HP’s new line-up of business laptops will now come with a special security feature – Sure View, a filter which lets the user guard their screens from on-lookers. So forget about phishing or having malicious software that monitors your usage habits. This filter is for the most primitive form of hacking – eyeballing.
HP announces EliteBook laptops with Sure View privacy screen.
Before, the problem was easier than this. Laptop screens used to come generically fitted with poor screens that gave out even poorer viewing angles, thanks to the primitive backlighting and screen display technologies. Over time, the priority was less for privacy and more on trying to make the screen a lot better for viewing. And funnily enough, screens have become just that good, now they’re not safe from prying eyes anymore.
So HP decided to do something about it and re-invent the display, without having to compromise clarity for privacy. The privacy filter is supposed to make it impossible for people viewing from a side-angle of the screen. This is actually a physical filter; a first of its kind developed by HP with the help of 3M. This filter is a polarized screen embedded onto the main screen itself, and can be turned on and off whenever needed.
The first set of laptops to get the privacy treatment will be the new HP EliteBook 840 and 1040, which will both arrive in September. Traditional means for physical privacy would involve having to externally fit a screen over the main laptop monitor, making it not only impossible for observers from the side to read anything, but the viewer as well. Fortunately, HP found a way to get around that.
In real-time usage, when the functionality of Sure View is off, the screen is bright and crisp. Press the function key + F2 combo and the filter turns on. When Sure View is turned on, there is a noticeable difference in screen quality as it does become slightly dimmer, as if there was a filter placed over the screen. But viewing it from the side makes it completely impossible, to make out.
Now going incognito would never feel as good as this.
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