Laptops from Apple and HP might use LEDs as a backlight source starting in the second quarter of this year. These LED backlights distribute backlight more evenly than the cold cathode florescent backlights used in laptops today, and also offer a higher range of colors.

We've tested LCD monitors using LED backlight, and their increased color saturation gives the screen noticably more-intense colors—so much so that they look almost unnatural at first. This technology has been around for a while. In fact, we tested an IBM monitor with an LED backlight four years ago. However, LED backlights haven't been adopted in laptop screens thus far because of fears of high power consumption.

What about higher prices? If the cost of these fancy screens raises the prices of notebooks by too much, this tech will probably not hit the mainstream for a while. There's no word on which models will be upgraded with the LED technology. – Charlie White

Apple and HP to launch LED-based notebooks [DigiTimes , via electronista]

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