LOS ANGELES—We’ve heard of 1Hz laptop computer screens to avoid wasting on battery life. However Chinese language show producer TCL goes 100x additional with a 0.01Hz laptop computer panel.
At SID Show Week right here, the corporate confirmed off the know-how in a 14-inch laptop computer with a 1,920-by-1,200-resolution display screen. The show stands out by that includes a refresh price that may hit one body per 100 seconds, quite than the standard one body per second of an 1HZ panel.
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Since PCs usually show static browser home windows and packages, lowering the refresh price has been seen as a technique to minimize down on power consumption. TCL’s know-how goes even additional by utilizing 12 zones throughout the display screen that may bounce from 0.01Hz to an everyday 120Hz. This implies a person might view a video in a single a part of the display screen at regular refresh charges, however the remainder of the show would stay at 0.01Hz, thus saving power.
TCL estimates that the decrease refresh price can lengthen video playback time on a laptop computer by over an hour. The display screen is an LCD that makes use of the corporate’s personal backplane know-how, referred to as “Oxide TFT.” LG has been growing an identical idea, nevertheless it would not seem to characteristic the region-level variable refresh price throughout elements of the display screen.
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After we tried TCL’s laptop computer, we seen the display screen instantly jumped to 120Hz throughout your entire show. However then, as our mouse cursor slowed down and homed in on the choose program or window, a lot of the remainder of the display screen dropped to 0.01Hz.
TCL informed us the know-how is production-ready. However the firm must work with software program and chip distributors, together with Microsoft, Intel, and AMD, to totally allow the refresh price switching. So it isn’t clear if we’ll see the know-how in a laptop computer anytime quickly.
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At Show Week, TCL additionally confirmed off a transportable monitor that unfolds into three sections for a complete of 28 inches. The monitor can be skinny, like a pill, particularly when folded. The corporate plans to mass-produce the trifold monitor subsequent 12 months, although pricing stays unclear.
Though it is overkill, the corporate additionally improved on its 8K 1,000Hz ultra-wide gaming monitor, which debuted eventually 12 months’s Show Week. The monitor can now hit a refresh price of 1,200Hz.
(Credit score: PCMag/Michael Kan)
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Michael Kan
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I have been a journalist for over 15 years. I bought my begin as a colleges and cities reporter in Kansas Metropolis and joined PCMag in 2017, the place I cowl satellite tv for pc web providers, cybersecurity, PC {hardware}, and extra. I am at present based mostly in San Francisco, however beforehand spent over 5 years in China, overlaying the nation’s know-how sector.
Since 2020, I’ve lined the launch and explosive progress of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web service, writing 600+ tales on availability and have launches, but in addition the regulatory battles over the enlargement of satellite tv for pc constellations, fights with rival suppliers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the trouble to increase into satellite-based cellular service. I’ve combed via FCC filings for the newest information and pushed to distant corners of California to check Starlink’s mobile service.
I additionally cowl cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC pressured Avast to pay customers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and promoting their private data to third-party shoppers, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I additionally cowl the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in entrance of a Greatest Purchase to get an RTX 3000. I am now following how the AI-driven reminiscence scarcity is impacting your entire client electronics market. I am all the time desirous to study extra, so please bounce within the feedback with suggestions and ship me suggestions.
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