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tim100

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 25, 2009
1,368
0
the anti glare screens do not have the edge to edge glass of the glossy. what are the benefits of the glass? do anti glare people miss the glass and black boarder.
 
I've had both and I prefer no glass. The only good glossy screen is on the MBAir. The rest is glassy gloss and it's tough to deal with at times.
 
the edge to edge glass and black boarder seem to be a big part of apple new desing
 
Yes but that is not your point. Your point is in your title, benefits. There are no true benefits of edge to edge glass. It is more design than functionality I believe. If anything the antennae is behind that black boarder and earlier PowerBooks suffered shoddy wifi range from time to time. If the antennae is behind that glass then there is some functionality to it and ergo, a benefit.
 
My last MBP had the glossy screen/edge-to-edge glass as no anti-glare option was available when I bought it. My new one is anti-glare. I'd take the anti-glare every time. Personally I don't think it looks significantly better or worse with the black border but the screen is so much more usable without the unnecessary glass. There is also a very slight weight saving which you don't really notice but I suspect if you carried the machine every day a lot then every gram would be worth saving...
 
yea. i picked up the antiglare and am using my imac with glass and wondering if i made the right choice
 
Purportedly, one of the benefits is that the glass adds rigidity to the screen. However, I imagine the aluminum bezel on the "anti-glare" displays also add rigidity. In any case, I've never had a problem with lack of rigidity, with my glass-free "anti-glare"/matte displays.

I don't miss the glass and black border. I prefer the matte screen.
 
The glass is the source of a lot (maybe the majority) of the reflections, so it would make no sense at all to put it over the anti-glare screen.
 
Some people here on MR claimed that the glass plane adds an extra rigidity to the screen. I personally never felt that my screen was in a need of reinforcement. Regardless of that though, I most definitely prefer for my MBP's to have anti-glare screens.
 
i don't mind either screens, but the glass screen from corner to corner sure is fancy. its more for looks IMO.
 
just wanna hear from those with anti glare screens are they easy to clean? cause my current glossy i5 is much easier to clean than my old white macbook.
 
I find little difference in the rigidity of the screen when comparing the glossy to AG. For instance, when I open/close my AG MBP by one corner of the screen, there is no flex. The glass my provide some protection, however, as you cannot physically touch the LCD panel with your fingers (ie someone points out an object on your screen, tapping it and causing a stuck pixel, etc on a matte display).

For cleaning AG screens, just buy a standard kit with solution and a cleaning cloth. With glass, it is a bit more convenient as you can wipe the screen with pretty much anything to clean it..

For looks, going by pictures viewed online I liked the glossy screen better, but once I was able to visit an Apple store and see the AG in person, I quickly changed my mind. The silver bezel suits the computer nicely I find, and having the same LCD panels as the glossy screens, the image/colors are still very sharp.
 
so are there disadvantages of the AG screen being "inlaid", i mean that it is not smooth from edge to edge? Does dust gather in the corners and is this more difficult to clean? Does it scratch more easily when you do?

i am getting a MBP and was really leaning towards the matte, but the €150 premium seems like a lot for something they left off (glass panel).

I do *hate* annoying reflections, but i will use the lappy indoors 99.9% of the time. I had an acer aspire one which was way too glossy for me, and i replaced it with a MSI Wind which was much more to my liking, even indoors. anyone know how that translates to MBP screens?

thx, stefan
 
so are there disadvantages of the AG screen being "inlaid", i mean that it is not smooth from edge to edge? Does dust gather in the corners and is this more difficult to clean? Does it scratch more easily when you do?

AG isn't smooth from edge to edge - but if you took the glass off the glassy MBP, there would be a glossy screen underneath and that would be inlaid.

It isn't more difficult to clean, and requires less cleaning usually. Dust in the corners does happen, but is easily cleanable with the supplied cloth Apple provide, and really, dust in the corner isn't a huge deal.

I'm antiglare all the way, but stuck having to tolerate a glassy screen because I want 1440x900 on an antiglare display. Oh well..
 
the glass makes the colors pop more imo plus it has that bling factor, but thats not for everyone...its personal preference really and also depends on the environments you plan to use the MBP in
 
i heard lots of people say that. the colors on the glossy make it "pop" more. What does everybody mean by that? i don't know if the iMac uses the same screens as the MBP, but at the Apple Store i saw both a glossy and a matte iMac side by side ...... and for the life of me i couldn't see any difference in quality, just that the matte didn't act like a mirror ..... i surely didn't notice any popping.
 
i heard lots of people say that. the colors on the glossy make it "pop" more. What does everybody mean by that? i don't know if the iMac uses the same screens as the MBP, but at the Apple Store i saw both a glossy and a matte iMac side by side ...... and for the life of me i couldn't see any difference in quality, just that the matte didn't act like a mirror ..... i surely didn't notice any popping.

What you can and cannot notice is really all that matters...
But, for what it is worth, this is from MacWorld's review:

Comparing the 15-inch model's standard 1440-by-900 glossy display with the available anti-glare, high-resolution screen with a resolution of 1680-by-1050, the differences are readily apparent. What strikes me first is the lack of the black border that surrounds the glossy screens. Instead, the screen has an aluminum border, making it look more like a pre-unibody MacBook Pro. Secondly, you don’t see your reflection or glare when looking at the anti-glare screen, though colors are more muted and blacks don’t appear as rich as on the standard glossy screen. Lastly, the resolution—having more pixels per inch allows you to fit more documents, windows and palettes onscreen. Opening an Excel spreadsheet, I found that I could view 10 more rows on the high-resolution screen. I could also fit more of a large image in Photoshop.
150307-mbpsidebyside_586_original.jpg
 
well the sales lady was already eying me oddly after just 30 minutes of comparing the two, so i didnt really get into iPhoto or Aperture in comparing glossy to matte.

In that time i really couldn't decide between the two. I just want the most rugged incident proof screen, less prone to scratches. In the store i think the matte looked better but lots of people here say it is because of the TL lighting there.

So i think i'd prefer the technically superior and better looking screen or the one that lasts longest on the battery. the bezel color isnt that much of an issue to me.

s.
 
I'm getting a 17'' anti-glare on Friday after owning a glossy 15'' MBP for over a year. I've loved almost everything about this computer except the glass screen. I like to keep my computer perfectly clean, and there is almost no way to stop the glass from getting fingerprints and dust on it. While the fingerprints were generally not very noticeable on the portion of the glass above the LCD when the brightness was turned up, the black glass was almost always covered with fingerprints. Another big annoyance with the glossy screen was the fact that the keys barely touch the glass on the screen when the laptop is closed, which gets oil from your fingers on the screen. Because the anti-glare screen is inlaid in the bezel, it does not have this problem.
 
well that picture is quite small so i can't really see any difference in "popping ". the silver bezel is kinda cool. what i did see right away is the reflection in the glossy.

wish they had an AG at the store so i could see it in real life. know if the inlay is a bother.

choices. choices.
 
I like my glass display so I can just wipe it to clean it. The AG is much more fragile and harder to clean IME.

I don't have any problems at all with glare...ZERO. I am using right next to a window right now. In fact, it's easier to see than my matte 22'' monitor.

If I were to get another laptop again, I would get the glossy for sure. I love this display much more than my boss' 17'' MBP AG display.

As far as any other benefits, I don't think there are any as they are debatable. And to some, design is important. When I am spending $2500 for a laptop, I want it to look good. I prefer the black bezel and really can't stand the silver. It looks too much like my old PowerBook and retro to me. So that was initial main reason for my choice. I am stand by it too... It totally works for me.
 
I personally don't even consider the 1440x900 glossy an option, it's high-res or bust (eyesight allowing), so the 'HR-GLSY' vs the 'HR-AG' (as labeled on MBP CTO/BTO packaging).

I have the HR-GLSY screen and absolutely love it, of course I'm partial to glossy and do not notice the glare at all, I like how the colors pop on it compared to the AG screens, I came from a BlackBook Core Duo to a Penryn BlackBook C2D, to a 13" Unibody MB which I traded w/ cash for a 15" Unibody MBP (Late '08 models both) and now have this Mid-2010 2.4Ghz i5 HR-GLSY as a warranty replacement of the 15" Late '08 machine.

Cleaning the older BlackBooks were a chore, yes they were glossy still, but the bezel unevenness lead to dust in the screen which was annoying to me, I have to have the screens totally clean and am always rubbing at mine to remove specs as I find them while I'm working, of course to battle the dust problem on my PC w/ 2 Dell 2407WFP's I have them above my line of sight by a tad bit and then angled down so that physics takes care of the dust issue. Also on those two displays I have to power them down and let them cool off before cleaning them and then I have to be very careful, it's not something I could do on the road quickly with a laptop, I'd have to pay attention to it, the glass does make cleaning this machine a whole lot easier.

I am not sure if the glass adds any structural rigidity to the screen and I'm sure everyone will have their own opinion on that but it's certainly much better with the aluminum/glass covered displays than it was with the BlackBooks which were plastic all around.

I also take my machine everywhere with me, inside, outside, at school, at home, friends houses, in my car, w/e. I do not have issue with the gloss, yes it exists, but it's not as insane as you guys put it out to be, and I'm the guy who wipes off every spec from the screen.

So yeah, not sure what I just all said, but if someone finds something useful up there, yay.
 
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