Screen visibility in sunshine

[OlleX]

Hello!
I am planning to buy a HTC Desire, but one important point is the visibility of the OLED screen in bright sunlight. My current phone (SE Experia X1) is almost unusable outdoors, because of bad screen visibility. Does anyone have any input on this?
Another thing, there seems not to be any place to attach a strap to carry it around your neck? Is there some solution to this, perhaps a case with strap?

 

[DanielF]

Same issues with the HTC Desire in direct sunlight. All you can do is increase the brightness and/or cover the phone with your hand. It's one of my major complaints about the Desire and perhaps AMOLED in general.

There's no hole for a strap. I could imagine that there's a case available with a hole or you drill it yourself.

 

[jabtas]

If its on auto brightness, its not that bad in sunlight

 

[jaybea830802]

If its on auto brightness, its not that bad in sunlight

The first time I took my phone out into daylight I thought I had made a terrible mistake, as I could not see the screen at all. I later discovered that the default setting is for a fairly dim screen, and increasing it to full brightness (using the Power Control) or setting it to Auto improves it a lot.

 

[dunbad]

My input is that i think the screen in full daylight is useless. If its bright sunshine its actually worse than that. That said no phone is good in bright sunlight, but the amoled display compounds the issue. If you use the phone outside alot, the desire may not be the phone for you. But inside the screen is truly excellent. Not that I would want an x10, for a variety of reasons but I hear the screen outside is pretty good if that's important to you.

 

[matttye]

Anything but auto/full brightness is terrible, but it's fine with auto/full.

I find the sunlight issue to be exaggerated a lot

 

[dunbad]

Well I guess its subjective as to how good your eyesight is. But i think I got great eyesight? But on my device, on max brightness, in the sunshine, i cant see a thing! Its pretty farcical but I earley use my phone outdoors so for me its not an issue. But I would be peeved off if I used mine regularly outside. You may wish to speak to whoever you buy from regarding the issue and ensure you get the 14 day cooling off period.

 

[Ten10]

Get the new Samsung phone sporting a super amoled screen. Then all your problems will be gone. Not quite sure what model it is though. Think its the galaxy s

 

[zafonic]

Get the new Samsung phone sporting a super amoled screen. Then all your problems will be gone. Not quite sure what model it is though. Think its the galaxy s

you mean the S8500.

 

[PJD]

I mentioned this problem on another post there ought to be an anti glare/reflective protector for when using the camera in bright sunshine I can hardly see a thing, its the same with netbook PC's in bright light, why can they not make them anti glare my spectacles have this, someone told me that these car sat nav system screens have very little reflection if it is a matter of cost probably would be peanuts to produce something suitable

 

[matttye]

I mentioned this problem on another post there ought to be an anti glare/reflective protector for when using the camera in bright sunshine I can hardly see a thing, its the same with netbook PC's in bright light, why can they not make them anti glare my spectacles have this, someone told me that these car sat nav system screens have very little reflection if it is a matter of cost probably would be peanuts to produce something suitable

Putting a layer over the screen will reduce the quality, brightness, etc., and screen quality is a major selling point on the Nexus One/Desire.

Just buy an anti-glare screen protector/case and apply it as and when you need to.

 

[Zarch]

The sunshine over the weekend has highlighted this problem to me on the Desire.

Can't remember the iPhone being as bad as this in the sun.

Anyone recommend a particular screen protector that could help?

Or do we just rack our screen brightness up and toast the battery?

 

[brad-short]

Thank god I live in the UK then, where i rarely have to worry about bright sunlight

 

[Cheule]

This is an ongoing issue pretty much no matter what phone you have. I recently upgraded from a Nokia N95 8gb to the Desire and both suffer in bright sunlight equally. However the Desire is far and away a better phone so it's forgivable ;-)

Like others have mentioned on here, you kind of get used to the fact that you'll shade it from the sun when you need it outside.

 

[Steve_R]

Transflective screens are always better in sunlight, but then AMOLED are always better indoors. It's a trade off really, but if you live in a sunny country, and spend lots of time outdoors, the Desire isn't going to be the best.

As has been said super AMOLED is the way forward, but not too common just now.

 

[zafonic]

This is an ongoing issue pretty much no matter what phone you have. I recently upgraded from a Nokia N95 8gb to the Desire and both suffer in bright sunlight equally. However the Desire is far and away a better phone so it's forgivable ;-)

Like others have mentioned on here, you kind of get used to the fact that you'll shade it from the sun when you need it outside.

I found the N95 to be slightly better in direct sunlight than the Desire, but the only real time I have any real trouble of viewing the screen on the Desire is when the Sun is right on top of me, apart from that the screen is pretty much what I expected from an AMOLED screen from everything I have read in regards to AMOLED.

 

[FelixofMars]

As most people have said as long as its on full or auto it should mostly be visible in sunlight but standing in direct sunlight doesn't help. Though how many time do you want to do that.

 

[mikecoulter]

As long as the phone is set to auto brightness or full brightness, it's pretty usable, otherwise, it's nor really workable.

 

[bonerp]

why bother putting sat nav on a phone if you can't see the screen when the sun is out!? I was out walking the other day looking for a road and could not see anything on the screen.

Think phone firms need to work on this more than the magic tricks they can do.

 

[paulcooper]

In sunlight I have to say it's not that good, yes increase lighting , but easier to find a shaded area.
given the screen size and quality I am not complaining!