One of the biggest annoyances with netbooks or even notebooks in general is that most of them have glossy screens, making it impossible to use them near a window or outside. Same goes for my 1101HA, so I decided to fix that.

Using the 1101HA at school and out and about I often find myself with annoying reflections blocking my view, making it hard to impossible to see anything. I started searching around and found a company called ViewGuard that sold matte screen protectors. The price was decent albeit the shipping rate was a bit much, but I ended up buying two 11.6″ protectors which totalled $60 with shipping. Today they arrived and I managed to put one on at the first try with no air bubbles or trapped dust.

The result is pretty good, and while it does degrade the screen quality slightly it helps immensely with the reflection problem. It spreads out the light making clear reflections a thing of the past, and you’re left with some light blobs instead. Since the eye won’t try to focus on these, it’s very effective at making the screen easier to see.

Below are some pictures showing the result- note that the camera doesn’t provide an accurate representation of the result since it focuses on the screen not the picture behind it. Either way, it works and it works well.

Before:

After:

Outside, screen pointing towards the (cloudy) sky:

Reflection in the frame vs reflection in the screen: