The Apple Watch Series 5 (2019) has a refresh rate down to 1Hz.
M4 iPad Pro lacks always-on display despite OLED panel with variable refresh rate (2024):
https://9to5mac.com/2024/05/09/m4-ipad-pro-always-on-display...
I'm not sure that there's really anything new here? 1Hz might be lower. Adoption might be not that good. But this might just be iteration on something that many folks have just not really taken good advantage of till now. There's perhaps signficiant display tech advancements to get the Hz low, without having significant G-Sync style screen-buffers to support it.
One factor that might be interesting, I don't know if there's a partial refresh anywhere. Having something moving on the screen but everything else stable would be neat to optimize for. I often have a video going in part of a screen. But that doesn't mean the whole screen needs to redraw.
CRTs needed to be refreshed to keep the phosphors glowing. But all screens are now digital: why is there a refresh rate at all?
Can’t we memory-map the actual hardware bits behind each pixel and just draw directly (using PCIe or whatever)?
Assuming the xps has the same size battery, and this really reduces power consumption by 48%, I'd expect 16 hours real world, 32 in benchmarks and 48 in some workload Dell can cherry pick.
Positive is that the battery life couldn't possibly get worse with newer ones.
It's how I got mine about 6-7 years back anyways, still works great (except the battery) ...never let windows get it's claws into the machine in the first place
Edit: to add, I realized over time that having a battery that lasts longer just can't seem to beat my older laptop experiences: being able to just swap an extra battery in and have full charge at will (without soldering and all that 'ish) In that sense I feel that the future is coming full circle to modularity, swapability, repairability - to the point they're becoming my primary considerations for the next portable computing select I will need to acquire.
I checked 10 seconds ago. The only models I can order in my country with linux are Pro Max and a Precision workstation.
If I pretend to be located in the US, an XPS 13 from 2024 becomes available at 200$ more than the Windows variant, and no OLED option.
What a weird marketing strategy from Dell...
Apparently they stopped making the Developer Edition which came with Ubuntu in 2022-2023 (which was definitely cheaper by 100-200 bucks or so than the Windows version with exact same hardware, I recall the developer edition os discount very clearly)
Now the XPS line has fallen as well, as apparently even the SSD now gets soldered to the motherboard, no longer possible to service with basic tools really once it starts failing. My old 2018-ish XPS has an M.2 slot and a battery that is relatively simple by modern standards to replace with some screwdrivers and careful handling (something I think is vital for a workhorse computer, as batteries 'decimate' in capacity within 2-3 years or so in my experience)
I don't even know what's left out there anymore among major makers... when I have to look again, maybe framework... Been hearing about them for a bit now and they seem quite relevant to the discussion - haven't seen one live yet to be fair
That is without even mentioning the ultimate problem of parts sustainability and longevity. When you can swap individual components as they degrade, it's possible to use the rest of the machine for far longer than a degraded battery or a failing SSD would allow.
Powerbanks simply feel like treating symptoms, instead of rehabilitating the system itself (obviously still use them for phones and such of course)
Less of a problem for iphones that unlikely to stay for a week in the same place plugged in and unused.
Yeah sure if you buy it as a toy it may not be used for much lol. Check your consumerism
I just pointing out how quite a big part of Apple consumer base use these devices: buy most expensive one, play with it for a few weeks and then leave it as kitchen tablet that is used ocassionally. You know every second housewife wants to be an artist but very few actually use it for this beyond first few weeks.
Providing this audience with always-on display is a sure way to have a lot of people unhappy with burned-in OLED screens.
Second, it is not a fault of the device that consumers are brain dead, buying something they do not need and then whine about how the device is “useless”. It sucks to suck
Brightness, Uniformity, Colour Accuracy etc. It is hard as we take more and more features for granted. There is also cost issues, which is why you only see them in smaller screens.