Dell Try To Make The World Better

More Energy-Efficient & Greener

Jeff Clarke is senior vice president of Dell Product Group said, "Our costumers have made it clear that they want the greenest technology possible", during the company mobility summit in Monte Carlo. Dell is announcing today that it will transition all of its laptop LCDs to mercury-free light emitting diode (LED) backlights over the next year.

Dell is announcing today that it will transition all of its laptop LCDs to mercury-free light emitting diode (LED) backlights in the next years.

The first laptops to make the switch will be the Latitude E4200 ( the picture above ), E4300, E6400, E6400 ATG and E6500 ( almost all of the Latitude E-family ). Also shipping with LED back lighting as a standard display will be the Dell Precision M2400 ( first picture in this post ) and M4400 mobile workstations.

Benefits of LEDs over CCFL

The vast majority of LCD screens so far have used cold cathode fluorescent lights (CCFL) to backlight the screen. Replacing those by LEDs means that the displays will use less energy, will probably have a longer useful life (LEDs last a very long time), will be mercury-free and more recyclable.

Power savings should be significant. According to Dell:

"For example, Dell’s 15-inch LED displays consume an average of 43 percent less power at maximum brightness, resulting in extraordinary cost and carbon savings. The company estimates customer savings of approximately $20 million and 220 million kilowatt-hours in 2010 and 2011 combined, the equivalent of annual CO2 emissions resulting from energy use of more than 10,000 home."

Dell estimates that at least 80% of its laptops will be sold with LED as a standard back-lit display by the end of 2009 and 100% in 2010. And since Dell is a big player, other computer-makers will no doubt follow suit (Apple has already been shipping LED back-lit MacBook Pros for a while).