Best laptop for screen visibility

About to get a new laptop INSTEAD of a new chartplotter. My garmin 741xs still works and I also have a handheld garmin I even like better in some ways. However, I need a new laptop and have been reading about Coastal Explorer and picturing myself on the flybridge with a 24" screen! Bright sun is my main concern... Any thoughts??

24 inch laptop?

Not 24" ... I was thinking about something I had just read... Maybe a 17" though...

Panasonic toughbook 54 attracts me, with its 1000nit display. I want one.

1000 nit!!

diver dave said:

Panasonic toughbook 54 attracts me, with its 1000nit display. I want one.

Click to expand...

What is one of these worth? I may have one.

$1300...

I dug it out and it is a Panasonic Toughbook model CF-W8 with Win 7 loaded on top of original Vista. Probably a 2007 or so model.

Any idea of what it is worth?

Mine is no laptop but last year’s Apple hero, a 9.7” Ipad Pro. First, it has a built in GPS, great for navigation. Next... I can read the screen in daylight whereas with my Asus laptop I cannot.

I usually avoid praising products, especially Apple’s. My Ipad Pro was my first venture into any of Apple’s products and I am well pleased even though this particular model has already been phased out of manufacturing, replaced with the 10.5”.

I have a Dell XPS 15" running CE in my pilothouse. It's excellent - very bright, and I love the touchscreen.

I have an Acer running Fugawi at my lower helm with trackball mouse and I have hardwired a monitor and another trackball mouse to the flybridge. Both displays and mouse (meeces) work to control the Acer at any time so there is nothing to switch over if I move from one helm to the other underway and the laptop is protected from spray and salt this way.
I also have a Samsung 10.5"android tablet running navionics as a backup.

Bigfish said:

About to get a new laptop INSTEAD of a new chartplotter. My garmin 741xs still works and I also have a handheld garmin I even like better in some ways. However, I need a new laptop and have been reading about Coastal Explorer and picturing myself on the flybridge with a 24" screen! Bright sun is my main concern... Any thoughts??

Click to expand...

I don't even use my Standard Horizon chart plotter, still got my 15 yr. + old Panasonic Toughbook CF71, windows XP and hooked up to a GPS puck. Good in daylight, fell off the dashboard a few times and I can't think of how many beers that got spilled on it over the years ..... fb

Apple makes good products!

How about on a flybridge in the Keys? Gets pretty bright down here. Heading to the Exumas next month too!! Hopefully....

What monitor???

Best of the best solid state drive macbook pro 17 retina display.

Big IPad Pro with Navionics is our primary Navigation. Older Raymarine is our backup.
The IPad is great as you can adjust contrast and brightness easily. Navionics is updated easily and fairly often.

Good Luck!

Apple certainly has its followers.

But think of what recent cel phone even has the brightness to be visible on a flybridge.

None that I know of unless you play the shading game.

Laptops are a far third in brightness unless a specialty one, pads are a little better.

Consider a pad over a laptop or be prepared to build a sunshade for whatever you buy.

Sure some people will claim theirs is OK... and it might be if you live where it is cloudy all the time..... but in general...to that I say. ..... well I wont.

Ipad Pro10.5 now up to about 600nits. About 60% of what u want wearing sunglasses in FL sun on topside steering stations.

Need those nits...

How many nits in a garmin 741 xs??

I wonder why no one else mentioned the need for a gps if a laptop is used. That is another advantage offered by the Ipad Pro. No need to be attached to the internet or connected somehow to a gps. I have no intentions to ever purchase a dedicated marine gps for our boat

True on gps. But the tough book has it[emoji847]

The Toughbook 19 features a 10.1" LCD capable of up to 6000 nit in direct sunlight, and is powered by an 2nd gen Intel Core i5 vPro processor. Integrated options include a 2MP camera, backlit keyboard (emissive or rubber), GPS receiver, Gobi2000 mobile broadband and a dual touch LCD (touchscreen and digitizer).

But you are at $3k for this really bright one.

Bigfish said:

How many nits in a garmin 741 xs??

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Garmin doesn't want to publish this spec. My Garmin 94sv works fine in the Keys in Aug with sunglasses on, but usually in the Bimini shade.
Humminbird is publishing 1500 nits, and one review said their brightness was comparable.

Read where one Garmin model was 1250 nits...

I'm such a sucker for more nits...

It may be time for a newer dictionary.....

nit

noun
the egg or young form of a louse or other parasitic insect, especially the egg of a head louse attached to a human hair.

I use a sony experia tablet with chartplotting software (android) on my flybridge. Brightness turned all the way up. I can read it in daylight tho I wish it was brighter. The tablet is "waterproof" and it has not failed me yet after two years. Built in gps. Screen is 10 inches which makes a great chartplotter, and is much less expensive than a dedicated marine chartplotter.

foggysail said:

I wonder why no one else mentioned the need for a gps if a laptop is used. That is another advantage offered by the Ipad Pro. No need to be attached to the internet or connected somehow to a gps. I have no intentions to ever purchase a dedicated marine gps for our boat

Click to expand...

And how much does an iPad pro cost?

$15 GPS puck off of eBay makes my old but reliable Compaq Presario laptop a fully featured and essentially free plotter (opencpn) with no need to be attached to the internet
A $120 upgrade for increased ram and ssd drive and a clean linux mint install has increased its speed dramatically.


Main plotter is a Seiwa explorer 3 head connected to a 21 inch lcd monitor but I prefer opencpn.

That's what I'm talkin' about!