macbook air 2012's screen is more reflective than MBA 2011

[sbl]

I just bought a 2012 13" MBA CTO with i7 cpu 8gb ram to replace my old 13" MBA 2011 BTO. I love my old MBA because it is not very reflective although it has a glossy screen (The reflection will be dimmed with a purple color like a anti-reflective screen). However, after I compared my 2012 MBA with my 2011 MBA side by side, the new MBA is more reflective to my eyes and the reflection is not dimmed with a purple color (The reflection level of 2012 MBA is more close to a MBPR 13" to my eyes). I am wondering if my 2012 MBA is a special case or because it is a CTO machine ? Has anyone compared the reflectiveness of the screens of MBA 2011 and MBA 2012 side by side? Thanks!

 

[Johnny Alien]

I was using a 2011 MBA before getting my 2012 but I never ran them side by side. Without a direct comparison to back me up I can say that there is nothing about it that makes me feel like it's more glossy. It seems to be identical.

 

[cedwhatev]

I agree with Johnny. I've owned two 2010 MBA's, used a 2011 for a few weeks, and now own a 2012, and have never noticed any difference.

 

[sbl]

Thanks for your reply.

I brought my two MBA's to Best Buy to do side by side comparison, there are two 2012 MBA's in demo. One is 11" and the other is 13". The result is interesting:
The 11" MBA in BB is as reflective as my new 2012 13" MBA. The 13" MBA in BB is obviously less reflective to these two MBA and is similar to my old 2011 13" MBA. I test the reflection by turing off the backlight and adjust the display angle to reflect the light bulbs above my head. The reflection of my old 2011 13" MBA and the 2012 13" MBA in BB are both dimmed with a purple color. The color of the light bulb reflection on the other two MBA's is more close to the color of the light bulb. (There is a photo of reflectiveness comparison of MBA and MBPR 13" in the photo# 2012-MBPR13-14 of http://iphone4.tw/forums/showthread.php?t=191501. The reflectiveness of the more reflective MBA's looks more close to MBPR in this photo.)

I thought the reason of different reflectiveness might be caused by different panel manufactures. But it seems not. These are the panel serial's of these MBA's:
less reflective:
2011 13" MBA (my old machine):LTH133BT01A03
2012 13" MBA (demo in BB):LP133WP1-TJA3
more reflective:
2012 13" MBA (My new CTO machine):LP133WP1-TJA7
2012 11" MBA (demo in BB):LTH116AT01A04

I found the only 2012 MBA being less reflective in BB might be manufactured earliest among the three 2012 MBA's because the hinge of the screen of this machine is very loose.

 

[blesscheese]

If the glare bothers you, you could try something like the Moshi iVisor for the MBA, which has a matte finish.

There are other brands as well.

I have their screen protector for the iPad and I love it. It is ridiculously easy to apply, and even can be re-applied over and over. Having been struggling with screen protectors since the days of my Newton, I really appreciated the ease of application and use.