Hasta La Gadget!

Those new desktops HP unveiled today are little more than humming foot rests without a monitor, so the company also trotted out the x2301 Micro Thin — a 23-inch, LED-backlit, 1080p display that’s an absolutely anorexic 9.8mm (0.39 inches) thick. Most of the important internals have been shoved into the blue-tinted base to keep the brushed aluminum and glossy black screen as thin as possible. It’s not exactly a high-end model, but the 3ms response time and 8,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio are nothing to sniff at. The x2301 is expected to ship on June 10th for $280, just after its slightly cheaper (and chubbier) cousin, the Elite L2201x. Fashionistas, the line starts right around the bend.

HP x2301 Micro Thin monitor makes other displays feel bloated, insecure originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PenTile displays use less subpixels but produce output that is tailor-made for our brains

Samsung has a new 10.1-inch “retina” resolution LCD panel ready to show off next week. It will demonstrate the 2560 x 1600 panel at the SID Display Week 2011 International Symposium starting Tuesday May 17th. And if you weren’t already thinking it — yes, this is perfect for tablets.

The panel has a resolution of 300dpi, the same as that of print, and the number Apple uses to define its Retina displays. In most uses, the pixels disappear and it appears that you are looking at a printed page.

Samsung’s new panel is interesting for two reasons. First is that it uses PenTile RGBW tech. PenTile is a way of grouping subpixels — each multicolor “pixel” on a screen is made up of several smaller single-color dots. In the case of PenTile, there are five dots (hence the “pent” or “penta” part of the name). The RGBW part means that an extra white pixel is added to the usual red, green and blue ones.

This white pixel works in conjunction with a variable, locally dimming backlight. This ramps up when bright colors are needed, but when colors are desaturated or just black and white, the backlight dims and only the white pixel is switched on. This reduces power consumption by a claimed 40% vs. a regular RGB stripe panel.

And that power reduction is the key to its use in tablets. The biggest draw on tablet battery power is the screen. Until a panel exists that can deliver the same battery life as today’s tablets, we won’t see a Retina display in the iPad. Of course, driving all of those extra pixels is also extra work (4x) for the graphics chips, but that’s another problem.

Samsung Electronics and Nouvoyance Demonstrate 10.1-inch, 300dpi WQXGA PenTile RGBW Prototype Display for Tablet Market [Samsung/Businesswire via TUAW]

How PenTile tech works [NouVoyance]

See Also:

• Better Than Retina: The Next Big Display Technology
• Sporty New iPods Tout Tiny Touchscreens, Retina Display
• Retina Display
• Display Expert: iPhone 4 Resolution 'Significantly Lower' Than …

We’d say we’re pretty well-covered when it comes to devices that turn on instantly to let you surf the web, scan your Facebook feed, and browse photos. But if you crave that immediacy and a larger, more comfortable viewing space, Acer’s DX241H Web Station might be the product you’re looking for. Available in wired and wireless models, this 24-inch monitor has a built-in browser, and can get online without being connected to a PC. While web surfing is clearly the marquee feature, you can also watch movies on its 1080p display by using Acer’s clear.fi software to stream video and other media from other devices on the network. Spec-wise, it also boasts DLNA compatibility, VGA and HDMI output, USB ports, and a memory card slot. People in the UK too impatient to wait for an all-in-one to boot up can snag the Web Station for £299 ($495) in May.

Continue reading Acer’s Web Surf Station looks like a monitor, acts like an all-in-one

Acer’s Web Surf Station looks like a monitor, acts like an all-in-one originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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April Fool’s Day: The perfect time to pre-order a phone that already looks just a little bit crazy. The dual-screen Kyocera Echo, soon to come to Sprint, is now available for pre-order on RadioShack’s website and in stores. Running Android 2.2 (Froyo), the Echo can use one screen as a keyboard or run two apps at once with one on each screen. It can also combine the two into one 4.7 inch super-screen. Other than the fact that it has two independent displays, the rest of the phone’s features are pretty standard, with a 5 megapixel camera, 720p camcorder and wifi hotspot mode.

RadioShack is selling the phone, which costs $199 on contract, on its site with free shipping. You can also pre-order in RadioShack stores, but that will require the purchase of a $50 gift card, applied to the purchase of the phone when it comes out on April 17th.

[via BGR, RadioShack]

They said they would do it, and by golly it’s nearly here — Samsung just revealed that its assembly lines are starting to churn out see-thru computer screens that don’t require power-sucking backlights to function. Unfortunately, it looks like the amazing AMOLED variety is still on the drawing board, but ambient light-powered LCDs are on the way, with Samsung offering a 22-inch, 1680 x 1050 resolution panel with a 500:1 contrast ratio to begin with. Sammy suggests we’ll see it in HDMI and USB-compatible monitors and suspects it’ll be used in advertising and teleconferencing first — which suggests this display won’t come cheap — but we all know the true killer app will be a nice big frameless laptop screen. We’ll take two, please. PR after the break.

Continue reading Samsung mass-producing 22-inch transparent LCD, your desktop monitor seethes with jealousy

Samsung mass-producing 22-inch transparent LCD, your desktop monitor seethes with jealousy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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