Originally Posted by
gauvins
I'd like to add that I stopped using the Edge Touring because it was essentially useless in bright light, under some conditions (i.e. sun's angle -- even trying to shade with the hand didn't really work. Had to stop to look at the map. OTOH, my phone was perfectly legible). Might be that Garmin's screen have been improved (my VivoActive is very legible under the brightest sun). Or that some models use a different tech.
The Touring has the same screen as the 800. The transreflective screen works well in the sun but it's fairly angle-dependent (you really need to be able to adjust the angle). I've gotten used to it.
Shading it really isn't what you want to do since that reduces the light hitting the screen.
My iPhone is very dark in direct sunlight.
Nothing is perfect and everything is a compromise.
The Garmins have an engineering goal of being small with a long runtime.
Using a backlight (one brighter than they already have) all the time works against those goals.
An alternative would be to use a black and white LCD screen (losing the advantages color provides). Black and white LCD screens are more legible in sunlight than transreflective screens.