What's the point of the frontlight?

[JeanPierre]

Originally Posted by readingbunny

Well, apart from reading in the dark with brightness set to 1%, for which it's great.

But I really don't see why you'd ever want to turn up the brightness to anything higher than max 10-15%.

Personally I read without the frontlight during the day/in well-lit rooms.

If you want read from a glowing screen you might as well use a smartphone or tablet. (I understand the technology is different, but still.)

Genuinely curious to hear from some people reading with the frontlight on at all times!

Same here. I’ve never gone over 12%, and mostly stick in the 2-8% range at night, depending in ambient light. In daylight I can’t see the difference whether the light is on or not, so I turn it off.

At 100% the device could be useful if you’re reading during a power outage at night, I guess

I would personally prefer a more granular level of control at the lower end of the brightness range, and a less powerful light overall. I don’t see the point of having such a powerful light either. It’s so you can read in the dark, as you say.

I have seen a few reviews of readers where they compare the brightness of two devices on the max setting, and found this to be bizarre. It’d make more sense to me to compare the lowest settings in the dark.

[Quoth]

The best three aspects of the front-light:
1. You can turn it off (or as near off as makes no difference on PW3).
2. You can turn it on.
3. Unlike Font size (on Kobo or Kiindle or Sony), the adjustable levels on Kindle and Kobo seem fine, though you only really need the lowest 20% (1/5th) unless you are using it as a torch to find something that rolled under the bed.

Flexibility is good. That's what I hate about win10 vs Win3.1, Win95, NT4.0, WinXP. The Win7/Vista started the MS rot.

It makes most sense to compare front lights at a standard level, probably whatever number of Lux is half perceptual brightness of a room lit only by a 4W LED lamp in a shade on a table lamp at the other side of the room, i.e. too dark to actually read paper but not too dark to move around. Comparison a minimum in the dark makes little sense other than say a reasonable reading brightness (some fixed level of Lux) in the dark.
I only read in the dark during a power cut.

[Deskisamess]

At 100% the device could be useful if you’re reading during a power outage at night, I guess

That's actually backwards...in a totally dark room, the front light needs to be dimmer, not brighter. When I read at night, once the lights are turned off in the bedroom, I turn the front light down to about 12% on my Oasis. If I read more than 15 minutes, as my eyes adjust, I can turn it down even more.

[GERGE]

It could really be useful, since it always stands next to my bed, it works as a light source really well too =) %100 at Kobo Glo HD is quite bright.

[JeanPierre]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

That's actually backwards...in a totally dark room, the front light needs to be dimmer, not brighter. When I read at night, once the lights are turned off in the bedroom, I turn the front light down to about 12% on my Oasis. If I read more than 15 minutes, as my eyes adjust, I can turn it down even more.

I meant it could be useful as a torch. I was making a joke about it being too bright to be useful under any other circumstances.

[Barbara1955]

my old eyes need light to see to read. 18 too low 20 is too bright 19 is just right

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by readingbunny

I read without the frontlight during the day/in well-lit rooms.

The front light is obviously less useful in a brightly lit location, but I find it works perfectly when the lighting is marginal.

Originally Posted by readingbunny

If you want read from a glowing screen you might as well use a smartphone or tablet.

I personally find the front light on my Kobo Aura to feel less "penetrating" to my eyes than a smartphone.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

my old eyes need light to see to read. 18 too low 20 is too bright 19 is just right

With my H2O, I would find any of those values to be way too bright. I've been reading with 4. If I have enough light, I turn the front light off.

[Kat78]

I feel like a bit of a freak now I've just checked my Glo and realised its at 84%. I don't have the greatest eyesight but even so, it looks like I'm the only person to have made it past half way!!

[Timboli]

Well the way I understand it, is the light mostly shines on the text, and not so much through the text at your eyes, so heaps kinder to them.

You can also adjust the brightness (as in turn it up) to counteract any reflection that may be occurring, especially out of doors, which varies with location and cloud coverage. Even indoors, with some types of overhead lighting or window location, you may need to counter reflection.

With my Paperwhite, I mostly have the brightness turned down low, trying to approximate the look of a book page, not a screen ... especially in the dark. Environment is often the governing factor though.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Kat78

I feel like a bit of a freak now I've just checked my Glo and realised its at 84%. I don't have the greatest eyesight but even so, it looks like I'm the only person to have made it past half way!!

I'm the same like you. For my crappy eyesight, higher light setting gives me more contrast to the text, even if I'm outdoors reading, which I need.

Just do what's comfortable for you and your eyesight.

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by readingbunny

Well, apart from reading in the dark with brightness set to 1%, for which it's great.

But I really don't see why you'd ever want to turn up the brightness to anything higher than max 10-15%.

Personally I read without the frontlight during the day/in well-lit rooms.

If you want read from a glowing screen you might as well use a smartphone or tablet. (I understand the technology is different, but still.)

Genuinely curious to hear from some people reading with the frontlight on at all times!

I usually have it no more than 30% during the day and I tone it down at night so it's not too bright around 20%

[Alanon]

I think it all depends on the device and its specific lighting strength. For my money, it makes sense to have a reasonable brightness range to accommodate for sight and personal preference, but on my Aura One, I feel the range is just beastly. The top third if not half of the scale is simply too bright, to the point that reading on an LCD/IPS panel is actually better for the eyes.

I keep the brightness mostly off during the day, or perhaps on 1-3% - enough to get contrast benefits or remove any annoying shadows and such, but negligible as far as eye strain is concerned. Around dusk, I might bump it up to 4-5%, but with some night-light to bring it to a nice creamy, paper-like colour. Even in pitch-black conditions, 1% with reduced blue-light is actually pretty serviceable.

Again, for my purposes, I'd appreciate more nuance in the lower range and less brightness overall, but I do acknowledge the possibility of someone using their Aura One at 80%, no matter how incredible that seems to me. But then again, I'm on the younger side and still not wearing glasses, so for all I know I might be the outlier. Somehow, I believe that the folks using 80+ brightness on their devices simply have devices with lower brightness levels overall.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JeanPierre

I meant it could be useful as a torch. I was making a joke about it being too bright to be useful under any other circumstances.

I've used my ereader a couple of times now to light my way to the flashlight collection during a power outage. Beats the heck out of fumbling my way there in the dark.