With the advent of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, Steve Litchfield reprises an old rant with a look at how the current crop of 2008/2009 smartphones fare on a sunny day. Does your phone turn into a hand mirror or can you see what's going on? Featured here are seven popular screen types, showing how well - or how badly - they do.

"Now, you're unlikely to be checking your email or editing a document in the full sun (unless you're a real workaholic!), but you are likely to want to see the screen to:

• see who's calling you
• see the image of the thing you're trying to photograph
• see a map of where you are and where to go next

And so on. Over and over again, I believe that some manufacturers neglect to think about screen contrast in all conditions, with resulting poor choices in terms of technology and materials."

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