With the advent of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, Steve Litchfield reprises an old rant with a look at how the current crop of 2008/2009 smartphones fare on a sunny day. Does your phone turn into a hand mirror or can you see what's going on? Featured here are seven popular screen types, showing how well - or how badly - they do.
Read on in the full article.
awwwwww no n97 picture? lol anyway great article steve!
I gotta agree, the touchscreen technology sort of hampers sunlight visibility... look at the e75 and n96! stunning!! 😮
and to think that 5800, a touch screen phone, has better legibility under sunlight than the innov8 thats just shocking!!
Maybe the Finns design some phones in winter when they only get about 4 hours of daylight per day, and other phones in summer when it almost never gets dark.
Think about it:
on an touch-based phone you HAVE TO use the virtual touch keyboard to write text. But outdoor you can't see it.
It might be one of the best transflective screens, but effectively my E71 is nearly unreadable in direct sunlight. There is always only one angle in which the contrast gets good, but the colours are terrible. No way to show photos.
i thought N86's AMOLED screen will be better...
but it isn't..
Did you even try to increase the backlight level on the TyTN II? I have one of these and went outside with the sun shining directly into the screen and could see the contents of the screen very well even with the backlight set to 50%. Of course much better with 75% and more. And I have a screen protector on it too.
Yes, all backlights were at 100% in my test. I simply don't believe your TyTN 2 data point, I'm afraid. It's a bog standard TFT with touch layer on top and will be unreadable with the sun behind you.
Excellent comparison Steve.
Luckily for Brits though, glare on a phone's screen is not generally a problem, owing to the lack of sunshine!
😉
Jump at 1:38 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPz6Y-y5RsE
Not bad. Not bad at all.
That's why I've always avoided cameras without viewfinders - no idea of what picture you are taking in bright sunlight (I only take snaps, I'm not a real photographer 😊 ). I can't see why the manufacturers have ever made them.
No photo here, but I can confirm: brilliant mirroring layer under (internal) E90 screen. So, no problems to see (even colours, though not great, of course) on direct sunlight!
And, of course, very visible keyboard ;-D
Lovely shots. Should be a standard test. Nice kick in the teeth for OLED 😉 Maybe a fresh 100W lightbulb test in the dark at a certain distance for all phones to be tested? And where is the shot of the N97?
hi steve, i think u havnt done fair with omnia hd (i8910).
please post the separate picture of omnia hd in direct sunlight,
omnia hd will sure beat all including iphone.
thanks
Wow, N97 only marginally better than the TyTNII? For all intents and purposes, that [TyTNII] phone didn't even turn on when outdoors here in Florida. The N97 seems to be a dream in comparison, perhaps not as good as some of the other photos taken here, but definitely not as bad as the 5800 plays it out to be.
OLD is bright and rich contrast indeed.but most oleds totally sucks in direct sunlight.you can read most tfts better as oled in the sun.
Hi,
I must say that I'm quite happy with the sunlight legibility of my HTC Dream / G1 smartphone 😊
It really is quite good, even in bright direct sunlight. Even with low brightness, the transflective layer makes the screen at least readable even if the colours are bad in that way. And with easy access to the brightness controls, I can easily and quickly turn up the brightness when I need to (like a situation which came up just this morning when I had to check google maps and show someone the way, in the middle of a sunny road... Everything clear and visible)
In comparison to my old P990i, it's absolutely a great delight. (That phone has really poor legibility in sunlight, much like the TyTN2.)
I guess that the G1 compares more or less to the iPhone's screen under sunlight, judging by comments I read in reviews. 😊
Cheers,
--Tim
My n85 with its oled screen was totally unreadable in sunlight not only to view the screen but also to view an actual image of the photo that you wanted to take. So much so, that in the end I had to box it up and buy a n82. I now have the n97 and dont have an ounce of difficulty in seeing my sun in daylight nor taking images and I have the setting display in the middle. For the n85 reason I certainly will not go for an oled screen again.
This is an excellent benchmark Steve and I appreciate you doing so.
I too would like to see more head to head comparison of the I8910 and N86.
My selfish reason for this is the fact that I'll be dropping coin for one or the other very shortly. As far as I can tell, they each check off most of my requirements and represent pretty close to the pinnacle of each form factor. However, sunlight legibility is lower on the priority list than other considerations and here's why:
Back in the dark ages of 2000 when I purchased the Compaq iPAQ, the side lighted reflective TFT set the standard for sunlight legibility. In fact, using a back light diminished the contrast. Indoor clarity and contrast, not nearly so good.
Sunlight visibility is not a difficult thing to do, it merely requires a compromise. If you need sunlight legibility, you'll diminish indoor clarity and richness which is something an obvious majority of gadget addicts will not embrace.
Some of us who are active life/gadget junkies will whine and moan about this topic but more who sit in their office chair or on the coach? They're the dominant demographic.
Are you willing to pay for sunlight legibility?
There are a few work-arounds - especially for camera use but you're not going to get around having to choose and pay for your preference.
Hi Steve,
I know its not a recent device but I would say the N93 has the best screen in direct sunlight of all. I can't think of any device that could rival that.
It's true my 5800 isn't a great display in strong sun, but I always seem to cope, it doesn't really cause too much trouble.
LoL such a coincidence, I was googling results for N86 under sunlight and here it is. So it is still readable? Maybe I will buy
"HTC TyTN 2 (and all previous Windows Mobile phones) "
Not entirely true. I know of two older models produced by HTC which have excellent transflective displays: O2 XDA EXEC (HTC Universal) and i-mate JAMin (HTC Prophet). I currently own the O2 XDA EXEC and find it just as good in bright sunlight as the E61i and E90 which I also own.
I almost forgot: the earlier models of the HTC Hermes (i-mate JASJAM) did also have transflective displays. The same phone, renamed to HTC TyTN, was downgraded with a transmissive display which turned completely black in sunlight.
I'm glad I stumbled across this thread. I currently have an Xperia X1 and frankly, its rubbish in direct sunlight. Problem I have is I use my phone as sat nav on my bike and therefore it has to work well in direct sunlight so I can read map.
I am due for upgrade and am currently swaying between the Nokia N97 and the iPhone 3GS .. I quite like the N97 but am worried the screen is going to be as bad as my X1 whereas the iPhone I know is good in direct sunlight with its transflective screen.
Hmm .. decisions decisions ... does anyone have first hand experience of the X1 and the N97 .. very curious to know which is better in this respect?
Tsk. Tsk... Take those sun glasses off steve.
Seriously, good appropriate article that shows that some display engineers need to get out of doors more often and sun themselves. A highly ledgible display under bright light source should be a minimum ship criteria for new products.
that's why i love my nokia e66; very good visibility in daylight.
Really great article Steve.
Topical and to the point.
Must have taken you ages to get them all charged too 😊
http://themes.tehkseven.net/featured-articles/prestige-solace/
This is the perfect clean, high contrast theme for sunlight.
n1ckyr wrote: I currently have an Xperia X1 and frankly, its rubbish in direct sunlight. Problem I have is I use my phone as sat nav on my bike and therefore it has to work well in direct sunlight so I can read map.
I use e71 for navigation on my bike, and I think it is perfect. I can read the screen as it is rare that sun comes on it at the worst possible angle. Running Tom Tom and Nokia Maps on it, depending. (Must have external GPS receiver to use TomTom)
I bike a lot, don't use navigation that much now as I am close to home. But checkout Nokia Sports Tracker (still beta but works 100%) I would not leave home without it. Ever. On a bike it is nearly always more useful than navigations, since navigators, not knowing the bike roads and shortcuts are pointing you to unnecessary detours.
Unregistered wrote:I use e71 for navigation on my bike, and I think it is perfect. I can read the screen as it is rare that sun comes on it at the worst possible angle. Running Tom Tom and Nokia Maps on it, depending. (Must have external GPS receiver to use TomTom)I bike a lot, don't use navigation that much now as I am close to home. But checkout Nokia Sports Tracker (still beta but works 100%) I would not leave home without it. Ever. On a bike it is nearly always more useful than navigations, since navigators, not knowing the bike roads and shortcuts are pointing you to unnecessary detours.
Thanks for the reply. I usually love the Nokia screens, it is just their new touch screen ones that don't seem to incorporate the same transflective technology as their other phones which is a shame because it is obviously possible, the iPhone does. Perhaps it is just a cost thing. I really didn't want to have to go back to a non-touchscreen was the problem 😞 .. seems like it is going to be iPhone for me.
When I said bike, I meant motorbike 😉 .. far too unfit for long distance cycling hehe 😃