That is correct, the coating increases contrast to give you deep blacks that in most cases are impossible to achieve with uncoated LCD screens. Personally that's a huge advantage for me because I'm a stickler about deep blacks, but the glare is the main drawback and especially for a laptop where you don't know what environments you'll end up using it in. One of the other disadvantages can be color inaccuracy -- something that Apple made a point of discussing with regard to why they waited on the gloss screens, so I'm hopeful they've found a coating system that minimizes color distortion. Haven't seen one yet but I'm going to head over to the Apple store tomorrow to check them out in person. Also wonder how easy it'll be to keep them clean. If I could just get people to stop jabbing their damn grimy paws into my screen, it'd be a lot easier.EricNau said:According to Apple "choose the glossy widescreen display to make your graphics, photos, and videos appear with richer color and deeper blacks - great for watching DVD movies. If you prefer a display with anti-glare coating for a matte rather than glossy viewing experience, choose the standard widescreen display."
I do think the colors appear richer and bolder, but that's just my opinion. I think this is the future of LCDs; I went to Costco today and all of their laptop models (varying brands) all had glossy screens.
I think glossy has become popular because with brighter backlights, the anti-glare coatings aren't as important, and the glossy provides better color contrast.
HiRez said:Also wonder how easy it'll be to keep them clean. If I could just get people to stop jabbing their damn grimy paws into my screen, it'd be a lot easier.
dferrara said:This is probably an obvious question, but why would a "pro" want matte? Less distracting? In the right environment, wouldn't glossy be good?
admiraldennis said:I'm getting matte because I hate glare.
One thing about the pictures that Siracusa has in that article however is that all the pictures are taken at an angle. Any Physicist should be able to tell you that surfaces are more reflective when viewed from an angle, viewed face on the effect of the reflections is likely to be much less obvious.Otto Rehhagel said:
Not necessarily true. The reflections will come from wherever the light sources are. Angle of incidence = angle of reflection an all that. But, it does look like he purposefully placed/turned it to show a lot of glare (and that was actually the whole point of the article, so...)dr_lha said:One thing about the pictures that Siracusa has in that article however is that all the pictures are taken at an angle. Any Physicist should be able to tell you that surfaces are more reflective when viewed from an angle, viewed face on the effect of the reflections is likely to be much less obvious.
Yes it is, the amount of light reflected by glass as opposed to that passing through is higher at lower incidence angles.HiRez said:Not necessarily true.
Koodauw said:I get all my photo's in matte, which I much prefer. Glad my MPB comes with matte standard.
dferrara said:I thought it was a cheap gimmick by the PC manufacturers... guess I need to rethink this one.
willgr said:So I'm probably the worst stickler about problems with a laptop and have been through about 7-8 of them in the last six months and unhappy with them all. IBM, Toshiba, HP, 4 Dells, and one MacBook Pro, so I feel I have to speak up and stress that you really should go down and look at the MacBook before making up your mind about the screen. I have had mine for about 24 hours and, in my opinion, this is the least reflective of any "glossy" screen you will see on the market - bar none.
Using it straight on in any type of light is not a problem to me and it is much easier to read than the matte MBP screen. You may still dis-like it, but take a look first because this is a first rate laptop.
...except for the heat, slight mooing and whining
CaptainCaveMann said:I really agree with you here. I was checking out the macbook at the apple store as well and the glossy screen is far less glossy than the pc laptops. Its sort of like this if anyone here knows metal polish. The pc screen gloss is like chrome and the macbook gloss is like polished aluminum. Basically the chrome is much more mirrored and the polished aluminum is more of a brushed shine. Its much less intense. If you get that then great if not go look at them in person. I also agree with the above statement on the heat! This thing is very warm, in fact it was running hotter than the MBP's.
zach said:i'm glad to hear that... i love everything about the MacBooks except this. i really wish they would have offered a matte option, but i guess they guessed (probably correctly) that most of the MacBook purchasers would want glossy, so they saved costs by only offering one option.
however, if what you're saying is true, i'd probably pick the glossy anyway, so i guess i need to go look at it myself!