Are you into betting? Like online sports betting? I can bet you money that you will be taken by surprise that they have actually built a laptop which is totally transparent.
A transparent laptop? Not just the keyboard area, but a transparent laptop screen? I kid you not; Samsung has come out with a laptop screen that is totally transparent. It’s so cool, it’s unbelievable. It has an OLED screen, a technology with which Samsung has been experimenting with for many years.
OLED is a very expensive technology at present, but it offers a number of advantages over the common LCD screens. It has a flexible substrate, which makes it potentially usable as displays on clothing, or as roll up displays. It consumes less power compared to LCDs, and it has certain properties that produce a better viewing experience.
This Samsung laptop is not really hundred percent transparent; but it is twice as transparent as the industry average for transparent displays, and is also about the largest transparent display slated to be in the market in the near future. It is translucent, and looks a little like those photochromatic lenses that turn dark in sunlight. This screen has a very similar look, and the bright icons on the display, against the backdrop of that semi-transparent, dark OLED screen, looks really great.
Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA Pureness now looks lifeless in comparison to this gizmo. XPERIA only sports a small 1.8-inch transparent screen, and this laptop has a regular 14’’ display. This still unnamed beauty is going to hit the US markets later this year, at a price target of $332.
Samsung has been experimenting with OLED technology for a few years. Its Korean lab has been abuzz with excitement about OLEDs ever since it brought out the 21 inch OLED TV in January 2005, touted as the largest OLED display at that time. OLEDs have comparatively higher resolution than other displays, and their response time is significantly better; about a tenth or more of the best LCDs.
Three years later, in January 2008, Samsung came out with an ultra thin 31 inch OLED TV, again the world’s largest OLED screen. Since then, it has been bringing out larger and larger OLED displays and the largest so far stands at a cool 40 inches.
Samsung has also come out with an OLED screen that is thinner than paper, and “bendable.” This screen has extreme color resolution capabilities, and its flappable nature makes it potentially usable in a large number of situations. It can be used as a slide in screen in cars, for example, for a better rear view when backing up.
There is some doubt about transparent laptop screens and their usefulness. A laptop is, after all, a very private technology, and to make it transparent will be a distraction, to say the least. What is onscreen will get superimposed on that is behind the screen, and it will probably be harder to focus on the display itself.
While that may be true, geekdom is totally interested in this cool gadget, and can’t wait to show it off to girlfriends once they get their hands on it after shelling out three hundred odd bucks.
Pinstripe Magazine Staff
Online Men’s Lifestyle Magazine on Gear, Grooming, Girls, Gadgets
