When developing devices intended for outdoor environments or areas with strong ambient lighting, ensuring display visibility becomes a crucial part of the product design. Standard TFT displays often struggle under direct sunlight, leading to poor user experience and usability challenges.
At Rocktech, we have extensive experience in providing practical and reliable display solutions for such demanding environments. In this article, we explore the two main strategies to achieve sunlight readability — and why high-brightness TFT displays are often the most cost-effective choice.
Transflective TFT Displays: High Performance at a High Cost
One technical approach is using transflective TFT displays, which combine transmission and reflection properties. These panels reflect ambient light to enhance visibility under sunlight while still using a backlight for darker environments.
Advantages:
• Excellent sunlight readability
• Lower backlight power consumption in bright conditions
Disadvantages:
• Significantly higher manufacturing cost
• Limited color saturation compared to standard transmissive displays
• Smaller selection of available panel sizes and specifications
Due to the high costs, transflective displays are primarily used in specialized sectors such as aerospace, defense, and ruggedized industrial devices.
High-Brightness TFT Displays: The Practical Solution
The second and more common solution is increasing the brightness of the TFT display's backlight.
Modern high-brightness TFT displays can reach brightness levels of 800 nits or more, enabling excellent visibility even under strong direct sunlight.
Compared to transflective options, high-brightness displays offer:
• Lower cost
• Greater availability across various sizes
• Compatibility with standard LCD manufacturing processes
At Rocktech, we provide a wide selection of high-brightness displays specifically designed for outdoor kiosks, smart panels, transportation systems, agricultural equipment, and marine devices.
If your application demands reliable outdoor visibility without escalating project costs, high-brightness displays present a balanced and effective solution.
Display is Only Part of the Equation — Don't Overlook the Embedded System
Driving a sunlight-readable display requires more than just a bright panel — it demands a robust, high-performance embedded computing platform.
A well-designed Single Board Computer (SBC) ensures smooth UI rendering, efficient power management, and long-term operational stability in harsh environments.
At Rocktech Embedded SBC Solutions, we offer Android/Linux-based SBCs that are engineered for industrial applications and optimized to work seamlessly with high-brightness displays.
Conclusion
Creating a device for outdoor or high ambient light environments challenges engineers to carefully select both the display and the embedded hardware.
• Transflective displays are ideal when cost is not a primary concern and maximum sunlight readability is needed.
• High-brightness displays provide a practical, scalable, and widely adopted alternative for most commercial and industrial applications.
By combining the right display technology with a reliable SBC platform, it is possible to deliver outstanding user experiences — even under the brightest conditions.
