Simple touch page tuning in sunlight

[Dave W]

I just got my simple touch with glow light and think it's great. However, I've found a weakness. It is advertised as useable in direct sunlight. My Sony PRS-600 tended to fade out when the display got heated by the Sun which was its Achilles heel. The Simple Touch doesn't have that problem. However, I can't turn pages by tapping or swiping. I have to use the buttons on the sides. Tapping and swiping work fine indoors.

Now the technical stuff. It is my understanding that B&N chose to use infrared to detect taps and swipes rather than the capacitive technology used by Apple and others. My theory as to why the touch screen stops working in sunlight is that there is a lot of infrared in sunlight and it simply saturates the detectors. I suppose that's the nature of the beast, but B&N should have put that caveat in the description of the product.

I prefer using the touch screen when reading, but I can live with the buttons if I must. I'll just have to move into the shade to use the screen to select books or to navigate to specific pages. It seems that all I will be able to do while the Nook is exposed to direct Sun is turn pages. Anything that depends on the touch screen will not work.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Dave W

[Dave W]

Oops! Subject should be page 'turning', not tuning.

[aceflor]

I've had my NST glow for over a week now, and have been doing massive amount of reading with it, night and day, and the daily reading is done at the poolside with a lot of sun. I can always turn my pages with touch.

Your unit seems defective to me.

[NickyWithNook]

I can turn in bright sunlight without any problem.

[afv011]

I have no issues with the touch screen in bright sunlight. However, the screen seems to have some more ghosting and page turns are slower. I understand that eInk displays have temperature calibration, but I wonder if in my case it was outside the standard range as it was rather warm at the time.

[tecweston]

I haven't had any problems with the touch screen, however I noticed that page turns are much slower on a hot day in direct sunlight. The ghosting effect of previous pages is also much more noticeable.

I remember when I first got my Wii, I had the TV in front of windows that faced east. Because the remote uses infrared to track motion, if I played games in the morning the on-screen cursor would go crazy. I wonder why the Nook screen doesn't start going crazy in direct sunlight; random page-turns and things clicking themselves, that kind of thing.

[aceflor]

I am surprised to read about those problems because I've had none. And it is over 30 degrees Celsius daily from 8am to 8pm here, in Southern Spain, not even speaking about temps under the sun. I used my Nook GL every day, by the pool (full sunlight) oder on the covered terrace (shade) without any speed difference with inside or at night with the GL switched on.
No ghosting either, or let's say not more or less than with my K4NT or my PRS-T1.

My screen feels absolutely smooth, not grainy at all, if that makes any difference.

[Dave W]

Thanks for everyone's comments. Unfortunately, it has been raining and cold around here ever since I had the page turning problem. I haven't been able to test it again in case it was just a fluke. However, I should point out that the Sun was hitting the screen directly, no shadow. The sky was clear. So I imagine that would be the maximum infra-red exposure possible unless I lived much further south. I sit on my second story deck, facing a Koi pond and with my tea cup balanced on the railing. So turning around to put my back between the Sun and the Nook is not a solution.

Incidentally, there appeared to be no fading of the text with the Sun directly on the screen. My Sony reader would go to being unreadable after 5 minutes or so with that much Sun exposure, but swiping to turn a page still worked. Also, I did not have any problem with glare. If I ever see the Sun again, I'll repeat the page turning test to see if the problem is real. Were you folks that have not experienced this doing your reading with the Sun shining directly onto the screen?

Dave W

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by Dave W

Were you folks that have not experienced this doing your reading with the Sun shining directly onto the screen?

Dave W

Yes, the sun shines almost always directly on it.

[GreenMonkey]

I was reading on a beach on Memorial Day weekend in 80+ degree weather without any touch problems.

[JSWolf]

Dave, as soon as you noticed your 600 fading in the sunlight you should have been on the phone to Sony to get it fixed. Your 600 has a defective screen made by LG. LG made screens that were used in various brands of eink readers such as Sony & Amazon and they did fade in sunlight. This is not a flaw in the 600. It's a defect in the screen. Give Sony a call and see what they can do for you. Maybe you'll get a nice discount on a T1.

[silverraven]

Dave, if it makes you feel any better, I have the non glow NST and I have started having issues in the sunlight too. Honestly, I don't know if it's the sun, or the whole thing is just getting wonky. It happens when I'm using my mEdge led light too.
Guess I'll be calling B&N first of the week, too busy this week.
I really love my nook, I'm so sad.
S
P.S. Yes, I have done the hard reset, no help.

[Dave W]

We have finally had a couple of days of full Sun. So I sat in my usual spot and made sure the Sun was hitting the Nook screen. Imagine my surprise when it worked normally. Do these things have some sort of breaking in period? I know that I didn't imagine the problem in the Sun because I tried a number of things and was only able to get a page turn by using the buttons. One of the things I really like about the Nook touch is how sensitive the screen is. When I'm reading in bed, I slip my left hand behind an elastic band that is used to secure my cover. that leaves my fingers hovering just over the right edge of the screen. When I'm ready for a new page, I just lower a finger until it touches the screen and the page flips. I tried that light touch in the Sun today and it worked! Go figure. I suppose that the software could have gotten hung up somehow, but I've never done a full reset. So that begs the question: How did it recover from the problem? I guess I'll never know.

Dave W

[gidgiddonihah]

I was using my nook outside in the sun and had the same problem. I thought the nook software was glitchy and restarted it several times before it started to work again. Now that I remember when it started to work again i was under a pavilion.. Ghosting seemed to be a lot worse in the sun as well.

[BenG]

I had this problem yesterday. After about 10 or 15 minutes reading with the nook laying on the picnic table with the sun shining directly on it I started having trouble turning the pages using the touch screen.
Also the letters faded a little until it did the complete refresh every few pages. Not much just enough to make the font look ragged.

The nook was very hot to the touch and only had problems going forward not back.