Did I damage my MacBook Pro Nano-Texture?

[alphabet753]

I bought a MacBook Pro a few weeks back with the nano-texture display. After a few days, my screen had some dust on it, so I used the cleaning cloth that came with the device to try and wipe it down. A couple pieces of dust were being stubborn, so I used heavier pressure to get them out -- think maybe the amount of pressure you'd use if someone were fingerprinting you. After that, I read that you can use 70% solution or a dab of water to get stubborn smudges out instead.

While I don't see any obvious damage, the Nano Texture display is "not crisp" to begin with, so now I'm kind of paranoid that I may have done some microscopic damage by applying the pressure. I don't see anything obvious but have eye floaters so it's generally hard for me to tell anyway. I asked my wife and she said maybe the area looks a little "blurry" now. But she's also not super sure and could just be seeing things.

If it really is that easy to damage the display I wish Apple would have put a note in the directions to use the included towel only AND to not apply pressure.

Curious, for those who clean their screen with the included Apple cloth -- have you ever applied any pressure when wiping and was your machine OK?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

I have the MBP nano and IPP nano. The nano is more scratch prone than glass and harder to clean but water and a microfiber cloth is better than the polishing cloth in my opinion. Pressure wouldn’t inherently damage the nano texture but thin laptop lids don’t like pressure so unless you went crazy I wouldn’t worry about it. You would likely see a rainbow effect or distorted area when you pressed vs a blur or smudge look.

I wouldn’t use isopropyl alcohol and even Apple says use it sparingly as the coating can wear off over time. Water first then if it’s something sticky isopropyl.

 

[gregmac19]

“...as the coating can wear off over time”

What coating?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

“...as the coating can wear off over time”

What coating?

There's a certain level of coating on most display for anti-reflective properties or oleophobic use if it's a touchscreen (e.g.iPads, Windows, etc). Older Macbooks even had an Apple repair program dedicated to their anti reflective coating.

Apple Says MacBook Air With Retina Display Can Exhibit Anti-Reflective Coating Issues, Unclear if Eligible for Free Repairs [Updated]

Apple this week acknowledged that MacBook Air models with Retina displays can exhibit anti-reflective coating issues, as indicated in a memo shared...

www.macrumors.com

 

[throAU]

There's a certain level of coating on most display for anti-reflective properties or oleophobic use if it's a touchscreen (e.g.iPads, Windows, etc). Older Macbooks even had an Apple repair program dedicated to their anti reflective coating.

Apple Says MacBook Air With Retina Display Can Exhibit Anti-Reflective Coating Issues, Unclear if Eligible for Free Repairs [Updated]

Apple this week acknowledged that MacBook Air models with Retina displays can exhibit anti-reflective coating issues, as indicated in a memo shared...

www.macrumors.com

Yeah, but the nano texture is not a coating.

Look, if you push hard enough with enough abrasion you could polish the nano texture out by physically grinding the glass flat.

But yes, feel free to use alcohol (or even water) and less pressure on it to remove smudges, etc.

Essentially: the display is textured glass. It is not a coating, and it has nothing to do with the regular ant-reflective coating on non-nanotexture notebooks which is, to be blunt worse than useless and almost the same as no coating at all as proven by people who fully removed the coating on stain-gate impacted machines when the coating started coming off.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Yeah, but the nano texture is not a coating.

Look, if you push hard enough with enough abrasion you could polish the nano texture out by physically grinding the glass flat.

But yes, feel free to use alcohol (or even water) and less pressure on it to remove smudges, etc.

Essentially: the display is textured glass. It is not a coating, and it has nothing to do with the regular ant-reflective coating on non-nanotexture notebooks which is, to be blunt worse than useless and almost the same as no coating at all as proven by people who fully removed the coating on stain-gate impacted machines when the coating started coming off.

You’re correct which is why I never said nano was a coating but a texture. The screen still has a coating regardless of nano or not I would presume.

 

[dmccloud]

You’re correct which is why I never said nano was a coating but a texture. The screen still has a coating regardless of nano or not I would presume.

The nano texture renders the need for an anti-glare coating irrelevant, since it accomplishes the same purpose but arguably with much better results.

 

[jabbr]

@throAU

That’s just not true about anti-reflective coatings being worse than no coating. You can measure light reflectivity.

RTings had this data in their TV and monitor reviews and all of the displays with the best reflectivity (calculated with direct + indirect light) have glossy anti-reflective coatings. The glossy Studio Display has the best score of any LCD display they've measured. Matte displays are always worse. No coating at all might as well be a mirror.

You may greatly prefer the nano-texture option, but it has measurably worse reflectivity. It's really good at dispersion of direct light sources while minimizing sharpness loss, but that comes at the cost of contrast across the whole panel. It's a trade off that makes sense for a lot of environments.

here's a ranked table for reflection handling

 

[okkibs]

It's unlikely you have damaged it but you can't clean it properly with a dry cloth. Even with the regular display a dry cloth risks to rub dirt in which causes scratching. And the nano texture requires a tiny drop of dish soap on a wet cloth to get clean.

I have the nano texture MBP as well. The trick is not to use force, but just rub over for a longer time. I found the previous glossy display cleans instantly with 1-2 times wiping. But the nano texture especially with fingerprints requires up to half a minute of gentle circular motions with a wet cloth on a specific spot to clean the fingerprint away.

Where it would take me a minute to clean my previous Macbook's screen it now takes me more than 3-4 minutes for the entire display to be spotless. But it's important to use a wet cloth and a tiny amount of dish soap or you risk dragging dirt across the screen and scratching it badly.

The coating is no problem. I clean my display thoroughly as just described every 1-2 months so about 10 times a year. That hasn't worn down the coating on any of my Macbooks ever.

 

[throAU]

@throAU

That’s just not true about anti-reflective coatings being worse than no coating. You can measure light reflectivity.

RTings had this data in their TV and monitor reviews and all of the displays with the best reflectivity (calculated with direct + indirect light) have glossy anti-reflective coatings. The glossy Studio Display has the best score of any LCD display they've measured. Matte displays are always worse. No coating at all might as well be a mirror.

You may greatly prefer the nano-texture option, but it has measurably worse reflectivity. It's really good at dispersion of direct light sources while minimizing sharpness loss, but that comes at the cost of contrast across the whole panel. It's a trade off that makes sense for a lot of environments.

here's a ranked table for reflection handling

In the real world the prior anti reflective glossy coatings are trash and having removed it from my 2015 MacBook Pro it looks about the same without it.

 

[alphabet753]

It's unlikely you have damaged it but you can't clean it properly with a dry cloth. Even with the regular display a dry cloth risks to rub dirt in which causes scratching. And the nano texture requires a tiny drop of dish soap on a wet cloth to get clean.

So you're saying it's unlikely I damaged the screen but to clean it properly moving forward use a slightly wet cloth? I will say that I pulled the cloth out of the Apple packaging and immediately used it, didn't even put it down on a table first. So there's that -- I can almost guarantee it was pictures perfect clean. My only regret is applying the pressure which makes me feel like I messed the screen up, even though I can't visually see anything.

 

[alphabet753]

I have the MBP nano and IPP nano. The nano is more scratch prone than glass and harder to clean but water and a microfiber cloth is better than the polishing cloth in my opinion. Pressure wouldn’t inherently damage the nano texture but thin laptop lids don’t like pressure so unless you went crazy I wouldn’t worry about it. You would likely see a rainbow effect or distorted area when you pressed vs a blur or smudge look.

I did hold the back of the laptop lid to support it as I was wiping. I definitely didn't press so hard that the screen would've bent, that I can tell you. But it was enough pressure that if the glass etches are easily wiped away/worn down, I probably did some microscopic damage. No scratches at all - I've looked as close as I can.

So you don't think pressure would inherently damage the nano texture? Interesting. Wouldn't it "smooth" it down over time?

 

[alphabet753]

Yeah, but the nano texture is not a coating.

Look, if you push hard enough with enough abrasion you could polish the nano texture out by physically grinding the glass flat.

Can you define hard enough? That's what I'm trying to figure out here. And isn't the apple cloth non-abrasive? So even if I pushed hard with the polishing cloth, if it's non abrasive does that mean I likely didn't polish the nano texture out?

 

[Honey_crisp]

I think you would have to scratch it with an object that is harder than that glass. I have a tiny scratch on my iPad Pro Nano-Texture, probably from the edge of my Apple Watch Ultra. Everything else that "looked" like a scratch came off with the polishing cloth and water. Alcohol only seems useful for smudges

 

[StoneJack]

I bought a MacBook Pro a few weeks back with the nano-texture display. After a few days, my screen had some dust on it, so I used the cleaning cloth that came with the device to try and wipe it down. A couple pieces of dust were being stubborn, so I used heavier pressure to get them out -- think maybe the amount of pressure you'd use if someone were fingerprinting you. After that, I read that you can use 70% solution or a dab of water to get stubborn smudges out instead.

While I don't see any obvious damage, the Nano Texture display is "not crisp" to begin with, so now I'm kind of paranoid that I may have done some microscopic damage by applying the pressure. I don't see anything obvious but have eye floaters so it's generally hard for me to tell anyway. I asked my wife and she said maybe the area looks a little "blurry" now. But she's also not super sure and could just be seeing things.

If it really is that easy to damage the display I wish Apple would have put a note in the directions to use the included towel only AND to not apply pressure.

Curious, for those who clean their screen with the included Apple cloth -- have you ever applied any pressure when wiping and was your machine OK?

you can use listerin to wipe off remaining coating, whatever it was

 

[okkibs]

you can use listerin to wipe off remaining coating, whatever it was

Don't use that. It will damage the coating. Why would you want to do that...

I think you would have to scratch it with an object that is harder than that glass.

No, you can scratch it with fingernails.

Can you define hard enough?

Don't use more pressure than you need to use to push down a key on the keyboard of your Macbook. There is no need to use much pressure to clean any display.

Wouldn't it "smooth" it down over time?

That isn't how it works. Imagine the nano display being your car tires at a much smaller scale. You can wash your car tires all you want and it won't wear them down.

 

[StoneJack]

Don't use that. It will damage the coating. Why would you want to do that...


No, you can scratch it with fingernails.


Don't use more pressure than you need to use to push down a key on the keyboard of your Macbook. There is no need to use much pressure to clean any display.


That isn't how it works. Imagine the nano display being your car tires at a much smaller scale. You can wash your car tires all you want and it won't wear them down.

Exactly we wanna strip off the peeling coating

 

[dmccloud]

Exactly we wanna strip off the peeling coating

Then you're SOL with respect to the Nano Texture display. It's an etching of the glass itself rather than a coating on top of the glass.