When 9 and 10 inch netbooks started hitting the market in mid-2008, 1024 x 600 pixel screens were the standard. But over the past half year or so we’ve seen a growing number of PC makers slap 10.1 inch, 1024 x 576 pixel displays onto their netbooks, as if those 24 extra vertical pixels didn’t matter. And the truth is, for most people they won’t. But if you don’t care about having videos with a 16:9 aspect ratio fitting perfectly onto your screen without any black space above or below the video window, those extra pixels are nice to have. They translate into an extra line or two of text on most web pages.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10v is one of those netbooks that typically comes with a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 576 pixel screen. But Portable Monkey noticed that Dell Japan is listing the Mini 10v as having a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. So either the company is starting to use a new display, or Dell Japan has a typo on its web site.

Has anyone ordered a Mini 10v from Japan? If you can confirm the screen resolution, let us know in the comments.

Samsung NC20 laptop with 12.1 inch display

Samsung already makes netbooks and mini-laptops with 10.1″, 10.2″ and 12.1″ screens. Now it looks like the company could be working on an 11.6 incher. DigiTimes reports that Samsung and Dell have both placed orders for a new 11.6 inch screen from LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes.

We’ve already seen evidence that Dell is building a machine with an 11.6 inch display, but this is the first I’ve heard of a Samsung model with that screen size. The screen would have a display resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, and it’s designed to play well with Intel’s CULV processor line, so there’s a decent chance we’re not talking about an Intel Atom based machine here. Samsung Product Marketing Director Todd Bouman did say at a recent event that the company was looking at the CULV platform.

Pixel Qi founder Mary Lou Jepsen has been reading a handful of tech blogs including Engadget and MobileRead to see what people are saying about those sexy new 3qi displays she’s been showing off for the last few days. And in an interview with TechVideoBlog, Jepsen answered some of the questions left by commenters on those blogs.

Here are a few of the highlights:

• The 3qi screen will not cost $200 to produce, as Time Magazine recently indicated. Rather, Jepsen expects that PC makers will be able to sell netbooks with 3qi displays in them for a total of about $200. This is largely because the screens are based on existing LCD technology and despite the fact that there are 20 new patents pending for the technology, LCD makers should be able to manufacture these screens without changing their equipment at all.
• While the goal is to move into mass production this fall and partner with PC makers to include these screens in netbooks and other devices, Jepsen says if it’s possible she would like to find a way to make some screens available to the DIY community for hackers who want to install the screens into existing devices.
• Even when you’re using the reflective black and white mode to read the screen outdoors, the display can handle full motion video, and you can see a hint of color.
• The only change most computer makers would have to make to use a Pixel Qi display instead of another LCD is to enable the backlight to be shut all the way off, and not simply faded down to a low setting.

Pixel Qi expects the screens to go into mass production this fall. You can check out the full video from TechVideoBlog after the break.

vie Engadget

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Pixel Qi’s Mary Lou Jepsen has posted the first photos of the company’s new displays which use far less energy than typical LCD screens. The screens offer two different modes, a backlit mode with full color saturation, and an ePaper mode that uses less energy and doesn’t require a backlight. The ePaper mode also makes the display significantly easier to read outdoors in bright sunlight than most computer displays.

The picture above shows a screen that’s been hacked to fit onto an Acer Aspire One laptop in ePaper mode outdoors. After the break, you can check out an image showing two screens. One is in full color mode, while the other shows the ePaper mode in a different light.

Pixel Qi will be demonstrating these screens at several upcoming trade shows. In the not too distant future we may see them appear in low cost ultraportable computers like the OLPC XO Laptop. It remains to be seen whether they’ll find their way into consumer oriented netbooks like the Acer Aspire One and Asus Eee PC, but it’s clearly possible for the screen to work with those computers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Acer isn’t the only company adding a higher resolution screen to its netbooks. It turns out the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2, which was first announced a few days ago, will also come with an optional 1280 x 720 pixel screen.

For much of the past year, 1024 x 600 and 1024 x 576 pixel screens have been the norm on netbooks. And while these screens over a pleasant compromise between price and performance, some people aren’t happy with trying to squeeze applications, web pages, and videos into a smaller screen space than you’ll find from most desktop or larger laptop displays.

There are some downsides. The Intel Atom processor doesn’t handle Flash video playback at higher resolutions very well. And some people may find the screen too sharp for comfort. If you find yourself squinting at a high resolution netbook display, don’t say I didn’t warn you. But so far most companies that are offering higher resolution screens are offering them as options, not part of the default configuration. And that seems like a smart move.

In other news, the German version of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 announcement also mentions an optional 32GB SSD option and implies that the netbook may be available with the “latest” Intel Atom processor, which would be the 1.66GHz Atom N280 CPU rather than the Intel Atom N270 processor that’s been around since last summer.

If you’d asked me a few months ago which new netbook features we’d start to see in 2009 I probably would have said touchscreen displays, faster processors, and alternate operating systems including Google Android. But we’re almost halfway through the year and while the touchscreen Asus Eee PC T91 is due out any day now, the only two touchscreen netbooks available are the the Gigabyte Touch Note and laptops based on the Intel Classmate PC design. Processors haven’t gotten much faster (yet) and Google Android netbooks are still in the early works. But you know what is taking off this year? Higher resolution netbook displays.

The HP Mini 2140 and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 are already available with high resolution 10 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel screens. And now Macles reports that Acer is preparing a new Aspire One 571 with a 10.1 inch 1280 x 720 display. To help with decoding H.264 and high definition video, the mini-laptop features a Quartics Q1721 multimedia coprocessor which handles hardware decoding and encoding of H.264 and several other codecs.

Macles also reports that Acer has taken a rather baffling step of including an unusual optical disc drive that supports Vmedia, which are kind of like tiny Blu-Ray discs which can hold about 1GB of data.

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that the Acer spire One 571 will cost at least a few bucks more than most Acer netbooks thanks to that optical disc drive, HD media coprocessor, and high resolution display. But there’s no official word on pricing or availability yet.

One of the most important parts of a netbook, or any laptop for that matter, is the screen. And right now, most netbook screens look a lot alike. They come in 9 and 10 inch flavors and with a few exceptions, they tend to support 1024 x 600 pixel displays. A few newer models have touchscreens. And then there’s Pixel Qi, a company that wants to completely revolutionize the way we think about laptop and eBook reader screens.

Pixel Qi is headed by Mary Lou Jepsen, one of the co-founders of OLPC who helped develop the screen for the original XO Laptop. Her goal is to develop displays that use far les power than today’s LCD screens. At the same time, she wants these displays to be readable in direct sunlight. The idea is that they should be usable in developing nations where access to electricity is scarce. But the technology could change the way we think about laptops in the developed world as well.

The company’s first product is called the 3Qi and it’s a display designed to work in three different modes. It will have a black and white, outdoor readable mode, an e-paper mode, and a high resolution LCD mode. The 10 inch screens are designed for netbooks and eBook readers and CNET reports that Pixel Qi will be ready to start sending 3Qi displays to vendors as soon as next month. At first only sample orders will be available, but the company could begin shipping in higher volume by this summer and these displays could end up in next generation OLPC XO Laptops and other netbooks later this year.

Eventually Pixel Qi will begin to incorporate touchscreen and multitouch technology into its displays. But for now the goal is to reduce power consumption and improve outdoor readability.

Update: According to Mary Lou Jepsen’s blog, it sounds like the 3Qi is compatible with most netbooks that take a 10.1 inch display. In other words, end users might even be able to pop out a standard display and replace it with a Pixel Qi screen — if and when the displays are made available to the general public.

via Engadget

As expected, HP has begun offering HP Mini 2140 customers the choice of a higher resolution, 1366 x 768 pixel display. Up until this week, the only display option for this netbook was a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 576 pixel screen. The higher resolution display costs just $35 more, and makes the HP Mini 2140 one of the few netbooks to come with a sharp enough display to show true 720p HD video. The other is the Dell Inspiron Mini 10.

The good news is neither HP nor Dell are charging an arm and a leg for the upgraded screen. You can choose a 1366 x 768 pixel display from Dell for just $35 extra. HP charges just $25.

Update: If you want to pick up a model with the higher resolution display without spending over $600, make sure to check out the “smart buy” options. You can find the HP Mini 2140 with a 1366 x 768 pixel display for as low as $479. thanks Teuron!

via Netbook Choice

Dell.com

Dell has added an option to the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 order page order page for a higher resolution 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display. This makes the Inspiron Mini 10 the first netbook to be available with a 10 inch screen resolution higher than 1024 x 600, although the HP Mini 2140 high res screen should be available within the next few weeks.

The best news? The higher resolution screen will only set you back an extra $35.We’re still waiting for Dell to start offering some of the other options the company promised earlier this year including a built in GPS receiver and TV tuner.

via Engadget

The HP Mini 2140 is set to become one of the few netbooks with a screen resolution higher than 1024 x 600. When HP first announced the laptop in January, the company promised that a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display would be an option. But so far only the 10.1 inch, 1024 x 576 pixel screen has been available.

A few weeks ago an HP product manager told me the higher resolution display would be available in early April and that it would only add $25 to the price of the HP Mini 2140. Now Digifitti has uncovered a firmer date: April 6th. I’d take this information with a grain of salt for two reasons. First, the news comes from a sales rep, not HP HQ, and second the article lists the launch date as April 6, 2006. But as someone who’s been guilty of writing a few typos from time to tome, I’m inclined to give Digifitti the benefit of the doubt here.

Anyway, the news does seem to line up with what I’d heard. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see the new screen resolution available as an option on or around the 6th.

You can read more about the HP Mini 2140 in the Liliputing Product Database, or check out my full review of this computer (with the lower screen resolution).

via Netbook Choice

A year ago the netbook space was populated by mini-laptops with 7 inch and 8.9 inch displays. Today, the 10 inch screen is king. Those 10 inch displays come in two different basic configurations, a 10.1 inch 1024 x 576 version and a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. But most netbooks from major laptop makers coming out today feature one of those two display types.

And the surge in popularity of 10 inch screens appears to be leading to a decline in prices for 10 inch panels. DigiTimes reports that these LCD panel prices are falling by about $2, while orders for 8.9 inch panels are dropping and prices for screens of that size are staying the same.

$2 might not seem like a lot, but the profit margins on netboks are quite low, so every cent computer makers can save on parts helps.

via Eee PC.net

Asus has been keeping pretty busy at CeBIT, what with launching a new ultrathin netbook, showing off a new Eee Keyboard, EeeNAS, and other devices including a dual screen notebook. But the company isn’t done innovating. Not by a long shot. According to The Register, Asus CEO Jonney Shih also mentioned today that the company is thinking about adding a computer with an OLED display to its Eee PC lineup.

OLED technology would give such a netbook a bright and vibrant screen, while drawing less power than current LCD screens and helping prolong battery life. But right now OLED screens tend to cost an awful lot of money, so either Shih knows something I don’t, or an Eee PC with an OLED screen  would cost more than a few bucks more than most of the Eee PC netbooks available today.

via Electric Pig

As expected, it looks like Asus will be phasing out all of its Eee PC netbooks with 8.9 inch displays soon. The goal is to focus on laptops with 10 inch screens, which appear to be the industry standard today. The machines with larger displays also tend to have larger keyboards which are easier to type on, although the screen resolution on 8.9 inch and 10.1 or 10.2 inch netbooks is typically the same (1024 x 600 pixels, give or take a few pixels).

Asus expects 95% of its netbook shipments in 2010 to be 10 inch Eee PC models. The other 5% will be netbooks with 7 inch screens, probably sold through telephone companies.

After several weeks of leaks, Acer is making it official. The company has introduced a 10 inch version of the Acer Aspire One netbook. The new model will be a lot like the original Aspire One, but it will have a larger screen with the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution.

The Acer press release makes it sound like the 10.1 inch display will be the best thing since sliced bread. It’s “designed for an optimal web browsing experience and Internet productivity.” But really, this is just Acer’s entry into a market that Asus, MSI, Lenovo, HP, and others have already thoroughly treaded.

Still, the new Aspire One does look like a nice little computer. It will weigh 1.18kg or  about 2.6 pounds, comes with a 6 cell battery that’s good for up to 7 hours, and can support up to 2GB of RAM, although it will probably only ship with 1GB. In addition to 802.11b/g WiFi the Aspire One can be customized with Bluetooth, WiMAX, or 3G features.

There’s no official word on the release date, but if the rumors are correct, this netbook should begin shipping in February.

via jkkmobile and Slashgear

HP may have begun taking orders for the HP Mini 2140 netbook this week, but it looks like you’ll have to wait another month or so before you can get the sexiest version of the new laptop. HP plans to offer some models with a high resolution 1366 x 768 pixel, 10.1 inch display. But right now the only units available come with 1024 x 576 pixel screens.

Several Liliputing readers called HP to ask about the higher resolution displays and were told that HP won’t be offering the new screens for at least another month. On the bright side, it appears that customers who don’t want to pay for Windows can order the HP Mini 2140 with SUSE Linux instead, which should save you around $50. There’s no Linux option available on the company’s web site yet, but you may be able to talk a sales rep into offering you a version with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop if you make a phone call.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with HP’s implementation of SUSE Linux on the HP 2133 Mini-Note, but it’s possible that the OS runs better on the HP Mini 2140 thanks to its new hardware. The original HP netbook had a VIA C7-M processor while the newer one uses an Intel Atom CPU. Of course, you could also just order a netbook running SUSE and replace it with your own operating system of choice.