The news that Samsung is readying production of a 10.1in display for tablets, running at a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels, is a game changer. This is 300dpi on a near A4-sized display device.

Without question, this changes the rules for display of information.

Now, who will bring this to market first? Will it be Samsung? Will Apple buy the entire production run for an HD iPad 2?

What is certain is that everything rotates around cost. And the cost is driven heavily by the yield of the production process. Without doubt, the initial yield will be poor, and thus volume will be low and price will be high, unless Samsung wants to absorb the costs.

300dpi on a tablet changes everything, and there is no going back

As the yield increases, the volume improves and the price falls. How that yield/cost/profit curve works will be a deadly secret held within Samsung, and in its negotiations with any third-party customers.

It’s a pity its not a Windows device — Microsoft, in conjunction with IBM, did a 300dpi desktop display panel almost a decade ago. It required four graphics card connections, and was considered a monster at the time. The price was stratospheric, and almost no-one bought one. But I saw it once, and was blown away by the display quality.

But be in no doubt — 300dpi on a tablet changes everything, and there is no going back.

The majority of the displays on show were impressive refreshes, such as the polished and angular ‘Lavender’ line and the ‘Ecofit’ low-power models – all of which we’ll be reviewing over the coming months. But in amongst them a few interesting additions caught my eye.

The first was the so-called ‘lapfit’ display (LD220 and LD190N), which is essentially a widescreen monitor without the traditional stand. Instead it rests on an arm in the same way as a picture frame.

Intended for use as a second screen for a laptop, it connects via USB, consumes a claimed 33% less power than a traditional TFT and comes in 22in (1080p) and 19in (1,360 x 768) variants. In use we can verify it’s up to the usual image quality standards, even if it does seem a little gimmicky, almost like a consumer-style docking station.

I’ve looked at Samsung’s 120Hz 2233RZ 3D monitor in this month’s 3D: Coming to a Screen Near You magazine feature, and I’ll be giving it a full online review with Nvidia’s GeForce 3D Vision glasses very soon. So instead I’ll skip onto the latest entry in the burgeoning pico-projector market – and potentially the first to present a genuinely useable experience.

It’s called the P410M and, despite being as petite as every other pico model we’ve seen, it betters most with an 800 x 600, 170-lumen image up to 80in. Contrast is 1,000:1, there’s a set of 1W stereo speakers inside that produce a far louder sound than seems possible, and even though the little 900g projector had been running for hours when we played with it it was barely even warm. We’ll be getting one in as soon as samples are available.

The last new offering to really catch my eye was a late addition to the launch; I’ll try to get hold of some images from Samsung but they won’t do these monitors justice. They were 20in and 23in TFTs with thin aluminium stands and what I believe the rep told me were C-PVA panels – apparently sitting between TN and S-PVA in quality terms, they looked hugely impressive in my brief hands-on. Enthusiastic home photographers may finally have the perfect monitor, as this display technology means more accurate colours but without the price hike that usually comes with S-PVA. I’ll get full details from Samsung and update this post, and they won’t be out until June but, again, we’ll be getting one in as soon as we can.

So it looks like Samsung has more than enough in store over the coming months to retain its strong position in the display market. I’ll leave you with the new Lavender and super-thin Ecofit designs, including a remarkable new glass stand on the latter. Eye-catching indeed.

This is my desk. Beautiful, isn’t it? Until today, it’s been one of the few in the PC Pro office not to sport a second (or even a third) screen. I had my 19in TFT running off my laptop and I was happy with my lot. I’d never extended the desktop on to my idling laptop screen, largely because doing so in Windows XP was a bit of a faff.

Not so in Windows 7 – a quick tweak with the display settings, and hey presto, my laptop was immediately pressed into service. But now I don’t know what to do with all that extra screen space! Several of my colleagues use their secondary screen for email, but my failing eyesight can barely cope with the email on my larger screen, let alone the laptop’s squidged display.

So, I’m asking you, the great PC Pro readership, for your suggestions. What can I stick on that barren desert landscape? I’ll liberate something from our cupboard of discarded kit for the best suggestion.