Dell Backlights All New Notebooks with LEDs

The company has promised to switch all of its new notebooks to LED backlights in one year for environmental reasons.

While LED-backlit displays started as a premium feature designed to stretch battery life on high-end ultraportable notebooks like Toshiba’s Portege, Dell pledged on Wednesday to take the technology mainstream by transitioning all of its new notebooks to LED displays in the next 12 months. While the switch will undoubted promise performance benefits for users, Dell has primarily positioned the switch as an environmental move.

According to Dell, LED backlights not only consume 43 percent less power (at the same brightness) than traditional cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) usually used in notebook displays, they’re also more recyclable and completely free of mercury.

“Our customers have made it clear that they want the greenest technology possible,” said Dell’s senior vice president of the Dell product group, in a statement. “As an industry, we can shape the future of green innovation and significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with mobile computing. Dell is committed to leading the transition to energy-efficient LED technology.”

The transition will begin on Dec. 15, when two thirds of all Dell Latitude E-family notebooks will ship with LED backlights as a standard feature, along with select Precision notebooks. Dell will continue adding new notebooks with the displays through 2009, and hopes by the end of that year to be selling 80 percent LED-equipped notebooks, and 100 percent by 2010.