What's the best type of screen for outdoors?

I'm guessing it's:
Matte > Glossy
LED > CCFL

Are there any screen-protector type things that will increase outdoor usability much?

 

I would guess that the one that keeps the mosquitoes away. It is summer time and with standing water, you may encounter alot. Plus you might want to check out the ones that are really dark on one side so people cannot see whats going on inside but you can see clearly looking outside.

Hope this helps...

 

Oh wait, my bad. i didn't read then entire message just the title.

 

^ Wait what?
This is the hardware forum, not off-topic

You read none of it 'cept the title you mean

 

I am pretty sure that every glossy screen sucks when it is being used in high powered light or outside.
Matte screens are probably the best for outside, but a few dell owners with the XPS1330 have said that the led screen is great for outside. (cause it has better contrast than conventional ccfl backlit screens)

K-TRON

 

Actually, your all wrong.

Glossy > Matte
LED > CCFL

At first it may seem like Glossy with its reflective screen would make the screen more difficult to see, under direct sunlight, Glossy is more readable than Matte just because with Glossy, light is able to travel both ways whereas Matte only prevents the light from the screen from going out. Kinda like looking through a frosted glass window. It does nothing to prevent light sources outside as all the light from the sun is diffracting all over the place by the special coating of the screen which not only makes the Matte screen less viewable under direct sunlight, but it gives the effect of distorting/blurrying the screen itself because all the light that isnt able to pass through the screen, defracts all over the place.

Of course brightness plays a huge role and at max brightness for Glossy and Matte considering they are both equivalent, the Glossy is more viewable than Matte.

LED is obviously better than CCFL. If you take two glossy displays, one LED and one CCFL and have direct sunlight shining at them. Normally on my older Inspiron with Matte screen and my other newer one with Glossy screen, its difficult to view even at max brightness, though because the LED has a much better brightness and overall color reproduction, turning up the screen brightness to max is actually VERY usable under direct sunlight with no problem at all. Even one brightness step down is still usable under direct sunlight.

LED makes the biggest difference and plays the biggest role.

 

Matte vs. glossy is really not that important. It's brightness that is important.

I've taken several laptops with me outside into direct sunlight. The best byfar were Sonys with LED. Sony TZ was the best. Sony SZ was really good. Macbook Air comes close. All of these have 'glossy' displays with LED and antireflective coating. One thing that is not comfortable is wearing a white shirt while you're working on these laptops.

What makes the key difference is brightness. There are a couple of websites out there that measure the actual brightness of displays. Notebookcheck.com and Notebookjournal.de for example.

Sony SZ:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-VGN-SZ71WN-C-Subnotebook.9606.0.html

Sony TZ:

 

Yup. Thats why LED is the best!

 

Well LED is really good, but I also had a 17" HP with glossy CCFL double lamp that performed really well outside. Much better than many matte screens.

 

LED is probably the best...........

but I still prefer drive-in movie screens

 

it has to be bright, very bright. LED is more modern, it will be better developed and brighter than a normal CCFL backlit display. But high end CCFL displays are even brighter than LED backlights. There are some cheap dim LED backlit displays and some brighter.
If you take LED or CCFL is unimportant, it's important that it is bright and dual bulb CCFL displays are mostly brighter than most of the LED backlit displays.
But I still prefer bright LED backlit displays

Glossy is the display you should use outdoors. Much better than any matte display.

It should also have a good anti reflective coating, like most of the more expensive Sony VAIO's have.

If you can't get such a bright display, then you could also get a Trans-Reflective display, instead of a transmissive display. Many slate tablets have such displays, the only notebook I know is the Toshiba R500 which has such a display. Most mobile phones use such a display, which is even readable in the brightest sunlight, but this type of display has some drawbacks, too.

 

A: I think that would be called the retina

 

This is the most accurate reply sofar, in my opinion.

 

Also see this thread for a similar discussion and some photos.

John