T42 Flexview Contrast/Brightness

[stuffinder]

I've been agonizing several months about upgrading form my T22.
My main dilemma is whether or not to go to the 15 in. Flexview. Beimg 61 with less than perfect vision I'm not sure if I can handle the smaller font size at the native 1400 X 1050 resolution. I've been unable to find a TP with that resolution to try out and since I'm going to be buying it through the EPP from a friend who has 24 days remaining to retirement I don't want to hassle him with sending it back. I'd like to know if the LCD is appreciably brighter for use in a car with relatively high ambient light. My T22 is barely useable and I'm wondering if there's enough difference with the Flexview to warrant the larger size, weight and loss of battery life. If anyone could give me some guidance I'd appreciate it.
Regards

[asiafish]

You'll find that almost all laptops are brighter now than they were in the T22 era. I just upgraded from a T22 to a 14" T42p and the difference brightness and outdoor readability is night and day. Of course, ANY LCD will have trouble competing with sunlight, but the new ones are a lot better than they used to be.

[asiafish]

If your eyes are bad then you might consider a 14" or 15" screen with regular XGA (same as your T22) resolution. On a 15" XGA resoution would give very large and legible text. 14" will be exactly what you know on your T22, only brighter and crisper from a new LCD.

[aamsel]

LCD's such as the Flexview's, and also the "normal" displays such as the 14.1" T series are going to wash out severely in daylight in a car.
The only way you will be ok, is if the screen is turned away from the sunlight and shaded somewhat. Even then, it is going to be dim.

There are a few displays on Tablet PC's (not sure where else) that are designed as "view anywhere" and intended for daylight use.

Standard LCD panels were never intended for use in daylight.

Andrew
Austin,TX

I've been agonizing several months about upgrading form my T22.
My main dilemma is whether or not to go to the 15 in. Flexview. Beimg 61 with less than perfect vision I'm not sure if I can handle the smaller font size at the native 1400 X 1050 resolution. I've been unable to find a TP with that resolution to try out and since I'm going to be buying it through the EPP from a friend who has 24 days remaining to retirement I don't want to hassle him with sending it back. I'd like to know if the LCD is appreciably brighter for use in a car with relatively high ambient light. My T22 is barely useable and I'm wondering if there's enough difference with the Flexview to warrant the larger size, weight and loss of battery life. If anyone could give me some guidance I'd appreciate it.
Regards

[darrenf]

FYI: If you friend is retiring from IBM (i.e. is eligible for retirement and isn't just leaving the company), he will have EPP benefits for life. He will not need to be involved in the purchase, so returning a unit will not inconvenience him at all.

-darren

[kjarrett]

Standard LCD panels were never intended for use in daylight.

That is true, aamsel, however, I am sitting outside on my patio right now in DIRECT sunlight ... my hands are warming from the sun's rays and my black palm wrest is getting VERY warm ... and although my 15" Flexview screen is a bit washed out, it is still definitely quite usable ... and this is precisely why I went with this display.

I had an XGA T30 before this, and there is NO comparison ... the Flexview is several orders of magnitude brighter.

For whatever it's worth...

-kj-

[darrenf]

kjarrett,

FWIW, I haven't used the FlexView in direct sunlight but I have used the regular 14" in direct sunlight and the picture has the same clarity whether the backlight is on its brightest or dimmest setting. In other words, the screen is mildly transflexive and it's the sun's light that is illuminating it not the backlight. FlexView might be more transflexive, but I would doubt that in direct sunlight you are getting any benefit from the screen's brightness. You can test this by turning the brightness down to it's minimum and back up to maximum and compare the difference.

Where you *will* need a bright screen is on a very sunny day when the sun is not shining directly on the screen. The ambient light is so bright that very few screens can produce an image that overcomes it. That might be where the FlexView shines as compared to other screens.

-darren

[mickles]

After reading over this forum, you guys have given some decent help.

He asked if the battery life sacrifice was worth it, I am curious myself. What kind of battery sacrifice are we looking at?

[darrenf]

I don't have the measurements on the 15", but my SXGA 14" at minimum brightness draws ~9.5W when "idle" (ie sitting at this webpage, probably with the HDD parked). At max brightness it draws ~13.5W

Of course, the reading can change based on the wireless card drivers, video card drivers and other applications running, so my figures are probably not as helpful as those from someone with a virgin machine.

-darren

[ndee]

I'd go with the Flexview, that's for sure. I kinda regret that I didn't get the 15", 1600x1200 screen on my T42p.

[fbrdphreak]

I don't have the measurements on the 15", but my SXGA 14" at minimum brightness draws ~9.5W when "idle" (ie sitting at this webpage, probably with the HDD parked). At max brightness it draws ~13.5W

Of course, the reading can change based on the wireless card drivers, video card drivers and other applications running, so my figures are probably not as helpful as those from someone with a virgin machine.

-darren

Using MobileMark, my T42 15" SXGA+ draws ~13-15W dead idle and max brightness moves that up to 18-20W depending on what I'm doing.

[stuffinder]

First, I would like to thank everybody who has responded to my question. I've certainly been able to garner a lot of useful information from the posts and PM's! This is a great forum and I'd like to say THANKS to Bill and the moderators and members for keeping active and useful and free of the acrimony that I frequently find on other forums and newsgroups!

An old friend who I hadn't seen in 8-9 years dropped in on Saturday. He's a retired (early) IBM'er who had with him a T41 14.1 in. w/1400 x 1050 display. He had the screen size set at 1280 x 1024 which I found to be marginal and 1400 x 1050 was WAY too small for me! I think the 1280 sizing would be OK but the font was not smooth, most likely due to it's not being at it's native resolution. Has anybody used one of the font re-sizing program's to try to correct this? I believe there is something called "liquid view" or something similar. I wonder what the pros & con's are of using this method of compensating for aging eyes are? Being a geek at heart I really what to go with the Flex-view display but not if I can't read it for an hour or two at a time.

I suppose I should just stick w XGA 1024 x 768, I'm using an 18 " LCD at 1280 x 1024 on my home computer and that is fine. I mostly use the TP for Email, Web Browsing while traveling although I do occasionally use it for a full day of scanning and building PDF's from original photos and documents.
Any opinions appreciated.

[pae77]

Re aging eyes, are you using or have you considered having special glasses that are optimized for the distance your eyes are from the screen made just for computer work? Makes a huge difference for me. Can't imagine computing without them.

[stuffinder]

I have been considering a pair of glasses with the focal length adjusted for optimum use of my home computer. Unfortunately some of the most critical times I need my laptop are when traveling. I often save Mapquest
directions to the desktop and my contacts are stored in Outlook.
I'll pull over to the side of the road or stop at a rest stop and flip the TP open to find what I'm looking for. That's the reason why I wondered if the Flex-View was more useable in high ambient light conditions. The most useable screen I've had for that purpose was an early Toshiba Portege w/B/W display running a DOS contact manager type program. I've been through 3 560's, a T20 and now a T22. After 1st trying an HP w/detachable trackball and then Toshiba Portege I'm now firmly commited to TP's, just want to find the optimum configuration for my use!

[NaT]

14.1" or 15.1" You guys might want to consider 3M filter products. There are several kinds of fileters 3M is providing but two interesting ones are: Security filter that limit the angles of the view (and brigthen up if look at it directly) whose purpose is to protect "sneakpeeker" and the other type is enhancing filter whose purpose is to brighthen up and protect the screen.

I have seen both of these myself at my customer sites and very very impressed with their performance. The colors are prettier and brightness are much more enhanced. I checked out at 3M site and they also sell these things online too but usually in 10packs.

Anyone know some place else selling these things in retail and inexpensive?

14.1" even without flexview but more mobiliity plus the filter would be a good solution.

NaT

[aamsel]

Here is a recent thread I started, including mention of my use of Liquid View. It is not perfect, but it works great for me:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... iquid+view

Keep in mind that there is a function called "Search" at the top of the page. If, for example you want to find discussions concerning Liquid View, click on search, enter "Liquid View" as the Keywords (without the quotes) and click "Search for all terms". You would have found this and other topics.

Andrew
Austin, TX

First, I would like to thank everybody who has responded to my question. I've certainly been able to garner a lot of useful information from the posts and PM's! This is a great forum and I'd like to say THANKS to Bill and the moderators and members for keeping active and useful and free of the acrimony that I frequently find on other forums and newsgroups!

An old friend who I hadn't seen in 8-9 years dropped in on Saturday. He's a retired (early) IBM'er who had with him a T41 14.1 in. w/1400 x 1050 display. He had the screen size set at 1280 x 1024 which I found to be marginal and 1400 x 1050 was WAY too small for me! I think the 1280 sizing would be OK but the font was not smooth, most likely due to it's not being at it's native resolution. Has anybody used one of the font re-sizing program's to try to correct this? I believe there is something called "liquid view" or something similar. I wonder what the pros & con's are of using this method of compensating for aging eyes are? Being a geek at heart I really what to go with the Flex-view display but not if I can't read it for an hour or two at a time.

I suppose I should just stick w XGA 1024 x 768, I'm using an 18 " LCD at 1280 x 1024 on my home computer and that is fine. I mostly use the TP for Email, Web Browsing while traveling although I do occasionally use it for a full day of scanning and building PDF's from original photos and documents.
Any opinions appreciated.