At 08:15 AM 7/8/2005, you wrote:
>I suspect that those of you who live in warmer parts of the world
>have known about this for a while. Are there any cheap and sensible
>solutions. I know that you can get reflective/transreflective
>screens but seems a bit of an extravagance for 1 sunny day per year!
Most laptop screens have a brightness of less than 200 nits (less
when on battery).
Typical sunlight visible screens are 1000 to 2000 nits and the screens
have better (lower reflectance) anti-reflection coatings on the screen.
So the typical notebook screen is almost useless outside in the sun.
Therefore you can't see much when the sun is out like it is in Arizona in
the summertime :-) (or most anytime when daylight ...).
When we want to see the screens of laptops when outside, we build a cover
that goes over the screen. Effectively it is a box painted black on the
inside with a slot through which you view the screen. As the only way for
skylight to get in to illuminate the screen is the slot (and your head blocks
much of that), about the only thing you see is what you want. You can build
a custom one from black foam core board and black duct (or photographic) tape.
Works well but not exactly portable (or beautiful) ...
If my description isn't adequate, I guess I could snap a digital photo and
send it to you. I have made such a shade for an old A21p and it fits my
T43p. Works fairly well.
>I found this very silly solution on the net - probably works but...
>
>http://www.sumabrand.com/pages/4/index.htm
I doubt that works very well - you need to prevent skylight from
lighting the screen (or make the backlight VERY bright so it can
overcome the skylight reflecting from the screen).
>Can you buy covers for your screen or similar? Out of curiosity,
>can you get transreflective screens for the T-41?
I haven't seen a transflective screen except for on a PDA. Worked
well outside in the sun even though it was color. That Sony PDA
wasn't very robust - the screen broke from an 18" drop onto carpet
in my office.
Stuart
PS - we still have a VERY ANCIENT HP that came with a monochrome
transflective screen (VGA resolution). It worked better in the
sun than inside with office lighting. However, everyone wanted
color displays. I also used an even older HP 100LX with a
reflective screen - I guess I'm dating myself :-)
I've always wondered if one of the old 755CV Thinkpads that
had a removable backlight could be used with a sunlit white
diffuser panel in place of the backlight.
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Received on Fri Jul 8 16:03:28 2005
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