3D laptops

Sony unveiled a new lenticular 3D sheet that can be used to make laptop screens into glasses-free 3D displays. The company will release the first such screen developed for the Vaio S series (VPCSE1Z9E ) in size 15.5" in October 2011 (together with the laptop's release) - for 129 euro (about $180).

The panel is 3mm thick, and is attached to the front of the LCD panel. The 3D effect is realized based on the lenticular method, which creates parallax by arraying lenses that are thin and long and have a semicircular cross section. Sony also developed a software that uses the notebook's web camera for head tracking to optimize the 3D image.

Toshiba's Qosmio F750 is the world's first glasses-free 3D laptop, with a 15.6" Full-HD lenticular display. 2D and 3D images can co-exist - in separate windows and it uses an eye-tracking HD webcam to enable 3D from any angle. Engadget says that the videos were pretty mouthwatering - even though they say a pre-production device (the software is not ready yet). On the downside, the headtracking seems slow and 3D is only possible for one viewer.

Other specs include an Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia Geforce GT540M GPU, a BDXL drive, USB 3 port and HDMI output. The laptop will launch in August 2011 for around $2100.

Spatial View and Arcsoft partnered to create a software/hardware combination that will add glasses-free 3D to existing laptops. Arcsoft integrated Spatial View's software into their TotalMedia Theater software (a universal media player) that can now enable glasses-free 3D viewing of 3D Blu ray content on laptops that use Spatial View's 3DeeScreen.

The Spatial View 3DeeScreen is an add-on to a laptop display that enabled naked-eye 3D - an extra screen layer that is added unto your screen. The companies will offer this software/hardware package to laptop makers which will bundle this with the laptop, sell separately or added on in retail channels.

Dell's new XPS-17 3D are now shipping: the Core i5 costs $1,849 and the Core i7 costs $2,449. The XPS-17 3D has a 17" HD active-shutter LED-LCD 3D display. It uses Nvidia's 3D-vision (and comes with one pair of glasses). The laptop features an Intel Core i5/i7 processor, 8GB memory (12GB on the Core i7 version), 1TB HD (500GB on the i7), Nvidia's GT-555M and a 3D Blu-ray (you can connect the laptop to a 3D TV to watch 3D Blu-rays movies).

According to Digitimes, Toshiba plans to launch glasses-free laptops in 2H 2011. Toshiba actually demonstrated a prototype 3D laptop in CES 2011, called the Qosmio. It had a parallax-barrier LCD (with one viewpoint) and an eye-tracking camera.

Toshiba is already offering glasses-free displays, and sales are still weak: in the first month they sold only 500 units of the 20GL1 20" model (which costs ¥240,000, which is over $2,900) and even fewer 12GL1 12" units (these cost ¥120,000, about $1,500).

Fujitsu's Lifebook AH572 3D laptop is now shipping in the US for $1,399. The AH572 has a 15.6" passive 3D display (it comes bundled with one pair of polarized glasses) and also a dual-lens 3D camera and a 3D blu-ray drive. Other specs include Core i5-2410 (2.3Ghz) processor and an Intel HD 3000 graphics GPU. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

Acer's first 3D laptop, the Aspire 5745DG is now shipping in the US for $999. The AS-5745DG has a 15.6" 120Hz LED-backlit LCD that supports active-shutter 3D via NVidia's 3D Vision. Other features include a 2.53Ghz Intel i5 processor, a GeForce GT425M GPU, 4GB of RAM and 640GB of storage.