BOE and Intel’s AI display technology reportedly reduces screen energy consumption by up to 60% in Lunar Lake laptops, by reducing the refresh rate of parts of the panel.

Intel has already claimed that its upcoming Lunar lake mobile chips will feature the most efficient x86 CPU ever. This, along with its performance claims has us excited about the prospect for battery-saving mobile devices with real gaming grunt. A new report claims that BOE's Winning Display 1Hz technology, combined with Intel's Intelligent Display Technology V2, can reduce display power by up to 65%.

Tom's Hardware reports that a combination of technical tricks is at work to achieve this drastic reduction in power consumption. According to Sina Technology's IIDT 2.0 technology, Intel's ALLR (Autonomous low Refresh rate), UBRR(User-BasedRefresh Rate) and PIXOptix are used to not only detect the presence of a user and reduce the refresh rates when they're not needed, but to also reduce backlight energy consumption.

The report also claims, that using AI, the rate of refresh can be dynamically altered on different parts, separately. You could, for example, watch a video with a smooth rate of refreshment on one side, while taking notes on the opposite side at a slower speed. This would reduce battery drain.

This huge 65% reduction in power is said to apply when the screen runs at a single Hz, which doesn't seem very useful. It's also claimed the optical flicker performance was "superior" and still met the Intel LPDT standard (Low Power Display Technology).

The first version was demonstrated on Meteor Lake Laptops, while the new version will allegedly be available on devices running Intel's Lunar Lake platform. This was reportedly unveiled at BOE's Global Innovation Partner Conference in 2024. However, neither Intel nor BOE have made any official mention.

If the improvements in power drain are even close to what the report claims, it would be a great achievement. Asus has said that the Vivobook S 14 can achieve 27 hours of battery life with Lunar Lake and a 70Whr battery. However, whether this is true in real-world usage remains to be determined.

It is a good idea to reduce the refresh rate of different parts of the screen in order to save energy. High-refresh rate panels and high brightness can drastically reduce the battery life on mobile devices.

While this technology may be able to squeeze out more power from a laptop, the constant fumbling with the screen's refresh rate does sound annoying. It's not as bad as your battery dying at a critical moment while on the go, but it does remind me of OLED burn-in mechanisms that kick in at the worst time possible when you are trying to accomplish something.