6 ms·

> The screen was pretty nifty for its time. It was dual mode, backlit or frontlit. You could go outside on a sunny day, turn off the backlight and have a high-r

by Kluny 9y ago

> The screen was pretty nifty for its time. It was dual mode, backlit or frontlit. You could go outside on a sunny day, turn off the backlight and have a high-resolution frontlit, completely readable (though black and white) display. I had no idea that was even possible. Are there any laptops available that have this feature now? I would kill to be able to write blog posts and work on my book or do terminal work outside on a sunny day.

ghaff 9y ago
What you want is a laptop with an e-ink display. There isn't one AFAIK. The refresh rate is one big limitation. One could design a laptop specifically for writing and reading but it would be pretty special purpose. As I recall, the CTO of OLPC went off to try to make a display with e-ink characteristics that would be more suitable for laptops but wasn't able to bring anything to market.
- krupan 9y ago
  Indeed she did try to make a business out of those displays: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi
  - ZenoArrow 9y ago
    You can still buy the Pixel Qi screens today, through a company called Tripuso: http://www.tripuso.com/index.html http://www.tripuso.com/index.html
- krupan 9y ago
  To be clear, the XO's display was not e-ink. It was regular frontlit LCD with a fast refresh rate. The downside was that the backlit mode never looked very good indoors. If someone could fix that problem I bet we'd have that screen on every portable device.
  - bronson 9y ago
    No, it really didn't. And reflective outdoors looked even worse. In the shade, it was washed out and the colors were wrong. In the sun, it looked like a bizarre black-and-white rendition of something where, if you concentrated, you could guess what it was trying to display. With a lot more development time maybe they could have fixed the problems. Maybe.
    - burfog 9y ago
      Did you switch modes? There was a mode switch. In grayscale mode, you got 1200x900 resolution. That was about 200 dpi, so quite sharp for the day. (typical was more like 85 dpi back then) In color mode, the screen was blurred. It was a 3x3 blur, without the typical pixel/subpixel distinction. Effective resolution was something like 692x519 based on the number of green pixels. Color mode in the sunlight would look grey, but it was still blurry. You had to switch modes if you wanted the full 1200x900.
      - bitwize 9y ago
        There was not a mode switch, at least not on my OLPC. You switched from color to B&W by turning the backlight brightness all the way down (thus shutting off the backlight).
        burfog 9y ago
        That was a mode switch. Turning backlight brightness all the way down was the mode switch as presented in the UI. Very old versions of the UI made it explicit. At the MMIO level of course, there was a bit that got toggled.
  - Kluny 9y ago
    Yeah, I would gladly take an e-ink display or a frontlit lcd. Either one would be great. The closest I've found to what I'm after is the Freewrite typewriter, which is stupid expensive.
  - ZenoArrow 9y ago
- bitwize 9y ago
  It was an LCD display with near-retina resolution and a transflective screen. It could be backlit, but when it wasn't backlit, ambient light was enough to illuminate the display to readable levels. PixelQi got as far as building working prototypes that could be installed in ordinary laptops, but no takers from the laptop industry.
  - abawany 9y ago
    There were few devices that offered them but never mainstream. Here is a snapshot of their page from 2014 that lists some of their partners: https://web.archive.org/web/20140228171904/http://pixelqi.com/devices https://web.archive.org/web/20140228171904/http://pixelqi.co... - mostly industrial applications and one Android tablet [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_tablet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_tablet
abawany 9y ago
I believe they used Pixel Qi displays, which were transreflective. I love transreflective displays due to their ability to use ambient light to save power but since the colors don't 'pop' with these and the side-lighting creates uneven lighting, they never seem to get traction. My Sharp Zaurus SL5500 and Garmin Vivosmart HR have these displays and I love the battery life that accompanies them. Edit: Additionally, for a while Pixel Qi made their ~10" (1024x600) display available as a retrofit for netbooks, probably around 2012 or so if I recall.
- rospaya 9y ago
  > Sharp Zaurus SL5500 Just got flooded by nostalgia. My SL-C760 was a wonderful piece of hardware, and the level of software tweaking is still unmatched. I'm missing hardware keyboards on smartphones very much.
dzhiurgis 9y ago
Onyx eReaders are quite fancy, runs android, has pencil support, still pricey tho: https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750544/onyx-boox-max-2-ereader-price-date https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp...
avhon1 9y ago
> Are there any laptops available that have this feature now? Nope. At one point, there were two netbooks that could have an off-the-shelf [0] pixel qi display fitted into them [1]. > I would kill to be able to write blog posts and work on my book or do terminal work outside on a sunny day. That's the main reason I keep my 2 OLPC XO-1 laptops around. I have Debian running on them, and am working to be able to use them for working out-of-doors. I've read lots of comments on HN expressing similar interest. Maybe I should develop some hardware for that. [0] https://www.adafruit.com/product/1303 https://www.adafruit.com/product/1303 [1] https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/how-to-install-pixel-qis-3qi-display-on-your-netbook-and-why/ https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/how-to-install-pixel-qis...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

by Kluny 9y ago

ghaff 9y ago

What you want is a laptop with an e-ink display. There isn't one AFAIK. The refresh rate is one big limitation. One could design a laptop specifically for writing and reading but it would be pretty special purpose. As I recall, the CTO of OLPC went off to try to make a display with e-ink characteristics that would be more suitable for laptops but wasn't able to bring anything to market.

krupan 9y ago
Indeed she did try to make a business out of those displays: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  You can still buy the Pixel Qi screens today, through a company called Tripuso: http://www.tripuso.com/index.html http://www.tripuso.com/index.html
krupan 9y ago
To be clear, the XO's display was not e-ink. It was regular frontlit LCD with a fast refresh rate. The downside was that the backlit mode never looked very good indoors. If someone could fix that problem I bet we'd have that screen on every portable device.
- bronson 9y ago
  No, it really didn't. And reflective outdoors looked even worse. In the shade, it was washed out and the colors were wrong. In the sun, it looked like a bizarre black-and-white rendition of something where, if you concentrated, you could guess what it was trying to display. With a lot more development time maybe they could have fixed the problems. Maybe.
  - burfog 9y ago
    Did you switch modes? There was a mode switch. In grayscale mode, you got 1200x900 resolution. That was about 200 dpi, so quite sharp for the day. (typical was more like 85 dpi back then) In color mode, the screen was blurred. It was a 3x3 blur, without the typical pixel/subpixel distinction. Effective resolution was something like 692x519 based on the number of green pixels. Color mode in the sunlight would look grey, but it was still blurry. You had to switch modes if you wanted the full 1200x900.
    - bitwize 9y ago
      There was not a mode switch, at least not on my OLPC. You switched from color to B&W by turning the backlight brightness all the way down (thus shutting off the backlight).
      - burfog 9y ago
        That was a mode switch. Turning backlight brightness all the way down was the mode switch as presented in the UI. Very old versions of the UI made it explicit. At the MMIO level of course, there was a bit that got toggled.
- Kluny 9y ago
  Yeah, I would gladly take an e-ink display or a frontlit lcd. Either one would be great. The closest I've found to what I'm after is the Freewrite typewriter, which is stupid expensive.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
bitwize 9y ago
It was an LCD display with near-retina resolution and a transflective screen. It could be backlit, but when it wasn't backlit, ambient light was enough to illuminate the display to readable levels. PixelQi got as far as building working prototypes that could be installed in ordinary laptops, but no takers from the laptop industry.
- abawany 9y ago
  There were few devices that offered them but never mainstream. Here is a snapshot of their page from 2014 that lists some of their partners: https://web.archive.org/web/20140228171904/http://pixelqi.com/devices https://web.archive.org/web/20140228171904/http://pixelqi.co... - mostly industrial applications and one Android tablet [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_tablet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_tablet

abawany 9y ago

I believe they used Pixel Qi displays, which were transreflective. I love transreflective displays due to their ability to use ambient light to save power but since the colors don't 'pop' with these and the side-lighting creates uneven lighting, they never seem to get traction. My Sharp Zaurus SL5500 and Garmin Vivosmart HR have these displays and I love the battery life that accompanies them. Edit: Additionally, for a while Pixel Qi made their ~10" (1024x600) display available as a retrofit for netbooks, probably around 2012 or so if I recall.

rospaya 9y ago
> Sharp Zaurus SL5500 Just got flooded by nostalgia. My SL-C760 was a wonderful piece of hardware, and the level of software tweaking is still unmatched. I'm missing hardware keyboards on smartphones very much.

dzhiurgis 9y ago

Onyx eReaders are quite fancy, runs android, has pencil support, still pricey tho: https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750544/onyx-boox-max-2-ereader-price-date https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp...

avhon1 9y ago

> Are there any laptops available that have this feature now? Nope. At one point, there were two netbooks that could have an off-the-shelf [0] pixel qi display fitted into them [1]. > I would kill to be able to write blog posts and work on my book or do terminal work outside on a sunny day. That's the main reason I keep my 2 OLPC XO-1 laptops around. I have Debian running on them, and am working to be able to use them for working out-of-doors. I've read lots of comments on HN expressing similar interest. Maybe I should develop some hardware for that. [0] https://www.adafruit.com/product/1303 https://www.adafruit.com/product/1303 [1] https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/how-to-install-pixel-qis-3qi-display-on-your-netbook-and-why/ https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/how-to-install-pixel-qis...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]