The newly introduced Ultra Mobile PCs based on Microsoft’s Origami platform seem to suffer from battery life, according to reports from the Computex show. The Inquirer website reports that the reason behind the battery problem is the high power consumption of the Cold Cathode Fluorescent (CCFL) backlight, which illuminates the LCD screen of the UMPC devices.

However, change is on its way, the old power-hungry CCFL screens are living on borrowed time. Small screens, like those in mobile phones and cameras already use LEDs for illumination, and as LED prices come down this trend is spreading rapidly up to medium and large LCDs.