Is OLED worth it for battery life and new Intel/AMD chips?

Hardware
1

I’m debating whether OLED is worth the trade-off in battery life for an everyday laptop. I’ll mostly use it for YouTube, Netflix, and general browsing.

Here’s what I care about: lightweight design, >60Hz refresh rate, high resolution (doesn’t need to be 4K), and good battery life. I hear OLED screens are amazing, but I’m unsure if the quality is worth the potential battery drawbacks. Are the new Intel Core Ultra and AMD AI chips better at managing battery life with OLED? What’s your experience?

2

The new Intel and AMD chips are optimized for better energy efficiency, so they should handle OLED screens better.

3

For a balance of OLED and battery life, look into Intel Evo-certified laptops. They focus on efficiency and performance. MSI Prestige 13 OLED is a solid choice, and there are good deals on it too.

4

OLED is worth it for the incredible display quality. I have a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with a 14" 2.8K OLED, and I love it for text and media. Battery life is decent enough for my needs.

5

Niko said:
OLED is worth it for the incredible display quality. I have a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with a 14" 2.8K OLED, and I love it for text and media. Battery life is decent enough for my needs.

Is your screen touch-enabled?

6

@Mai
No, it’s not touch-enabled. I specifically chose the non-touch OLED model because I preferred the better display quality over the touch LED.

7

Niko said:
OLED is worth it for the incredible display quality. I have a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with a 14" 2.8K OLED, and I love it for text and media. Battery life is decent enough for my needs.

Does text look weird on your OLED? Especially on PDFs or Word documents with white backgrounds? I’ve heard some people say it’s not great.

8

@Fifer
I checked out some OLED displays at a store. On some, text was fine, but others looked bad. It’s hit or miss, so I’d test before buying if possible.

9

@Fifer
You get used to the text rendering after a week or so. I barely notice it now. What stands out more are the vibrant colors, which are fantastic.

10

Niko said:
OLED is worth it for the incredible display quality. I have a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with a 14" 2.8K OLED, and I love it for text and media. Battery life is decent enough for my needs.

What’s the battery life on your ThinkPad? How many hours does it last?

11

OLED only uses power for active pixels, so black pixels are completely off, which can save energy. IPS panels light up the whole screen all the time. Battery life depends more on resolution and refresh rate than just the screen type.

12

Technically, OLED is less efficient when displaying bright, white images at full brightness. But if you use dark mode and darker themes, you’ll save a lot of power since those pixels are mostly off.

13

I read a lot for my research and prefer white text on a black background because it’s easier on my eyes. OLED is great for this use case—text looks sharp and clear.