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Do displays "age"?

CalMin

CalMin

Contributor
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
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I have a 12" Powerbook G4, 1ghz, bought in October 2003 when Panther came out.

I'm holding out for an Apple sub-notebook.. In perusing new notebooks, I have noticed that the displays are MUCH brighter than on my G4. Thing is, when I bought the G4, the display was better than that of iBooks of the time and most other PC brands. One of the reasons I bought was that the display seemed better and brighter than the other laptops out there.

Now, in comparison, it just looks tired. Has my display 'aged' or is just that the technology keeps improving?
 
The difference is mostly due to the new technology used in today's displays (they're brighter).

But yeah, displays age and will eventually die.
 
Oh, and macs are switching to LED backlighting in the future. These will be more power efficient and won't have quite the same aging problem (problem with color instead of brightness I think).
 
Sorry to scare anyone - but ALL displays "age" - no matter what technology they implore, backlight - they all change over their operational lifetime.

LEDs ALSO change color and intensity over their lifetime (and over temperature) this is not a "CFL" only problem.

Plasmas, OLEDs, CRTs and DLPs all change too.

It's kinda a physics problem at this point. Light sources degrade and shift, color wheels fade, phosphors degrade and diodes ionize.

That said - LEDs are on the way to becoming more efficient than CFLs - and are certainly already better at being shock-resistant. You also have the factor of #s on your side - CFLs (typically one tube) break, it's all black. You can pop a diode or two in a bank, and still have many others left illuminating your screen.
 
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