Sun, sun, sun. And I can't see a thing on my phone!

one of the things that really impressed me about the E71 screen was that I could sit at a window seat in a plane and see the whole screen with half of it in direct sunlight and the other half in the dimmed cabin via backlight!

Thanks n1ckyr, was about to get an xperia and will now keep looking...

I own a Sony Ericsson T707, the external screen is not legible in the sunlight.

well ... I took the plunge and ordered an N97. The good news is the screen is actually really good in direct sunlight, it is in fact transflective so I was very pleasantly surprised.

The bad news, the phone switched itself off randomly at least 15 times within a 2 day period. There is apparently a new firmware update that fixes a lot of the issues but I am not willing to be a beta tester for Nokia whilst they try and put right software that should have been consumer ready pre-release, so the phone is going back.

Looks like I will be sticking with my Xperia for a little while longer 😊

Hello,

I use a lot my phones for biking and running. Nokia 5500 sport is rather good in the sunligth but the screen is too small, N79 has a bigger screen (2.4"😉 but slightly worse legibility and 5800... well I simply can't use 5800 because it's invisible most of the time (I live in Madrid, Spain so plenty of sunlight in the summer). Even when under a tree's shadow is rather difficult to see the screen.. and that's with a white background and black info. Imagine descending with your bike at 50Kmh approaching an intersection and having to look at your screen to decide which way to go.. simply impossible. 😞

PS:
If someone else is interested in biking using their phones as GPS I recommend smartComGPS and an external bluetooth GPS (much longer battery and normally better accuracy). The problem with Sports Tracker is that you can't load tracks, so you can't try new routes.

respect to my Nokia E90
it is the day & night warrior 😊

regards,

Hey Steve excellent article as usual. I currently use a sony ericsson P1i and find the sunlight legibility to be quite good. I live in the tropics (lot's of sun here!) so this is an important issue where I live. Could you add the Nokia N97 and samsung i8910hd to this comparison and advise how they compare to the P1i?