W3V's screen outdoors

The W3V seems like the perfect notebook for me. But there's one thing holding me back right now. It's screen.

I understand the screen is of a glossy finish and that seems hit or miss with some people so I have some questions.

How is the W3V outdoors? Granted, only about 10-15% of my usage will probably involve the W3V outdoors, but occasionally I'd like to be able to sit outside and use my notebook without an awful glare. I am curious how it is in direct sunlight, indirect sunlight, and the shade.

What I'm afraid of is not being able to see the screen that well. I own a sony PSP (closest thing I can compare to this) and if I'm outdoors (during the day), even in the shade, it's very difficult to see the screen. But when it's dark out the screen is so bright I could use it as a flashlight.

Also are there any similar notebooks to the W3V I should look at? The 14" screen and dedicated GPU for light gaming is what really draws me to it.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

How very opportune for you to ask this question while I'm outside in the sun on my home wi-fi network on my W3V. Well, I guess I could do a little review for you right now. As I see it, in direct sunlight, when the sun in directly on the LCD Screen, everything is viewable even if you put the brightness setting on 0 (though the colors are almost indestinguishable). When the sun is facing my eyes while i'm looking at the screen (which is the same direction from me as the sun), the reflection in the glossy screen does hinder viewingthough it doesn't make the display completely useless , but the answer is as simple as turining a different way. In the shade the screen looks great, a few days ago i even had 5 of my cousins view a slideshow on a sunny day like today and they could all see the screen great, they even remarked on how great it looked. Hope this helps.

 

I have found glossy screens to be far better in the sun and in most light situations in general. light seems to wash away the picture on matte screens but on glossy it bounces off almost but there really isnt glare on glossy screens they only look like that at like best buy i have no trouble in my office lighting or any lighting situation with mine.

 

Thanks both of you for the feedback. Really clears up some reservations I had about buying the W3V.

 

I find the glossy screen on W3 better for outdoor use than the mat type display on my previouse laptop. There are more reflections but it manages to keep the contrast higher, while the mat display beacem so washed out outside, that I had hard time reading anything.

 

That is good to know because I was starting to consider some matte screen notebooks.

 

The only other 14" wxga out there with a dedicated gpu and a matte screen is the Chembook 2030.

 

Well, another notebook I was looking at was the Sony VAIO S460/B Notebook. It's a 13.3" display with a dedicated GPU. The small display, weight, and dedicated GPU makes for a mighty "cute" notebook to have around.

 

^the problem with that is that it still has that glossy screen you're having a problem with. Further more its GPU isn't anything that special. For the price you pay for the S series, I think the W3V (with the rebate) is a better deal.

in the US, the only laptop on par with the W3V with its ATi X600 is the Chembook 2030 (Compal EFL30) with its Nvidia Go 6400.

that is unless you live elsewhere in the world where you have access to LG LW40, BenQ, etc who have 14' wxga notebooks with a videocard.

 

Toshiba has the s100. It is not widescreen though. Acer has a 14 inch with dedicated gpu too.

W3V is the best imo.

 

The thing about glare is, you're not really looking *at* the surface of the screen; you're looking *into* it (virtually). I know that sounds weird, but it has to do with "parallaxic focal depth" or some such. It's like a TV -- if there's a lamp on the table beside you, you're going to see it reflection on the TV screen, but you'll be focusing *past* it when you watch a program, so that glare becomes background, and your brain discounts it. You can certainly refocus your eyes and see the lamp clearly, but then the program is out of focus, and once you focus on the program again, the glare "disappears" again. Yeah, glossy screens will have more glare, but unless you've got a really, really powerful light right behind you, you're honestly not really going to notice it that much when you're using the computer.

 

Exactly.

I was testing this out in a computer store last week, and this is indeed the case. Unless I was actively looking for the glare, it was a non-issue. I suppose that people with more sensitive eyes or who are preoccupied with the glare might not like the glossy screens as much, but overall, I think the glare issue is a little blown out of proportion.

 

i wonder what people would say if we all started off with glare screens, and then matte screens came out later.

i like my matte screen, but in bright light, it isn't so nice. in dimmer light at night, it's awesome. still, i think a glare screen would look very nice in dim light as well as in bright light.

plus, all CRTs are "glare"... they're glass. do you hear people complaining about CRT screens?

 

Well, in all fairness, if people carried CRTs around with them, I'm sure they'd find more situations where the glare could be annoying

Anyway, I have a Z63a, and the only time I notice the glare is if there's a light source directly behind me. If I turn the notebook so that I can see the lamp in the screen, there's no way to adjust the brightness to get rid of the reflection; the only solution is to change the direction the notebook is facing. However, as long as there's no light source directly in the reflection, the glare is minimal. If you watch a lot of DVDs or work with dark pictures, then the glare might be more apparent. But most of the stuff I do is text against a white background, and the glare hasn't bothered me one bit.