Nanosys QDEF Displays Will Make Your Current Gig Look Like Junk.

We love pixels here at Gadgetsteria quite a bit. qHD, Reality, Retina — the list of names goes on. But only one will stand triumphant by the end of 2011/early 2012. A new display technology called QDEF by startup Nanosys claims that it produces the best, most accurate picture.

Compared to your standard LCD display whose NTSC color gamut chops register in the 20% range, Nanosys’ QDEF displays are other worldly with their 60+% color reproduction. Most surprising of all, however, is that there isn’t any complex or costly technology at work — it all revolves around quantum dots…

The real reason the QDEF displays look so damn nice is because they make use of a combination of a blue LED light source that when combined with different types of phosphor and film results in a much purer white light. The reason the light is whiter is because Nanosys has found a way to control these quantum dots and output them in a much more controlled manner than traditional technologies. The nice part about this use of film in particular is that they are easily attached to current LCD hardware meaning the rollout of QDEF technology can be done much more cheaply and quickly than your typical “new age” display technology.

But outside color reproduction, QDEF technology has several other noteworthy features:

  • QDEF doesn’t require any extra battery life than that of your current display technology
  • No new display architecture or increased processing power is needed for the dramatic increase in picture quality.
  • QDEF technology does not cost any more than current display technology
  • Technology backed up by 400 — yes, 400 — patents


When we first saw the video of the technology demoed we immediately thought ‘iPad 3″. But according to Nanosys CEO Jason Hartlove, the current QDEF displays won’t be “Retina” worthy, instead owning their image quality to the special backlight used. As such, reliable rumors from various sources (not our sources) have said the iPad 3 will in fact use a higher resolution display.

The only downside — no one can really get a good grasp on how amazing this new display technology is without seeing it in person as all the displays used to view it aren’t capable of reproducing as much of the color gamut. But even still, there’s plenty to learn. Interested readers can check out the full interview between Scobilizer and CEO Jason Hartlove right over here.

But What About OLED?

OLED has long been considered the modern holy grain in display technology. The technology is incredibly efficient while also being brighter than any LCD standard (for now) all while producing much more vivid and accurate images.

The downside with OLED still comes back to price — OLEDs are expensive to produce in the larger sizes we associate TVs and displays with.

Who knows. With the better performance and extremely low cost to adopt Nanosys’ technology and quantom dots, OLED may just become another has been like the hallowed SED display technology. The next few years will be mighty exciting for pixel junkies indeed.

Via: Scobleizer | Economist