Adjusting Screen Brightness | Tablet PCs for Dummies

Technical Stuff Your Tablet PC comes with a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen, though the exact specifications may differ depending on your model. The Microsoft Computer Dictionary defines an LCD display as, well, never mind. Something about liquid compounds and molecular structures. Oh yeah, and electrodes. This is all you need to know, and actually, you don't even need to know this much.

If you own a laptop computer, you've probably dealt with an LCD screen before. They are kind of squishy if you press your finger (gently) against them.

Suffice it to say that your screen is unique, and the brightness may differ from your desktop computer. LCD screens are known for providing nice, sharp color; however, depending on the light you're working in, you may have to adjust the brightness so you can see content more clearly.

Warning! Tablet PC screens are not that easy to read outdoors in bright sunlight. In the Tablet world, some models can be ordered with an outdoor screen or indoor screen, and even a hybrid screen, which is supposed to work in either locale. Alas, the outdoor screens aren't that hot - and the hybrids may work in both places, but not very well in either one. Except for overcast days, you'll probably stick to indoor uses of your Tablet PC if you want to see what you're doing.

To adjust screen brightness, follow these steps:

Tap the Change Tablet and Pen Settings icon on the Windows taskbar system tray, then choose Properties from the menu that appears.
Tap the Display tab to display it (you can see this panel in Figure 2-5).
For most situations, leave the default setting (When Plugged In) unchanged.

Tip You can set separate brightness levels for AC-powered or battery-powered operation. If you want to save power by dimming the setting when the Tablet PC is running on batteries, tap the arrow in the Settings For field and select Powered by Batteries.
Tap the Slider on the Brightness scale and drag it to the right to make it brighter or to the left to make it darker.
Tap OK to save your settings.

Tip Most Tablet PC models also offer tablet buttons or keyboard Function key combinations (with convertible models) to adjust screen brightness. See your user manual to see how your model handles this.

A screen is a screen is a screen - isn't it?

Though all Tablet PCs have LCD screens, you'll see other display specifications for the different models (such XGA, XVGA, high luminance, and transmissive). Of course, the best way to know whether one model's screen will work better for you than another is to examine them all before you buy. But if you buy online, and at least initially that's where most Tablet PCs are sold, you may need some guidance to these features.

Pixels are individual cells on your computer screen. The more pixels, the higher the resolution (quality of the image). For example, an 800 x 600 pixel resolution is lower quality than 1,024 x 768.
XGA stands for eXtended Graphics Array. It's a standard for graphics display from IBM that supports either 640 x 480 resolution or 1,024 x 768.
XVGA is a sort of a higher-level XGA. With an XVGA you can display anywhere from 800 x 600 pixels to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels.
TFT is the acronym for thin film transistor. It means the machine has one thin transistor for each cell (pixel) on your screen. TFT is used in what's called an active-matrix display. Most Tablet PCs use a TFT screen.
Luminance is a measurement of how much light is available to light up your screen. A high-luminance (or high-brightness) screen seems to make colors brighter.

Now that you know what all these are, I have no doubt that somebody will come along and change all the display technology out there next week, so don't worry - enjoy the screen you have because it is a pretty darn good one, no matter which Tablet PC model you bought.