"Ultra-high resolution laptop, tablet screens to revive display biz"

I think the long wait may soon be over!

How long have we Sony enthusiasts (among others) been screaming for better displays, ultra high resolution, brilliant color, high contrast, etc? How long have some of you resented having to pay the "Z tax" - some $800 - if your primary need was for its display quality in an ultraportable size?

Have you been recently wondering if the unveiling of the new iPad's "Retina" display was going to be captive to Apple's patent Revolutionary Guard" or available cheaply to the masses, since a 9.7" version of it fits into a $499 retail device that analysts have determined returns Apple a 51% Gross Profit Margin?

Happy days are here, kids! Read this now and jump out of your seats and cheer...but also ponder if/how they're still going find a way to continue to force us to buy $1,000 computers with washed out, low contrast, 1366X768 displays and $2,000 for anything with a decent screen .

One thing looks clear: Apple does not have a patent on this technology; Sharp does, and it has apparently been showing it around the industry for years. Now that Apple has once again had to "tell [us] what [we] want because [we ourselves] don't know" (S. Jobs, 1997-2011), Sharp appears ready to flood the markets with it's Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) technology - now:

"Sharp's roadmap calls for the roll-out of [IGZO-based] ultra-high resolution panels for notebook PCs during Q2. Monitor-sized panels will follow."

according to Tony Smith of Reghardware.com, source of source of the info I'm "reporting" here. And it gets even better: "IGZO screens can contain smaller pixels that are able change their state more quickly than those made from amorphous silicon can. Smaller pixels also mean that more light can pass through them, so backlights need not be so bright. That makes them less power hungry - 33 per cent less power to produce an image of comparable brightness" according to the article.

All this is sourced by an article published nearly a month ago by Reghardware.com. Sorry, I haven't second-sourced it yet, but honestly, if Apple can sell an iPad for $499 to a consumer at a 51% margin, it costs them less than $225 total to make, package and ship it; how the heck much can the included best small LCD ever sold cost as a part of it? Oh, and, when you read the article you'll understand why there will be huge economies of scale driving the cost of these things down as fast as, say, HDTV displays over the past 3 years (75% cost reduction).

If you're a display freak like me, I'd hold off on that late 2012 Ivy Bridge Z replacement purchase until you see what a truly competitive market for 200+ ppi IPS displays will offer.


Remember where you heard it first

 

The Verge is reporting that next gen Asus Zenbooks are getting Full HD IPS displays, for both 13" and 11" sizes.

Sony should do the same.

 

Don't know where you're getting that 51% GPM figure from. Sources are saying $310:
New iPad 4G 16GB Costs an Estimated $310 in Parts

Anyways, I can't wait for the day that we get even higher DPI screens on our computers. I hope Win 8 has good scaling built in and that we won't have to wait for another version of Windows.

 

If you think this, you have to watch the video clip on apple.com to see how they talked about the 9.7" Retina LCD.
iPad 4G has almost twice capacity battery than iPad 2 (42.5Wh vs 25Wh) to maintain the same using time, so how the Hi-Res LCD can use less power than Lo-Res LCD.

 

Just saw this article on engadget:

ASUS Zenbooks to get Ivy Bridge refresh, optional 1080p and backlit keyboards in tow? -- Engadget

and of course came running here... So guys, what you think? 2560x1600 panel on the next Vaio Z?

 

More like 3840x2400 (WQUXGA) - but it won't come out until Jan 2013 and, oh yeah, it'll list at $5,000, gold plated.

 

Windows 7 scales pretty badly, though

 

So true, so true. Know about W8 in this respect?

 

I gotta hand it to Apple, if it weren't for them, PC manufacturers would be happy sitting at 720p for all laptops 15" and less...

 

I too saw that Asus article on Engadget and came right over here. So glad to see another 1080 13" lappie and that's amazing that the 11" is 1080 as well. Might have to look into that machine when it comes out.


I'm not sure if Sony's going to up the resolution from 1080 just yet. It seems like quite a bit was invested by Sony's marketing on the whole "FULL HD" concept a few years back and I just don't quite see them doing something above that at the moment. I hope I'm wrong.

 

A QHD display option on the next Z would be nice.

 

QHD? (HD, fit for a queen? *Edit: just looked it up - 3840X2160!! A Sony wet dream?!!

Seriously, do you agree with others that Windows cannot scale beyond 1080p at this time? Possibilities for W8? From the article I read (cited in OP), coupled with some comments made in this thread, it sounds as if laptop display technology and and affordability may be about to zoom past hardware/firmware and video processor technology in the Windows world. Transaltion: 10-17" laptop LCDs with 1080p+ super bright and colorful displays (such as in the new "new iPad"), using IGZO technology in place of thin film, are soon to be plentiful and affordable and similar resolutions for HDTVs are not far behind. Please tell me Apple is going to own the laptop computer market for these the way they do the slate/tablet market because Windows doesn't know how to deal with this much resolution . Actually, if you can drive a WQHD monitor from a DisplayPort via Windows OS and a mid-level GPU, why can't it deliver the same video bandwidth to the internal LCD?

Splain me, please?

 

I would like to have a Z3 with 1378* 768...
My eyes are bad, so I have to use my Z with FHD on 1600* 900 with 125% zoom in Windows 7

Windows looks very washed out...

 

For web content I find the add-on "nosquint' in Firefox (maybe others too) enables you to fine tune for each web site the zoom in on text only and doesn't affect image quality. The problem with 1366X768 is that virtually no one makes quality displays at that resolution. Surprises me that downscaling in a Z from 900p to 768p would have so much effect on colors. Are you using the Intel graphics card or the discrete?

 

Reasonable questions that I'm not qualified to answer. It would be nice though to have a Z with a QHD screen. Arguably, it would not be perfect for everyone. Nonetheless, it would be a great placeholder until higher rez screens come along.

 

qHD is 960x540... Q FHD is 3840x2160

Anyways, UHD ftw.

 

I stand corrected. You're right, QFHD is what I should have said.

 

When i saw QHD. I thought you meant QuadHD -> 2560x1440

QFHD = Quad Full HD vs. Quarter HD (960x540) like on my HTC Sensation.

Anyways that aside, high quality panels are cheap... My new 27" S-IPS LG Panel monitor from Korea which I bought for $400 on Ebay sells there for $230... There's a HUGE thread on Overclock.net where I first found out. But apparently it's the same panels like those on the 27" Apple Cinema displays... and no AG coating (mines even has tempered glass, but risky since there's a high risk of dust). Mines has since developed 1 dead pixel... but with such a high pixel density, I can 99.9% of the time not see it, and have a hard time finding it when i want to find it... But anyways, yeah, high res panels are the future... I mean we've already had 1080p tablets announced back at CES

 

Do you guys know about the quality of the original vaio Z (Z520) 1366x768? If contrast and viewing anglles are as good as the 1600x900 I dont see a problem with the resolution. My eyes get tired at the end of the day with the 1600x900 one.

 

I too would go with this

 

Neither OS X nor Windows is really fully geared at the moment to support LEGIBLE super high res displays at small screen sizes, although both are supposed to be largely resolution independent.

iOS, obviously not an issue. Android and many other 'phone based' OS's, not a huge leap either.

Like Louche, I think it would be a nice option to have but I doubt anyone'll be using it at the same DPI settings as they would use the 1920 screen, let alone the 1600.