Hi Detaro, I'm Alex one of the creators. Resolution and contrast are definitely areas to attack/improve. The resolution is good enough for a lot of work. I’m using my SPUD now to type this from my self-quarantined Shenzhen apartment...Here are some pictures taken with my Oneplus 7t of my current setup with my SPUD. This SPUD was a reject from our assembly factory for failing brightness spec by 20%, e.g. the ones we shipped to customers were at least 20% brighter and usually much more (CEO gets the rejects...), with and without the overhead lights on:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7j5jx8th6kDDgMtZAThe contrast is good for indoor use/shaded cafe (unless your shining light directly at it, like photography lights, when filming a video, for example...).
Directly regarding the Linus video:
I do not think it was fair for a number of reasons (this is just copy/pasted response to a Kickstarter backer who asked about it):
(1) He filmed it with studio light shining directly on the screen. This caused the image to appear much more washed out than how your eye would see it under normal (e.g. indirect) room light. Other videos and our social (https://www.instagram.com/realarovia/?hl=en) more accurately show how SPUD will appear. Even when SPUD was on the Today Show, when we had a white glossy screen (e.g. before we developed the grey matte screen that further improves contrast), the contrast appeared significantly better. That was under normal lighting (all they did is turn off the very bright studio lights directly over SPUD): https://youtu.be/9aFmoA6xFC0
I am not sure if he read the manual or any of other FAQs because, we clearly say to avoid direct light on SPUD for best performance.
That said, if you ever tried to take a picture of a movie screen or a projected slide in a lecture, you know it is not trivial to take a good picture of a projected image!
(2) He folded it in a way to maximize size. The manual and our online tutorials can help a lot in knowing how to fold SPUD to the smallest size: https://bit.ly/357PjkA
(3) He didn’t follow the steps on how to optimize image quality. The manual and our online tutorials can help a lot with optimizing image quality: https://bit.ly/2MMXMTR
I am not sure if he read or tried any of other online resources. He definitely did not contact me directly to try to get any assistance…He did contact me to ask how SPUD compares to USB monitors and I sent him an accurate, detailed answer and he did not include any of the points in his video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XC-XvNITvGqkj32zrAfSp91jlb... It was very frustrating because all of our backers, if they have a problem, message us and we solve (worst case by RMA). He did not even make the effort to ask us before posting a video that some people may take as gospel. That said, this is part of the deal of doing something that people find interesting. I also understand that he has a huge incentive to be negative to drive clicks and there is no consequence for him doing it with a small, 3-person startup. All said, I am still grateful for him backing our project and am very grateful for all of our backers help in bringing the first collapsible display to life! Please let me know if there are any questions I can answer! -Thanks, Alex -sent from my SPUD