engadget 17" unibody matte mbp hands-on

[jjahshik32]

So basically you are talking about an area you don't know anything about. You are not a "pro" yet you can define "pro" and speak for all "pros". Why do you even care what pros need if you aren't one? Why do you have an opinion?

You see, I'm not here to proclaim one screen type better than another. I just like the conversation to be logical and I don't want people pretending they are what they are not in order to sound more credible. It's just sad.

You dont have to be a Pro to define a Pro. I can tell you what a periodontist is and define what they do for a living. In this case, I stated a fact, that color work is important to professional graphics designers/artists and the Matte screen just does this the best. Jesus you counter everything in an argument.

I can tell you that the world is round and you would argue about it with an opinion. I stated a fact.

Also I know a few people who DO use their notebooks or desktops to do professional color work when I was in the photography business, so I do have some say in it. Because I know how important professional color work is because I've seen the real pros do their work and constantly tell me that its important.

Why do you think Eizos and NEC professional level displays dont come in glossy.

 

[MagicWok]

If your theory is true, then why does Apple, a Multi Billion Dollar company only produce a range of "Pro" Machines in glossy format (The 15" Macbook PRO).

Oh come on Kastenbrust. I know you're sticking up for glossy/glass displays because you're purchasing one, but I really did think you were smarter than this... Please don't evangelize Apple.

Apple make decisions based on what will earn them the most money and help their shareholders regardless if the final outcome benefits professional (people who use the machine to earn a living regardless if it creative or not) or consumer users. They are a company out to make money, don't think they are anything else. They are very good at that - and that is why they are a multi-billion dollar company.

We're all on these forums because we all find something in the Apple brand that we like, be it iPods or laptops but they, like Microsoft/Dell (every other company), can and have, made wrong decisions in the past for different user-bases in order to generate the highest revenue and profit margins.

The simple fact is, whether you like Matte or Glossy/Glass displays - their decision was made because they will shift many more units by bringing in some of their consumer market base to purchase MBP's.

Glossy is not inherently better than Matte displays, and Matte is not inherently better than Glossy. I don't imagine we'll all mature up anytime soon and just forget this useless debate and let users be happy with what they bought.

Let me get one thing straight though. If Apple really did want to appeal to the professional user, then they would have developed a matte display that is as sharp, bright and with contrast that matches what appears higher with the glass finish. THAT would be a real Pro machine, and it's something that Apple is perfectly capable of doing.

 

[fil3333]

You keep using the "pro" word. Portfolio site please!

So basically you are talking about an area you don't know anything about. You are not a "pro" yet you can define "pro" and speak for all "pros". Why do you even care what pros need if you aren't one? Why do you have an opinion?

Ha ha ha! Consumers are buying high end $3000 laptops? Really? Are you kidding or what? Netbooks target consumers. Apple doesn't even make those.

man.... whats wrong with you? sounds like you drive a porsch and have a small d... mr. wisenheimer

 

[jjahshik32]

man.... whats wrong with you? sounds like you drive a porsch and have a small d... mr. wisenheimer

ROFL!! Thanks man you made my day.

 

[detz]

In my opinion, if you're doing serious color work it should not be on a laptop or even and LCD for that matter.

Here are some more pics for people to argue over. I have never seen the anti-glare one but I could not be happier with the glossy one and like I've said before I consider myself(and so don't my clients) a pro user.

The ONLY time I notice glare while using the machine is if the screen is all a dark color and even then it's only noticeable if you're looking for it.

 

[jjahshik32]

In my opinion, if you're doing serious color work it should not be on a laptop or even and LCD for that matter.

Here are some more pics for people to argue over. I have never seen the anti-glare one but I could not be happier with the glossy one and like I've said before I consider myself(and so don't my clients) a pro user.

The ONLY time I notice glare while using the machine is if the screen is all a dark color and even then it's only noticeable if you're looking for it.

Pictures dont do any justice. I've used a 15" matte and previous gen 17" hi resolution led backlit glossy and matte and a 15" glossy last gen and unibody mbp.. There is NO DOUBT that the glossy always shows a lot of reflections compared to the almost non existant of the Matte.

Why are you persistently trying to show that your mbp has no glare and that its so perfect?? There are too many variables in taking a picture that can mask any flaws. Depends on the type of camera you are using, the exact angles and where the light sources are determine the outlook of the photo.

Seems to me this picture has been taken in a rather windowless room (closed in) dinning room area and judging from the lighting in the room it has the dimly lit lower watt light bulbs in that area. Try taking some photos outside in the middle of the afternoon with a higher end camera. This just drives me nuts.

I also noticed that to some people the saturation of the colors outweigh the reflections to some and to most they never really concentrate on the reflections so they dont notice it or care about it.

 

[detz]

Pictures dont do any justice. I've used a 15" matte and previous gen 17" hi resolution led backlit glossy and matte and a 15" glossy last gen and unibody mbp.. There is NO DOUBT that the glossy always shows a lot of reflections compared to the almost non existant of the Matte.

Why are you persistently trying to show that your mbp has no glare and that its so perfect?? This just drives me nuts.

I also noticed that to some people the saturation of the colors outweigh the reflections to some and to most they never really concentrate on the reflections so they dont care about it.

Did I say it has no glare? No, if you read my post you would see that I did say it has glare but it doesn't effect me or my work. For the people reading this thread in the future trying to make a decision I'm giving them mine; and mine is that the glare is not as bad is some people try to make it out to be.

I'm looking at my beautiful 17" screen right now and I see absolutely NO reflections in it. That's not a lie, this is how I use it most of the day so I'm telling people how it is. If people don't like the little glare or glare at all then maybe they should look into a different computer.

Like I already said as well I have yet to see the anti-glare option but I have worked on a matte 17" before and they didn't impress me much, they looked washed out and bland so I'm guessing the new ones are the same way. I wont know for sure until I see one but I've always had glossy screens and I probably always will.

 

[harry454]

thanks for the link will read article

 

[jjahshik32]

Did I say it has no glare? No, if you read my post you would see that I did say it has glare but it doesn't effect me or my work. For the people reading this thread in the future trying to make a decision I'm giving them mine; and mine is that the glare is not as bad is some people try to make it out to be.

I'm looking at my beautiful 17" screen right now and I see absolutely NO reflections in it. That's not a lie, this is how I use it most of the day so I'm telling people how it is. If people don't like the little glare or glare at all then maybe they should look into a different computer.

Like I already said as well I have yet to see the anti-glare option but I have worked on a matte 17" before and they didn't impress me much, they looked washed out and bland so I'm guessing the new ones are the same way. I wont know for sure until I see one but I've always had glossy screens and I probably always will.

Perhaps you've worked on a ccfl backlit 17" macbook pro?

I've owned the previous gen 17" led backlit glossy and matte (had both for about a month and sold off on ebay). Anyway I'm no professional/guru in color accuracy work but as a consumer and amateur I thought the colors looked more natural and accurate looking at the same colors from a professional photo and comparing it to the displays on each the 17" glossy and matte.

One thing to note was that reguarding the previous gen 17" glossy and matte for some reason the matte was a bit brighter. I wonder if this is the case on the current unibody 17". This was also the case on the 15" mbp last gen as well (been through 8 of them exchanges 5 matte and 3 glossy due to some other issues and I wanted to try glossy a few times as well).

There is nothing wrong with glossy or matte, but my whole point is that professionals do use matte because of the color accuracy.

 

[sushi]

The ONLY time I notice glare while using the machine is if the screen is all a dark color and even then it's only noticeable if you're looking for it.

I would not be able to get much work done on that with the glare/reflection.

Glad it works for you.

Apple is wise to provide the option on the MBP17. Hopefully, as I've said earlier, this will extend to the MBP15 in the future.

Personally, I am very glad that I have a MBP15 (Older model) with a matte screen.

 

[volcom883]

to be honest guys, im kinda bored with the matte vs glossy war. im a matte guy. ok. some other people like the glossy its fine. thats it.


yes both screens got their cons and pros. however lets not continue making this thread another matte vs glossy one please

 

[jjahshik32]

In my opinion, if you're doing serious color work it should not be on a laptop or even and LCD for that matter.

I wanted to make one comment on this. Sure you shouldnt do real serious work on a laptop screen and should be done on a real professional external display from such companies as NEC or Eizos (which btw are matte ).

Anyway I thought I'd comment on when you said that it shouldnt be done on an LCD?? Then what should it be done one, a plasma or a DLP screen?? Because OLED screens are not available yet, except for a few but their pretty tiny like the 11" from Sony which cost $2500 itself.

I think you were thinking about H-IPS or S-IPS panels and not the inferior TN panels of the notebooks?

 

[darngooddesign]

In this case, I stated a fact, that color work is important to professional graphics designers/artists and the Matte screen just does this the best. Jesus you counter everything in an argument.

And professionals don't rely on laptop screens, they rely on external displays (feel free to refer to my next comment...).

Why do you think Eizos and NEC professional level displays dont come in glossy.

Those are not laptop displays.

Can I roll my eyes as well?

 

[darngooddesign]

...from such companies as NEC or Eizos (which btw are matte ).

Anyway I thought I'd comment on when you said that it shouldnt be done on an LCD?? Then what should it be done one, a plasma or a DLP screen??

I guess you're new to this since CRTs didn't appear in your response.

(the Ezios are pretty good as well.)

 

[jjahshik32]

And professionals don't rely on laptop screens, they rely on external displays (feel free to refer to my next comment...).



Those are not laptop displays.

Can I roll my eyes as well?

Professionals on the go have to rely on notebook displays for color accuracy, hence the need for matte screens.

And no you cant roll your eyes because you just dont make much sense.

 

[jjahshik32]

I guess you're new to this since CRTs didn't appear in your response.

(the Ezios are pretty good as well.)

Ah looks like you changed your post since the last part didnt hold up much or made any sense, good work.

Anyways oops crt has slipped from my mind, but you also forgot about lcd projectors, dlp projectors as well??

 

[DHagan4755]

Just arrived

Take it with a grain of salt, but it's absolutely perfect.

Chuck, you wouldn't happen to know (or could check) what model your display is. Mine is a 9CAC. Just curious!

 

[darngooddesign]

Ah looks like you changed your post since the last part didnt hold up much or made any sense, good work.

Which part didn't make sense?

Anyways oops crt has slipped from my mind, but you also forgot about lcd projectors, dlp projectors as well??

I didn't mention projectors because they aren't color accurate enough for prepress.

 

[jjahshik32]

Which part didn't make sense?

When I mentioned external displays such as Eizos and NEC and you said that those are not laptop displays and asked me if you should roll your eyes but moments later you erased that part and added some other nonsense.

I didn't mention projectors since they aren't color accurate enough for prepress.

It was a joke trying to show you that I dont care if I missed out on the crts in one of my response.

 

[darngooddesign]

When I mentioned external displays such as Eizos and NEC and you said that those are not laptop displays and asked me if you should roll your eyes but moments later you erased that part and added some other nonsense.

What is hard to understand?

MacBook Pro displays, glossy or not, are not accurate enough to rely on.

Ezios and the like are accurate enough to rely on.

It was a joke trying to show you that I dont care if I missed out on the crts in one of my response.

If you have to explain the joke you failed.

 

[wankey]

I would not be able to get much work done on that with the glare/reflection.

Glad it works for you.

Apple is wise to provide the option on the MBP17. Hopefully, as I've said earlier, this will extend to the MBP15 in the future.

Personally, I am very glad that I have a MBP15 (Older model) with a matte screen.

I too am glad that I have a matte model.

Btw are you from Toronto?

 

[jjahshik32]

What is hard to understand?

MacBook Pro displays, glossy or not, are not accurate enough to rely on.

Ezios and the like are accurate enough to rely on.



If you have to explain the joke you failed.

Never said it was hard to understand, simply that it didnt make sense referring to my original statement.

I just stated that professionals use external professional displays like eizos and nec and you said that those are not notebook displays (which you are correct) but what the f*ck does that got to do with anything I've said (thus you forgetting that post but I've already quoted it just before you changed it, and you can see it by the two quotes that I made of your posts).

and sorry it wasnt a joke, I'd rephrase it that I was being sarcastic.

 

[jmark]

Anyone compared the screen rigidity on matte versus gloss screens?

I would think not having the glass might make the matte screen more "flexy", unless Apple has done something else to reinforce it.

Also is the total weight any different?

 

[212rikanmofo]

the matte is nice, but however that black rubber surrounding it is really ugly. i wish apple would've match the rubber to the aluminum body to hide it more, that has so much contrast it looks horrible. sorry. to me the gloss looks much more appealing. plus ive been a matte user for the past 7-8 yrs now, i need a change.

 

[wankey]

What are you talking about. I love the Silver with black lining. It's like a lady in a black dress with a nice silver coat on... teasing you ever so slightly.

Also, here's the final argument to the matte vs gloss finish:

Done and done. People who like gloss like the fact that it's clean and sharp, whilst people who like matte are people who don't want reflections in their face.

To be frank, I have owned both glossy and matte computers, whilst glossy does look sexier and feels modern.. colors pop out more and there seems to be an artificial sheet of perfection lying in between, matte is gives the screen a more humble, realistic look. So no more arguing okay? I just hope Apple decides to make the same aluminum matte cover for the MBP 15, then i'd sell my MBP and BUY THAT ONE YEEEEAAAHHH