There have been a lot of talks about Sharp’s IGZO display lately and now rumors say we may end up with this technology on the iPad Mini. The slate is supposed to go live next week on October 23rd and I can’t wait to report about it. In case you want to know in depth what screens are about, know this: every LCD screen involves a bunch of pixels connected with each other through a mesh of tiny wires.
The pixels don’t emit the light by themselves, but instead they regulate the color of the light being displayed in that pixel. Behind the mesh we’re talking about there’s a lamp and for a pixel to light up on the screen, you need the light from the lamp to shine through the mesh. The thing is that the shining must be very bright and that eats up battery power. The Retina Display needs even more power, having more pixels in a small area and needing brighter light.
Sharp’s IGZO technology solves that problem by making the mesh of wires behind pixels more dense. Sharp announced this week that it would launch soon a small 7 inch tablet with a new IGZO screen, a technology that may make it to the iPad Mini as well. Sharp’s Aquos Pad tablet will go on sale in early December in Japan via local carrier au and it packs a 1280 x 800 IGZO screen, that using a 2,040 mAh battery will last 2.5 times longer than existing tablets.
If this tablet can play video for 12 hours, the iPad Mini’s rumored 4,490 mAh battery may give it double that time, which is incredible by any standards.
