Aspire S7-191 keyboard unreadable in some lighting conditions

Doug1029

Hi,

 

I'm getting to know my way around my wife's new Aspire S7-191, for which I'm the system admin.  I found a fix for a keyboard problem others here may be seeing as well.

 

We've both noticed that ambient room light can interact with the keys' matte finish and backlighting to render the key labels and function icons unreadable - nearly invisible - when viewed from a low level.  The effect is similar to that of some screen technologies as you move beyond the viewing angle, but in this case it's due to a complete loss of contrast between the light reflected from the key and the light emitted by the key label.  It's driven both of us nuts in turn as we learned the otherwise awesome ultrabook.

 

It turns out that the angle of ambient light makes a difference.  In our case, a desk lamp to the left  of the notebook maximized the loss of contrast, while placing it directly behind eliminates the problem: the key labels appear dark against the background even at a grazing viewing angle. 

 

I'm mystified as to the cause if this loss of contrast, since the diffusely reflecting finish of notebook top and keys reflects light in all directions.  All I can think of is that the automatic backlighting control's sensitivity varies depending on the direction from which light hits it.

 

Can someone else verify this effect?  If it's due to a directional backlighting sensor, maybe Acer can fix this in future designs.

 

Doug