14.1-inch LCD notebooks sketched in for year end

The first wave of 13.3-inch screen notebooks is only now hitting the shore but 14.1-inch portable PC screens could be here as soon as 1996, according to Dell portable group director of marketing Ben Bentzin.

"14.1-inch at 1,24 x 768 is possible for mobile PCs but there are trade-offs in terms of format, weight and battery life," Bentzin said. "We're researching what customers will agree to."

Near-term, getting hold of as many 12.1-inch screens as possible is seen as more important. 12.1-inch will rapidly become the highest volume display this year... we could sell a lot more notebooks if we could get hold of more 12.1-inch panels."

However, even if 14.1-inch does become the TFT of choice for notebook power users, it will almost certainly be the largest format ever to be used on mobile systems, Bentzin said: "Until recently, the conventional wisdom was that bigger panels had to be better, but sooner or later it's going to hit a wall."