OLED laptops

OLED is a new display technology, offering a great picture quality and low power consumption. OLEDs are currently used in small devices such as MP3 players or mobile phones. Display makers keep getting better at manufacturing OLEDs, and we can soon expect larger screens, in the range of 11"-15" that will fit laptop computers

OLED laptops: thin, better picture, less power

OLED displays will be great for laptops, offering several advantages over LCDs:

• They are much thinner. In fact Sony's flagship OLED display is only 3mm thick, and they are already working on much thinner panels.
• They consume less power - OLEDs can save a lot of power. OLEDs only consume energy when pixels are lit - so an almost black screen will draw very little power. We can expect application to take advantage of this (for example a white font on black background).
• OLED offer better picture quality with much faster refresh rates.
• OLEDs can be made flexible or even transparent. A transparent laptop? check out the amazing Samsung prototype below...

When should we expect OLED laptops?

Several companies are working towards larger size OLEDs, including:

• Sony
• Samsung
• LG Display
• Dell

Sony are already producing an 11" OLED TV (The XEL-1), but this is a very expensive OLED display - at around 2,500$... it's not likely that Sony will decide to use these in computers till the price drops sharply.

LG seems to be the most advanced company currently. They have unveiled their 15" OLED TVs, and mentioned that they are experimenting with an OLED laptop. The price will be around 2 times as LCDs. 

LG 15-inch OLED TV

Samsung have shown 14.1" OLED panels, for laptops probably, which are 'ready for production'. Samsung recently said that their OLED laptops will be ready by Q3 2010.

Samsung SDI 12.1 inch laptop prototype

Lenovo has recently said that they will be considering an OLED laptop, when they see demand.

Flexible OLEDs

OLED displays can actually be made flexible using plastic or metal subsplane. Flexible OLEDs are being developed by many companies. It's possible that within 5 years or so we'll be able to have large 'rollable' OLED displays that take up very little space when not used.