Apple rumored to adopt a new display technology – battery-saving IGZO displays in 2014 in an attempt to improve battery life in various IOS devices. According to a report, the company is in talks with LG and Sharp to use indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) displays. Apple is reportedly interested in the technology for its iPad and MacBook devices to help them deliver longer battery life. IGZO displays have forty times more electron mobility than amorphous silicon, a key layer in LCD displays, and allow for higher screen resolutions, better reaction times and less power consumption. Apple will reportedly include a IGZO display in its next-generation MacBook computers in early 2014. It is unclear if the technology will debut in the company’s new iPad, which is expected to be announced this fall.
IGZO displays could boost MacBook Pro battery life to 24 hours
We’ve been hearing for years now about Apple’s never-quite-realized intentions to ship devices featuring Sharp IGZO displays. Now a new report says they’re coming to the 2014 MacBook line.
IGZO displays are cool technology. In a simplistic description, every LCD panel is made up of a bunch of pixels, and behind those pixels, there’s a mesh of wires connecting them together, and then a backlight. Usually, a backlight has to shine through that mesh to light up the pixels, which results in wasted light and battery power. But IGZO is a way to allow more light to shine through that mesh, resulting in lower power requirements and longer APPLE A1185 Laptop Battery life.
Thinner devices with better battery life would result, because most of a device’s battery life is sucked up by the screen.
According to new Korean reports, Sharp is looking to supply both MacBook and iPad-sized IGZO panels to Apple, with LG Display joining the supply chain to help out, with the company upgrading its existing AMOLED and LCD lines to be compatible with IGZO manufacturing.
If this rumor pans out, it’s great news. Imagine Haswell Retina MacBook Pros with IGZO displays. That’s not just 12 hour battery life: if Haswell MacBook Pros can do to the 2014 models’ battery life what it did to 2013’s MacBook Airs, and if IGZO can cut the Retina display power draw in half, that’s potentially 24 hours of battery life.
