You have these products and/or technologies that everybody expects to go mainstream, yet never really do. You know, things like desktop Linux (+14 troll), ARM-based netbooks, and… PixelQi screens. Yes, these wonder displays are supposed to take over the world, yet, we’ve only ever seen them on demonstration devices – never on shipping products we can, you know, buy. At Computex, PixelQi once again showed off its display technology on demonstration devices.
PixelQi displays are kind of a marvel, really. They are regular LCDs with the ability to turn off the backlight and switch to a grayscale mode, saving considerable amounts of energy, while being as readable as e-ink displays. They are aimed towards netbook, e-book, and tablet devices.
The displays on, uh, display at Computex are improved versions of those we’ve seen before. Especially the viewing angles have been increased greatly. They can be combined with multitouch technology as well as digitisers for handwriting recognition – both were shown off at Computex.
Video courtesy of Engadget.
So, when can we expect to see these marvels of display technology in our hands? According to PixelQi CEO Mary Lou Jepsen, they are in talks with several major manufacturers, but she didn’t say anything about shipping dates. Notion Ink‘s Adam tablet is supposed to be one of the first devices to ship with a PixelQi screen.
Okay, one more, just because we can.
I really want this to succeed.
Laptop screen the way it should always have been done
No stupid reflective layer, low power consumption, large viewing angles, not hard on the eyes when reading books…
A big improvement but still not perfect: DPI are still not high enough IMHO.
He who came up with the idea of glossy screens should be shot
j/k don’t throw me in jail if someone ends up dead
Agree!
I’d prefer to apply the “trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again” motto around the main doors of the company which managed to sell that horrible concept ^^
Inventing something bad is no big deal, as long as the responsible silently disappears. Selling it so well that it kills a good competing product, on the other hand…
Edited 2010-06-02 16:22 UTC
Agreed. I specifically opted to buy a more expensive Benq monitor, simply because I refused to buy one of those OOOOH SHINY!!!!1!1! glossy pieces of crap. No annoying finger smudges, no glares, and a hell of a lot easier to clean once it does get dirty.
I want something with a Pixel Qi screen really bad.
Reading backlid screens right before going to sleep is really bad for your bio rhythm (proven fact for normal people, like always exception do exist).
I don’t really like the current e-ink devices, but a netbook or a tablet with a Pixel Qi screen would give me the ability to read my PDFs in great quality and with my favorite reader.
I only hope these devices will be available some day in europe (2010 would be nice)
I wonder if there will be software support for higher B/W resolution like with the OLPC.
The challenge will be getting them into devices without them costing the earth. The tech market wants something for nothing at the best of times, so even if they’re only 10% more expensive to manufacture (which I doubt) selling them at a higher price point to consumers who buy computers, phones, etc in shops under artificial light, therefore never really seeing the huge advantage of this technology, will be difficult. I truly hope we see this technology become mainstream though.
As someone who looks at a screen most of the day this is really good news. They kinda reminds me of my old Game Boy Color. I can’t wait to see these in devices especially drawing and internet tablets.
Until then, paper is still the better for drawing and reading.
It doesn’t matter how many times you demo it, vaporware is still vaporware.
Keep in mind that the direct ancestor of the PixelQi screens has been manufactured and shipped in quantity quite successfully. After all these were/are the screens used in the XO-1 and XO-1.5 laptops (from the OLPC project). I have one, obtained from the G1G1 program several years ago. So this technology has a proven track record in a device that was ultimately manufactured for under $150.
And it’s a really nice screen. OLPC might have made some mistakes (the software, keyboard & trackpad spring to mind) but the screen is a winner! When folded into its tablet configuration, its actually a very passable eReader, unfortunately with not enough screen real estate to show a full page PDF comfortably. So you can’t call these screens vaporware, one generation of them has already shipped.
I’m really looking forward to devices that incorporate new generations of the technology, with higher resolutions.