdoors a lot, maybe professionally, then I'm sure this would have a huge appeal and the price tag wouldn't be so much of an issue.
I would be willing to pay a premium for this, but $275+a voided warranty+some diy'ing is too much.
Now put this screen in a smartphone, where a much greater proportion of the power is used by the screen and it is used outdoors more often, add a sensor for automatic switching of the display... :)

[juanvaldez Posted Jul 19th 2010 11:45PM]

@Ben64 Also the fact that you are paying for two screens, think about buying a netbook tomorrow, for this on a bottom end model you are paying $500 and disposing of a very toxic screen. On a decent netbook we are talking about $600+, now, if a netbook charged a $200 premium so we can get this around $450 for low end and $800 for high end with an SSD we have a product!

[daftrok Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:44PM]

$275 for an extra hour of juice and an infinitely better outdoor experience. methinks you have to want both of those things in order to justify this pretty heavy investment.

[d0ug Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:02PM]

@daftrok If you are a business user that must work outdoors, or could work more efficiently outdoors, doing work on-site, then the $275 is nothing, the display probably easily pays for itself in a few weeks of time saved not having to go somewhere indoors or back at the office to take care of paperwork when you can just do it right then and there and be done.

Now if you're a college kid reading blogs and facebook all day at starbucks, its probably not worthwhile

[KennyB123 Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:45PM]

Joanna - is it really pronounced "Pixel Chee" ? I laughed when I heard it... I just figured it would be "Pixel Cue-Eye"

[Joanna Stern Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:50PM]

@KennyB123 Yep, it's like Qi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi

[KennyB123 Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:55PM]

@Joanna Stern Thanks :)

[BubbaJ Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:06PM]

@Joanna Stern
Thanks for pronouncing it correctly. There have been a lot of mispronunciations out there, even though the company actually put the pronunciation on their website.

[paul34 Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:13PM]

@KennyB123

I always thought it was pronounced "Pixel-Kee"

[Accelerator Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:45PM]

Who actually has problems reading on an LCD?
I wear glasses but would have no trouble reading websites , playing games etc , i could read engadget for 8+ hours I was in a cave for a week and needed to see what happened in the tech world.

[MaTdg Posted Jul 23rd 2010 9:17AM]

@Accelerator Read the article again... the screen doesn't correct a bad eyesight.

[216 Posted Jul 19th 2010 1:46PM]

$275 for an accessory to a $300-400 Netbook? Not worth it. But it'd be worth it on a more expensive laptop tho