“When I first heard about the LCD used in the OLPC project, I was equally intrigued and sceptical. The claimed specifications put it, on paper, well into the league of the best panels available and, if manufactured using conventional technology, would present a major step forward in LCDs, which you would expect to carry a significant price premium.”
See http://www.pentile.com/technology.htm for an explanation of how it works. It seems plausible that they can get higher appearent resolution using this technique.
There is some additonal information on these techniques in the IEEE Spectrum article at http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aug06/4269 In particular check out the link “Easy on the Eyes” in that article.
Edited 2006-09-13 21:53
Given software support for this subpixel layout (and that of the pentile), I can see a lot of potential for this, even in the general market. Subpixel font rendering has started to take off… sure Cleartype default sucked on XP, but with the optimiser gadget and on Linux or OS X it’s pretty nifty. If this could be applied to the entire visible display area then great. The more research the better.
I belive the sensors in cameras already use layouts besides the standard RGB stripes anyway.
The display of fonts is horrible on the eyes to say the least. It looks fine for pictures, true, but kids are supposed to be learning on these things which should mean reading alot of text.
i would wait with final judgement until i can see a actual screen in use
still, that they want to try something new in are area of lcd’s should be applauded. even if the result may not be that good first time round
I finally tried one of these in person and while cool, they have no reason to exist. They are not small enough to put in a pocket, they are hard to control, overpriced, and hard to read. Get a small laptop you will be much happier.
They aren’t overpriced, they’re 5 times cheaper than any laptop you could buy, and they’re even cheaper than most handhelds (except the very low-end ones).
Even if the 100$ laptops turn out to cost 120$, there is no reason to say “overpriced” if a current laptop costs at least 600$ (you might find a REALLY crappy one for 450$). The current PDAs cost 200$ and they are farther away from a general purpose computer than the OLPC’s are.
No, 100$ is not overpriced at all. Not for a rugged, water-resistent (when closed) and networked general-purpose computer. It might not be what YOU need, but please do not try to make the choice for someone who earns 100$ a month if you are in a much better position.
The sub pixelating reminds me of a halftone, a black and white photo achieving gray levels by varying soft edged dot sizes, fascinating.