Sunlight

Nothing is brighter than the sun.

The ability to read your computer display outside, if you work outside for a living becomes another important aspect when evaluting the right computer for your job. You might be able to compensate for poor outdoor viewability by throwing beach towel over your head, but that’s not a great long term solution.

New display technologies are pushing the envelope of what is possible. The latest iPad Pro boasts a Liquid Retina XDR display with peak 1,600 nits brightness and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio on a 12.9 inch display with 2732-by-2048-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch. Sounds great, but what is it like outside in the Australian desert in the middle of summer?

Different computer manufacturers design tablets, laptops and other computers with varying grades of screen technologies depending on their intended purpose, Some rugged computer models offer the same model which different panels enabling a customer to potentially save money whilst using the same platform for different workflows within their organization if they are only using the machine inside a warehouse etc. compared to being a field based worker and requiring a more powerful screen brightness.

What determines the screen brightness is not just whether the display is glossy or matte (non-reflective), but moreover it is typically judged by the number of nits, which is equivalent to saying the number of candles. Most mainstream computers will be rated somewhere between 250~500 nits. Rugged computers designed for outdoor usage in direct sunlight normally start around 800 nits, and go higher from there.

The sun is rated at around 1.6 billion nits at midday by comparison.