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Glossy Laptop display

My laptop has a glossy display (HP calls it a BrightView display). It is marginally annoying when there are bright surfaces behind you. When the screen is off, you would think, from the reflections, that its impossible to use, but the LCD displays pretty bright images, so they usually drown out the background behind.

I had never been able to use the laptop outside, because of reflections, until today. I decided to try again and this time, instead of sitting facing the sun I sat at an angle to it. It was amazing! At the proper angle, the back of the display diffusely reflects the sunlight, causing the screen to now act like an old fashioned LCD with no back-light.

It looks a little weird, because the letters clearly float above the greenish background (like the LCD on a clock or watch), but I was able to use it in bright sunlight, on battery (i.e. dimmed display). It was amazing.

So the trick to using the BrightView LCD in sunlight is to turn so that the sun is not reflecting directly off the screen, but is otherwise illuminating it.

For a nice description of how this works look here.

(Thanks to Ben for pointing out original post was obtuse in parts)
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