Two Lamp LCDs: How Energy Efficient?

The first LCDs to use a pair of cold-cathode lamps for backlighting instead of the usual four are on their way.

Manufacturer BenQ has announced two such models, the E900HDA nad the G900HDA, but hasn't gone into any details about how evenly they are backlit, one of the primary technical concerns surrounding this change.

Instead, BenQ has been to stress the economic advantages of switching to two lamps, which also allows for reduced energy consumption--no greater than 30W for these two 19'' screens, apparently.

That's all very interesting, but if we take a glance at the Philips 190CW8FW, for instance, the last 19'' monitor we had in our labs, here's what we find when we look at it in our Product Face-off:

• Energy consumption with white at 100 cd/m²: 19.6W

• Energy consumption with white at 200 cd/m²: 32W

To put it simply, you can already get 19'' LCD monitors with energy consumption around 30W, so what exactly is BenQ proposing to bring to the table?


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