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Comment by csmeder | Hacker News Reader

The way Wikipedia describes IPS it has a better viewing angle but uses more power. Is this the gist of IPS or is there more?

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+more accurate colors and no color shift with the viewing angle change. Pretty much the best type of LCD. Usually you find IPS in the best monitors, and I am not aware of any notebook with IPS screen.

Thinkpads used to have IPS displays (FlexView). Lenovo stopped offering them as they could not procure a reliable supply.

http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=75

They did look considerably better:

http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/13263.jpg

http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/10884.jpg

The TN panels they're being compared against there are terrible, though. My Eee (which is otherwise fairly similar: a 10" display at 1024x600) looks fine at those angles.

I have seen laptops with displays that are that bad, but it's not the norm, but it doesn't make sense to use them as the basis for IPS-TN comparisons.

While I will never buy a screen that isn't IPS for my computer, I question the necessity of it in this device. IPS makes a great marketing point and will make it look really shiny during demos, but I think it is the wrong tech for this device for day to day use. If I had to choose between colour accuracy and battery life, I'd much rather have the battery life. It's not like I'm going to be editing photos for print on the iPad.

My guess is that the viewing angle was a deciding factor there. While on notebook you can adjust the screen so it is at useable angle this is not an option for a tablet with no support. IPS matrix gets rid of that problem.

I don't know what kind of screen my IBM x41 has, but viewing angle has never been any sort of problem when using it in tablet mode.

I'm sure color accuracy and marketing have very little to do with it. If they could have gone with the cheaper LCD they would have, but it would have meant limited viewing angle, which would not have been acceptable.

The newest iMacs use the e-IPS style of IPS panels, which according to Wikipedia have a lower power consuption than previous generations of IPS, presumably are much cheaper to manufacture than the other types (or they wouldn't be in a $499 tablet), and still keep the other advantages of IPS vs TN (color accuracy and wide viewing angle).

Them being in the tablet gives hope that these IPS panels will eventually end up in the Macbook, MBAir, and MBPro.

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