Mac Portable Screen Visibility without Backlight: 5126 vs. 5120

[JDW]

I would appreciate feedback from 5120 Mac Portable owners who have a machine that works and who have experiencing adjusting the contrast of their LCD.

I have a 5126 Backlit Portable, but when I turn off the Backlight, the LCD is really hard to see even under good lighting conditions, as shown in my video below. I want to know if the 5120 is the same. Thank you!

 

[Mk.558]

With that amount of lighting it should be pretty clear. I only have one image of a Portable, and it looked almost identically to this in real life. It's actually kind of surprising how crisp it looks like, probably because it's only 1 bit.



That was with window shades pulled up to the right. If it's a little hard to read, you just tinker with the contrast a bit. Problem is you can't adjust contrast on a 5126.

What's probably happening is that the backlit displays don't reflect as much ambient light because the displays are different types. I'm not a SME in this area but I remember that the Duo 230 passive matrix display seemed to be easier to see in bright light (but not direct sunlight) than the 2300c display was. Granted that's kind of moot here because that's a passive matrix versus an active matrix, and the Portable uses an active matrix LCD.

This is a topic that comes (check page 3) up with 16x2 and 128x64 GLCDs used for hobbyist electronics and other applications. Sometimes people need a FSTN 16x2 for really bright lighting, such as an enduro computer for offroad motorcycle stuff.

 

[JDW]

@Mk.558
It isn't clear from your post if your photo is the 5120 or 5126. It seems like it might be the 5120?

 

[Mk.558]

Sorry. It is the 5120.

 

[JDW]

I'm going to answer my own question with this photo of the backlight diffuser behind the LCD on my M5126 Portable...

That textured top makes it diffuse light from the CCFL tube on the left side, but it will also diffuse light hitting the screen when the backlight is off. Because of that, the visibility of the 5126 without backlight off will be much lower than the visibility of the 5120, which I believe has a smooth and highly reflective surface just behind the LCD.

So people with the backlit Portable really do need a good backlight to even see the screen. And if your CCFL tube is dim like mine, it becomes an altogether bad visibility situation.