For everyone who has a MBP in college matte or glossy

[extraextra]

I have a Macbook.. here's my 2cents.

Outside - unusable. Even in the shade of a tree, I can't see anything. I've heard of people using it outside with no problems, but I can't for the life of me see anything but the reflection of my face! I've tried tilting the screen (which only tilts so far), messing around with brightness - it's hopeless!

Indoors (library, classrooms, lecture halls, etc.) - usuable. Occasionally there is some glare, but nothing serious.

 

[glhiii]

Glossy mbp vs mb

I have both a new glossy mbp and a mb. The mbp is considerably brighter than the macbook and the screen looks quite different -- it seems much better to me. I've had several matte macs, and got the glossy with the intention of returning it and getting a matte instead if I didn't like it. I find that I like the glossy more than the matte. I mainly do textual work, and the glossy makes the text very sharp and readable. I don't find reflections any more distracting on the glossy than the matte. I'd go for the glossy -- it's a great screen.

 

[techlover828]

matte

 

[galstaph]

put me down for glossy
haven't picked mine up yet (waiting for the $$), but comparing them in store, the glossy and matte are both beautiful. I personally will be getting the glossy 17" HD display. A salesperson at my local reseller (no store in calgary) had one and i compared it to a regular matte 17", the gloss on the 17s is not really that glary at all, and I felt that it would be great. So you have to figure in where you will use it (I won't be using a 3k machine outside most likely) and then size of display and then compare them side by side, gives you a better narrowing of choice, either way they are great displays.

 

[queshy]

Colors on the glossy (edited! typo! oops!) do indeed look better, but the tradeoff is really the intense amount of glare as well as the fact that the glossy accumulates dirt/dust much easier (or at least shows it easier). It is for those two reasons that I purchased the matte!

 

[CalBoy]

Colors on the matte do indeed look better, but the tradeoff is really the intense amount of glare as well as the fact that the glossy accumulates dirt/dust much easier (or at least shows it easier). It is for those two reasons that I purchased the matte!

Did you mean glossy?

Anyhow, your points are very valid. I think you have to make a lot of compramises for the glossy, while the matte is just awesome all on its own.

 

[diehldun]

Well, I finally picked up my new MacBook Pro today at the Apple Store, and after weeks of back-and-forth thinking... I ended up with a glossy.

It's funny because earlier (check this thread), I was convinced that I'd be happier with a matte. Yet, I kept comparing two MBPs in the store, and I just felt the glossy image looked crisper and less "fuzy" than on the matte. I've just finished personalizing my new 2.2 GHz MBP, and honestly, I can't even tell I have a glossy screen. Like others have said, it really does take some getting used to at first, but so far, I don't have any complaints.

(I think it's also because I've been using my 17" PB for the last four years that I've grown tired of the matte screen and find the glossy to be "exciting")

 

[Spoony Bard]

I suppose it really depends on the lighting conditions at your college. For me, there's a noticeable difference in glare between matte and glossy in several of our lecture rooms. Some rooms have windows at the sides and rear, causing pretty severe glare on glossy laptops. Compared to the MBs and other glossy laptops I've seen my classmates use, my matte MBP is far superior in these situations. Even in rooms without natural light, I can see glare on the glossy laptops of others around me, while I'll have little to none.

Go with the matte.

 

[queshy]

Did you mean glossy?

Anyhow, your points are very valid. I think you have to make a lot of compramises for the glossy, while the matte is just awesome all on its own.

OOPS! you are quite right...I did mean glossy. typo. long day at work, haha.

I speak from experience. My dell inspiron 700m had a glossy screen and the colors looked fantastic, but the screen got so dirty so fast compared to my new mbp's matte screen (even with constant cleaning!).

However, just because the mbp is such a new machine the colors look better on it than they do on the dell, but in general, the colors on a mb screen look "sharper" than they do on the mbp, but the mbp screen seems to be more "crisp" and has no glare, making it super easy on the eyes. that's why I chose the matte.

but really it's down to personal preference, and there is no right or wrong answer. whichever you like better is the better choice. there's no point trying to convince people to go either way because everyone has different opinions anyway. I think the OP needs to just look at them both side by side and decide. also, if the OP is really debating over the two, chances are he'll be happy with either, otherwise the choice would have been super obvious!

I am not into photography/any of the pro apps and am by no means a professional graphic designer- all of these opinions are merely stated from a consumer's pov.