Pixel Qi Introduces a DIY Kit

jones_supa writes "Pixel Qi has just revealed their DIY kit for netbooks, planned to be out near the end of Q2 — sounds like June. This makes it possible to retrofit a screen to one fully readable in direct sunlight. In her blog, Mary Lou Jepsen says: 'It’s only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb: it’s basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting the old screen and plugging this one in. That’s it. It’s a 5 minute operation.' She also talks about the 'laptop hospital,' a service depot started by kids in Africa."

Re:ignoramus

[marcansoft]

It's in B&W without backlighting / in the sunlight. It's in full color with the backlight on and at moderate to low ambient light, and somewhere in between as you reduce the backlight level and increase the abient level. Which is pretty good, considering that most laptop screens are fairly unusable in direct sunlight.

A similar link

[lazycam]

A quick google search turned up the same story: http://www.buzzbox.com/news/2010-03-07/Pixel_Qi:Q2/ [buzzbox.com]

Re:ignoramus

[emj]

It's also better than the old OLPC screen, they posted a graph (image) [pixelqi.com] descrbing that. The blog post [pixelqi.com] can't be read but the image of the graph can.

Re:ignoramus

[SpinyNorman]

Nah - it's full color and fast (good for video). If you use it as a drop in replacement for your existing display then what you're getting is the ability to use your laptop in full sunlight where your current screen would be all washed out.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/the-pixel-qi-display/ [wired.com]

Re:As opposed to those of us with regular notebook

[SpinyNorman]

This isn't a generic LCD display - that's not their market.

The big deals with the Pixel Qi display is that:

- It's totally usable in full sunlight
- It's full color and fast (OK for video)
- It has a reflective e-ink mode
- It's low power

It's really geared towards:

1) eBook readers that want color and video support
2) Laptops/netbooks intended to be used outside (which tends to mean smaller form factor)

They use the same production line as traditional LCDs though (there's lots of articles / videos on them if you Google), so they'll certainly be able to produce larger sizes if they want to.

Re:Slashdotted?

[kimvette]

coral cache

http://pixelqi.com.nyud.net/blog1/2010/03/07/diy-pixel-qi-kits/ [nyud.net]

Re:Dust?

[^_^x]

All of the laptop screens I've disassembled have included the LCD panel, lighting tube, backlight reflector and diffusor assembly in one main assembly, so it may just be a matter of opening the case around the screen, popping a couple of cables off and swapping it.

Re:Dust?

[bhtooefr]

No, you haven't had to get "into the layers of the LCD" for many, many years. It's a sealed unit, and a commodity one at that. Remove old panel, put new panel in.

Re:Slashdotted?

[bpkiwi]

Only the people who comment don't read the article. This is mostly because of the moderation system - if you stop to read the article then your comment will appear to late to gather any mod points - thus you are lost in the +1 noise. Only by jumping in as soon as you see something posted and saying something pointless, uninformed, and inane will you have a chance of getting moded to +5 by your peers - who also didn't read the article.