Pixel Qi readies battery-saving laptop screens

20.02.2009
One Laptop Per Child spin-off Pixel Qi on Thursday said it will soon start shipping low-power screens that could increase laptop battery life by up to 50 percent.

The company's LCD (liquid crystal display) screens include technology to absorb natural light sources to brighten screens, said Mary Lou Jepsen, founder and CEO of Pixel Qi. That helps save battery life as it reduces the need for a backlight, which is used to light up conventional laptop screens.

"Instead of cranking up the backlight to fight sunlight or the light of the office overhead fluorescent tubes, we realized we could use the brilliant ambient light in the image itself, saving power," said Jepsen.

A casual laptop user may see laptop battery life jump from three hours to four-and-a-half hours by switching to the light-powered screens, Jepsen said. The new screens will provide full color depth and refresh rates that are comparable to conventional laptop screens.

The screens pull as much ambient light from sources as possible, but the technology may not work effectively for users watching DVD movies in dark rooms, Jepsen said.

"The conventional LCD screens in computers are just miniature LCD-TVs. That's perfect, if all you want to do is watch movies all day, sitting in a darkened room, with the device plugged in," Jepsen said, in an e-mail interview.