Screen clarity of VGA - spreadsheets?

[JRAB100]

Hi, quick newbie question :-

I have an old Mio 338 PPC on which I often view quite large spreadsheets (sales figures etc). I often find it difficult to get a balance between zooming out to see enough rows & columns to use the spreadsheet, and zooming in to get enough definition in the text to read it.....

I think a VGA screen would give better definition when zoomed out, and therefore allow me to read the smaller text while getting more of the spreadsheet on the screen. Does anybody have experience of this, to confirm whether this is true?

I'm looking to upgrade to a new WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS device and am considering the Pocket Loox N560 and Mio P550. I like the look of the N560, but am trying to justify the +£100 premium over the P550. Being able to see more spreadsheet would really help....!

Thanks
Richard

[Sven Johannsen]

Yes, that is true. With four times as many pixels (twice vertical and twice horizontal), you do have the ability to render text half as big as on a QVGA screen and it still be well defined. Whether it is legible or not depends a bit on your eyes. I just populated a spreadsheet with a few items on my Jasjar (WM5) and zoomed out to 50%. That gives me columns A-I and 15 rows, and the numbers and text are still quite readable. Bit easier for me with reading glasses, but I can make them out even bare-eyed.

Same applies on my Dell X50v (WM2003SE). Note that I do not have any "true" VGA hacks on either device. I find the general display at 1/4 size too hard to manage, but the zoom feature of Excel works fine and leaves the menus where I can read them and the icons and bars where I can hit them.

[JRAB100]

Thanks for the reply Sven, a great help.

My current Mio is PPC2002 which doesn't have landscape view, so this may help with a new WM5 device anyway.

Would you mind doing a quick test for me? Arial 8-point text becomes difficult to read on my Mio below 80% zoom (my eyesight is pretty good, but it seems that the actual characters lose definition below this). Could you try the same font on your device and see how far it is readable (that is without having to think to work out what the characters are)?

When you mention 1/4 size being hard to manage, I presume you mean that for the Today screen etc you still keep the standard screen area but with better definition and clarity, unlike on a "real" PC where you would get more screen area and smaller icons when increasing the resolution?

Thanks again
Richard.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I haven't got Arial, but 8pt Tahoma is quite legible in Pocket Excel at 75% zoom on a VGA screen (I'm using a Loox 720). Even 50% can be made out pretty well, with a bit of strain. I use 9pt Lydian across the whole system, and it works pretty well for me (without having to use reading glasses).

As to your second question, Windows Mobile uses pixel doubling to render almost all applications on a VGA device so they appear exactly the same as in QVGA, except with MUCH more clarity. A 'True' VGA hack can be done which negates the pixel doubling and result in 4x the space but at 4x a size decrease. There is also a hack to disable pixel doubling in individual applications, but most apps are now compatible with VGA screens anyway and the hack won't have any effect.

[JRAB100]

Thanks Nurhisham, much appreciated.

I tried 8pt Tahoma on my device, and anything below 80% zoom becomes effectively unreadable (you can only read it because you know what it says....) Strangely, the difference between 80% and 79% is massive.

Thanks for your clarification of the screen appearance - that's pretty much what I thought from Sven's reply earlier.

Looks like I need a VGA device then.

My first choice if I can stretch the budget is a Pocket Loox N560 - fast processor, VGA screen, WiFi & Bluetooth, onboard GPS, neat Brodit car holder which can be fitted to Proclip mount and permanently wired-in (no tangle of wires, windscreen suckers etc!).

How do you rate your 720? I've heard of some issues with FSC's E2C WiFi connection utility - this is key to me so that I can pick up email at motorway service areas. Does the 720 use the same utility, and if so does it work for you?

Cheers
Richard

[Nurhisham Hussein]

How do you rate your 720? I've heard of some issues with FSC's E2C WiFi connection utility - this is key to me so that I can pick up email at motorway service areas. Does the 720 use the same utility, and if so does it work for you?

I love the 720 and I'd highly recommend it except FSC don't sell them anymore. The N560 is a great successor, but I don't like the fact that they dropped the CF slot.

Yes, the Loox 720 does have E2C. There's no necessity for using it however, unless you're masochistic - the tools provided with Windows Mobile work just fine. E2C isn't a wireless tool per se, it's a connection manager and a rather poor one at that.

[JRAB100]

Thanks Nurhisham, great help, appreciated.

Richard.