Glare on Macbook is less than MBP

[Cumulus32]

I have owned an 09 MBP and an 09 MB and when I recently had the MB, it seemed like the glare was significantly less than the MBP. So I thought it was all me and I went to the Apple store and had one side by side.

It was clear that the reflection off of a MB screen was alot less darker and less noticable than the MBP. I asked one of the apple reps and he said "Weird, it is alot darker, I never have payed attention".

Why the different screens?

 

[SPNarwhal]

the screens aren't the same, i'm pretty sure.
macbook pro's is a lot better. could be preference though.

i think the macbook's is made of plastic or something, and not glass.

 

[Pax]

Yes I think that's true. I am guessing that the standard glossy display used in the MB has an anti-reflection coat on it, like spectacle lenses. So the glare isn't too bad. Then for the MBP I think Apple takes the same display and puts it behind a glass screen which has no anti-reflection coat on it. So the glare is worse.

if you take the MBP screen and look at a point source reflection at an angle, you can see 2 reflections, one off the front face of glass, the second off the display itself. The 2nd one is a bit dimmer and a bit purple which is the usual sign of an anti-reflection coating.

I just shone a torch off my old MB's glossy screen and my new MBP's screen-behind-glass and the reflection was way brighter on the MBP. It does annoy me sometimes, especially trying to use the MBP on bright sunny days.

There are lots of stories that the MBP display is brighter however, I don't know if that is true.