Buying new laptop screen issues.

[Hafoi Bin Ereafower]

My trusty old Acer Aspire 5735 has been a great machine and still works well, fan makes a bit more noise than it used to and I dropped it on it's plug in power lead a couple of months ago - but I took it apart soldered the wires back to the socket - - - powered it up and hey presto - still works like a good un !

 

Now what I'm thinking of doing is keeping the old Acer static for use in the house and buying a new one for my travels.

 

The Acer has been so good I'd like to get another one - probably spend about £380 to £420 and have seen ones available with i5 processor, 6gb and 500gb running Windows 8 so would be faster and have more storage than my old one.

 

Now here's the rub - - - I use the laptop on a boat and occasionally for a navigation programme with a GPS button and todays glossy screens reflect light like "billy oh" - often it's difficult to see detail on the screen.

 

My question is are there any laptops out there with anti-reflective screens - I don't think Acer do any - does anyone else ?

 

Or are the films you can buy to apply to glossy screens any good or a waste of time ?

[Plastic Nev]

The anti-reflective film is a good and cheap alternative, though can make fine outlines a little fuzzy looking, but so slight in my opinion to not matter much.

 

As for laptops with an already none reflective screen, Although not recommending you buy from them, it is worth a look in person at what is on offer in some of the major retailers, PC World, Curries, other smaller outlets as a for example, as it is only your own eyes can judge what is best for your needs by seeing them up close.

Once you get an idea of make and model, you can then search on line for the best deals.

 

Nev.

[Hafoi Bin Ereafower]

Went to PC World and yes most screens did appear to be glossy and quite reflective.

 

The exception was Samsung which mostly were matt and non reflective - it was good to compare and see different screens side by side

and certainly the Samsung was more viewable from the side and showed less reflection for the showroom lights.

 

Came home and did a bit of research online then ordered from PC World on their order and collect service.

 

Thought the general build quality looked OK - it has an i5 processor 6gb and 500gb running Windows 8.

 

Time will tell how it goes will report back when I've a bit of experience with it - particularly the screen.

 

Thanks again for your help.

[KenB]

I wrote a short tutorial re Windows 8 a while ago.

If you want to take a look ......

click here

[Hafoi Bin Ereafower]

Thanks Ken will give it a look and provide a view on the Windows 8 forum when I've had a really good practice.

 

To polish this one off - my impression of the Samsung so far is good, nice to use and quick compared to my old Acer, the matt screen works well - is less wearing on the old eye's and more view able from the side for my Nav programmes - that alone justified changing brand.

 

Only time will tell if it will last as well as my Acer which is still going strong.