Samsung gives laptops a desktop screen test

Just when you thought that laptop screens could not get any bigger, Samsung has announced plans to manufacture 16.5in screens for use in mobile computers.

That is almost 2.5in bigger than the 14.1in screens which are now standard.

Samsung's TFT screen offers SXGA+ resolution (Super Extended Graphics Array) which translates as 1400 x 1050 pixels.

Samsung claims that the screen offers the same 4:3 aspect ratio as desktop monitors, rather than the 5:4 ratio delivered by traditional notebook screens.

A laptop sporting a 16.5in screen would offer a larger viewable area than a 17in desktop monitor. CRT-based monitors cut a large area from around the edge of the tube, but TFT screens can display the full area.

Samsung will begin mass production of the screen next year when it puts in place a new production line which will allow it to build six screens from a single piece of glass instead of the current four. The company expects to sell 10,000 of the screens per month.

Notebook manufacturers are apprehensive about the new development, however, fearing that there will be little demand for the bulky machines needed to support such a large screen.

Steve Gales, product manager for the Armada notebooks at Compaq, told PC Week: "Although we're releasing machines with 15.1in screens later this year, we believe that 14.1in is the optimum screen size for a notebook.

We're seeing increasing demand to go the other way in fact, for more portable notebooks. People who want the larger screens are doing mobile presentations, and we're looking at better ways to solve that problem such as our mobile projector."

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