What do YOU want in your next notebook PC?

May 21st, 2007

By John Jacobs, Director of Notebook Market Research

While I was sitting here staring at the display of my 15.4” 1440 × 400 MacBook Pro (all 300 nits of it), which happens to be plugged into a 20” 1680 × 1050 Dell monitor (also 300 nits), as well as reviewing e-mail on my 2004 IBM (prior to the Lenovo buy-out) ThinkPad 15.0” 1400 × 1050 IPS notebook, I was pondering what it is that I really want in a notebook. Hey, what can I say? I’m a display geek! And as anyone who knows me might imagine, I care passionately about the quality of the display. I can’t help it. I was educated by some of the best display engineers in the world.

Since the days of my very first notebook, a 1991 Apple PowerBook 160, with a 9.8”, monochrome STN display with the resolution of 640 × 480, things have changed both in the notebook world and my wish list of what I want in a notebook. I want desk-top class CPU power, a ton of DRAM, the biggest and fastest hard drive that can be crammed into the package, and battery life that lasts at least 4 hours, whether I’m crunching numbers in Excel or writing a DS blog. Oh, and it has to weigh 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg) or less. And the display? Well, I really like 1440 × 900 at 15.4” (110 ppi), but I think I’d like 1680 × 1050 (129 ppi) even more. Brightness? The 300 nits that my MacBook Pro cranks out is great, but I’d really like it to be closer to the brightness of many of today’s monitors: ~450. Is that possible? Of course it is. Toshiba has been shipping a Qosmio model with dual CCFL backlights that is spec’ed at ~500 nits. The drawback? Battery life is horrible. Less than 30 minutes at full brightness.

But the much more important question is, “What does the non-display geek want in a notebook?” According to research conducted by Intel, new notebook buyers want, in the following order: 1) High Performance or Speed, 2) Long Battery Life, and 3) Wireless Capability. For existing notebook users, the top-ranked improvement they wanted with their current system was longer battery life.

Can the panel suppliers make brighter notebook panels to satisfy geeks like me? They already do. Can they make them more power efficient? Yes, they’re working on it with LED backlights and other sub-components that use less power. The other component suppliers (CPUs, GPUs, DRAM, HDDs) are also working to make their systems more power efficient. Intel and TMD have collaborated to produce hardware and software solutions that improve battery life substantially. But in the end, it always comes down to cost. How much will an LED-backlit notebook cost the end customer? At present, our understanding is that an LED-backlight solution adds ~$45 to the cost of a 15.4” display. Double that number and you get the cost to the consumer.

So, Mr and Ms Consumer, would you pay $90 more for a NB PC with an LED backlight that is brighter and has better battery life? And how long would you expect to have to pay that premium?

  1. 3 Responses to “What do YOU want in your next notebook PC?”

  2. By Matt K. on May 22, 2007 | Reply

    Hi John,

    I am a road warrior. “Mobility” (long battery life and light weight PC) is highest priority for me. Use PC at anywhere like coffee shops, airport, hotel lobby, etc.. So, I also need brighter panel, especially at outdoor usage (or transflective display). But no need to keep long time with high brightness.

    LED backlight has possibility to control wide range luminance effectively (from dark to bright). PC end users can control brightness by themselves. So wide range brightness control function is preferable for end users. If I can use small battery, I will sacrifice brightness for long battery life with brightness control, even though I am a display geek.

    Sincerely
    Matt

  3. By Paul Gray on May 22, 2007 | Reply

    A big surprise to me was the fashionable but (in my view) pointless move to wide formats…however I now eat my words as at least it allows a notebook to be used when in an economy plane seat…

  4. By Jin Kim on May 30, 2007 | Reply

    I have rather divergent requirements depending on which notebook I am talking about. First of all, I will need two notebook PCs. One would be a desktop replacement and the other would be an ultra-portable. If I could dream for a bit, the desktop replacement notebook PC would have a really large screen. A 20″ would be nice, but it will need to have more pixels than your typical 1680 x 1050. I would require 1920 x 1200. Or maybe a dual-screen notebook PC that has two smaller screens flip out. Some sort of wide viewing angle technology (IPS or PVA) would be prefered over TN+film. In terms of light source, it would be great if there were edge-lit RGB-LEDs to get to 100% NTSC or more. The ultra-portable would be in the 12″ wide to 13″ wide with the overall system weighing less than 4lbs. The display should have at least 1280 x 800 with 1440 x 900 not out of the question. PVA or IPS is prefered. Depending on the display technology, the light source should be edge-lit white-LEDs that would reduce power consumption and allow me to compute for at least 8 hours. If 8 hours is not doable with LCD+LED, maybe active matrix OLEDs could do it?

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