Outdoors

[Rirath]

Ya know... I knew the screen on the Jornada 525 was lame... but I'm still finding out just how lame. Simply by habit, I haven't been using the Dell outside and instead wait until I go indoors. Well today I needed some quick info, so I took a look. I can't believe it's fully readable, as much as if I were inside. 8O

The J525 will literally appear to be a black screen with the slightest hint of sunlight. Shading it as much as possible, you can faintly make out a screen. It's exactly the opposite with the Dell. :D

[Sven Johannsen]

Well, that's the plus with pretty much any reflective screen. Good outdoor visibility.

The drawback would be poor indoor visibility with limited front light to reflect. Hence the side lights of the reflective genre, and the dust between the touch screen and the reflective surface (ala my 568, and the earlier iPAQs and others.

The 525 of course is a backlit transmissive screen. Great indoors, sucky outdoors. The 540s were no better.

Now the best of both worlds, Transreflective, tada. Reflective for outdoor, transmissive for backlit indoor. And there you have the Dell.

Next step will be the reflective displays with light emitting properties so you can even get rid of that battery sucking backlight.

[Ed Hansberry]

The 525 had a horrible screen, ranks right up there with the Nino 500 series. 256 colors indoors, one color (black) outdoors. Blech.

yeah, after getting my iPAQ a few years ago it took a few weeks before I stopped hesitating to pull out my PDA outside.

[Pony99CA]

Well, that's the plus with pretty much any reflective screen. Good outdoor visibility.

The drawback would be poor indoor visibility with limited front light to reflect. Hence the side lights of the reflective genre, and the dust between the touch screen and the reflective surface (ala my 568, and the earlier iPAQs and others.

The 525 of course is a backlit transmissive screen. Great indoors, sucky outdoors. The 540s were no better.

Now the best of both worlds, Transreflective, tada. Reflective for outdoor, transmissive for backlit indoor.

Well, technically, it's not the best of both worlds, or at least not the best in both worlds. I've heard the iPAQ 3900 (and 5450) screens are not quite as good outdoors as the iPAQ 3800. I've compared a 3970 indoors against my 3870, and was blown away, but I haven't been able to compare them outdoors.

Indoor performance is important because it's where I use my Pocket PC the most, but outdoor performance tends to be more critical, as I typically use my iPAQ outdoors for GPS while I'm driving. :-) So while I'd love the indoor performance of a transflective screen, I wouldn't want to give up much outdoors.

Steve

[Ed Hansberry]

Well, technically, it's not the best of both worlds, or at least not the best in both worlds. I've heard the iPAQ 3900 (and 5450) screens are not quite as good outdoors as the iPAQ 3800. I've compared a 3970 indoors against my 3870, and was blown away, but I haven't been able to compare them outdoors.
It is just fine. It is just a tad darker than the 3870, but that is like saying a Porsche Boxter is just a tad slower than a Porsche Boxter S.