Outdoor Visibility of Data Collector Screens

Color is nice, but I'd go for high-contrast visibility any day, even if it means sticking with B&W.

I agree, we need readable screens, what are the best options currently available?

Yes. I'd prefer a monochrome screen over a color screen that I can't see in the sun light. I'd also prefer more readable larger fonts over smaller fonts. As I'm getting older, my eyesight isn't as good as what it used to be and small fonts are hard for me to read.

[sarcasm]You mean we are supposed to be able to see the screen outdoors?[/sarcasm]

I think the color screens really came into the market when map screen functionality became more of a demand. I would prefer a monochrome screen because in the past these were always easier to read and seemed to have a longer life span than color. I think "grey scaled" screens like some of the electronic book readers would be perfect. Hopefully the future may provide a larger screen still in a hand held design. I worked with some tablets briefly but over a few hours a felt that even though the provide a full operating system just like a PC you were tied into only touch screen interaction. Personally I prefer a keyboard on the collector.

Yes E-Ink and paper white work great outdoors and would be fabulous for data collector screens. I can read my TDS48 screen much better than I can a Ranger screen. Can anyone talk Amazon into producing a data collector?
By the way there is color E-Ink, but I haven't seen one, I think they are using it on some new smart phones.

T.W.

The screens on the Trimble Tablets are incredibly good, but the trade-off is that you have to carry around a tablet PC all day. And I totally agree that I like a full keyboard; despite Trimble's best efforts inputting data can be pretty wonky. And trying to do things like holding Shift to copy multiple files is tedious at best. However, you can use wireless keyboards with them, so that makes doing things in the office a lot easier. They make a docking station but we didn't get those.

I will take B&W visibility over color any day.

Also it would be nice to be able to have larger fonts on the stakeout screen. I have a heck of time reading it while moving around.

Legs,

I've gone down that path in the last few years. Heck, I can't even read my own field book anymore. I have taken to wearing safety glasses with the little cheater reading glasses built in.

I've been crying about screen size and visibility for years. It goes with the average surveyor age being 50 something. I wonder about the number of mistakes that could have been prevented if the screen was actually viewable in the sun. Also another pet peeve is the pertinent information provided on the screen. Many times you have all kinds of information that is not relevant and the important information in a small corner of the screen. I never get the feeling the software producers are listening to us. My 2 cents Jp

I just got a brand new TCU. It has the brightest, most readable color screen I have used so far. Much better.

I also have a TSC2 which has the advantage of a full keyboard but less readable screen.

For price, performance, best sunlight visible and etc. - Stonex S4 ( http://www.stonexpositioning.com/index.php/en/prodotti/gps/s4-detail) but this is last PDA what we proposing. Today we go with Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet PC or Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1.

Be aware some programs such as Carlson are extremely hard to see on a BW screen. Their reasoning is they couldn’t possibly program software to work on all the different hardware. I was trying to use an Allegro MX mono.

Color or B/W, the data collector screen should be readable in direct sunshine.

I don't care it it has 1080p or will stream movies at 240hz

I can read my HP48 better than I can read my Motorolla RAZR phone.

If they can build a book reader that has that ability, the data collector and controller screens should be a snap.

I suppose those that offer best readability are those that ramp up the backlight brightness and thus hit the battery significantly. Monochrome or some kind of dynamically updating eink would be awesome.