World's First OLED Photo Frame Rolled Out

Samsung Demos OLED Display-Fitted Notebook

Samsung has released a prototype of one of the first OLED laptop computers, proving two things. First, that this technology is still waaaaaaay out of Jane the Decorator's price range. And second, laptops, even with OLED displays, are so not green.

The use of OLED technology in marketable gadgets is seriously exciting. But even so, laptop computers are just...ho hum. The power consumption of this laptop is still 20 watts, with standby power use of 1.5 watts. An actual newspaper or pen and paper uses zero watts. And while an old fashioned newspaper or pen and paper doesn't change stories by itself or correct spelling for you, you probably will look or use them just as often as the laptop after a couple weeks (read: hardly ever).

Don't get us wrong...this is a seriously tempting gadget. It is possibly one of the greenest laptop computers out there, and the use of OLED for the display is promising. But at $11,000, it is still mainly a very expensive piece of e-waste.

We're still holding tight for the really practical uses of OLED display technology, such as shading our car windows from the sun or as a coaster for our hot coffee, and other constant uses.

"shading our car windows" most certainly it will never happen with OLED. This can be only implemented with LCD.
However, windowless cars and airplane - that the future where OLED will be used. You will have virtual windows. That will make cars and airplane much safer , lighter and more efficient.
I expect that application of OLEDs with in 10 years.

@ JSdreyer

I dunno how you managed to be funny and not funny at the same time... and OLEDs as coasters for hot coffee..??? where/ how did you come up with that??? and 11000$ ??wtf?? the only way thats green is when you look at it from the viewpoint of a wallet...

@ mki

sure planes that use more power for virtual windows as opposed to actual windows are more efficient... but yes the way we are f**king up the environment, in 10 years the view'll be too depressing, and we'll probably take the virtual window route and continue to fool ourselves.. shite..

I am not agreeing with you at all. IF you are using renewable energy how is it not green to avoid printing a photo album with paper?? How is cutting down trees and using all the chemicals involved in printing photos good for the environment? A digital frame can hold hundreds of images.

@ MKI,
I was trying to be ridiculous. I forgot that you can actually use LCD opacity as a shader. I was trying to give the image of placing the actual laptop on the window to block the sun.

@ sid,
I thought I read that the first 11" OLED TVs would be $15,000, but it turns out they're just $2,500.

@ Jim
This was the point of my satire. 10 watts is quite low, and when powered with renewables is more environmentally sound than printing photos. It can also be set to turn off and on via a timer. The other point I was trying to make is that a paper photo and electric photo frame are hardly comparable. The photo frame is much more flexible and convenient and can display many more photos and even video. At some point, these will become internet devices, and I'll be able to send photos of my kids directly to my mother's photo frame, so she'll constantly have recent photos. At that point, will we even need paper photos?

I think I would vote for the good old wooden picture frame with printed photo as the more environmentally friendly option.

Have you thought about the amount of energy it is going to take to manufacture one of these things? Surely far more than a bit of wood and glass and a few pieces of metal. Not to mention that these OLED frames will probably not last anywhere near as long as a regular picture frame. The environmental impact of a few printed photos in every house in the world, is probably far less than the environmental impact of manufacturing all these high-tech frames, and then disposing of them when they break, as they all will one day. (Or they will become obsolete or outdated or passe, in any case get thrown out.)

Anyone who thinks spending $1,000 for a picture frame that doesn't waste one sheet of photographic paper is more environmentally friendly than a wooden picture frame that does use one sheet of photographic paper needs to think seriously about the environmental cost effectiveness of dollars spent. With $1,000 I could buy one OLED picture frame, or one regular picture frame, one photograph, and about 500 CFLs to give away.

@Robin: "Have you thought about the amount of energy it is going to take to manufacture one of these things? Surely far more than a bit of wood and glass and a few pieces of metal."

Maybe so, not not by as much as you might think. How much energy does it take to make wood? Before you make a regular photo frame, you need to grow the tree- maybe 1 tree produces enough wood for a few thousand frames, if it is a big tree. That tree covers maybe 100m2 of land- receiving (averaged over time and location) 250W/m2 of solar power for several decades. This works out to to 10-100 kWh (my estimates are rough, so I'm being generous with the margins) of solar energy input per wooden frame, as well as enormous amounts of freshwater (mostly lost to transpiration). Obviously trees are about as green as can be- but harvesting them for wood is incredibly wasteful of water and energy, compared to using cleanly generated electricity to make gadgets like this.

Do people even print out all their photos anymore? 99.9% of mine are in my hard drive (& back-up drive), and only viewed on the computer screen and occasionally emailed to someone. Since I have the computer for other uses already, and did not buy it just for photo storage, it seems like a pretty green solution.

The point many aren't grasping here is that electric photo frames are a paradigm shift in photo technology the way that the shift from film to digital cameras has changed the way we photograph. I used to take hundreds of photos per year, now I take thousands, and having so many images of my family, pets, and places I've visited has truly improved my life. Electric photo frames will do the same. Instead of the same staid photos on the wall we'll have hundreds to look at, and they'll always be different. Technology will make these even more convenient and energy efficient in the future, with the ability to automatically wirelessly upload photos from a PC or internet, and energy saving feature like timers and motion sensors. Complaining about them is missing the longterm view.