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Pixel Qi Demos 10" 1280x800 Pixel Screens
Compared to their dumber e-ink cousins, tablets with LCD screens suffer at least two notable disadvantages: their batteries last hours or days, rather than weeks (or months), and they're notoriously hard to read in the sunshine. Neither of these problems are likely to be licked soon, but the gap may be shrinking: Mary Lou Jepsen's OLPC spinoff Pixel Qi has now shown off a 10", 1280x800 panel. Pixel Qi's screens are well-known, though not currently widely adopted, for their ability to run in a high-contrast, low-power greyscale mode as well as a still-frugal color mode. Though the company is currently showing prototypes rather than a shipping version of the new high-resolution screens, it's reason to renew hope for a long-lived color-screen tablet that's comfortable in the sunlight.
They should have a finished product about the time everyone else switches to 2560x1600 or 2048x1536.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I'll take one just because it has the proper resolution for a 10 inch. I'm tired of these stupid 1024x600 netbook displays, and 16x9 for computers in general.
has the same pixel density (1920x1200, 15") and aspect ratio, but LCD of course.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
I realise people don't read the article, but try the summary, at least. These screens don't offer a solution in terms of energy demands.
for all those of us with IBM Thinkpads:-) I've been wanting this for years.
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
Do you mean to say that not running a backlight in daylight does not reduce the energy requirement?
Dear PixelQi guys:
Please make a screen suitable for smartphones. There is a lot more need to use a smartphone than there is to use a laptop, as you can't control when you get incoming calls.
Thanks,
Ender Stonebender
Loose things are easy to lose. You're getting your hair cut. They're going there to see their aunt.
Samsung's competing Liquavista tech, based on 'electrowetting' is supposed to be coming out soon, it sounds pretty good too.
http://www.liquavista.com/technology/default.aspx
1 year ago I was still kinda interested.
Nowadays I'm just guessing there's an issue with their technology, or their marketing. With all the action and the need for differentiation in the tablet market, they've only managed to sign up one, 4th-tier player. There must be something wrong, don't hold your breath.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I didn't understand it either, 1280x800 10" screen? My touchscreen laptop is 1280x768 and only 8.9", what's the big deal? Then I saw this video comparing the Pixel Qi to an iPad outdoors.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
i just want my eink wallpaper already.
Speaking of new display technologies, the Mirasol display looks interesting:
http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometric_modulator_display
Pixel Qi's screens are well-known, though not currently widely adopted, for their ability to run in a high-contrast, low-power greyscale mode
No, they're not.
I own a Notion Ink Adam - one of the few devices on the market today which ships with a Pixel Qi screen. And I can tell you this - the contrast in that low-power mode is horrible. If you expected something like modern eInk readers - say, Kindle 3 or the recent Nook - forget about it. It's actually worse than my first eInk reader that I bought back in 2007!
The contrast is low enough that reading from Adam inside during the day with no light source shining directly at the screen is impossible. Outside, it's okayish... except still not particularly bright, and glossy screen kills the image. Either way, it's nothing to boast about - sure, it's better in the sun than TFT, but still... And the technology is not free - in "normal TFT" mode, its contrast and colors are less than average TN panel.
Frankly, after seeing it for myself, I understood why there isn't a long list of devices announced to use the tech despite it currently being in production. Right now it's a pretty huge trade-off that probably doesn't make sense for most users.
Here is a video where you can see some comparisons, and there are plenty more on YouTube. See for yourself.
Really once you see one of these, you will never want to see one again.
This is a two mode screen and both modes are mediocre.
1: E-Ink mode: This is what all the hoopla is about, but it is terrible compared to a Kindle, it NEEDs sunlight to be visibly, you aren't going to use this mode indoors, so it is a very part time outdoor sunny mode. Most of the time you will be using:
2: Color LCD mode: Which is worse than the cheapest LCD on the market. Colors are weak and viewing angles are terrible.
This just combines two of the worse displays on the market into one. Figure out what you actually need a display to do and get a one mode display that does an excellent job (Color LCD or E-ink) at that, instead of a display that will at best always be second rate.
Contrast does not mean the ability to work in bright light. For a reflective display, the ability to work in bright light is simply assumed. Since it reflects light, the brighter the light source the better. For emissive devices brightness is what determines the ability to work in bright light. It has to be able to emit a light bright enough to overcome the natural reflection and thus be visible.
Contrast is the difference between the brightest something can display and the darkest. A device has a high contrast if that difference is large.
In the case of a reflective device, that means it has to have an ability to vary its reflection ability to a large degree, to reflect a lot of light when it wants and very little when it doesn't. That is fairly hard and the parent is correct, Pixel Qi displays have crap contrast in their reflective mode.
I was expounding on your comment. I was saying that the original bit, calling it a "high contrast" display was wrong because people misunderstand the term.
I was working with 1600x1200 in the year 2001!
I played with one at FOSDEM. That was the cheap version in the OLPC (they make a few kinds of display, with the cheaper ones having slower response and narrower colour range), and I was impressed with it. It's not as good as eInk for reading outside, but it does offer some colour (I think it's 64 colours in direct-sunlight mode) and when you get into the backlit mode it's not too far off a normal screen. 1280x800 is fine for a 10" screen. I'd love to have 300dpi and be able to turn off antialiasing, but that's more of a luxury than an essential - being able to use the screen in bright light is far more important.
I've been promised one of these by a company that makes little ARM-based laptops when they enter production in a few months - definitely looking forward to it.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Does it work in direct sunlight ?
Seriously, it has to be some sort of joke in 2011 when a phones fancy "retina" display wont work in the sun, hunting for somewhere dark on holiday/beach/pool so i can read/answer that phone call/email/sms isnt the idea.
Reminds me of the in-car satnav screens that look great at night in the dark, very handy at 1am, but are useless from 8am - 8pm when im trying to find that customers site
Transflective displays should be the minimum standard for a portable device, at least i can see whats on the screen (albeit with limitations) but thats a hella lot better than the alternative of seeing a glossed out inothing and wondering why you bought a device you cant use for most of the day
the old "can you hear me now ?" now has an answer..
"yeah i can hear you, lemme find somewhere dark so i can take notes"
Anyone who thinks an iAnything has a screen that is "very viewable in direct sunlight" has never used an OLPC or other device with PixelQi technology.
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