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Mo Tiggas

macrumors member
Original poster
May 5, 2005
66
0
Oregon, USA
Apple claims to achieve such brilliant colors and striking contrast with the glossy screen, but I'm not sold yet. What have people chosen with their MB Pros?
 

crazycat

macrumors 65816
Dec 5, 2005
1,319
0
I find the matte screen better for normal work but the glossy is better for movies since the blacks are much richer.
 

Everythingisnt

macrumors 6502a
Jan 16, 2008
743
0
Vancouver
Glossy - very pretty, good for things like movies, games, pictures.. Bad if you are planning on working in low-light conditions or if you need true colors on your monitor (i.e. for professional photo/graphics work).

Matte - it holds up well in all lighting conditions and has very accurate colors... While it's not as "vivid" as the glossy, it's your best bet if you want accurate colors etc. It's also easier on your eyes in low-light conditions (so I'm told..)
 

JulesK

macrumors 6502a
Dec 17, 2002
530
94
Glossy

I have a glossy screen on my 15" MBP (which my wife now has) and on my 17" MBP (it's the hi-res screen), and I like both. Picked mainly on the basis of a side-to-side comparison in the Apple store. Really personal preference, more than anything else. What I don't know is how durable it would be if you travel with your laptop a lot. My work laptop (and Lenovo Thinkpad with a matte screen) has a lot of screen rub, which I don't care about because it is not mine and I have it in a dock at work, but I'd imagine that the screen rub would be much more annoying on a glossy screen.
 

forafireescape

macrumors 6502a
Jan 16, 2008
659
0
NJ
I have glossy and love how it makes the colors look. The reflections sometimes bother me, but not enough to make me regret my choice.
 

ref26

macrumors 6502a
Mar 13, 2008
688
0
I just bought my first mac, a blackbook which has a glossy screen. I'm coming from a dell with a matte screen and was concerned about the glossy, but I really like the way it makes things look. Be careful with fingerprints though, they show up really easily, even though they're only really noticeable when the screen is black.
 

DesignerOnMac

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2007
827
65
Remember CRTs?....

Glossy - very pretty, good for things like movies, games, pictures.. Bad if you are planning on working in low-light conditions or if you need true colors on your monitor (i.e. for professional photo/graphics work).

Matte - it holds up well in all lighting conditions and has very accurate colors... While it's not as "vivid" as the glossy, it's your best bet if you want accurate colors etc. It's also easier on your eyes in low-light conditions (so I'm told..)

Well this has been posted to DEATH here and all other forums. I am a professional graphic designer. Back in the day CRTs were what was used. Guess what? They ALL had glossy screens. No one bitched about it from what I remember.

I shoot my own pictures, draw, and do all of my graphic design work on a new 24" alum iMac extreme! I have NO issues with the glossy screen. I retouch pictures etc., no differences in the outcome on the web or in print from what I see on my glossy screen.

Lighting conditions matter little also. I use my iMac 12 hours a day sometimes more, in bright sunlight and indoor lighting.
 

Everythingisnt

macrumors 6502a
Jan 16, 2008
743
0
Vancouver
Well this has been posted to DEATH here and all other forums. I am a professional graphic designer. Back in the day CRTs were what was used. Guess what? They ALL had glossy screens. No one bitched about it from what I remember.

I shoot my own pictures, draw, and do all of my graphic design work on a new 24" alum iMac extreme! I have NO issues with the glossy screen. I retouch pictures etc., no differences in the outcome on the web or in print from what I see on my glossy screen.

Lighting conditions matter little also. I use my iMac 12 hours a day sometimes more, in bright sunlight and indoor lighting.


I agree that the color issues aren't very noticeable, but they are there. Maybe subtly, but the Matte screen is just more accurate then the glossy.

I put my glossy MB beside an ACD with the same print displayed on both, and even though the color meter utility read off the same RGB values for each display, the glossy wasn't as 'true' as the ACD.

Maybe in that case it was just a poor quality MB display, but when it comes down to color calibration etc., etc., I have far less issues on ACD's then on glossy displays.

The first time I actually noticed the discrepancy was when I did a bit of editing on a colleagues MBP. Color correction *looked* fine, but when I exported the proofs back to my own computer, the entire image was off-color. (The greens were slightly faded and the blacks were grayish).
 

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Jul 4, 2004
21,929
265
I am a professional graphic designer. Back in the day CRTs were what was used. Guess what? They ALL had glossy screens. No one bitched about it from what I remember.


And the reason they didn't bitch about them, was that any half-decent CRT would have any number of anti-glare coatings to reduce the problem... something I haven't seen on the iMac, for instance.

I wouldn't use the current glossy screens for love nor money, work is too important, and when the income from 3 or 4 decent projects could pay for a decent display, there's no reason to skimp on the most important component for a designer.
 

zer0tails

macrumors 65816
Mar 23, 2008
1,224
0
Canada
I have both a glossy macbook and matte macbook pro.

What I can tell you is that it's all personal preference. Go to the store compare them side to side and see which you prefer. That's what I did :)

But if you want my honest opinion. I like the matte better especially if you work on your mac for long hours. Glossy nice for movies/videos. But do you watch movies and videos more than you work? That's the million dollar question :cool:
 
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