HUMANITY HAS LANDED a probe on a comet traveling 80,000 mph and flown past a dwarf planet three billion miles away. So why can?t we make a damn laptop screen that lets you work outside in the sun?
It shouldn?t be that hard. Tablets and phones have generally the same display tech and are so much more usable in bright sunlight. So what gives?
It?s a relatively new phenomenon. Back in the day?before 2006, according to this fine historical document?laptops had those squishy LCD screens that would leave psychedelic trails when you?d run your finger over them. Beyond that trippy side effect, the screens had one big benefit: Matte that were seemingly resistant to glare.
Those days are gone. Pick up any laptop and odds are it?s got a glossy screen. Apple dropped the matte screen option from the MacBook Pro in 2013, and people were none too pleased. But according to Dr. Raymond Soneira, founder and president of display-testing and -calibration company DisplayMate Technologies, matte screens have their own problems.
?The matte surface finish is more easily damaged, it costs more to manufacture and apply it, and manufacturing and marketing two separate sub-models is more complicated and costly,? Soneira says. ?There are also sales and marketing issues: Matte screens look slightly cloudy and less attractive in a store with low ambient lighting? Matte screens can reflect light from a wider range of viewing angles than glossy mirror-like screens, so sometimes they can make matters worse.?
Read more at?WIRED
