Does 39xx Display 'ClearType' ?

[Lex]

Does the 39xx display 'ClearType' properly? I have a shot at a new 39xx unit through a corporate awards catalog.

I use a 3845 and it cannot do so. ClearType looks out of focus on the 38xx's. Microsoft 'BlurType'.

[Lex]

Does the 39xx display 'ClearType' properly? I have a shot at a new 39xx unit through a corporate awards catalog.

I use a 3845 and it cannot do so. ClearType looks out of focus on the 38xx's. Microsoft 'BlurType'.

[milkman dan]

there is a fine tuning slider for cleartype. Cleartype will look pretty much the same on any device with an identical dotpitch, so unless the screen on the new one is higher rez/dpi than the 3800, you should expect similar (if not identical) results

[Chris Spera]

I believe that the 3900 and the 3800 used the same graphics chip and LCD. The problem is not the device so much as the OS. PPC2002 didn't turn on ClearType by default. WM2003 handles ClearType much better and has that slider that milkman dan mentioned.

If you get the 3900 and then get the WM2003 upgrade for it, you should like what you see...

[luiskim]

Originally Posted by Chris Spera

I believe that the 3900 and the 3800 used the same graphics chip and LCD.

Actually the 3900 uses transflective LCD and the 3800 uses reflective LCD... I think that the 3900 has a clear type tuner... or at least you can enable it using PPC2002... however i would strongly recommend you to update it to WM2003... i guess it's just better... :roll:

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by Lex

Does the 39xx display 'ClearType' properly? I have a shot at a new 39xx unit through a corporate awards catalog.

I use a 3845 and it cannot do so. ClearType looks out of focus on the 38xx's. Microsoft 'BlurType'.

If I recall correctly, one of the reasons that iPAQ 3800s displayed ClearType poorly was because the LCD was rotated 90 degrees compared to most Pocket PCs. So instead of

RGB
RGB
RGB

pixels, you'd get

RRR
GGG
BBB

You can see a description and illustration of this at Marc Zimmermann's site.

My understanding was that the iPAQ 3900s oriented the LCD in the "correct" manner, so they shouldn't be as fuzzy. The above link gives examples of various Pocket PCs rendering ClearType pages in Reader (although the 3900s weren't shown).

Steve

[Kati Compton]

Originally Posted by Pony99CA

If I recall correctly, one of the reasons that iPAQ 3800s displayed ClearType poorly was because the LCD was rotated 90 degrees compared to most Pocket PCs. So instead of

Huh. I wonder what ramifications this has for the new move towards landscape. 8O Although, I suppose with VGA screens ClearType is less necessary...

[Chris Spera]

Originally Posted by LuisKim

Actually the 3900 uses transflective LCD and the 3800 uses reflective LCD... I think that the 3900 has a clear type tuner... or at least you can enable it using PPC2002...

That's right... Thanks, LuisKim. I appreciate your reminder.

However, I have a PPC 2002 device in my Samsung i700. The Screen Control Panel applet has a ClearType Check Box that will enable ClearType, but not a slider to tune it. that was definitely a WM2003 improvement. Its been a while since I had my 3955; and I don't remember a slider on it, either.

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by Kati Compton

Huh. I wonder what ramifications this has for the new move towards landscape. 8O Although, I suppose with VGA screens ClearType is less necessary...

ClearType will look non-optimal in landscape mode on most every Pocket PC. It's already a "issue" on tablet PCs. However, given a sufficiently high DPI, the non-optimality of ClearType in the non-optimal orientation isn't too annoying. It's certainly noticeable on my e805, but it isn't a showstopper. Unfortunately, there's no easy way around this. :|

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by Chris Spera

However, I have a PPC 2002 device in my Samsung i700. The Screen Control Panel applet has a ClearType Check Box that will enable ClearType, but not a slider to tune it. that was definitely a WM2003 improvement. Its been a while since I had my 3955; and I don't remember a slider on it, either.

I'm not even sure if it appears on all WM2003 devices. The good news is most devices seem to work well out of the box without any tuning; I'm reasonably happy with ClearType on the i700, for example. It also looked fine on a 3970 without tuning, either, the last time I looked. It's certainly orders of magnitude better than my 3870.

--janak

[jgrnt1]

Though it's not optimal in landscape mode on my 2215, it is OK.

Before anyone gets excited, no, I don't have SE. I use MobiPocket Reader in full-screen landscape mode to read books. Cleartype is not perfect, but I still prefer it to the blockiness I get when I turn it off.