Sometimes you want a laptop or tablet with wide viewing angles so that it’s easy to see the screen no matter where you’re sitting or how you’re holding the device. Want the person sitting next to you to be able to see a video without the image looking like a photo negative? Then you’ll want an IPS display or a screen that uses similar technology.
But sometimes you don’t want the person sitting next to you or behind you to see what’s on your screen. So there are privacy filters that you can put on top of a display to limit the viewing angles.
Now HP has introduced a solution that offers the best of both worlds. The company has partnered with 3M on a new HP Sure View system, which lets you enable or disable a privacy filter by pressing Fn+F2 on your keyboard.
HP says Sure View limits up to 95 percent of visible light when you view the screen from a 35 degree or wider angle.
In other words, the screen should look normal if you’re sitting right in front of it. But if someone sitting nearby is trying to look at your screen over your shoulder, it’ll look nearly black.
The feature is designed for enterprise users that want to protect sensitive data from spying eyes, and it’s initially available as an optional feature for two business-class notebooks, the HP Elitebook 1040 and HP EliteBook 840.