24. Brightness And Contrast: Distribution Of Brightness And Contrast

The following charts show how both brightness and contrast are distributed across the displays of the five notebooks in our roundup. Refer back to the last section for details on how brightness and contrast are derived. Each square in a chart represents one of 64 measurement fields, and contains related brightness values measured or contrast values computed for that field. Relating values among neighboring fields causes high value lines to emerge from linear interpolation of measurements from adjacent squares. The various colors indicate parts of the display surface for which measured values occur within specific value ranges, as indicated in the legend. (Note that the colors shown do not match colors captured directly from the monitor; rather they are a graphical representation of brightness and contrast levels.)

The upper edge of a chart symbolizes the lower horizontal edge of the display. The opposite edge thus corresponds to its upper edge. The other two edges represent, from left to right on the chart, the left and right sides of the display.

The minimum value of the Z axis for each chart is set, not to zero, but to a number just a bit below the minimum value of the range for the display in question. The maximum value of the Z axis is set to a number just above the maximum value of the range for the display in question. All charts are scaled on the Z axis in units of 20. This makes it easy to compare between the different notebooks.

These charts are very closely related to the table presented in the last section. After the charts, we'll do a little interpreting and then tell you which displays we liked most and least.