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2330

Inspiron Notebooks with option of transreflective LCD (sunlight/high ambient light readable)

2330 points posted to Inspiron products, Monitors and Displays, Laptops by benjesuit 06/21/07

Cell phones, PDA's, Automotive GPS units have them. The time has come that at least a one of your notebooks should have them as an option.

With the near ubiquity of Wifi in metropolitan areas as well as in many park areas...

Not to mention 3G and CDMA EVDO wireless celluar broadband...

The places where a notebook can be used and stay connected to the net or VPN are near limitless.

Business lunch done al fresco. Lunch on the lawn of central park while writing. Sitting out on your deck while watching the markets. Whatever one uses their computer for, it can now be done in the open air.*

Example of Dell's ATG Latitude w transreflective screen versus an IBM w/o

* notebooks should not be used at the beach due to salt air corrosion. They should also not be used in rainy conditions. And certainly shouldn't be used while lounge wading in a pool or Jacuzzi.

jervis961
06/21/07		 I love this idea but I think I read somewhere that while they look great outdoors they have poor lighting while indoors. Toshiba makes a model with LED backlighting for indoors and the push of a button turns it off while outside for proper lighting.
benjesuit
06/21/07		 All the one's I've seen (transreflective) were superb indoors as well as out. Though they can be a bit bright indoors. But that's not a problem since you can lower the brightness/contrast on the fly.

My Dell Axim x50V is a fine example of a well executed transreflective screen.
jervis961
06/21/07		 The Toshiba site has a good demonstration of how the screen looks outdoors before and after the LED it turned off. As long as it still has the LED backlight I'm on board.
benjesuit
06/21/07		 That portege you're refering to has 250nits of brightness. An ordinary backlit screen has about 185nits- 200nits. The Dell Latitude ATG pictured above has max 500nits and can adjust down to ~185nits either manually or automatically via its ambient light sensor.

The picture above is showing the screen in high ambient light. Here's a pic with the screen in very low light conditions with a red led light for the keyboard. Impressive stuff.



jervis961
06/21/07		 Very nice.
johnpro
06/21/07		 The none reflective screen is one of the reasons I love my IBM thinkpad notebook so much!
jervis961
06/23/07		 benjesuit - I'm borrowing the red light picture for my Latitude idea, hope you don't mind. http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/66820
benjesuit
06/23/07		 Go for it. Public domain like open source.
jervis961
06/23/07		 I know. I just wanted you to know, so you don't feel like I'm copying you. Its a great idea you've got here and it blended well into mine.
jervis961
06/23/07		 By the way thanks for your vote.
crysalidzzz
May 18		 The Transflective screen on the Toshiba Portégé R500 is superb.

It seems to overcome the problem of screens being too reflective in bright lighting or direct sunlight. (I am not sure whether a transflective screen is technically matte, glossy or something else).

If Dell offered a screen like this - on their XPS notebooks - it could overcome the issue of "glossy vs matte" on another post.
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