Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Mililani, HI, USA
Posts: 256

I thank Michael A. Waldron for dissecting his Visor so early in the game. You can find his webpage with pictures at http://www.mikew.org/html/visordeluxe.html

He also reports that the Visors backlight is dim--1/3 the brightness of Palm units. Can others with both a Palm III and a Visor corroborate his findings? Maybe not all Visor backlights are created equal. (The picture he posted illustrating the comparisons is very dissenheartening!)

thanks,
Chris

[This message has been edited by ragamuffinn (edited 10-26-1999).]

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Aurora, CO, USA
Posts: 23

As with the Palm V (very similar technology), not all Visor backlights are created equal. I'm one of the lucky ones with a very bright, strong backlight on my Visor. Inverted it's not as bright as my Palm III backlight, but green on black it's very readable.

JK

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Endicott, NY USA
Posts: 60

I can read my Visor quite easily in pitch black/fairly dark conditions. When I'm in an area with low light levels, the backlighting is no help whatsoever. Overall, I think the backlighting is pretty good...

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 8

IMHO, I think the backlight is only ok...it serves its purpose. I was hoping for an indiglow type of backlighting, where the background would be luminescent while the text/graphics remain black.

Oh well...at least it's only a very minor issue....still LOVE my Visor!

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Mililani, HI, USA
Posts: 256

Thanks for your replies folks. I appreciate it.

Chris

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Spokane, WA, USA
Posts: 114

You can use <SHORTCUT>.8 to invert the inverted backlighting, provided you didn't sync anything from a previous Palm device before executing that shortcut.

Apparently, sync'ing something from a previous Palm (or re-syncing after a hard-reset (including data loss)) first has the potential to overwrite the shortcut preferences files, which for some reason was supposed to eliminate the <sc>.8 trick.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 82

I absolutely disagree with this reviewer. The backlight on my Visor is far superior to my Palm V's. Yes, The background is not as bright, but the text is.. In other words, The Visor is much easier to use in bad light because the contrast is much, much better.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Posts: 3

The backlight is workable enough, but after installing a screen invert utility I can see one reason they might have stuck with the white-on-black scheme.

The EL panel itself has a mangy, mottled appearance. In fact, it looks just like one of those Austin Innovations flat night lights when they start to go bad after a year. Is everyone's backlight uneven, or is mine (ice #110) just bad?

-dave

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Mountain View, CA, USA
Posts: 12

hsu, I would say your not alone with the "uneven" backlight. Using a program like Mirror, which makes the screen all black, then turning on the backlight, it is very visible that its not a uniform brightness. However, I dont find this to be noticable at all when simply reading text, or using almost any application. This is also noticable on the Palm IIIx sitting next to my Visor.

As for the brightness.... well I'll let you be the judge. Go here to see a pic: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/6253/

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Mililani, HI, USA
Posts: 256

Thanks, Kaneda.

I guess there's one benefit to a dimmer backlight: lower battery drain. (I'm trying to look on the brighter side of things, even though I already use NiMHs...)

Chris

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: NY, NY, USA
Posts: 155

Mebbe I'm among the "lucky" ones, but this backlight is as good if not better than my III.

The backlighting is even and not muddy, although I don't like the inverted (LightHack-enabled) backlight.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Burlington, VT, USA
Posts: 127

Just compared my Visor Deluxe and my Palm IIIx before packing the IIIx to mail to its new owner... The backlights were virtually identical.

However, the Visor's screen was slightly sharper than the IIIx's. Barely noticeable, but there's a definite improvement.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 28

well i can say that with each passing palm screen introductin you will see that it seems to be darker with the backlight. there is is good reason for this. you should't use th ebacklight unless it is compleatly dark. i remeber ppl complainging about the IIIx and V bein to dark. that was untill they started to use it in dim light, were yo ucan still see the screen fine WITHOUT backlight.

unlike my pppro which was so powerfull in fact that i used to use the backlight as a flashlight for getting around in the dark!kidding but it was nealry that powerfull and consumed more powre during darker situations
my IIIx was much better in that respect and V, well lets not bring up bad memories of that thing.

for all those who claim the screen is less/more sharper. well i duno i have to say it's all pretty much the same. unless your doing something intense like viewing 16bit grayscale pics or something.
but try useing your visors in dim light. and you will be able to read it fine. use any of the older palms. III ppro pilot 1000 etc.. and you need to use the backlight even in less the full birigh light.