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Laptop Displays
March 2, 2010
Laptop displays and the various terminology used in describing and specifying them are discussed here.
Laptop display sizes
The laptop screen size is specified in terms of the diagonal measure. For example, 10″ netbook has a display which measures 10 inches diagonally.
LCD screens
Mostly LCD (liquid crystal display) is used for laptop screens. Many times LCD is also colloquially referred to as LCD display.
Why not plasma for laptop monitors? One of the most obvious answers to this is – plasma monitors suffer from a problem called ‘burn-in’, where any image displayed for a long period of time on the screen, gets its image burned on the screen. Another probable reason could be – at high altitudes, where the air pressure is low, the plasma screens emit a buzzing noise. LCD screens don’t suffer from these problems. Moreover, the LCD viewing angle is lower than that of the plasma screen, allowing only the user before it to view it easily. Thus for a laptop, LCD screen is preferred.
AMOLED screens
Recently, AMOLED screens have started becoming popular in mobile PCs. AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. The AMOLED screen consumes lesser power than the LCD laptop screens. Plus, they also present better colour reproduction and better brightness. One negative aspect here is that its longevity is lower than that of the LCD screen.
LED backlight
Most LCD screens employ LEDs (light emitting diodes) to generate illumination from the back or the sides, to enable better readability in poorly lit environments. AMOLED screens have self luminous diodes and hence don’t require explicit back lighting. Thus, they consume lesser power than LCD monitors.
Viewing angles
Viewing angle refers to the side-to-side or top-to-down angle that allows for comfortable and clear viewing. Beyond these angles, the display will not be clearly visible.
Contrast ratio
This is the ratio of the amount of light emitted from the brightest colour (white) to the the amount of light that passes through at the darkest colour (black) on the screen. The higher this ratio the higher the levels of brightness offered.
Screen resolution
This refers to the number of columns and rows of pixels that make the display. The pixel is the smallest unit of display. Imagine the laptop display to be a grid. Each box in this grid can show the most basic element, that is possible to display. If the screen has more number of pixels, or more resolution, the more the amount of detail that can be displayed and hence the better the clarity.
Most of the 10-13″ netbook displays come with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. Some of the entertainment and gaming oriented netbooks even come with 1366 x 768 pixel-resolution. The term high definition (HD) is mainly used to refer to “high pixel” TV screens, which offer much much higher resolution than that of standard TV screens. Resolutions of 1280 x 720 pixels and above are usually considered as high definition. Something below this, falls in the low resolution category. The 18-19″ screen laptop comes with what is called full HD resolution, which is 1920 x 1080 pixels. Some of the 15-17-inch workstations which are designed for gaming and multimedia, also come with full HD resolution. The normal 15-17″ screen laptop resolution offered is 1366 x 768 pixels.
Aspect ratio
This is the ratio of the longer dimension to the shorter dimension of the screen. For example for a display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, the ratio of 1024:768 reduces to 4:3. Thus the aspect ratio of this laptop screen is 4:3. Screens with 1366 x 768 and 1920 x 1080 pixels, have 16:9 aspect ratio. The term ‘widescreen’ is used to refer to aspects ratios greater than the standard 1.37:1.
Glossy screen or Non glossy screen
Glossy laptop displays provide better colour intensity and contrast ratios. However, such screens can turn into mirrors when used outdoors, especially on a bright sunny day, due to the highly reflective surface. That’s when a non-glossy or matte screen laptop comes into the picture. Hence if you require an ultraportable for your travels and other outdoor activities, it is better to go in for a non-glossy screen. On the other hand if you require a laptop for home usage, a glossy one can be better.
Refer the Laptops Buying Guide as well.
Viewing Angles Image via PRAD.de
LCD vs AMOLED screens image via OLED-Display.net
NVIDIA Tegra 2 Tablets to Rule Mobile Computing this Year?
February 10, 2010
CES 2010 saw the unveiling of the 2nd generation of NVIDIA’s mobile computation platform - the NVIDIA Tegra 2. A few tablets that had this chipset at their hearts, were demo’d as well. This new platform is supposed to deliver 4 times the performance than the first generation of NVIDIA Tegra platform.
One of the most striking quality of this chipset is its support for 3D touchscreen interface. Sounds like gaming might be taken to a whole new level, with 3D action. NVIDIA graphics were used in the making of the 3D fiction “Avatar”. And this movie is supposed to be one of the best 3D graphics film made till date.
Tablets integrated with the NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset, will offer high definition 1080p video playback. It offers compatibility with the Adobe Flash player 10.1.
Battery life is another area where the new NVIDIA chipset is supposed to excel. The power consumption is said to be lower than the previous generation platform. And hence better battery life can be expected. The Tegra 2 is quoted to deliver 16 hours of HD video playback and 140 hours of music, after a single charge.
When compared to smartphones, its not only the screen sizes and resolution that have received a boost, but also speed of processing and performance. Screen sizes are supposed to range from 5 to 15 inches. The resolution offered is said to be 4 to 8 times that of the smartphones. The ARM Cortex A9 dual core processor which can have a clock speed of up to 1GHz is employed in the NVIDIA chipset. There are also supposed to be 8 independent processors, handling web browsing, high-def video encoding & decoding and mobile 3D gaming.
Some of the NVIDIA Tegra 2 tablets that were revealed during CES 2010, Las Vegas, are the Asus tablet concept, the Wistron tablet, the Notion Ink tablet concept, the Viewsonic Alice 2 tablet. We’ll keep you posted about the release and pricing of these tablets. With the NVIDIA Tegra 2 tablets offering plenty on specs, will the Apple iPad be able to stand up against tough competition? Pricing of all the tablets will play a significant role in deciding this.
This YouTube video below shows the NVIDIA press conference at CES 2010.
Apple’s Magic Mouse
February 9, 2010
The Apple Magic Mouse is a highly innovative gadget which accomplishes plenty more, apart from the regular tasks of an average mouse. First of all, the style and design of this Magic Mouse is like none other. Glossy pearl white in colour with the Apple logo adorning it, this device looks highly appealing to the eye. Secondly, it incorporates a totally new technical design and offers a new method of operating.
There is however, dull news. This mouse is supposed to work only with Mac computers and laptops running the Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later. It can be linked to the PCs via Bluetooth. Hence other laptops from the various manufacturers cannot use this device.
Unlike a regular mouse, which presents buttons at top, for right and left clicks, the Magic Mouse is itself the button. There are no explicit right and left click buttons. Hence, this Apple Mouse has a seamless design. Therefore you can click anywhere on it. The top right corner however, presents the right click functionality, while the rest of the mouse behaves like the regular left click area.
The top portion of the mouse integrates multi-touch capability. A user can scroll up & down and sideways, by using normal finger gestures. Plus, swiping with 2 fingers allows flipping through images, music files and web pages.
The Apple Magic mouse is supposed to be highly precise in recognising what the user wants to do. It is said to be capable of sensing when the user is relaxing his hand and when he touches for operating on the screen. The Magic mouse can be customised to be used for left-handed people as well. Magnifying and reducing page size can be done too, by swiping the finger up and down respectively, by holding down the “Ctrl” key on the keyboard.
Thus, the Apple Magic Multi-Touch Mouse is a highly innovative and novel idea from Apple. It does seem ergonomic too, with its compact design and gesture-friendly operations. The price of this gadget is £56, approximately.
Going the Smartbook and Tablet Way…
February 5, 2010
Netbooks and smartphones seem to have finally reached saturation in terms of their offerings. So now, the manufacturers have resorted to making devices that borrow features from either of the mobile devices to make a totally new league of gadgets, which are supposed to offer the best of both worlds. They have as well come out with a variety of terminologies to describe such devices - smartbooks, smartnotes, tablets and UMPCs, to name a few. But, will these devices really woo the consumer crowd? Let’s explore the probabilities.
CES 2010, had a few of tablets and smartbooks on display. Some of them are the Lenovo Skylight Smartbook, the Dell Mini 5 Tablet, the PsiXpda UMPC and the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 hybrid laptop-tablet.
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The Lenovo Skylight is a netbook structured device, but is smaller and lighter. The internal circuitry represents that of a smartphone. The Qualcom Snapdragon 1GHz processor is used in this device. Hence it can do most of what a smartphone does, plus it offers a bigger interface to work on and view. Moreover it will not increase the weight of your baggage too. Will this device click in the market? This depends on whether you’d go in for a light, but not-so-powerful netbook, or a large smartphone-like capable device. |
| The Dell Mini 5 is an Android tablet. Almost all present-day smartphone features are sported by this device, but with a larger interface. It presents a large 5″ touchscreen for user interaction. So this tablet is going to look like an over-sized smartphone. Nevertheless, it will fit into the pocket and people with large fingers will find it easier to type on it than with smartphones. |  |
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The PsiXpda is a clamshell device, with a 5″ touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard. It offers plenty of nifty interfacing features, along with all the high end networking and connectivity options. One thing to note here is that, unlike the Lenovo Skylight, this UMPC has stuck with netbook-like internal features. An Intel Atom processor has been employed within. Therefore it is like a light netbook, or an extra-capable smartphone. |
| The Lenovo IdeaPad U1 is a laptop-cum-tablet. It has an 11.6″ touchscreen interface. A user can work on the touch-display directly or can attach it to a keyboard case, and continue to work from where he had left, before attaching the keyboard. Two different processors are employed for handling intensive tasks and mild ones. A hybrid switch enables the transition between them. This novel concept might click well in the market for the flexibility it offers. |  |
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The Apple iPad does offer some very impressive newbies, but absents some essential features as well. Being an Apple product, one can be assured that the touchscreen interface will definitely be pleasurable to work upon. A new eBook store, tools to accomplish official tasks and some quick search features are supposed to be incorporated in this tablet. Apple is advertising it as a device for reading eBooks, surfing the internet, listening to music and watching videos. This tablet can as well be used with a dock to link with a keyboard and for charging. Some of the features that are absent in this device include a web camera, support for Adobe Flash, multi-tasking ability and USB connectivity. There’s one important aspect that needs consideration here. If a consumer is willing to sacrifice on having an awesome touch interface, and would rather buy a tablet that comes with all these missing aspects, then there are other options that are available. |
NVIDIA, the maker of graphics processors, have developed a new chipset, the NVIDIA Tegra 2, which is supposed to produce powerful graphics for watching high definition videos and playing demanding games on ultraportables. Hence, the devices that will incorporate this chipset will really be something to look forward to.
Thus, the intermediary device between netbooks and smartphones have their own advantages and disadvantages. In choosing the one that meets your needs and lifestyle lies the answer of which of them is the best one.
Out-of-the-World Gadgets
January 30, 2010
Gadgets at the peek of innovation can get very interesting and sometimes weird as well. But nonetheless, it is worthwhile taking a look at them. Some make you stare in awe, while others might look a little funny. Here are 2 gadgets, that can really grab your attention, as they are one of a kind in their own ways. Sadly, they will not be available in all markets.
Thanko, a Japanese company have developed an 80-port USB hub! Sounds weird? But its true. This equipment can allow charging of 80 compatible gadgets at one time. A nice time-saving way for charging devices, in places where there is a lack of USB ports for charging. Could be much useful in college hostels and offices. However, this hub, with 80 devices plugged in, getting nourished at the same time, might look like Medusa’s hair. 80 USB cables could be really messy! There’s one more ‘not so good’ news - this hub can only allow charging of devices, and not data transfers. Currently, this 80-port USB hub is only available in Japan for a price of ¥14,800 (~ GBP 103).
The AirMouse is the next novel gadget. It has been designed by a Californian company, Deanmark Ltd. Unlike any other mice seen till date, the AirMouse is something that you can wear on your hand like a glove. It has been designed to allow users to keep their hands in a neutral position. This makes it very ergonomic to work with and will prevent repetitive stress injuries. Moreover, it does not restrict people from doing other activities. Typing on the laptop or the PC keyboard can as well be done with the mouse worn on the hand. There is an optical sensor in this equipment and once charged, it can go on for about a week. The AirMouse is yet to step into the US market. It is expected to land within a year’s time. The price of this gadget is $129 (~ GBP 81).
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