(Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch)Dell Inc. is switching to mercury-free light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to illuminate laptop screens starting in mid-December. The move aims to make the computers softer on the environment and easier to recycle. Dell said the LED displays consume less energy - 43 percent less for 15-inch screens - than ones lit with cold cathode fluorescent lamps, its current standard in notebooks.

LED-backlit displays will be standard in at least 80 percent of the laptops it sells by the end of 2009 and in all its notebooks by the end of 2010, Dell said.

Dell's promise to use only LED displays in two years one-ups Apple Inc.'s 2007 commitment to get rid of the less-expensive fluorescent displays "eventually." Apple uses LEDs in its MacBook Air, its 15-inch MacBook and one configuration of the 17-inch MacBook Pro, plus all iPods and iPhones.

Hewlett-Packard also sells optional LED-backlit screens.

Originally published by The Associated Press.

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