News - LG ready to supply Apple with OLED screens for MacBooks?

[HEXUS]

New srubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishy screen for 15in Apple notebooks coming soon?

Read more.

[Biscuit]

I would imagine it will be an optional add on if it happens. Once OLEDs get momentum they should come down in price fairly fast.

[matty-hodgson]

what exactly do OLED's offer over LCD's?
are they worth the money?

[Funkstar]

what exactly do OLED's offer over LCD's?

Lower power consumption
More vibrant colours
Blacker blacks
Thinner and lighter

Down side is theya re more expensive at the moment, and until recently their lifespan wasn't brilliant, specially the blue pixels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED#Advantages

[Stringent]

My mate saw one at the gadget show, the Sony 7" OLED. He said it was absolutely gorgeous. Although £3200 is a bit steep!!

[Biscuit]

Lower power consumption
More vibrant colours
Blacker blacks
Thinner and lighter[/url]

The reason for these advantages is each pixel is its own light source, there is no backlight. This also means you can have a screen so thin and light, its feasible to make it flexible enough to have roll up screens.

[superscaper]

The reason for these advantages is each pixel is its own light source, there is no backlight. This also means you can have a screen so thin and light, its feasible to make it flexible enough to have roll up screens.

The flexibility issue is also down to the use of organic materials rather than silicon based electronics.

[Michael H]

This is surprising if true.

Would have expected the MacBook Air to be the first recipient of an OLED screen as:

1/ Smaller screen should yield better.
2/ Premium priced product even by Apple standards
3/ Reduced power consumption would make the device even more portable.
4/ Intel's CULV platform rollout will produce a number of extremely thin laptops taking away the biggest unique selling point of the Air.

[awm]

I think it's rather unlikely, Apple is not the sort of company to delve into unproven technology, but one to improve on already established stuff.

As Funkstar points out the life of the blue chemicals were an issue, and Apple in unlikely to want to stake their reputation on something whose lifespan is supposedly just becoming acceptable (but you can't test how it behaves over the course of 3 years in less then that amount of time).

If Apple does go the OLED route I'd expect in the iPhone/iPod Touch lines where battery life is even more crucial.