screen res on laptops and battery life

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 20:00:08 -0400, Rajarshi Guha
<rajarshi@presidency.com> wrote:

>Hi,
> I was talking with a colleague the other day and he mentioned that
> Apples powerbook's (and most laptops for that matter) stick to the
>resolution of 1280x800 to save on battery life.
>
>Since I'm on the market for a new laptop, is the above fact true? I've
>been eyeing a compaq x1000 and I have the option for going to 1600x1050 or
>1900x12** on a 15.4" screen. I'll probably go for the former - but will it
>really eat up my battery?
>
>Does anybody have experiences - how much lower is the battery time with
>higher res screens?
>
>Thanks,

The major power significant (and not too much at that) reason that
a higher resolution LCD screen would take more power is that
higher resolution usually needs a larger screen and even for the
same screen size, more backlight power.. The pixels have an
aperture area so the larger the brighter but there are
manufacturing size limitations.. There is some increase in the
video electronics and pixel driving power too but that is not the
major power sink. The light is.

The reason for certain sizes is simply good old free market
screen manufacturing cost <--> demand..