The time for OLED PCs has come. Lenovo has just released several laptops with this screen technology, just days after Asus did the same. But what exactly will this technology bring to our PCs?
Lenovo has just released a plethora of gadgets to accompany the start of the school year. From headphones to tablets to laptops, the Chinese manufacturer has just generously renewed its product catalog. The star of this new collection is the Lenovo Slim 7 Carbon which embeds a high-end technical sheet with a 14-inch OLED screen (2880 x 1800 pixels). Lenovo also released a Chromebook with an OLED display, which sold for around $ 430.
This is far from the first time that we see laptops on board an OLED screen, but this new announcement follows those of Asus which unveiled in early September several other computers equipped with this technology, some of which have been sold. less than 1,000 euros. The start of the 2021 school year will therefore be that of the democratization of OLED on laptops.
But what exactly does this technology bring to our computers?
An advantage for the pros
Most of the OLED computers coming out or already on the market today are positioned as machines for creators of content. OLED makes it possible to have extremely faithful color reproduction, which is a plus for anyone working in photography or video.
Computers from Asus and Lenovo promise very wide coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, a standard that can reproduce many more colors than the sRGB that has been prevalent in the computing world until now.
This democratization of OLED technology coupled with the arrival of more powerful graphics chips on our laptops will allow video editing, photo editing or graphic creation on the go much more efficiently. It will also allow you to better appreciate the shimmering environments of your favorite video games.
The only downside of OLED is that it is more difficult to tame than the IPS that previously equipped our laptops. These screens can reproduce colors with stunning fidelity, just as they can display completely neon tones if they are improperly calibrated (early OLED smartphones often had this flaw). This is why most manufacturers display various calibration certifications.
More comfort for the general public
The arrival of OLED on laptops will also improve the autonomy of our machines. The particularity of this technology is that it can turn off some of its pixels when it needs to display black. This saves energy since some areas of the screen may simply stop being powered.
The OLED also makes it possible to display very deep blacks (even considered as “infinite” since there is no backlight) and to achieve extremely high light peaks. Goodbye, the grayish 16: 9 bands around your Netflix series, the OLED will allow a much better immersion. Finally, OLED screens generally emit less blue light, which can improve comfort and reduce eye strain.
To put it simply, the advantages that OLED brings to professionals will also benefit the general public, who will be able to equip themselves with more enduring, brighter and better calibrated computers. This is good news, since laptops have today become important tools for multimedia consumption.
Why is this only happening now?
OLED displays have long been a luxury in the laptop world. Released in 2016, the HP Specter x360 (one of the first consumer computers equipped with an OLED panel) cost 1,800 euros. Today, Lenovo is able to put OLED panels on Chromebooks that sell for less than $ 500.
This small feat is due to Samsung’s foray into the industry. For years, the OLED panel market was divided between LG (which took care of large TV screens) and Samsung (which produced small smartphone screens). No one was actually building OLED PC displays.
Not wishing to pass up the opportunity, in January 2021 Samsung embarked on the mass production of OLED screens for laptops. 8 months later, the results are there and OLED is well on its way to slowly asserting itself in the notebook PC industry.
