Glass panel on iMacs

[SuperZeroIce]

Are the panels covering the LCD on the iMacs and MacBooks ordinary plexiglass, or are they the real deal? I've always wondered about this

 

[mrfoof82]

Glass. Plexiglass has substantially different optical qualities (it's a thermoplastic), and has different and far more complex recycling processes.

It's also why replacement panels aren't super cheap. Large, perfect pieces of glass aren't trivial to make. Not hard, but not trivial (something like a Noguchi table is where it genuinely gets hard). It's also why iPads and Macs weigh as much as they do -- glass is heavier than marble for a given volume. For example, the matte 15" MacBook Pro is nearly 1/3rd of a pound lighter than the glossy (glass panel) counterpart.